Energence is managed by a team of distinguished professionals.

Prior to forming Energence and its predecessors, our leadership team members each have had distinguished careers at major energy and investment firms. During this time, our team developed a deep knowledge of the keys to both operational, investment, and technological success. This combination of capabilities forms the foundation for the Energence approach and has proven to be a time-tested process that has produced a track record of success.

Mr. Richard and Dr. Ward formed Energence’s predecessors following successful careers at significant energy companies. Mr. Richard worked for 25 years at Halliburton culminating in being named Global Business Manager of Halliburton’s Integrated Solutions Division. In this position he led the identification, evaluation, contracting, and application of technical solutions for the start-up of oil and gas development projects worldwide and directly supervised business activities in seven geographic locations located within three countries.  From 1996 through 2002, the business unit invested over $500 million in 47 oil and gas development projects and generated an annualized rate of return of over 20% in addition to satisfying substantial additional corporate objectives of Halliburton. Mr. Richard also provided the leadership for the start-up in the Gulf Coast Operating Area, which generated an annualized rate of return of over 60%. Dr. Ward has over 40 years of experience in the oil and gas industry. He held executive position at several significant energy companies. He developed many of the techniques employed for seismic reservoir mapping and for the integrated study of hydrocarbon reservoirs used in the industry today.

Dr. Rutledge continues his work with Mr. Richard and Dr. Ward after having worked with them on their most recent venture. Dr. Rutledge worked extensively with Mr. Richard and Dr. Ward in developing their previous venture’s enhanced oil recovery (“EOR”) project and brings deep expertise in this field to Energence. Dr. Rutledge comes to Energence following leadership roles at Marathon and Schlumberger where he was a recognized leader in his field. Dr. Rutledge was Marathon’s Mid-Continent Exploration Manager, working mainly deep (> 20,000 feet) Anadarko Basin and Wyoming projects and also supported Marathon’s important Bakken entry. Dr. Rutledge was also a geophysicist in Marathon’s Technology Group, working on numerous projects on a worldwide basis, overseeing a $50 million per year seismic spend. In that position, he ran the Marathon Oil Norge AS Seismic Work Program, leading to the successful discovery of 136 mmboe of reserves, which ultimately was sold for $2.1 billion as the Alvheim FPSO Project. Prior to Marathon, Dr. Rutledge worked for Schlumberger Geco-Prakla as a Depth Imaging Manager, and seismic applications developer. Previous to that, he was a Research Engineer at Chevron Oil Field Research Company in the area of reservoir simulation research and thermal enhanced recovery projects (“ERP”).  

Mr. Lemond rejoins Mr. Richard and Dr. Ward after having been a day one investor in, and director of, their first venture. Mr. Lemond brings to Energence significant investment expertise as well as substantial experience as a board member of successful public and private companies. Over the course of his career he has invested for his own account and as an asset management executive for significant investment firms such as Serengeti Asset Management, where he was a founding partner, and Triarc Companies, Inc. (NYSE: TRY), where he was a vice president. During this time he has executed and overseen numerous successfully realized investments in private and public equity, distressed and performing fixed income, structured and secured lending, and asset origination and acquisition.

Energence is the fifth company the leadership team has started together.

Our executive team has successfully built and exited three companies with strong returns (the fourth company is an ongoing concern). During this time, our team oversaw total invested equity capital of $142 million with cumulative cash-on-cash equity returns of 2.9x and total distributions to equity holders of $403 million. While working together, our executive team has undertaken significant exploration and production. We acquired and leased in excess of 150,000 acres of land, drilled and completed 127 wells, and designed and implemented $45 million of infrastructure. We designed, constructed, and operated 127 well pads, 15 miles of pipelines, two central processing facilities, three high pressure enhanced oil recovery injection compressors, two production facilities, and total production of 10 mmcfpd of gas and 4,000 bpd of oil. Our team has significant expertise implementing commodity hedging strategies and has executed substantial production volume hedges through multi-year derivative contracts.

Company 1: Pioneering exploration and development of the Marcellus Shale. Our team entered the investment in 2004 with the strategy to acquire existing Appalachian assets for their proved developed producing value, employ cutting edge formation evaluation, fracking, and completion technologies, and deploy technology beneath the existing proved developed producing assets to unlock shale gas. These technologies and processes were new at that time. The Marcellus Shale is now the most productive shale in U.S. In connection with the investment, our team acquired 94,000 acres of Marcellus Shale leasehold in three states and was one of the first companies to drill and target Marcellus Shale. During the time of the investment, our team drilled and completed 111 vertical Devonian sand wells, including 53 vertical Marcellus and Devonian wells. The wells were economical with strong rates of return. Over the course of the investment, our team operated 510 wells, purchased 399 producing Devonian wells, pioneered dual vertical completion of Devonian Shale formations with Marcellus Shale, and drilled two of the earliest horizontal Marcellus wells in West Virginia. The investment generated an equity return on investment multiple of 11.8x with an annualized rate of return of 127%.

Company 2: Follow-on exploration and development of the Marcellus Shale. Our team acquired 32,000 acres of Marcellus Shale leasehold, drilled eleven and completed nine wells, and employed improved fracking and drilling techniques. The investment generated an equity return on investment multiple of 1.4x with an annualized rate of return of 22%. Our team generated these positive returns despite a natural gas commodity price collapse from $11 per mcf at company formation to $2 per mcf at exit. This result evidences our value-based approach and associated protection of invested capital.

Company 3: Exploration and development of the Northern Extension of Eagle Ford. Our team entered the play early by using reservoir and frac modeling to determine the validity of the play. Our team acquired 23,000 gross and 17,000 net acres of Eagle Ford Shale leasehold. The investment generated and equity return of investment of 3.5x with an annualized rate of return of 154%.

Company 4: Focused on South Texas Eagle Ford. Our team employed improved fracking and drilling techniques. The wells are yielding top quartile performance for rate and expected ultimate recovery for the area. Our team employed enhanced oil recovery (“EOR”) gas injection and was the first to employ this approach in sour gas and low gas to oil ratio areas. This company is currently an ongoing enterprise.