The Midcontinent has attracted some private but powerful players scouring for deals as they look for the deals that will bring them fortune.

Such companies have straightforward plans – acquire, exploit and explore.

Two companies, Eagle Energy Exploration LLC and Panther Energy Co. II LLC, are armed with roughly $750 million of equity for acquisitions, with more to draw on should they need it.

Steve Antry, Eagle’s chair and CEO, and Donald Burdick, vice president of geology at Panther, spoke at Hart Energy’s DUG Midcontinent conference in Tulsa, Okla. about the advantages private companies have over the larger, more complex public companies at the conference.

Both Panther and Eagle are led by veteran teams. They employ roughly two dozen people apiece with expertise in exploration and operations. The companies are nimble, rely on relationships that stretch back years and can usually ratchet up money when they need it for acquisitions.

“Smaller companies, we can react very quickly, we can take advantage of these great relationships that get developed over the years and act on them without having a three-month board approval requirement,” Burdick said. “It’s a couple of phone calls and a few slides and you can act and start to put together meaningful positions.”

Eagle is considering acquisitions in the SCOOP play and the Mississippi Lime. However, its focus is directed more toward Woodford areas for now, Antry said.

“We're looking at deals,” he said.

Burdick said that many public companies are divesting some significant assets.

“I'm sure Steve and I were both combing through those and looking to see if any of those make a logical entry point for our respective enterprises,” he said.

Since Eagle is private, not public, Antry said it doesn’t matter whether the company “can print that we have 100,000 acres.”

“What we care about is getting rigs working,” he said. “We get acreage to drill wells, not to build acreage.”

Antry said the company has one project under a production sharing agreement (PSA). But the company is still looking for an acquisition.

Similar to Eagle, Burdick said Panther is also on the prowl.

“Our toes are in the water but we're not in the deep end of the pool though,” he said.

On the money

Antry drew chuckles as he flipped through a few slides on how to create a successful private startup.

“Go get $300 million,” he said.

Eagle and Panther have been able to line up large sums because of their stables of veteran personnel and their track records.

Private-equity teams are seeking investments, but the terms of a deal will tilt to the favor of operators with past success, they said.

“Once you're in their club they want to put more money with you,” Antry said. “You still have to make smart decisions and convince them they’re smart decisions, but they want to put more money with you because they've made money with you before.”

Antry is a known quantity in the industry. He worked his way from a landman in the 1980s to founding and leading Beta Oil & Gas Inc., which merged in 2004 with Petrohawk Energy LLC. In 2011, Petrohawk sold out to BHP Billiton Ltd. (NYSE: BHP) for $15 billion.

In December, Eagle announced a $300 million equity commitment from Riverstone Holdings LLC.

Antry concedes no ground to the large-cap public companies on what he can buy.

“From a capital standpoint I don’t think we can be outcompeted,” he said, adding that his team has modeled deals that would have used far more equity – as much as $700 million.

Burdick said Panther is also working with a base of about $450 million, when including co-investors. He said his perception is a large deal could further open the wallet of Panther’s private-equity partner Kayne Anderson Capital Advisors LP.

“We don’t need to be afraid of that,” he said. “If we think it’s a good opportunity, more money could be available.”

Burdick said Panther also considers a component of success a team of quick-minded staff with the resources to execute. Much data, collected over years, is still to be processed as potential hot spots are investigated.

But Burdick said ideas still matter. He paraphrased petroleum geologist Wallace Pratt, who remarked that oil is first found “in the minds of men.”

“That’s the idea that we bring to the oil patch,” he said. “That creative genius that can lead you into a place you've never been before. It does happen. Those guys are out there.”