American Oil and Gas Reporter - February 2015 - 96

SpecialReport: Gulf of Mexico Update
nari has a 12.5 percent working interest, while the operator,
Chevron, holds 55.0 percent, Cobalt holds 20.0 percent, and Samson Offshore Anchor LLC holds 12.5 percent.
"Reservoir development has been better than expected at
Shenandoah and Anchor," Reinsborough comments. "There is potential for the wells to produce at high rates."

(where Reinsborough was president), BP, Shell, and BHP Billiton Petroleum. Its explorationists have played key roles in such
noteworthy discoveries as Appomattox, Knotty Head, Great White,
Big Foot, Bullwinkle, Goldfinger and Mad Dog.
"We are very active in the subsalt Lower Tertiary, where all
four of the discoveries we have participated in are located," Reinsborough says. "We buy most of our seismic data over that area,
Seismic Advantage
and it is where our reprocessing group spends most of its time
Advances in geophysical technology have played a key role
and resources improving subsurface images."
in all four discoveries, Reinsborough notes. "Seismic imaging has
Within the deep water, he points out that Venari has two priimproved significantly in the past five to seven years, so we are
mary focus areas. The first is the Lower Tertiary play, which is
beginning to see structures in the subsalt area we could not imcharacterized by subsalt traps with the potential for excellent reserage very well previously. We also are seeing that reservoir develvoir quality. Discoveries there include Shenandoah, Coronado,
opment is much better than we had
North Platte, North Yucatan, Tiber,
thought. These factors are setting up
Gila, Kaskida, and now Anchor
the Lower Tertiary trend to be a
and Guadalupe, Reinsborough
"Whenever we attach ourselves to a
great area to explore for years to
notes. He indicates a typical Lowcome," he says.
er Tertiary discovery contains 200
project, regardless of our working interest
To get the most from the admillion-600 million barrels of oil
vances in seismic technology,
equivalent, with individual wells relevel, we always contribute. Our partners
Reinsborough augmented the comcovering more than 20 MMboe.
appreciate the expertise and the thought
pany's team of 20 explorationists
The company's secondary focus
with a seismic reprocessing group.
area is the subsalt Miocene play in
process we bring to the table."
"Within Venari, we have world
the Central Gulf. The play has been
class geophysical experts devoted
established both above and below
to seismic processing. They are rethe salt, with a total discovered
processing public datasets with new algorithms and techniques
volume of at least 6.5 billion barrels of oil equivalent and a typto give us a competitive advantage in imaging challenging geoical discovery size of 100 MMboe-300 MMboe. Discovery wells
logic areas," he details. "We invest heavily in seismic data upare estimated to produce around 15 MMboe, Reinsborough says,
front because that will lower our risk profile going forward."
adding that cycle times are only four to seven years (a compressed
That investment has helped the company achieve an abovetimeline by deepwater standards, particularly considering the average reserve size associated with the discoveries).
average success rate, Reinsborough maintains. "The industry success rate in the deep water is around 30 percent. Venari's success
Reinsborough describes Venari as bullish on the Lower Terrate in the Lower Tertiary is 80 percent," he says.
tiary. "The industry keeps finding big oil fields there, so that should
Part of its drilling success is related to Venari's position as a
come as no surprise," he says.
nonoperating oil and gas investing company, Reinsborough goes
"The deepwater environment, and large fields in particular, have
on. In fact, the company's name is derived from a Latin term meanhigh-margin oil, which means the break-even costs to generate
ing "to hunt." And that, he says, is exactly how his team approacha decent return are relatively low compared with global metrics,"
es the business: tracking down the best exploration prospects across
he adds. "Our first production is scheduled to come on line in 2019,
a panorama of opportunities in prolific deepwater subsalt plays.
so I do not worry what the price of oil is today. The key for us
"As a nonoperator, we view the industry's inventory as our inis the long-term price outlook, and that looks favorable."
ventory. We have the luxury of being selective. We are very critPartnership
ical when we are evaluating prospects and invest only in the ones
Reinsborough emphasizes that Venari seeks to be a great partthat have the most promise," Reinsborough states. "When an opner to the companies it works with. "Whenever we attach ourselves
portunity arises, we are able to come to the table first and be the
to a project, regardless of our working interest level, we always
nonoperating partner of choice for drill-ready deepwater explocontribute," he says. "We are a technically oriented company that
ration projects.
"The most successful companies are the ones that remain foinvests in seismic and has proven explorationists. Our partners apcused on what they are really good at," he comments. "Venari is
preciate the expertise and the thought process we bring to the table."
a subsalt exploration company. That is where our expertise is and
As a small company with a flat structure, Venari can make dewhere our staff has found oil historically, so we focus on oil-prone
cisions quickly, which means it will not hold up its partners, Reinssubsalt trends in the deep water."
borough comments.
Venari's staff has an average of 30 years of experience, includThe company also has the financial resources to fully fund its
ing more than 15 years in the deepwater Gulf of Mexico, Reinsportion of each project, he assures. "We have secured two priborough says. The company's leadership previously served at deepvate equity-backed financings. The first was the original fundwater operating companies such as Nexen Petroleum U.S.A.
ing for the company, which was $1.125 billion, and the second
96 THE AMERICAN OIL & GAS REPORTER

American Oil and Gas Reporter - February 2015

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