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Former Anadarko, Ocean executives back in the saddle John Seitz and Bill Transier named co-CEOs of Endeavor International, which will focus on North Sea opportunities Ray Tyson Petroleum News Houston Correspondent
Former top executives John Seitz and Bill Transier didn’t pass gracefully into the sunset after losing their jobs, they just rose up and created a new U.S.-based exploration and production company, or at least took part in forming one that is indeed complex and said to be focused on the North Sea.
Seitz is the former president and chief executive officer of big Houston independent Anadarko Petroleum, which essentially pressured Seitz into resigning in March 2003 because of the company’s sagging stock price.
Transier is the former executive vice president and chief financial officer of Ocean Energy, another large independent that was gobbled up in a merger by a bigger fish, Oklahoma’s Devon Energy. Transier apparently left in search of greener pastures.
Somewhere along the road Seitz and Transier hooked up with a little known company called Continental Southern Resources, a tiny independent with hardly two cents to rub together, according to financial documents compiled by credit ratings agency Standard and Poor’s. Continental Southern Resources was listed in 2002 as having one employee and 66 shareholders, with $21.1 million in assets and largely “nil” revenues during its three years of existence, S&P reported.
Continental Southern Resources’ primary stomping grounds are in Mississippi, Louisiana, Texas and Oklahoma, although the company managed to acquire a 9 percent interest in Thailand’s Phu Horm project operated by Amerada Hess. The company operated primarily through three equally obscure subsidiaries — EGI Louisiana, Knox-Miss. Partners L.P. and PHT Partners L.P — and said it generally does not become involved as the operator of projects in which it participates.
However, the game plan has changed for Continental Southern Resources, and consequently for Seitz and Transier. The company announced Feb. 29 that through “a series of mutually interdependent transactions,” it would “significantly expand the scope” of the company under the leadership of a new management team consisting of Seitz and Transier. Seitz and Transier co-chief executive officers The duo was named as co-chief executive officers of a “newly restructured” exploration and production company called Endeavor International Corp., which is something like two captains sharing authority of the same ship. Several other, unidentified former officers of Anadarko and Ocean also joined the new management team, Continental Southern Resources said.
The company said its restructuring involved the issuance of $50 million of common stock in a private placement conducted by Sanders Morris Harris, a Houston-based investment bank. And through a stock merger with a newly created subsidiary, it acquired NSNV, a privately held Texas corporation majority owned by none other than Seitz and Transier.
In conjunction with the NSNV merger and private placement, the new company sold non-core assets to “certain” shareholders in exchange for all of the outstanding shares of preferred stock, as well as purchased 14.1 million shares of common stock and 103,500 shares of preferred stock. Additionally, the company sold its limited partnership interest in Knox-Miss. Partners for $5 million, payable in cash and short-term notes.
Continuing as members of the board of directors, along with Seitz and Transier, are Joseph Fioravanti and John B. Connally III, son of the former Texas governor and treasury secretary in the Nixon administration. The new company will be headquartered in Houston and has opened a London-based technical and business development office. Endeavor to focus on North Sea Endeavor said it would focus on the acquisition, exploration and development of natural gas and oil properties in the mature North Sea region.
“The situation is very similar to the Gulf of Mexico in the 1980s when the independents entered the region and began to profitably develop the area’s remaining potential,” Transier said. “Endeavor is positioned to take advantage of the exploration and acquisition opportunities that are being created as the major integrated companies reduce their commitments to the North Sea.”
Seitz said Endeavor already has identified “a large number of attractive drilling opportunities” in the North Sea and is prepared “to capitalize” on them in future license rounds and through farm-outs with existing rights holders.
“Our company holds a unique competitive advantage through our license rights to an extensive 3-D seismic dataset of the North Sea,” he added. “To the best of our knowledge, no other firm has access to comparable seismic data of this size and quality.”
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