RE: SummaryDoes this list comprise fee acreage or is it state/federal only? I am pretty sure it doesn't contain fee minerals. How much fee is in the area? Is it purely federal and/or state?
I have spent the last couple of days googling Vecta and talking to some oilpatch contacts in Texas and Colorado. This is what I have found out.
1. Vecta Oil and Gas Ltd. has offices in Dallas, TX, the Woodlands, TX, and Denver, CO. It has gone by some other names in the past, and might contain other subsidiaries.
2. It's website focuses on its expertise and patent position in Multicomponent seismology, otherwise known as shear waves. It apparently uses this data to drill for stratigraphic traps or to define fracture zones.
3. The CEO of Vecta Oil and Gas is John Beecherl of Dallas, TX. His father was one of the founders of TXO, at the time the largest independent oil company in north america. John is a petroleum engineer who worked for Amoco prior to heading up Vecta. He is on the board of the Texas Independent Producers and Royalty Owners organization, as is Vecta Energy director Allen Gilmer. Vecta Energy CEO Tom Coffman is a three time past president of this same organization. Bryan Devault, a PhD geophysicist, is listed as President. He has given talks over the last few years on multicomponent seismology. His bio says he obtained his PhD from Colorado School of Mines and worked for Shell in the Hague before joining Vecta.
4. Vecta Technology has several patents assigned to it ranging from methods to process to seismic acquisition equipment. Vecta Energy director Allen Gilmer is named in most or all of the patents. Bob Hardage, the new incoming president of the Society of Exploration Geophysicists (SEG) is named in several, as are some very notable geophysicists, such as Robert Grabner and Milo Backus, both past presidents of the SEG and notable seismic pioneers.
5. Vecta has been around since at least 2001. Harts E&P has an article about them that references Beecherl, Coffman, and Gilmer and it discussed "mavericks" doing work normally associated with major oil companies. The article is online.
6. According to Oil and Gas Investor, Vecta Oil and Gas was an early participant in the Texas Wolfberry Play, and funded or started EXL Production. Googling EXL, and looking at the production it has sold in the area sums up to over 600 million dollars. Interesting note... EXL and their Wolfberry wells were part of the Black Gold television show in season one.
7. According to a Denver acquaintance, Vecta hired a dream team of Rockies geologists a couple of years ago. No one can figure out how they pulled all these guys together. Also, according to the same acquaintance, they have put together some substantive conventional prospects and unconventional acreage in other areas.
8. Currently, they are drilling in Colorado, but I don't have details. They have also been drilling in Texas, and have production ranging from "1 to 5 million per year" according to Manta, but must be under a different name, since I can't find their Texas operations.
9. They apparently own 20% of Vecta Energy. At
.02 per share, this would have been worth only a couple of hundred thousand dollars. Today, their interest is worth a couple of million.
10. Chuck Selby, another Vecta Energy director, came into Vecta Energy via the merger of Vecta Energy Canada with Kroes. Chuck is VP of Pengrowth and Kinnear Financial. So you have Chuck, Beecherl, who seems substantive and active in US independent organizations, Gilmer, who seems to active in these same organizations and CEO of a well known data company, and Coffman. None of these fellows, other than Selby, have been involved in public companies before, and Vecta Oil and Gas appears to have some deep pockets.
11. They are pretty tight on news, and don't seem to be subject to much hyperbole other than facts in their press releases, which up until recently were pretty depressing.
Does all of this add up to a pump and dump stock manipulation to any of you? Frankly, it sound like Vecta US is benefitting itself to Canadian capital markets to fund substantive exploration on its blocks rather than farm it out to a big guy too early. Vecta Energy will certainly be able to fund this, without question.
If Vecta US controlled the board, I might worry about Vecta Energy doing a deal at diminimus terms to existing shareholders, since the deal is much larger than Vecta US's equity position. As was pointed out earlier, as a US company, it can't take control on an equity basis. However, Vecta Energy's board doesn't look controlled by Vecta US. This gives me SOME comfort that whatever deal gets done will maximize shareholder equity, although there will certainly be substantive dilution unless they are magicians.