Rick Bobigian and his team at Houston-based Black Pool Energy LP were not only the smallest fish on a panel of producers in terms of amount of capital raised said at the Private Capital for Energy Forum in Houston in June. The company is also a small fish in the pond in which it operates: the Gulf of Mexico. With just $41 million in private equity from Huff Alternative Fund to deploy in the Gulf, one of the most expensive places to do business in the world, Bobigian has chosen a challenging focus area for the relatively small amount of equity that is backing his company. "In December 2004, we knocked on a lot of doors, but there wasn't a lot of interest in investing in a company that was going to take the risks we were going to take," he said at the conference, which was sponsored by COSCO Capital Management and Oil and Gas Investor. "At the beginning of 2005, capital providers started getting interested in energy and some of the folks we visited called us back. Within 90 days we had our fund from Huff." Once Bobigian secured equity capital, Black Pool immediately began drilling wells. "Our first two wells were dry holes, and enthusiasm from the board changed," he said. "But now, we've hit three out of six, and management is happier." For more on this, see the July issue of Oil and Gas Investor. For a subscription, call 713-260-6441.

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