Tom Ward has hired landmen, formed a company, rented office space and is looking at assets, but says he isn't back in the E&P game. Like fellow Chesapeake Energy co-founder Aubrey Mc-Clendon, that just means he isn't back yet.
Ward, who appeared at the Bloomberg Oil & Gas Conference in mid-October, said he has formed a new company, Tapstone Energy, with his family, and has hired “a handful of employees to look at properties.”
“That is just now getting up and running,” he said, adding that the company has leased space in Oklahoma City.
Ward and McClendon founded Chesapeake in 1989 with a $50,000 initial investment.
Ward went on to found Sand - Ridge Energy Inc. in 2006. Like McClendon, Ward was chased out of the CEO role by activist shareholders. In October, McClendon announced he has raised $1.7 billion in capital and has a joint-venture partner in the Utica.
Ward, too, is favoring keeping his company private. This is the “first time really in decades that you can have access to private capital,” he said.
Ward said he is uninterested in competing in the Eagle Ford, Permian or Marcellus, where he believes he has little to offer that is new. “I would look more at distressed properties that others might for one reason or another not see much value in” and view the asset differently, he said.
But Ward is bullish on natural gas long term, so he said he is likely to lean more toward gas.
—Darren Barbee
Recommended Reading
Phillips 66 Weighs Divestments, Targets Renewable Fuel Increase
2024-05-02 - Phillips 66 looks to boost renewable fuels production by 67% through the end of the second quarter 2024 at its Rodeo complex in San Francisco while weighing a potential divestiture of its retail marketing businesses in Austria and Germany.
Sage Geosystems Advances Commercial-scale Energy Storage Facility
2024-05-02 - The 3-megawatt facility in Texas is expected to become the world’s first commercial geopressured geothermal system when it’s commissioned in December.
Integrated RNG: Nopetro Energy on Creating a Circular Economic Model
2024-05-01 - Working with municipalities, Nopetro Energy aims to produce 2 million MMBtu of RNG annually.
Electrifying Permian Could Threaten West Texas Power Grid—Enverus
2024-04-30 - Emissions reduction targets and cryptocurrency mining could double power demand and threaten the grid in West Texas by 2040, according to a report by Enverus Intelligence Research.