交易剖析：Ring Energy 的传统智慧

收购 Stronghold Energy II 使 Ring 能够继续专注于二叠纪西北陆架和中央盆地平台的成熟常规资产。

收购 Stronghold Energy II 使 Ring Energy 能够继续专注于二叠纪盆地成熟的常规资产。 （来源：Shutterstock） 

经过
克里斯
马修斯
哈特能源

提到二叠纪盆地的钻探，人们立刻就会想到非常规油藏。但环能源公司专注于传统资产，以从拥挤的市场中脱颖而出。

Ring 董事长兼首席执行官 Paul D. McKinney 告诉 Hart Energy，这家中型运营商正在将页岩喷臂技术应用于其他人认为不经济的常规油藏遗留资产。

“我们发现，没有人真正在这方面与我们竞争，”麦金尼说。

Ring 在二叠纪盆地的西北陆架和中央盆地平台开展业务。麦金尼表示，该公司主要在德克萨斯州约库姆县和盖恩斯县的圣安德烈斯地层钻探水平油井，运营商必须填补 20 世纪 40 年代以来开发的成熟油田之间的空白。

但为了在物产丰富的二叠纪盆地竞争，Ring 需要更大的规模。为了发展，公司需要通过收购来获得更大的地位。

并购仍然是 Ring 增长战略的关键部分，但并非所有交易都能为公司带来推动。

Ring 的目标不仅是通过交易扩大其在该盆地的规模和规模，该公司还需要加强其资产负债表，加快其偿还债务的能力并降低其盈亏平衡成本。

McKinney 表示，Ring 在去年收购 Stronghold Energy II后找到了它所寻找的东西。

一起来

Stronghold Energy II 由 Steve 和 Caleb Weatherl 创立，由私募股权公司 Warburg Pincus 持有多数股权。

父子二人带来了互补的技能。曾担任 Stronghold 首席执行官的史蒂夫是一位地质学家，他帮助开拓了米德兰盆地第一批经济上成功的 Wolfcamp 水平井。

总裁兼首席财务官 Caleb 毕业于哈佛商学院，并将其财务背景带到了二叠纪运营商。

Stronghold 承认米德兰和特拉华盆地提供优质岩石，但公司并没有被公司为那里的土地支付的高价所吸引。相反，Stronghold 将其精力集中在二叠纪的中央盆地平台上。

自 2017 年成立以来，该公司在中央盆地平台（主要位于德克萨斯州克兰县及其周边地区）的净土地面积增至约 37,000 英亩。

要塞能源 II 环形能源交易地图
通过 2022 年收购 Stronghold Energy II，Ring Energy 在二叠纪中央盆地平台增加了约 37,000 净英亩的土地。（来源：Ring Energy 投资者介绍）

Stronghold 的资产日产量约为 9,100 桶油当量（54% 为石油，75% 为液体）。

2022 年 7 月，Ring 宣布计划以价值高达 4.65 亿美元的现金加股票交易收购 Stronghold 在 Permian 的地位。

抢占要塞为戒指勾选了很多选项。据报道，将私营勘探与生产公司在中央盆地平台的地位纳入其投资组合，实际上使该公司的总产量翻了一番，从 2022 年第二季度的约 9,300 桶油当量/天增至 2023 年第一季度创纪录的 18,292 桶油当量/天。投资者披露。

Stronghold 资产产生的自由现金流增加也帮助 Ring 的杠杆率从 2021 年底的 3.5 倍降低到 2023 年第一季度的 1.65 倍。

“《要塞》附带的资产——它们在经济上都非常相似，但其中一些实际上更优越，”麦金尼说。

“一个特定领域是我们公司拥有的最经济的机会，”他说。

最终，这笔交易为 Ring 提供了更好的选择，可以将资金投资于具有不同回报率的多个地质区域。

“我们可以根据市场上即时发生的情况来改变投资策略，”他说。

尽管该公司有库存可以进一步提高产量，但在大宗商品价格大幅波动的情况下，Ring 计划今年保持石油和天然气产量相对平稳。

Ring 计划优先考虑继续降低杠杆率并为下一笔交易做好准备，而不是将资金投入钻探。

“我们相信现在是通过收购来发展公司的时候了，”麦金尼说。

未来路线图

从小型独立企业到上市超级巨头，勘探与生产公司都在争夺美国下 48 个州最大的产油盆地二叠纪的库存跑道。

去年，Callon Petroleum、Ovintiv、Matador Resources和Diamondback Energy 等上市公司已向二叠纪盆地并购注入了数十亿美元，以扩大其头寸和库存。

运营商并不急于挖掘未开发的库存来增加产量。经过十多年的快速扩张，勘探与生产公司现在已经看到了二叠纪产量的峰值和最终的下降。

响尾蛇执行副总裁兼首席运营官丹尼·韦森 (Danny Wesson)在哈特能源公司的超级挖掘活动期间表示，“到本世纪末”前后几年，你可能会看到二叠纪峰值并开始趋于稳定。五月份的会议。

