Kim Bradford, President and CEO of Osage (OTCBB: OEDV) Discusses the Company's Net Acreage Expansion and How the Mississippian Formation Play is Heating Up
Point Roberts, WA - October 18, 2011- Investorideas.com, a leader in sector research including oil and gas stocks, issues a recent exclusive interview with Kim Bradford, President and CEO of Osage Exploration and Development, Inc. (
OTCBB: OEDV) discussing the Company's recent expansion to 15,000 net acres in the Nemaha Ridge, Oklahoma horizontal Mississippian play.
Interview
Q: Investorideas.com
Kim, since the Company announced its joint venture with Slawson Exploration Company, Inc. and U.S. Energy Development Corporation back in May, your net acreage has grown from 10,000 to 15,000 net acres. Can you share with investors how a small company's strategy and approach to purchasing smaller acreage packages can work to your benefit and ultimately the shareholders?
A: Kim Bradford, President and CEO of Osage Exploration and Development, Inc.
That is a very good question, the answer has to do with the relative impact an acquisition can make to a given Company. Simply stated, if a very large oil and gas company had acquired 10,000 acres in the horizontal Mississippian play, it would probably be so small relative to their asset base that the acquisition would be virtually meaningless in the investment thesis for that large company. In our case, this acquisition is huge relative to our size, therefore success in this project could propel our equity value and stock price many times their current levels. Keep in mind, for Osage this is probably a five year project of drilling and development with a corresponding five year period of growth in production and reserves. In other words, the performance of Osage is very leveraged to this project, where in another larger company it might not be. Likewise, our ability to continue to expand the project displays a similar characteristic. In the parallel example above, to a large company acquiring an additional 5000 acres would be just as meaningless as the first 10,000 acres. In Osage's case however, this represents a full 50% increase over what we had acquired just a few months earlier, and nearly a 50% growth in the size of the asset base of the Company in a very short time which is extremely significant to our investment thesis.
Q: Investorideas.com
The Mississippian formation play is heating up in terms of new entrants. Recently PetroQuest Energy (
NYSE:PQ ) announced they had closed its Mississippian Lime acquisition of 28,250 acres for an adjusted purchase price of $24,100,000. Can you share with investors what you are seeing in terms of growing interest from the majors and why?
A: Kim Bradford, President and CEO of Osage Exploration and Development, Inc.
All of the major Oklahoma based publicly traded oil and gas exploration companies have been involved in developing horizontal Mississippian projects. SandRidge Energy, Chesapeake Energy Corporation, Devon Energy Corporation, Range Resources, Continental Resources, as well as many privately owned Oklahoma based companies are involved in the play. PetroQuest joins the growing list of non-Oklahoma based companies acquiring horizontal Mississippian projects. What I believe we are seeing is a similar sort of phenomenon like we have witnessed in the Marcellus shale play, the Haynesville shale play, and others which is that companies feel that they have to be exposed to this play. Strategically, the bigger oil companies cannot afford to miss a domestic opportunity with great economics, unless it is truly outside their area of focus or expertise. It is fair to say that almost every significant oil company in America has access and expertise in the Mid-Continent, so we are seeing a groundswell in the number of companies endorsing the horizontal Mississippian in Oklahoma.
Q: Investorideas.com
Kim in your last press release you said the Company was on track to begin drilling by the end of the year. Can you give investors a short outline of the process?
A: Kim Bradford, President and CEO of Osage Exploration and Development, Inc.
Our Operator, Slawson Exploration has direct responsibility for all activities on the ground when it comes to drilling, which is a very good thing for the Osage shareholder. Slawson has drilled thousands of wells in their history and are highly regarded for their efficiency and success rate. In Oklahoma, as in other places, there are many governmental, bureaucratic processes that must be completed before drilling can begin. Those initiatives are well advanced and conform to the time schedule that we have laid out. The rig has been contracted, and there are really no barriers to us to get our wells started this year, we are definitely on target.
Q: Investorideas.com
The Mississippian has a successful vertical history, which has resulted in a superior drilling success rate as horizontal play, with a record of
no dry holes. As a junior oil and gas Company, what does that represent in terms of risk/reward potential for investors?
A: Kim Bradford, President and CEO of Osage Exploration and Development, Inc.
When I first started investing in oil and gas in the 1970's, a dry hole was probably the most relevant risk, and certainly the one that could cause you to lose all your money quickly. In the horizontal Mississippian play, the formula that all the successful companies are employing virtually guarantees that a dry hole is a highly unlikely outcome. That formula is simply to go to an area that has produced vertically out the Mississippian formation, and then proceed to drill horizontally in that place. When you do that, you are drilling into a formation that you know from the vertical well results is productive. Because historically in Oklahoma the vertical Mississippian wells that have been drilled were not highly fracture stimulated, in many cases not stimulated at all, those vertical wells did not drain the reservoir efficiently. So what we are doing is going into a reservoir that we know produces oil then utilizing horizontal wellbores to increase the amount of exposure to that known productive reservoir, and finally using the most advanced stage fracturing process to maximize recovery from that known-productive reservoir. Given the industry's experience in utilizing these techniques, it is not a surprise that we have not had a single dry hole out of the first 300 horizontal wells drilled in the horizontal Mississippian, nor do we expect any.
Q: Investorideas.com
Based on recent developments and without disclosing anything out of the public
domain, can you share with us your strategy for growing the Company over the next year?
A: Kim Bradford, President and CEO of Osage Exploration and Development, Inc.
It is fair to say that our focus is on developing our potentially huge Nemaha Ridge Mississippian project in conjunction with our partners, Slawson Exploration and US Energy Development Corporation. That said, we are a grassroots exploration company by choice because that is how we can create the most leverage and highest returns for our shareholders. We will continue to try and develop additional onshore US projects similar to our Nemaha Ridge project which can be truly transformative for our Company.
About Osage Exploration and Development, Inc.
Based in San Diego, California with production offices in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma, and executive offices in Bogotá, Colombia, Osage Exploration and Development, Inc. is an independent exploration and production company with interests in oil and gas wells and prospects in the US and Colombia.
www.osageexploration.com
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Link to news release: read full news
http://www.investorideas.com/CO/OEDV/news/2011/05272.asp
About Slawson Exploration Company, Inc.
Headquartered in Wichita, KS, with regional offices in Denver, Houston, and Oklahoma City, Slawson was founded in 1957.
http://www.slawsoncompanies.com/exploration.html
About U.S. Energy Development Corporation
U.S. Energy Development Corporation was formed in 1980 as a successor to Oilmark & Company, Inc., founded in 1978. The company has consistently been ranked among the Top 50 Independent Oil & Natural Gas Drillers in the United States and is one of the largest drillers in both New York and Pennsylvania. Since 1980, U.S. Energy has acted as operator with respect to the drilling of more than 2,500 wells. www.usenergydevcorp.com
Safe Harbor Statement
The information in this release includes certain forward-looking statements as defined by the Securities and Exchange Commission that are based on assumptions that in the future may prove not to have been accurate. Those statements and Osage Exploration and Development, Inc. are subject to a number of risks, including production variances from expectations, volatility of product prices, inability to raise sufficient capital to fund its operations, environmental risks, competition, government regulation, and the ability of the Company to execute its business strategy, among others.
Contact:
Osage Exploration and Development, Inc.
Kim Bradford , President and CEO
Phone: 619-677-3956
Fax: 619-677-3964
kbradford@osageexploration.com
www.osageexploration.com
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