Green oil exec splits with Brooks fields
By Collin Gallant on November 25, 2017.
Medicine Hat News A company with large oil lease holdings near Brooks has split with its U.S. investors and new company has formed to handle conventional petroleum production. Privately held Imaginea Energy acquired nearly 260,000 acres of leases from Crew Energy in 2014 with the goal of producing the field and other interests in a more environmentally responsible way. This week, Imaginea CEO Suzanne West says in a release that her company has split with private equity firm Lime Rock Partners of Houston. All parts of the company related to its oil and gas producing assets have been reassigned to a private firm called Cor4 Oil Corp. “Earlier in the year we came to the conclusion both together that we were not aligned on the same page. They just want to be a traditional company focused on profits and I clearly don’t,” she said. “I want to change the fortunes of our industry and how we participate on the planet side and on the people side.” West said Lime Rock, which has offices in Westport, Conn., Houston and London, decided to buy her out after hiring consultants to examine strategic alternatives for the company. Cor4 is helmed by members of the Calgary-based Corinthian Oil Corp. management team led by CEO Colin Davies. Davies stated in a company release that “we are encouraged by the potential of the assets and the creativity of the existing team. The skillset and experience of our team is well suited to them.” Crew had sold its Princess Field — comprising daily production of 3,650 barrels per day of oil equivalent and 12.4 million barrels of proven reserve — in mid 2014 for $150 million. The company stated at that time it wished to concentrate on its operating areas in the Montney region in Northwest Alberta. The Imaginea brand and intellectual capital will remain with West and chief financial officer Lindsay Goos, the release says, but the company will focus on creating a new industry of “clean hydrocarbons” with zero emissions, zero pollution and zero use of fresh water. In a tweet, West says the split with Lime Rock is positive and “we are free now to make the impact that the world needs!” West founded Imaginea in 2013 after selling Black Shire Energy Ltd., a junior oil and gas company also backed by Lime Rock, for $358 million. — with files from the Canadian Press 15-14