“我们到达那里所需的时间越长，它就会趋于稳定并持平的时间就越长。但 我们越快到达那里，它就会下降得越快，”他说。

收购 Stronghold 后，Ring 的二叠纪库存又增加了 200 多个未开发的钻探地点，为未来预留。

但尽管 Stronghold 协议延长了跑道，Ring 仍在二叠纪寻找更长的寿命。

“短期和中期有良好的运行空间，”麦金尼说。“从长远来看，这就是我们如此专注于收购的原因，以确保五年后我们希望拥有更多未开发地点的库存。”

麦金尼表示，在其并购战略方面，Ring 优先考虑增加尚未开发的巨大优势机会。

他表示，该公司将考虑另一项对生产量大的交易，但其倍数必须具有吸引力。

Ring旨在与其西北大陆架和中央盆地平台的现有业务产生协同效应。但是，如果这些资产能够与 Ring 现有的投资组合进行经济竞争，该公司对二叠纪盆地以外的交易持开放态度。

“就像二叠纪盆地。我们认为我们的股东更喜欢关注二叠纪盆地，”麦金尼说。“但我不一定承诺留在二叠纪盆地，我会考虑盆地以外的事情，只要它们有一些真正有吸引力的方面，可以为我的股东提供很多价值。”

麦金尼表示，该公司将考虑几乎所有主要油田的交易，在这些油田中，Ring 可以以具有竞争力的成本进入一级油田地位。

他说，其中包括伊格尔福特页岩、丹佛-朱尔斯堡盆地、德克萨斯州东部和粉河盆地的部分地区。

与此同时，Ring 今年的大部分支出都集中在减少债务上。

“如果我能够显着改善我的资产负债表，我可能会被引诱去其他地方，”麦金尼说。

在去年出售要塞之后，韦瑟尔斯家族又回到了二叠纪盆地寻找交易。

他们的新勘探与生产公司，总部位于米德兰的 Garrison Energy Holdings，从一位未透露姓名的机构投资者处获得了 5 亿美元的股权融资，以寻求二叠纪盆地收购机会。

Caleb Weatherl 告诉 Hart Energy，Garrison Energy 仍对中央盆地平台的交易持开放态度，但该公司正在评估整个二叠纪盆地的潜在交易，包括特拉华州和西北陆架。

加里森对于想要开发的资产类型相当不可知。该公司对购买水平井持开放态度，但加里森也在寻找收购垂直井或再完井井的机会。

与 Stronghold 的策略类似，Garrison 团队正在评估在昂贵的二叠纪核心区域之外开发位置的机会。

“我们当然不害怕承担一些技术风险，进入一个可能不像核心核心那样被证实的领域，并运用我们的地质和工程专业知识来帮助降低该地区的风险， “韦瑟尔说。

原文链接/hartenergy

Anatomy of a Deal: Ring Energy’s Conventional Wisdom

The purchase of Stronghold Energy II allows Ring to keep its focus on mature, conventional assets in the Permian’s Northwest Shelf and Central Basin Platform.

The purchase of Stronghold Energy II has allowed Ring Energy to keep its focus on mature, conventional assets in the Permian Basin. (Source: Shutterstock) 

By
Chris
Mathews
Hart Energy

Mention drilling in the Permian Basin and unconventional reservoirs immediately come to mind. But Ring Energy focused on conventional assets to set itself apart from the crowded market.

The mid-sized operator is applying shale boom technologies to legacy assets in conventional reservoirs that others viewed as uneconomic, Paul D. McKinney, chairman and CEO of Ring, told Hart Energy.

“What we’re finding is, nobody’s really competing with us for that,” McKinney said.

Ring operates in the Permian Basin’s Northwest Shelf and Central Basin Platform. McKinney said the company primarily pursued drilling horizontal oil wells in the San Andres formation across Yoakum and Gaines counties, Texas—a region where operators have to fill in the gaps between mature oil fields developed from the 1940s onward.

But to compete in the prolific Permian Basin, Ring needed greater scale. And in order to grow, the company needed to buy its way into a larger position.

M&A continues to be a key part of Ring’s growth strategy, but not all deals can move the needle for the company.

Not only did Ring aim to grow its size and scale in the basin with a deal, the company also needed to strengthen its balance sheet, accelerate its ability to pay down debt and lower its breakeven costs.

Ring found what it was searching for with the acquisition of Stronghold Energy II last year, McKinney said.

Come together

Stronghold Energy II, majority-owned by private equity firm Warburg Pincus, was founded by Steve and Caleb Weatherl.

The father and son duo brought complementary skills to the table. Steve, who served as Stronghold’s CEO, is a geologist who helped pioneer some of the first economically successful horizontal Wolfcamp wells in the Midland Basin.

Caleb, president and CFO, graduated from Harvard Business School and brought his financial background to the Permian operator.

Acknowledging the high-quality rock offered in the Midland and Delaware basins, Stronghold wasn’t attracted to the high prices companies were paying for acreage there. Instead, Stronghold focused its efforts on the Permian’s Central Basin Platform.

