Firewheel Energy, LLC - know anything about this company - are they active in west Texas?
How about their business reputation? How can I get an evaluation of this company? thanks!
They are good to go. They have big-time private equity backing and will be able to drill and drill very well.
They put together a management team of all-stars and went out in search of money to back their team and ideas. They did such a good job that EnCap put $300 million behind them.
I'd feel safe signing a lease with them.
Haha- Tom sounds like an employee if I have ever heard one. What are they drilling and where? Just because you can raise money... that means jack until you put that bit into the ground and produce results. A management team of all stars?? LOL
I'm hardly an employee of theirs. I just work in the industry and know of them.
Ferrell, please allow me to amend my previous post to keep more in line with the attitude of this forum:
"They are another one of those damn money grubbing oil companies. They are the enemy and are to be treated as such. They will rob you blind and have no interest in you. They will find every way they can to line their own pockets and will screw you over at every opportunity. Everyone in that office is completely incompetent and they don't even know what a drill bit looks like."
Does that work for you, Brittany? Remember, not everyone is a bad guy that is out to get you. Ferrell asked for opinions on reputation and I gave an answer. Do you have anything to contribute or are you just throwing stones?
Haha, calm down you're hysterical. I simply stated that your enthusiasm for this company made you sound like an employee. I think that point was validated by your "rant" about money grubbing oil companies. You still haven't told me what they are drilling and where. I dont care about how many acres they have leased, reserves, etc... Any company can go aqcuire leases ie: Chesapeake- but what are they doing NOW???? I make my living through the industry as well, so big deal, I don't rave about every oil company I have ever heard of. I am not throwing stones at your employer, just trying to figure out why they are all stars. Don't be a little cry baby because someone might have a different opinion or might not be sure why some company is so great. Give some reasons for your opinions Thomas.
Great endorsement. Unfortunately you are anonymous with your page set to private so there is no way to guage what your opinion might be worth. Since you are so aware of this company how many wells have they drilled? Are they like Shale Exploration, a start up company that claimed they were leasing to drill wells and then they just flipped it all to another company for a quick profit?
Tom said:
They are good to go. They have big-time private equity backing and will be able to drill and drill very well.
They put together a management team of all-stars and went out in search of money to back their team and ideas. They did such a good job that EnCap put $300 million behind them.
I'd feel safe signing a lease with them.
For what it is worth -
http://firewheelenergy.com/index.html
"FireWheel Energy, LLC is headquartered in Midland, Texas with exploration offices in Fort Worth, Texas. Prior to the formation of FireWheel, the majority of the senior management team held executive and management level positions with XTO Energy/Exxon. The company was formed in August 2011 with a $300 MM equity commitment from EnCap Investments, LP."
Their website state that they are "Currently Operating One Rig" and have 150,000 acres in the Permian Basin, Horizontal Cline Shale.
He asked for an opinion, I gave it. I've know of Kyle Hammond and I hear he's a stand-up guy, despite being an Aggie. The management team is mostly made up of XTO hands and XTO did very well even prior to the Exxon buyout.
The question was about their business reputation. I answered that their business reputation is very good. Private equity firms don't throw that kind of money at somone that doesn't have a good reputation.
Mr. Kennedy, think a couple of steps ahead on this. With the backing they have, there is no motivation for them to "flip" the lease. Why would they need the "quick buck" that you mention? They aren't land brokers. They are an operator. EnCap wants production of oil and gas from their investment. Production of oil and gas is good for the operator, the investor and the Lessor (Ferrell, in this case). As such, if I were Ferrell I would feel ok with signing a lease with them, as I said before. They may very well drill it up, establish production, then sell the lease. That's just business. But, at least Ferrell's minerals will have been drilled.
And Mr. Kennedy, you are right, I am just some guy on the internet. My opinion means absolutely nothing to Ferrell since he knows nothing about me, nor will he learn anything about me. My online presence is nil and shall remain that way. But, why ask the question on the internet if you don't want to hear from random people on the internet?
Britany, you want specifics, a quick search tells me they are active in Sterling and Mitchell counties, primarily. How many wells have they drilled? No clue. I don't feel like digging that much. But, they are running a horizontal rig full-time. Firewheel itself is a fairly new company, but I would imagine that the team that makes up the company has drilled hundreds, if not thousands of wells.
Ferrell, bottom line, if you don't feel good about them, then by all means don't sign a lease with them. It makes no difference to me. You asked the question on here and nobody has any substantive negative reviews. That should say something to you even if the opinion of a random guy online doesn't. I was just trying to help you out.
Better post Tom. I agree, in the end, we are all just people on the internet giving opinions. I just wasn't sure about your first opinion. Good discussions, I enjoyed it.
Tom, fair enough. I had heard little about FireWheel. I am not impressed by statements about backing, which can evaporate, but if they are actually drilling wells then that would put FireWheel in a higher class than those who do not, for me at least.
I'm a little late to this thread, but Tom is correct. I have specialized at vetting startup oil companies for 8 years now, finding the very best ones, and Firewheel is one of the best ones in the last 2 years. $300 million from EnCap. EnCap is one of the very best private equity firms that invests primarily in startup oil and midstream companies. It seldom makes a mistake. The metric I use to gauge its portfolio investments is the fact that they almost never have any lien claims filed against themselves by oil service companies, the sector I target. Plus, Kyle M Hammond was a former executive of XTO, and folks with that type of credential generally have a reputation they want to protect. I recommended Firewheel to all of my oil service company clients, including Schlumberger, NOV and many others.
Brittany Bynum said:
Haha- Tom sounds like an employee if I have ever heard one. What are they drilling and where? Just because you can raise money... that means jack until you put that bit into the ground and produce results. A management team of all stars?? LOL
Actually, in my line of work Firewheel and most of EnCap's startup portfolio companies can be gauged from a large oil service company's perspective, in the fact that EnCap's companies will end up in the Top 20 of of service company clients, rather than the bottom 20%. That's based on my experience doing this, and I am probably the only person in the country that has specifically been vetting and evaluating startup oil companies specifically for the last 8 years. There just isn't anyone else doing this. I'd loan my money to Firewheel, and if it was a public company I would certainly buy its stock if it was not over-priced. EnCap has grown monstrously with institutional investors over the last 10 years because its investments have been hugely profitable. Most of the funds its recently created were significantly over-subscribed. The type of returns EnCap makes are more than 20% a year probably. Its great at what it does, and again, it makes very few mistakes. It formula for investing with a company is two-fold. First, it is looking for a resource play with significant return potential. and the second critical component is it is looking for executives to team with like Kyle Hammond for the very reason of his executive experience with XTO. It wants proven executive experience in upstream operations growing reserves, and it is typically hoping to find petroleum engineers with large company executive experience.
r w kennedy said:
Tom, fair enough. I had heard little about FireWheel. I am not impressed by statements about backing, which can evaporate, but if they are actually drilling wells then that would put FireWheel in a higher class than those who do not, for me at least.