Updates
July 12, 2012: another look at the announcement and more background information at equities.com.
The combined company's first operated well will be in Dunn County, N.D., which is planned to begin drilling in early 2013 and will be followed by a continuous single-rig drilling program in 2013.
Original Post
Link here at Rigzone. com. Voyager Oil & Gas, Inc. and Emerald Oil Inc., a wholly owned subsidiary of Emerald Oil & Gas NL, announced that they have entered into a securities purchase agreement whereby Voyager will acquire Emerald Oil to create a U.S.-based oil and gas company that will focus on select oil and gas basins in the Rocky Mountain region. The transaction will combine the companies' oil-producing assets in the Williston Basin, specifically in the Bakken and Three Forks plays located in North Dakota and Montana, with Emerald Oil's acreage position focusing on the Niobrara shale in the Sandwash Basin located in Colorado and Wyoming.The new company will operate as Emerald Oil and will be headquartered in Denver, CO.
The transaction will significantly expand the acreage position of both companies in the Williston Basin. The combination is intended to create an oil and gas company with operating capabilities that has the ability to effectively manage a multi-rig drilling program in the Rocky Mountains and extract maximum value from both of its operated and non-operated drilling programs.
The combined company will operate as Emerald Oil and will be headquartered in Denver, Colorado and maintain its lease acquisition program from Billings, Montana focused on the Williston Basin.
Bruce I had seen somewhere that one of these 2 had been drilling some wells in central Montana in the heath shale do you know anything about that formation/play? Or know where I could find info on those wells?
ReplyDeleteI personally don't know any new information; perhaps a reader will provide some insight.
DeleteI assume you've visited VOG website (though it does not appear to be updated): http://www.voyageroil.com/leaseholds/montana-heath
For a more technical analysis, I do have a PDF link at the sidebar at the right, about a third of the way down. Under "Other Formations," click on "North-Central Montana Province."
Over the next few years, we will see numerous buyouts between larger companies and smaller operators who hold good acreage in the Williston Basin. One factor is the amount of capital these larger have as opposed to the smaller companies. In May, Legacy Reserves, a Midland, Tx based company acquired the holdings of Summit Resources, a Canadian based company. These holdings are in both ND and MT. Another is the G-3 Operating buyout by Halcon, a Tulsa based company. If you look at the holdings that have been acquired by some of these smaller companies early in the game, it is the perfect storm for a buy/sell scenerio.
ReplyDeleteI agree 100%. I'm somewhat surprised we have not seen more by now. This suggests to me that the smaller companies are still intrigued by the possibilities. Also, I could be wrong, but the three recent deals have pretty much involved names not well known to the investing public at large, certainly not well known by me had I not been following the Bakken fairly closely.
ReplyDelete