It’s the people, Wall Street. “You don’t need ‘star power’ when you have a good team,” says Bruce Vincent, president of Swift Energy Corp., Houston (NYSE: SFY). The midcap E&P company has made itself the No. 1 oil producer in Louisiana, onshore and in state waters, and the most active driller in South Louisiana. Its Lake Washington Field, south of New Orleans and purchased from Shell Oil Co. in 2001 when production was 750 net barrels of oil equivalent per day, is making 20,000 per day now. “You talk about updip,” Vincent said at a recent IPAA investment symposium. “…There’s a remarkable amount of oil (still there).” The company has identified more than 100 development-drilling locations on the property (at 3,000 to 13,000 feet) and more than 120 prospects and leads (at 3,000 to 18,000 feet). Other South Louisiana assets include Bay de Chene and Cote Blanche Island. Swift’s proved reserves were some 136 million BOE (817 billion cubic feet equivalent) as of early October. Since then, it has acquired an additional 77 proved Bcfe in South Texas from Escondido Resources LP for $250 million. “We’re creating new geography, just like Lewis and Clark opened up the West,” Vincent said. “We’re seeing things that have never been seen before and opening them up.”