Jordan Blum, editorial director, Hart Energy: We're here at Hart Energy's A&D Strategies & Opportunities conference here in Dallas. I'm joined for this Hart Energy LIVE Exclusive Interview with Laura Gu, the vice president of corporate and asset development for SilverBow Resources. Thank you so much for joining us. Really appreciate it. So SilverBow is in the news. You just bought a big package in the Eagle Ford from Chesapeake Energy. Can you tell me a little bit just about how big a deal this is for SilverBow?
Laura Gu, vice president of corporate and asset development, SilverBow Resources: Yeah, it's definitely one of our largest deals to date, $700 million. I think our last largest deal was the Sundance acquisition, which is about $350 million. We're really excited that this deal brings a lot of inventory for us and also brings a very strong PDP production base. We're looking to increase our company from about 60,000 boe/d to over 90,000 boe/d. So adding about at least 50% to our company. We're also very excited because we've been working on this deal for almost a year now, so it has been a very long time coming, so we're excited to announce it and I'm looking forward to a fast close here.
JB: Obviously Chesapeake just completely exited from the Eagle Ford. They had three packages of deals. Obviously y'all are the third. How much did you look at the other potential acquisitions as well?
LG: We looked at all three actually in pretty good detail. We spent a lot of our time even over in Giddings, but it just quickly made sense that the South Texas rich assets were the closest to us. They made the most logical sense, industrial logic, and then we just couldn't pull down all three altogether. We wish we could, but we couldn't at the point in time. So we were pretty happy to get the last patch that Chesapeake had.
JB: And it's not just Eagle Ford per se. There's Austin Chalk and other proven potential aspects as well.
LG: So we like to say that we were one of the first movers in the Austin Chalk. So we started drilling Austin Chalk wells in our Webb County assets back in 2020. We're also doing a lot of Austin Chalk development over in what we call our Shiner eastern extension over in Lee- Lavaca counties. So we think of the Austin Chalk as a trend that's there. We're excited to explore it. We see a lot of potential in the Chesapeake assets.
JB: And obviously all the talk is about scale and inventory these days. And you feel like this is really hitting a home run?
LG: Yeah, for sure. I think it's a lot of inventory. I think we've publicly announced over 300 locations, but we're actually looking at much more just in terms of what's economic and what's not. So we think there's a lot of room.
JB: Most of the attention is on the Permian, obviously the Haynesville is pretty hot with LNG, with the exception of Chesapeake moving out. Eagle Ford has been maybe a little quieter. Does that work to y'all's advantage? Y'all have had a lot of small deals too in the last couple years.
LG: Yeah, so I joined back in 2018 and I think the Eagle Ford then was not so much forgotten, but we didn't have as much activity as other basins like the Permian. But in the last two years, I feel like a lot of players are looking at Eagle Ford. We're seeing a lot of competition when we look at these deals. So it's definitely heating up more and I think it's really the combination of the commodity window, so we have access to gas and oil and then also just the premium markets.
JB: Great. Well thanks again so much for joining us at the A&D Strategies & Opportunities conference. For more information, please read and watch online at hartenergy.com.
