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Pantheon buys Great Bear
Galvin stays; 2019 exploration activities already underway on North Slope
Kay Cashman Petroleum News
A newly formed Alaska subsidiary of London-based Pantheon Resources Plc is in the process of acquiring two wholly owned companies from Great Bear Petroleum Operating LLC - Great Bear Petroleum Ventures I and II, per state of Alaska Division of Oil and Gas lease records and market announcements.
The deal is contingent upon several factors, including capital raising, the bulk of which will be used for exploration-related expenses in Alaska.
Founded in 2005, Pantheon currently has five employees and is listed on the AIM Stock Exchange., a sub-market of the London Stock Exchange that allows smaller, less-viable companies to float shares with a more flexible regulatory system than that of the main market.
As part of the deal, Pantheon Alaska Petroleum Operating LLC will gain a majority interest and operatorship of Great Bear’s leases - between 250,000 and 290,000 acres on Alaska’s North Slope, most immediately south of the Prudhoe Bay and Kuparuk oil fields.
Pantheon Resources Plc launched a share issue to raise $16 million, plus expenses, to help fund the acquisition and related exploration activities.
The purchase consideration for the Great Bear subsidiaries, which involves shares to the Great Bear parent, valued the assets at around $49 million, being close to 49 percent of the value of the combined entities, pre-capital raising, market reports said.
Exploration investment this winter Pantheon, which holds a 50 percent working interest in four projects in Tyler and Polk counties in East Texas, will use some of the funds to drill a sidetrack to its VOBM No. 1 discovery well there. The well, Pantheon said, was compromised last year by collapsed casing, having flow-tested at daily rates of 6,000 mcf of natural gas and 500 barrels of oil.
The funds raised will largely be used to finance exploration activities in Alaska where the acquired acreage has “an estimated P50 technically recoverable resource (gross) of 2 billion barrels oil” in which $200 million has been invested to date, including more than 1,000 square miles of 3-D seismic, per market reports based on statements by Pantheon and Arden Partners Plc, the nominated adviser and broker to Pantheon. The acreage reportedly contains two discovery wells with six hydrocarbon bearing zones.
This year Alaska exploration will include a flow test of Great Bear’s 2015 Alkaid well, plus participation in the Winx 1 exploration well.
Pantheon will have a 75 percent working interest in the Alkaid well and a 10 percent interest in Winx.
One block of Great Bear leases lies to the south of the Colville River unit and the village of Nuiqsut. The four contiguous state leases line up with the trend of recent major oil discoveries by ConocoPhillips and Armstrong/Repsol to the north and are underlain by Nanushuk sandstones.
Management to include Galvin, Gobe Pantheon’s chief executive officer is Jay Cheatham, manager of the company’s Alaska subsidiary per Alaska Department of Commerce records.
At a Jan. 14 annual general meeting, in which a resolution to move forward with the Great Bear deal was approved, Phillip Gobe, a Pantheon executive director, was advanced to chairman. Gobe has more than 40 years’ experience in the U.S. and international oil and gas industry, including several senior positions with ARCO, such as operations manager of ARCO Alaska Prudhoe Bay. Currently Gobe is a non-executive director of former Alaska operator Pioneer Natural Resources and Scientific Drilling International, a provider of directional drilling and measurement equipment and operational services.
According to market reports when the acquisition closes Patrick Galvin, currently Great Bear’s chief commercial officer and general counsel, will assume similar titles and duties for Pantheon.
At that time Pantheon also intends to appoint Robert “Bob” Rosenthal BSc, as technical director. Rosenthal, one of Great Bear’s five founding principals with former Great Bear President and COO Ed Duncan in 2010, also served as vice president of new ventures. Their goal had been to develop the source rock potential of the North Slope. Rosenthal gained insights into North Slope petroleum systems while working at BP/Sohio during the early 1980s.
Under the sales and purchase agreement, Great Bear has the right to appoint two non-executive directors to Pantheon’s board, subject to regulatory approval. Market reports said Great Bear intends to name Carl Williams and Jeremy Brest who are members of Great Bear and Ursa Major Holdings LLC respectively, which together own and control Great Bear.
Williams is a managing director of Riverstone and co-head of Riverstone Power.
A private equity group, Riverstone’s involvement with Great Bear seems to have begun in 2012, the year before the Alaska Division of Oil and Gas first approved the transfer of a 25 percent working interest and 20.83 percent royalty interest in 30 Great Bear leases to Red Technology Alliance LLC, a joint venture between Riverstone Holdings LLC and Halliburton Energy Services LLC that invests in upstream energy projects amenable to Halliburton technologies.
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