If you are thinking of leaving the shiny offices of the majors and the structured workplace of the independents to strike out on your own, there's help for you out there.

"There are a number of guys who have done this before and, if you ever think about making a cold start, there's a whole fraternity of people that will help you with the simple stuff you never even had to think about when you were working for a larger company," Tommy Nusz, president of recently formed, Houston-based Oasis Petroleum LLC told IPAA and Tipro members at a recent program in Houston. Nusz was joined by Doug Brooks, president of another recently formed start-up, Houston-based Compass Resources Corp.

Nusz was with Burlington Resources Inc.; Brooks was with Marathon Oil Co.

"The first thing I would tell anyone who is about to form their own company is to hire an assistant," Brooks said. "We are ineffective at what we do until we have an assistant. Then, we can focus."

If he could do it all over again, Brooks would have spent a little more time researching how to get the infrastructure of his business put into place. Nusz said the best piece of advice he would give anyone starting their own company was to hire Administaff to take all of the human-resources work off their hands.

"That was one of the best decisions we made," he said.

Aside from finding office space and getting phone systems hooked up, both Brooks and Nusz had other large decisions to make-namely, deciding where to focus their companies and obtaining private capital to fund them.

In forming Compass, Brooks obtained $100 million in private equity from Natural Gas Partners and decided to focus in what he calls the "central fly-way," which includes low-risk resource plays in the Rockies, Texas, North Louisiana and Oklahoma. The company was set to close its first transaction in June, including properties in the Rockies that Brooks said Compass was able to acquire because of its creative approach to acquisitions.

"The initial deal that was offered was too large for us," he said. "We were able to restructure the deal into an acreage acquisition via a drilling commitment that will allow us to earn blocks. We used creativity to make the deal work for both of us and it turned into a win-win situation."

Since gaining funding, Brooks has fleshed out his company to include team members from many different companies with varying levels of experience. He said he is always up for strategic partnering as well.

"It has always been important to me to be able to bring in someone else who knows more about things than I do," he said. Brooks will also be using his strategic-partnering approach to operate the acreage Compass just acquired in the Rockies.

"We are leveraging our technical and operational expertise," he said. "We have already contracted with an operational firm in Casper, Wyoming, to help us get going to ensure the safety of our partners on our projects. Then, we'll take over from there."

Brooks said Compass is looking to do deals in the $25- to $300-million range within its focus area, and he will be looking to buy producing properties, "the ones the MLPs don't want."

When looking to partner up with another company on a project, he always looks at the individuals that make up the team, he added. "If they aren't a good person, if they aren't an ethical person, we won't work with them," he said.

Nusz started planning his jump to form Oasis the minute he heard ConocoPhillips was set to acquire Burlington. He didn't have to go far to find members for his team; everyone on the Oasis staff is an ex-Burlington employee, with the exception of the office assistant. Once Nusz closed on his equity commitment of $100 million from EnCap Investments LP in March 2007, he was ready to do his first deal.

"Because we all already had experience working with each other, we could get moving," he said. "We hadn't even moved into our offices when we did our first deal. While these guys know how to capture opportunities, they also know what to do with the opportunities once they get them."

Oasis is focused on acquisitions and exploration, but the company is different in that it has a U.S. and an international focus. "We're indifferent on geography; we're looking for a certain type of asset where we can put our stake down and really build a position," Nusz said.

"Right now, we're working the Williston Basin to the base of Argentina. We have broad geographical experience, but we can't be ants on an apple, so we're really going to focus in on certain basins."

Both Brooks and Nusz agreed that it is important to invest your own money in your company. "You want skin in the game because whatever you decide to invest, you're investing on the house side; our money goes on the house side," an audience member said. "I invested enough that it would hurt. You do want to have skin in the game because you should have confidence you can make it work."

Many employees also invested in Compass. Though Nusz said he made a large investment in Oasis, he didn't make investing in the company mandatory, but every employee has invested anyway.

Nusz was asked how he would produce a good rate of return for investors when operating overseas, where cycle times are at least twice that of U.S. operations. "We're plowing some new ground here, but we were very clear about our cycle time being a five- to seven-year window," he said.

"You have to make sure your capital sponsor and your company are aligned with respect to strategy. Everyone's deal is a little different, and some private-capital guys are friendlier to longer time horizons. Those are the ones we gravitated to."

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