Tom Ward has hired landmen, formed a company, rented office space and is looking at assets, but says he isn't back in the E&P game. Like fellow Chesapeake Energy co-founder Aubrey Mc-Clendon, that just means he isn't back yet.

Ward, who appeared at the Bloomberg Oil & Gas Conference in mid-October, said he has formed a new company, Tapstone Energy, with his family, and has hired “a handful of employees to look at properties.”

“That is just now getting up and running,” he said, adding that the company has leased space in Oklahoma City.

Ward and McClendon founded Chesapeake in 1989 with a $50,000 initial investment.

Ward went on to found Sand - Ridge Energy Inc. in 2006. Like McClendon, Ward was chased out of the CEO role by activist shareholders. In October, McClendon announced he has raised $1.7 billion in capital and has a joint-venture partner in the Utica.

Ward, too, is favoring keeping his company private. This is the “first time really in decades that you can have access to private capital,” he said.

Ward said he is uninterested in competing in the Eagle Ford, Permian or Marcellus, where he believes he has little to offer that is new. “I would look more at distressed properties that others might for one reason or another not see much value in” and view the asset differently, he said.

But Ward is bullish on natural gas long term, so he said he is likely to lean more toward gas.

—Darren Barbee

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