The Lower Tertiary in the Gulf of Mexico is hot, says Jeff Robertson, an E&P analyst for Lehman Brothers in Houston. After Devon Energy Corp. and its partners’ announcement of the ultra-deepwater Jack appraisal-well results, and Devon’s stock jumped more than $10, he joked at a Lehman investment conference whether presenters had a Lower Tertiary slide they could slip into their show. Robertson spoke at a Houston Energy Finance Group program recently. Prior to the Jack news, producers showing slides of shale assets had been the leading investment-conference “pixie dust,” he said. Also hot are E&P master limited partnershipsâ€"a type of U.S. version of the Canadian energy trust, but still having an exploration focus. Upstream asset-owners are looking through their portfolios for properties they can carve out and spin into this MLP format, Robertson said. The MLP format lends itself to a higher valuation than the average, traditional U.S. E&P structure At least four IPOs of MLPs are under way currently: the EV Energy Partners offering by EnerVest Management Partners; the Winchester Energy Co. Ltd. package by Exco Resources Inc.; the Constellation Energy (fka Everlast) package by Constellation Energy Commodities Group; and a package by BreitBurn Energy Co. LLC. For more on this, see the October issue of Oil and Gas Investor. For a subscription, call 713-260-6441.

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