Triangle Petroleum, www.trianglepetroleum.com – the independent oil and gas exploration and production firm with some 475k gross acres in Nova Scotia at the Windsor Block and another 13k net acres in the Williston Basin targeting the Bakken Shale/Three Forks, announced several new strategic initiatives in addition to an operational status update and 2011 projected drilling schedule.
A joint venture with two Oppenheimer & Co, Inc. investment funds operating out of NY, OGR (Oppenheimer Global Resource Private Equity Fund I) and a related co-investment fund went into effect on the 22nd of this month.
A $25M capital commitment from OGR directed towards developments in TPLM’s Bakken Shale efforts, $10M of which is initial capital, with rights for OGR to increase this value to $19M and subsequent rights under the agreement to 25% participation in future activity in the Williston Basin.
Additional stipulations under the agreement are as follows:
• OGR will pay for its share of all leasehold costs in which it participates in addition to a premium paid to TPLM (equal to a percentage of lease acquisition costs) as remuneration for TPLM’s footwork and sourcing
• OGR will take on 25% of TPLM’s brokerage costs region-wide
• OGR will pay its share of drilling and completion and a 10% premium to TPLM
• TPLM will receive an annual management fee for general and administrative
• Any future acquisition of leases associated with TPLM’s Slawson Exploration joint venture is excluded
CFO of TPLM, Jonathan Samuels, hailed the deal as a tremendous opportunity to pursue expansion of operations in the Williston Basin and sees the merger of parallel competencies and interests as a cost effective means of doing so.
Also in today’s announcements was the acquisition of substantially all assets of Williston Exploration LLC, consisting of some 1,732 net acres of undeveloped acres in contiguous blocks where 3 separate 1,280-acre drilling units will afford TPLM its first operated drilling locations.
A reported $22M in cash and some 4.3M shares of TPLM will change hands with the transaction and closing will be broken into two parts, one in Dec. 2010 and one next year in February.
The Company also disclosed that it picked up some 700 net acres (1,200 acres at $1k/acre) in immediate proximity to the Williston acquisition.
Projected participation in 20 gross and 5.3 net wells over the next 15 months (including 2 on the Williston property) by TPLM puts the Company in a very strong resource position overall with adequate footing and logistical capacity to deliver returns to shareholders.
The first joint venture well with Slawson is schedule the end of this month and Slawson will drill approximately 9 more well through 2011 consistent with the Company’s strategic plan to grow through shrewd acquisitions of prime development opportunities.
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