The Bear In The Bakken

[Editor's note: A version of this story appears in the November 2018 edition of Oil and Gas Investor. Subscribe to the magazine here.]

Matt Steele has an affinity for the Bakken Shale. In 2008—at 30 years old—he started Ursa Resources Group LLC (Latin for “bear”) and built a 120,000-acre position that he sold in multiple transactions by 2011, generating a three times multiple on investment and 100% internal rate of return. In 2015, he formed Bruin E&P Partners LLC (continuing the bear theme) and returned to the Bakken.

Following two smallish deals in 2016, Bruin landed 104,000 net acres in the heart of the play from Halcón Resources Corp. (NYSE: HK) in 2017 for an eye-opening $1.4 billion in cash. The deal was backed by Arclight Capital Partners LLC.

“It was a petroleum system that we understood inside and out,” Steele told Oil and Gas Investor. “At that point in time, a lot of capital had fled the Bakken. It was an opportunity we couldn’t pass up.”