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 J.
Chris Steinhauser
Chief Financial Officer
J. Chris Steinhauser.
Chief Financial Officer since September 2011, born 1959. Prior to his
appointment as CFO he was Executive Vice President, Mergers and Acquisitions
and has been with the company since April 2010. Mr. Steinhauser has held
several executive financial positions over the last 20 years and has a solid
track record of bringing start-up oil and gas companies to the public
markets. He has a Degree in Business Administration from the University of
Southern California, conducted graduate studies at the University of Denver
and was a Certified Public Accountant.
Company Profile:
www.norseenergy.com
The company is engaged in oil and gas exploration and production in the US.
Norse Energy owns or leases approximately 130,000 net acres in New York
State of which ~33,000 lie in the liquids rich shale fairways of Western New
York, and the remaining ~97,000 net acres lie in the Marcellus and Utica
natural gas fairways of Central New York. |
Energy
Oil and Gas Exploration
(OTCQX: NSEEY)
NORSE ENERGY CORP.
2500 Tanglewilde Street,
Suite 250
Houston, Texas 77063
USA
T: +1 713
975 1900
F: +1 713 975 0221
www.norseenergy.com
NORSE ENERGY CORP.
Print Version
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Interview
conducted by: Lynn Fosse, Senior Editor, CEOCFO Magazine, Published –
October 8, 2012
CEOCFO:
Mr. Steinhauser, what attracted you to Norse Energy?
Mr. Steinhauser: The company had a very
strong focus in unconventional oil and gas resources. I felt that the
unconventional shale plays in North America were the future of the industry.
The North American shale plays contain vast volumes of both oil and natural
gas and Norse was ideally positioned in one of the premier shale plays in
the Utica and Marcellus Shale Trend.
CEOCFO: Would you tell us about Norse
Energy today?
Mr. Steinhauser: The management has
taken the company through a dramatic restructuring in the past year. The
entire management team is new. On average the tenure within the senior
management ranks is less then two years. We have completely changed out the
management of the company, we have restored the balance sheet and we have
paid of the vast majority of the high interest debt that was on the balance
sheet. The remaining debt has been restructured into very company friendly
debt, with much better terms than the old debt. Therefore, the balance sheet
looks dramatically different from what it did one year ago. We have sold off
a great deal of the non-core assets that the company had. We have sold off a
natural gas marketing company, a pipeline company, a separate pipeline
subsidiary and we have sold off our producing assets in New York State. We
have made the strategic decision to focus our efforts developing the
Marcellus and Utica Shale formations in New York State. After all of these
asset sales, we still retain 130,000 acres of primarily leases from some
company owned land, but mostly leased acreage in New York State. We think we
are ideally positioned for both the Marcellus Shale and the Utica Shale. Our
plan is to attract a strategic partner into our acreage and jointly develop
this acreage over time and realize what we think is world class oil and gas
potential from our acreage.
CEOCFO: Oil shale has become an interest
today; how has that affected your strategy?
Mr. Steinhauser: Right now, oil shale is
a great deal more attractive than natural gas shale because of the
difference in the oil price verses the natural gas price. Oil prices remain
very high and natural gas prices are quite depressed in the United States
because of the huge amount of the supply that has been brought online as a
result of shale development. Therefore, many companies have switched their
focus from natural gas shale into oil shale. Likewise, we have done a great
deal more technical work on our oil and liquids prone shales. That is where
we have been focusing our geoscience team, to illuminate the oil and liquids
potential on our acreage.
CEOCFO: Would you tell us about some of
the changes that you are putting in place for the company?
Mr. Steinhauser: We are in the process
of consolidating most of the employees to our Houston office. We have
historically operated out of an office in Buffalo, New York, Pittsburg,
Pennsylvania, and we had several other offices. We are in the process of
closing down those offices and bringing the employees that want to remain
with the company down Houston, staffing up at this Houston location. That is
one thing that we are doing. The other thing that we are doing is that we
are in the process of beginning a marketing effort to bring in a partner on
our acreage. Therefore, we are mobilizing both our internal resources and
external resources to expedite that process.
CEOCFO: Why are you relocating your
employees to Houston, if the property is in New York?
Mr. Steinhauser: In terms of human
resources, the most qualified oil and gas professionals tend to be in
Houston. It is much easier to find experienced oil and gas professionals in
Houston, as opposed to a place like Buffalo, New York, which as historically
not been an oil and gas focused economy. By being in Houston, we can attract
very high quality people and we have real time access to deal flow.
Therefore, whatever deals are out there on the street, we have a much better
opportunity see those deals being in Houston, verses a place like Buffalo.
CEOCFO: The corporate presentation on
your website indicates that one of the core values for Norse Energy is
ingenuity, leveraging creative thought; what is the ingenuity component to
the company?
Mr. Steinhauser: For example, we have
been on the leading edge of the industry. We are well ahead of the industry
in leasing acreage and putting together large acreage in New York State.
That is because we realized that the regulatory barriers in New York State
would eventually be lifted. Therefore, we have been ahead of the industry;
foreword thinking. We are one of the first companies to identify oil and
liquids prone shales in Western New York, so we are an industry leader in
that respect. We like to be ahead of our competitors and hopefully our
foreword thinking will be validated with a higher stock price in the future.
CEOCFO: Is Norse looking at additional
properties or is it more finding the right people and the right partners?
Mr. Steinhauser: It is the right people
and the right partners, but also long term, we would like to diversify into
other producing basins in North America. We are not going to forever limit
ourselves to New York State, or the Appalachian basin. We would like to
eventually get involved in some other shale plays in perhaps the western
part of North America.
CEOCFO: Why should investors pay
attention to Norse Energy today?
Mr. Steinhauser: The most important
reason is that we are significantly undervalued. The reason that we are
significantly undervalued in that, up until recently, we were over
leveraged, as we had way to much debt. It was high interest debt and it
carried very company unfriendly covenants. We have gotten rid of all of
that. The other reason that we are significantly undervalued is because of
the regulatory barriers that have been present in New York, but I am very
confident that those barriers are about to be lifted. Therefore, there
should be a significant appreciation in the value of our stock, because we
can now access the significant resources that are present on our acreage in
the shale formations.
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