Executive Q&A – Independent Oil & Gas Focus
Executive Q&A with Aaron D’Este, CEO, Azimuth By Drake Lawhead
Azimuth is a new E&P firm founded by Aaron D’Este who stopped by for an exclusive interview with Drake Lawhead. For those of us who don’t know – how would you describe Azimuth in a sentence or two to the market?
Azimuth is a well-funded, rapidly-growing E&P firm with the technical capabilities of a mid-cap oil company. We acquire prospective exploration acreage worldwide and advance our assets without delay to produce drill-ready targets underpinned by robust analysis.
Tell us a little about the genesis of Azimuth – where did the idea come from to form the new E&P venture and what was is the thesis based on?
Elements in PGS wholeheartedly believe that proper application of the industry’s leading seismic technology (such as GeoStreamerGS, Prospect Scanner, etc) can significantly improve drilling success rates worldwide. Together, we established Azimuth, and its predecessor PGS Ventures, to invest in prospective oil and gas assets (and companies) worldwide using insight gleaned from PGS’ multi-client seismic data library.
What is the competitive advantage Azimuth brings to the table? I believe that Azimuth’s competitive advantage is threefold.
1. Our ability to leverage PGS’ multi-client library and the 85 subsurface experts in PGS Reservoir gives us an un-matched, uniquely competitive advantage to identify and analyze exploration acreage quickly. A capability that we believe only the major independents can match.
2. Our majority-owner, Seacrest Capital, is an active and supportive investor that understands the industry and the Azimuth business model and shares our objectives, providing us with the ability to draw capital rapidly. This leaves Azimuth very well positioned to take advantage of industry volatility and execute acquisitions without delay.
3. Thirdly, we have a strong team, unburdened by obsolete methodologies and ready to deploy new business models and novel deal structures, essential for achieving a stellar performance.
Being a private, fully-funded company obviously brings advantages in a period of volatile capital markets. What would you say the major constraints of being private are, and could your business model change in the future?
As long as the key shareholders in a private company continue to strongly support the business, there are very few downsides to remaining private. Spreading the word and attracting deal flow can be more difficult, since fewer analysts and investment banks track your performance, but this is a manageable challenge.
Your asset base so far consists of acreage offshore Italy, Benin, Ghana and Namibia. Is Azimuth to be an offshore specialist or do you have other areas of interest? Which parts of the globe do you see value in for a start-up E&P firm like yourself?
Drillers and Dealers :::
::: February 2012 Edition
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