Partners Patrick Collins and Michael Catrino co-founded Cortez Resources LP in the fall of 2008, just as commodity prices and the economy crashed. Internally funded by principals of companies Collins had worked for, including independent Collins and Young and investment-banking firm Parkman Whaling, the partners put their plans to acquire leases in unconventional plays on hold.

In early 2009, they began researching the emerging Eagle Ford play, and that fall, started buying leases. They leased about 20,000 acres all told, in Gonzalez, La Salle and Frio counties, South Texas, focusing on the oil window. Eagle Ford action took off, and in 2010 they began divesting packages, selling the first 6,800 acres to Penn Virginia Corp. for $31.5 million. They are currently divesting the remainder.

Collins, who grew up in Dallas, majored in history at Columbia University before moving back to Texas in 2003. He briefly considered law, but worked as a landman in Midland before joining Collins and Young’s Barnett shale-focused leasing efforts in 2005. It was relatively early in the Barnett shale, and he participated in leasing some 30,000 acres.

During that time, he earned his MBA from the Acton School of Business in Austin. “It was my introduction, really, to the business world,” he says.

After a brief stint with a hedge fund research firm, Collins’ thoughts turned again to oil and gas. He’d grown up around people in the business; his father, Ted Collins Jr., had headed Enron Oil & Gas (now EOG Resources Corp.) and founded Collins and Ware, among numerous other ventures. George Young Jr., at Collins and Young, was also a mentor.

“I knew it was a business where you could do what you wanted to do and where there were lots of ways to do it,” Collins says. He spent a year with Parkman Whaling learning the financial side of the business. Out of that experience came the idea for Cortez.

Collins studied art history in college and art remains one of his passions. He is the president of the board of directors of the Dallas Contemporary and leads fundraising to complete its new space in a 1950s industrial building.

Oil and Gas Investor talked with Collins about what’s next for the young company.

Investor: You are still divesting the Eagle Ford positions you assembled in 2009.

Collins: Yes. We sold the package to Penn Virginia Corp., kept a small working interest, and we’re drilling with them in Gonzalez County. We have deals under way on packages in La Salle and Frio counties.

Investor: You like to retain interests.

Collins: Yes, we like to partner. We’re adept at putting together positions and plays. We contract with geologists and engineers and do our homework. We don’t play closeology. Once we know the geology of a play, we put together a position and find a partner, either a public or a large private independent with the technical staff and capital to drill these expensive horizontal wells. We keep 10% to 20% and hope to participate in the upside.

Investor: Do you plan to grow?

Collins: I like small companies. We have five full-time staff, and will hire a sixth in the next month. When we’re leasing, we’ll have 10 or more landmen and a couple of consulting geologists.

Investor: What’s next?

Collins: We’re vetting plays. We’ve looked at Ohio, Colorado, other parts of Texas, and West Texas in particular. We’ve missed the early part of the Niobrara and Bone Spring, but there is a new Wolfcamp play, and some extensions of the Bakken in Montana and North Dakota that are of interest.

Investor: How do you compete in these hot shale plays?

Collins: The cycle from finding to drilling is now so much shorter. With the Barnett, it was years—now it may be nine months. The big companies have entire technical staffs focused on this.

On the other side, it’s surprising how effective you can be if you’re small and nimble. You can make people offers, show them how you can help them get acreage drilled, not just put into inventory, and they will do business with you.

Despite how hot the Eagle Ford is, it’s amazing how much acreage remains. There’s always a way to get back in to do a play—to partner with a small company or go looking for leases that were missed. Leases are still trading in the Barnett. If you want to be in a play, if you know it, there’s a way in.

Investor: What’s your criteria?

Collins: We’re looking at oily plays now, but I think gas will be important again. We want to get in at $1,000 per acre or less, although we can chase it higher. We look at the other companies—if it’s someone we think knows what they’re doing, that’s a good sign. We look for plays where we think acreage prices can go up.

Investor: What’s your goal longer term?

Collins: I’d like to get on the operating side, drill some of the early wells and prove up the concept. At some point I’d like to do something with my father. There’s still plenty of conventional oil to be found.