Oil and Gas Investor Magazine - May 2016

Cover Story

Stacked In Oklahoma

The state delivered a fourth new oil play in as many years in 2015—the expansion of the horizontal Meramec into the Anadarko Basin’s overpressured fairway.

Feature

A&D Buyside

Many deals should get done in the months ahead. Here are risks buyers should address in a more distressed environment.

Debt In The Downturn

As independents explore creative structures to ease the stress of low commodity prices and leverage, lenders are responding.

Gulf Of Mexico Crosswinds

Low commodity prices and high costs threaten to delay long-term production increases in the Gulf of Mexico.

LNG Exports: Too Little, Too Late?

With global demand and prices sharply off their highs, U.S. LNG exports look more like a silver lining than a silver bullet.

Opting For Durability Over Dilution

Financing opportunities may be opening on several fronts —equity issuances, asset sales, JVs and M&A—but all are dependent on oil prices gaining greater traction.

Positioning PDC

PDC Energy CEO Bart Brookman took over the company when price fundamentals were collapsing, and the Denver producer has emerged as one of the elite E&Ps amongst challenged peers.

The Longer March Toward Monetization

Privately held E&Ps strategize for survival in an environment where they will have to hold for longer.

US Gulf Capex Halved From Peak

Based on Stratas Advisors’ projections for spending on exploration and development projects over the next five years, we anticipate that a full recovery of capital expenditures to more than $30 billion annually will not be realized until the end of the decade.

A&D Trends

Private Buys

The first quarter showed that deals are being driven by private companies and their readiness to make contrarian bets on natural gas. As Evaluate Energy Ltd. put it, private companies “dominated the first-quarter deal landscape in the U.S.”

At Closing

Taking The Cure

OPEC, investors and other observers are no doubt surprised and impressed by the resilience and creativity shown by U.S. producers.

Bright Spots

Meet Luke Essman

In March 2014, Luke Essman and his partner re-launched under Canyon Creek Energy I, this time backed by a $75 million commitment from ArcLight Capital Partners LLC.

Completions

When The Money Runs Out

Raymond James surveyed 40 large, mostly multinational companies that disclose financials. They represent about 65% to 75% of total upstream spending and an even larger share of non-OPEC spending.

E&P Momentum

Gaming Out The Recovery

The answer to the first question is theoretical as the services sector remains in rapid dissolution during the longest sustained downturn in the last four decades.

From the Editor-in-Chief

Out Of The Tempest, Assets

In spite of the vast number of oil and gas companies in bankruptcy or hiring restructuring advisors to stave off filing—about a third of the whole by some estimates—relatively few desirable assets have come to market.

On the Money

Can We Really Just Flip The Switch?

Recent Raymond James research noted that even with WTI oil prices projected to move up from $40/bbl in the first half to $60/bbl in the second half of this year, activity would lag “due to logistical and personnel limitations” as the industry needs “to repopulate a depleted labor force before a meaningful ramp.”

Corroding Spare Capacity

In Nigeria, a pipeline to Royal Dutch Shell’s Forcados export terminal remains off­line after an attack by unnamed assailants in February. Repairs to the pipeline, which typically carries up to 250,000 bbl/d, are expected to last until June.