Post by
falc on Apr 03, 2014 4:53pm
7th paragraph mentions shareholders stake
Recent moves by tiny players in the North American oil and gas sector suggest that at least a small portion of the industry is going to pot. This week alone, at least three oil and gas companies have announced plans to focus business interests on the emerging medical marijuana industry in the US and Canada. Texas-based explorer Rango Energy, perhaps the most high profile of the oil and gas nickel bags to shift focus, said on Wednesday that it is changing its name and leaving the hydrocarbon space altogether in favour of hydroponic production (its planned marijuana output may also be done conventionally, it is unclear). Just a few months earlier, in January, the Dallas-headquartered outfit announced a substantial joint venture agreement with Innex Energy in California that gave Rango effective partnerships with the likes of oil giants Occidental Petroleum, Hess and Chesapeake Energy. Now Rango is fully divesting that business into a separate, yet-to-be-named company led by former Rango chief executive Robert Harrell. As the company moves into another sort of joint venture, Rango has renamed itself Verde Science and will move its headquarters to California where it will produce and retail medical marijuana, chief executive Harp Sangha told Upstream. Rango shareholders will retain stakes in both Verde Science and the new company with the Innex venture, he added. Oil and gas is a "very crowded space right now", Sangha said. "We'd been thinking that it might be time for a change" in order to create shareholder value. "It didn't make a lot of sense to have an oil gas and business and a medical marijuana business together. This makes it a no-lose for everybody." Sangha, who oversaw Rango's operations primarily from his office in Vancouver, British Columbia, said he has been involved "for a number of years" in the medical marijuana space in Canada, where prescriptions for the drug are legal. "We didn't hatch this up over a weekend," he said of the new business plan. "I have a lot of friends in the business in Canada and have been watching it evolve since its infancy when it was underground until the point we're at now where it's a legitimate business." In a statement released on Wednesday, Sangha said he expects "massive growth" in the medical marijuana industry in the next decade. "The growing legislative and cultural momentum has been the key driving force in creating the tipping point for this industry to expand exponentially," he said. Rango's board was approached with "an opportunity to enter the market by teaming up with the top biopharmaceutical experts to help produce a continual supply of the highest quality product to meet unmet market demands in Southern California and eventually all markets that have legalised medicinal use of these products". He added that the company "strongly" believes in the need "to implement strict security, quality control, and measures to ensure compliance with all local and regional laws and regulations". Rango says it now intends to "continually provide clients with a superior, branded line of medical marijuana products". Rango joins oil-and-gas royalty owner Next Generation Energy in the foray into greener pastures. NextGen announced on Monday that it had bought a 20% stake in a Los Angeles medical-pot dispensary and highlighted it as a new core business segment. NextGen's penny-stock shares rose on the news; Rango's closed up more than 5% to close at just under 10 cents on Wednesday following its announcement.
Comment by
zorro7787 on Apr 04, 2014 1:20pm
What a load of rubbish!! oil and gas companies don't change their name and then start selling drugs, thuis is a joke, comedy, flawed, bat$hit, I have never hso much codswollop in all my life. You should go into FICTIONAL CHILDRENS BOOKS that might fit the model... HAHAHAHAHAHAH ''YOU'RE KILLING ME OVER HERE!!!!