Unlocking Deep Potential in Energy Deals

to spin off assets in the vicinity of major discoveries to reduce their own risk. These wells can be more than $100 million to drill and farming down to reduce risk is a very good idea.”

The expertise within Oil Finders can help to swing deal values by up to 10%. Right now, that is significant and achieving this can make a big difference in financial results. Returning clients have commented: “He’s very expensive, but worth it, because everything just works.” As activity continues to boom, Knight is keen on international work alongside clients.

“There is a lot of exploration going on and we are hearing a lot about developing markets finding oil and gas plays, and that is exciting. In the last decade, oil assets have been purchased for production purposes as opposed to upside. Now, we are getting back to exploration and new drilling, and that involves seismic and that is also exciting.”

Happy clients highlight the combination of science and technology as particularly appealing: “With Knight we get a more experienced geophysicist, software, hardware, and security, and that’s worth a lot to us.”

Even through the energy transition, the geoscientific nature behind Oil Finders remains highly attractive when clipping into bank transactions, anywhere in the world. Knight remains confident that the company’s insight will be required.

“We will do well helping players transition from one sector to another. If companies decide they are going to evaluate their portfolio and dive further into wind or solar, they will need to spin off oil and gas and that brings opportunities.”

But this will likely happen over a much longer period.

“It is now clearer for those that have rushed into the energy transition that oil and gas is the backbone of the system and it will be around for many years,” he says. “As the problems in Europe have highlighted, oil and gas are very strongly required elements in the economy.

“If you look back at any of the sources that mankind has made through the years, it is a transition to more and more complex energy. Each jump has involved more knowledge and more technology. Wood, coal, oil, gas, nuclear, and next will be hydrogen as an energy carrier, have all required fresh ideas and deep new understanding. No energy source that mankind has ever developed has diminished in use. We are using as much or more of every source from wood to hydrogen. Oil and gas usage will not diminish. It is likely to stay where it is or increase, and that is the stage we’re at now – many think it will increase because of the rate of population increase.”

Consultancy around this, and delivery of straightforward easy to decipher scientific information, is where Oil Finders finds its niche. “Geophysicists should be exploring for oil and gas – that is what they are paid to do. They shouldn’t be getting involved with data rooms – that is not their specialty. When they get in with reviewers, they might talk too much about the sale, giving a certain impression that might not help in a sale. You have to be careful about what is said during a review of a large oil and gas asset and that is where we are successful.”

The quality service levels within Oil Finders are unquestionable and, in a challenging market characterised by uncertainty, the merit of partnering is clear. The company brings certainty around data, assurance in value, and confidence in transactions.