Since launching in 2017, the company grew its position to approximately 37,000 net acres in the Central Basin Platform—primarily in and around Crane County, Texas.

Stronghold Energy II Ring Energy Deal Map
Ring Energy added about 37,000 net acres in the Permian’s Central Basin Platform with the acquisition of Stronghold Energy II in 2022. (Source: Ring Energy investor presentation)

Stronghold’s assets had production of about 9,100 boe/d (54% oil, 75% liquids).

In July 2022, Ring announced plans to acquire Stronghold’s Permian position in a cash-and-stock deal valued at up to $465 million.

Scooping up Stronghold checked a lot of boxes for Ring. Adding the private E&P’s position in the Central Basin Platform to its portfolio effectively doubled the company’s overall production, from around 9,300 boe/d in second-quarter 2022 to a record 18,292 boe/d in first-quarter 2023, according to investor disclosures.

Accretive free cash flow generation from Stronghold assets also helped lower Ring’s leverage ratio from 3.5x at the end of 2021 to 1.65x by first-quarter 2023.

“The assets that came along with Stronghold—many of them were very similar in economics, but some of them were actually superior,” McKinney said.

“One particular area is the most economic set of opportunities that our company has,” he said.

Ultimately, the deal gave Ring better optionality to invest its money in multiple geologies with different rates of return.

“We can make a change in that investment strategy depending on what happens in the marketplace on a dime’s notice,” he said.

Although the company has the inventory to ramp up production further, Ring plans to keep oil and gas output relatively flat this year amid significant volatility in commodity prices.

Instead of pouring money into drilling, Ring plans to prioritize continuing to lower its leverage ratio and gearing up for its next deal.

“We believe now is the time to grow the company through acquisitions,” McKinney said.

Roadmap for the future

E&Ps from small independents to publicly traded supermajors are jockeying for inventory runway in the Permian, the top oil-producing basin in the U.S. Lower 48.

Public players including Callon Petroleum, Ovintiv, Matador Resources and Diamondback Energy have pumped billions of dollars into Permian Basin M&A in the past year to expand their positions and inventory.

Operators aren’t in a massive hurry to drill up their undeveloped inventory to grow production. With more than a decade of rapid expansion in the books, E&Ps now have a line of sight toward peak Permian production and eventual decline.

“[By] the end of the decade… plus or minus a couple of years, you might see the Permian peak and start plateauing,” Danny Wesson, executive vice president and COO at Diamondback, said during Hart Energy’s SUPER DUG conference in May.

“The longer it takes us to get there, the longer it will plateau and run flat. But the faster we get there, it will decline faster,” he said.

Acquiring Stronghold boosted Ring’s Permian inventory by another over 200 undeveloped drilling locations set aside for the future.

But despite the runway extension from the Stronghold deal, Ring is still searching for more longevity in the Permian.

“We’ve got good running room for the short- and medium-term,” McKinney said. “Long-term, that’s why we’re so focused on acquisitions—to ensure that five years and out we want to have a bigger inventory of undeveloped locations.”

When it comes to its M&A strategy, Ring is prioritizing adding opportunities with significant undeveloped upside, McKinney said.

The company would consider another deal that was heavy on production, but only at an attractive multiple, he said.

Ring aims to capture synergies with its existing operations in the Northwest Shelf and the Central Basin Platform. But, the company is open to deals outside of the Permian if those assets can compete economically with Ring’s existing portfolio.

“We like the Permian Basin. We think our shareholders prefer a Permian Basin focus,” McKinney said. “But I’m not necessarily promising that I’ll stay in the Permian—I will consider things outside of the basin as long as they have some really attractive aspects that provide a lot of value to my shareholders.”

McKinney said the company will consider deals in nearly any of the predominant oil plays where Ring can enter a Tier 1 acreage position at competitive costs.

That includes the Eagle Ford Shale, the Denver-Julesburg Basin, East Texas and portions of the Powder River Basin, he said.

In the meantime, Ring is focusing most of its spending this year on debt reduction.

“If I could significantly improve my balance sheet, I could be lured to go someplace else,” McKinney said.

And after selling Stronghold last year, the Weatherls are also back in the Permian searching for deals.

Their new E&P company, Midland-based Garrison Energy Holdings, secured a $500 million line of equity financing from an undisclosed institutional investor to pursue Permian acquisition opportunities.

Caleb Weatherl told Hart Energy that Garrison Energy is still open to deals in the Central Basin Platform, but the company is evaluating potential deals across the Permian, including the Delaware and the Northwest Shelf.

Garrison is fairly agnostic when it comes to the kinds of assets it wants to develop. The company is open to buying horizontal locations, but Garrison is also eyeing opportunities to acquire vertical locations or recompletion wells.

Similar to Stronghold’s strategy, the Garrison team is evaluating opportunities to develop a position outside of expensive core-of-the-core Permian plays.

“We’re certainly not afraid to take some technical risk, go into an area that is maybe not quite as proven as the core-of-the-core and apply our geology and engineering expertise to help de-risk an area,” Weatherl said.