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COPYRIGHT 2005 Hart Publications, Inc.
After coming up with countless oil and gas business models that proved capable of building and sustaining profitable exploration and production operations through some of the most difficult economic times imaginable, U.S. independent producers are proving they know what to do with the most sustained period of high wellhead prices on record.
This year at IPAA's midyear meeting, the chief executives of three California-based independent E&P companies described some of the ways in which independents are adapting the creativity and resourcefulness that saw them through the lean times to expand and diversify their operations the current boom.
E. J. (Gene) Voiland, chief executive of Aera Energy, captured the ebullient mood of many independents when describing the transformation of Aera from an unwieldy, inefficient amalgamation of former major-company oil and gas properties into a unique, award-winning, world class oil and gas manufacturing organization churning out 210,000 barrels per day (b/d) of oil and 75 million cubic feet per day (MMcfd) of natural gas from 15,000 operated wells.
"I just marvel when I look at what's happened to prices," Voiland quipped. "If you have kind of a high double-digit IQ, you can make money in this business at $55 a barrel."
Joining Voiland on the CEO roundtable were Robert E Heinemann, president and chief executive of Berry Petroleum Company, and Randall H. Breitenbach, cofounder and chief executive of BreitBurn Energy (USA).
ACQUISITIONS SPUR GROWTH
Heinemann in the past two years has presided over a series of acquisitions that transformed Berry from a perennially profitable heavy oil producer with about 100 million barrels (bbls) of...
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