The relationship between Perth-based New Standard Energy Ltd. and Houston-based Magnum Hunter Resources Corp. is ripe with opportunity, but it’s also “very much an unconventional one,” said New Standard Managing Director Phil Thick.
Speaking at Hart Energy’s recent DUG Australia conference and exhibition in Brisbane, he and Magnum Hunter Chairman and CEO Gary Evans took the stage to share their thoughts on their new partnership. Each seeks additional opportunities in both the U.S. and Australia.
New Standard gains hands-on technical knowledge—and immediate cash flow—from its new holdings in Texas’ Eagle Ford Shale, acquired from Magnum Hunter in exchange for 17 per cent of NSE equity. In addition to the Eagle Ford, the two will share knowledge and opportunity in the Cooper Basin, where New Standard is pursuing the Patchawarra Trough and basin-centered gas.
Transactions are never easy. Evans announced at the conference that Magnum Hunter will “stand down” from also trying to acquire Melbourne’s Ambassador Oil & Gas Ltd. (Indeed, on Sept. 8, Drillsearch Energy Ltd. looked to have finally won a bidding war to acquire Ambassador, taking up 85 per cent of the stock.)
Magnum Hunter sold its last remaining Eagle Ford Shale assets in South Texas to New Standard and is still providing technical expertise in both that shale play and in emerging plays in Australia where New Standard has leases, primarily in the Cooper, although NSE has more acreage in Western Australia’s remote Canning Basin.
Thick said New Standard hopes to diversify its asset base and expand its horizons beyond Western Australia, where most of its assets are located. Meanwhile, its small Eagle Ford stake—about 5,641 acres with seven producing wells—will provide immediate cash flow and development opportunities.
“No doubt our growth strategy for the next 12 to 18 months is in the Eagle Ford. That will drive company value as we accelerate drilling,” he said. “We’ve seen a number of Australian companies that have been successful in developing US assets and we plan to follow that model. In a year or two’s time, we’ll have a significant asset that we can monetize, and that will happen at a time when we’ll need more money to deploy in Australia.”
The size of the prize is unknown at this time, but Thick noted that Magnum Hunter sold most of its Eagle Ford assets for some $400 million. “If we are half as successful we’d be happy. After all, our market cap is $46 million.”
In the Texas play, New Standard has operator status and is using the same technical team that drilled 50 Eagle Ford wells for Magnum Hunter, also taking advantage of existing relationships in the play. New Standard obtained a $45 million debt facility from Credit Suisse and has drilled its first two wells in Texas. In addition it has picked up an additional 471 net acres. The target is net Eagle Ford production of2,000 Boe/d by the end of 2015 by drilling six to eight wells over the next 18 months.
At the same time, in the Cooper Basin on PEL 570, Magnum Hunter and New Standard are partnering on acreage farmed in from Ambassador. (For more on this deal and the Cooper Basin, see the print version of Oil and Gas Investor Australia, April 2014.)
“We’re very excited about what we have seen,” said MHR’s Evans. “Let’s help Australians develop this province. One thing we hope to bring is technology, and to allow companies to have better access to capital here [in Australia].”
Evans said he’s had a number of meetings with other Australian companies, but he would not name any.
“It’s a great opportunity for us and for an entry point for Magnum Hunter,” Thick said. “There is a lot of activity there and we’re happy to work with Drillsearch (the apparent buyer of Ambassador). The key next step is to develop a revised work programme and work with the South Australia regulator, and we’re prepared to drill our first well before March 2016.”
“We hope to learn from Magnum Hunter and maybe shave a year off our time frame.”
Leslie Haines can be contacted at lhaines@hartenergy.com.
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