HOME PAGE SUBSCRIPTIONS, Print Editions, Newsletter PRODUCTS READ THE PETROLEUM NEWS ARCHIVE! ADVERTISING INFORMATION EVENTS PAY HERE

Providing coverage of Alaska and northern Canada's oil and gas industry
November 2006

Vol. 11, No. 46 Week of November 12, 2006

THE EXPLORERS 2006 - Aurora Gas, Swift Energy form joint venture

Kay Cashman

Petroleum News

In March 2006, Aurora Gas and Swift Energy, a new player in Alaska, formed a joint venture to explore for oil and gas on Aurora’s acreage in the Cook Inlet basin.

“Swift Energy will earn an average working interest of 37.5 percent in approximately 54,500 gross acres in seven areas of mutual interest, which represents half of Aurora Gas LLC’s working interest in the areas of mutual interest,” Houston-based Swift said in a press release. Publicly traded, Swift has interests in Louisiana, Texas and New Zealand.

“It’s a joint venture to work together to basically explore our prospects for oil but also for gas in the whole Cook Inlet basin. … not a one time shot,” Aurora President Scott Pfoff said.

“This may very well be the most significant development of the decade in Cook Inlet oil exploration,” said Aurora Vice President of Exploration Andy Clifford. “Swift Energy ranks among the top U.S. independents and is a highly successful oil and gas E&P company.”

“This new venture in the onshore Cook Inlet basin in Alaska fits perfectly with Swift Energy’s stated strategy of looking for under-explored areas with large acreage positions and significant reserves’ potential in a prolific producing basin with multiple productive horizons,” said Swift President Bruce Vincent.

Robert “Bob” Banks, Swift’s vice president of international operations, spearheaded the Aurora deal and will oversee Swift’s interest in the joint venture.

Founded in 1979, at the end of 2005 Swift was the largest crude producer in Louisiana, had a total capitalization of $904 million, a net debt to equity ratio of 33 percent, a net income of $115.8 million and 311 employees. Its capital budget for 2006 was $300 million-plus.

When the joint venture was formed Pfoff said Aurora would operate the first well, but deferred to Swift about subsequent wells.

Swift usually the operator

In a March 2006 speech Swift’s Executive Vice President and CFO Alton D. Heckaman Jr. said Swift likes to “control its own destiny” by maintaining “operational control of its reserves. … We have a high level of operating control. We operate 96 percent of our reserves. … In most of our properties we have 100 percent working interest, which allows us to move on a dime.”

Swift “typically” goes into a mature area “to try to exploit what’s there, but we always keep an eye on the exploration upside.” He also said Swift always looks “for the lowest-priced hydrocarbons in the ground.”

One of the company’s “mantras over time,” he said, has been “keep it conservative.”






Petroleum News - Phone: 1-907 522-9469
[email protected] --- https://www.petroleumnews.com ---
S U B S C R I B E

Copyright Petroleum Newspapers of Alaska, LLC (Petroleum News)(PNA)Š1999-2019 All rights reserved. The content of this article and website may not be copied, replaced, distributed, published, displayed or transferred in any form or by any means except with the prior written permission of Petroleum Newspapers of Alaska, LLC (Petroleum News)(PNA). Copyright infringement is a violation of federal law.