A weekly update on issues important to the oil and gas industry
Companies that have maintained a presence in the Bakken since the downturn in oil prices are beginning to reap the rewards of their patience. Rising oil prices have begat increases in production, and efficiencies gained in recent years have led to higher margins and increased production. As noted in last week’s post about transaction activity in the region, while the Permian Basin has received much of the attention recently, the Bakken certainly appears to be back in business.
Over the past year, followers of the oil and gas industry have taken note of the multitude of transactions occurring in the Permian Basin with large deal values and hefty multiples. But the price differential between WTI and other benchmarks has grown over the last few months, and some attention has moved from the Permian to other domestic shale plays. The activity in other regions such as the Bakken was at one point slow (when compared to the Permian) causing the recent increase in production and the swapping of acreage to fly under the radar while many were focused on Texas.
The oilfield service sector has recovered significantly since the crash in oil prices in mid-2014. As capex budgets have expanded, especially in the Permian Basin, demand for oilfield services such as drilling and pumping has increased. But what does this mean for transaction activity in the sector?
Higher oil prices, coupled with lower breakeven costs for producers, are making drillers, completers and a host of other servicers busier than a gopher on a golf course. Does that translate into higher valuations?
Based upon the content in this blog, representatives from Forbes.com reached out to Bryce Erickson, ASA, MRICS with an invitation to become a contributor to Forbes.com in their Energy section.
In a recent post, we explored the ins and outs of MV Oil Trust. We analyzed the underlying net profit interests it holds, the underlying properties of the trust, and the rights of unitholders including their rights during termination of the trust. This week, we will look into how these play into the composition of the MV Oil Trust’s stock price, and the balance struck between investor’s current return in the form of dividends and potential for returns from capital appreciation.
On April 30, 2018, Marathon Petroleum announced its acquisition of the newly formed Andeavor making Marathon the largest refiner in the U.S. (by capacity) and one of the top five refiners in the world. The merger is moving into its final stages, and Marathon’s CEO is positive about the combination of the two well situated companies. In this post, we analyze the recent acquisition history of Western Refining, Tesoro, and Marathon, which has started to look somewhat like nesting dolls of acquisitions.
In previous posts, we have discussed the relationship between public royalty trusts and their market pricing implications to royalty owners. Many publicly traded trusts have a fixed number of wells, so the value comes from declining distributions. Some of the trusts have wells that have not been drilled, which represent upside potential for investors. In this post, we will explore the subject characteristics of MV Oil Trust. This will serve as a primer for a subsequent post in which we will look further into the composition of its stock price in order to better understand investors’ ability to achieve returns through distributions and capital appreciation.
In this week’s post, we provide a detailed analysis of the Kimbell Royalty Partners’ acquisition of Haymaker Minerals & Royalties, LLC. We assess some of the benefits of public mineral and royalty companies as compared to their private counterparts.
This week we take a break from discussing the Permian Basin to feature a topic that touches most of our readers – buy-sell agreements. Almost every privately owned company with multiple shareholders has a buy-sell agreement (or other agreement that acts as a buy-sell agreement).
