BNK Petroleum
There are some U.S. companies that might not think to explore shale gas resources in Europe, but BNK Petroleum Inc. is not one of those firms, President and CEO Wolf Regener says. Based in Camarillo, Calif., the company specializes in the exploration, acquisition and production of gas and oil reserves.
Regener notes that BNK originally was a division of Bankers Petroleum Ltd. and has performed shale gas exploration in the United States since 2005. BNK took on its first project in Palo Duro, Texas, where it leased acreage. Afterward, the company drilled science wells and acquired nearly all of Vintage Petroleum’s unconventional assets from Occidental Petroleum for $30 million.
Still under the ownership of Bankers, BNK then began drilling in Oklahoma and New York. “The company drilled its first encouraging vertical well in Oklahoma in late 2006 and followed this by expanding its operations with four horizontal wells in the Carter/Johnson County project in 2007, now referred to as BNK’s Tishomingo field,” it says.
In 2008, the company finally separated from Bankers Petroleum. That same year, BNK set its sights across the ocean. “We wanted to see where else we could apply [our] knowledge gaze,” Regener recalls. “Europe seemed like a really good fit.”
For one thing, he says, the gas consumption rates in Europe are similar to those found in North America. Additionally, “The shales that we are pursuing [in Europe look] like the shale in North America,” Regener adds.
Today, BNK has 1 million net acres in Poland, 2.4 million acres in Germany and 61,000 acres in Spain. “We also have other applications throughout Europe for additional projects,” he says.
In addition, the company still has operations in Oklahoma. Today, “We have 39 million barrels of oil equivalent in that reserve,” he says.
The company has acquired properties in multiple regions to increase its success rate. “Not every shale play is going to work, even though it looks good,” he admits. “Even if one of them works, it would be a big home run.”
One of the First
Active in the oil and gas industry since 1986, Regener has held senior positions at Tartan Energy, Alanmar Energy and R&R Resources.
He explains that BNK has given him the opportunity to be one of the first to look for shale gas in Europe. By being ahead of most companies, “We were able to select acreage that we felt was really the best,” he says.
When BNK sought permission to explore, it received surprised reactions from government officials. “They weren’t really aware that shale gas might be [prominent] in their areas,” Regener recalls. “That’s really confirmed to me that we were one of the first ones looking in [these] areas.”
He admits BNK has found there is a cultural learning curve to working overseas. “Every area is different,” he says, but notes that the employment of locals has helped it through these challenges.
Regener says he is pleased by the work of the BNK team, which has been kept small in the company’s first years. “Our geologists and geophysicists have done a very good job finding good places [to drill],” he says. The company is currently staffing up as more projects reach the operations phase.
Once it does, Regener expects strong results. “I hope we are lucky enough to make a number of these shale plays work and grow BNK into a larger company than we are,” he says.
Regener wants the company to become a dominant energy producer in continental Europe. “I really enjoy what we do and we’ll do a lot of good [as we] find natural gas in Europe where it’s needed,” he says.