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THE EXPLORERS 2006 - Nabors subsidiary Ramshorn joins AVCG
Petroleum News
Alaska Venture Capital Group and its operating company Brooks Range Petroleum formed a joint venture in July 2006 with Ramshorn Exploration, a Houston-based private equity company that is a subsidiary of Ramshorn Investments, which, in turn, is a wholly owned subsidiary of Nabors Drilling USA. (Nabors is the largest drilling company in Alaska.)
“Ramshorn Exploration has acquired a 25 percent working interest in all of AVCG’s North Slope acreage and exploration prospects,” Ken Thompson, managing director of AVCG, told Petroleum News on July 19. “They’ll also own … 25 percent in all future prospects.”
Although Brooks Range has contracted with Nabors for a rig for the 2006-07 drilling season, Thompson said Ramshorn’s association with Nabors does not mean that Brooks Range has to contract with Nabors for drilling. He said Brooks Range will continue to obtain the best drilling deals that it can.
Headed by Digger Smith Jordan “Digger” Smith is president of Ramshorn Investments where he is responsible for drilling and development projects in a number of producing basins in the United States.
Smith received bachelors and masters degrees in geology from the University of Wyoming in 1956 and 1957, respectively.
Thompson said that Ramshorn has investments in exploration prospects in several different countries.
A month before AVCG and Ramshorn announced their joint venture agreement, Guardian Exploration of Calgary said it had executed a letter of intent with Ramshorn Canada Ltd., another Nabors subsidiary, for the acquisition by Ramshorn of a 10.6 percent working interest in a block at the Clarke Lake field in British Columbia.
“Given the current competitive nature of services availability in the Western Canadian Sedimentary basin, we are very excited with the participation of a significant service company such as Nabors in our core area,” Guardian CEO Graydon Kowal said in a June 20, 2006, press release.
“Nabors’ innovation and development of a heli-portable deep class drilling rig and ability to move this rig and support equipment affords access to areas that were previously winter access only. The versatility and lifting capacity of the Mil 26 helicopter will give Nabors and Guardian a definite advantage in more challenging terrain.
“This deal will help Guardian accelerate its potentially large B.C. gas production and demonstrates Nabors’ commitment to their new drilling venture and participation in quality drill prospects.”
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