GulfSlope Energy, Inc., a Delaware corporation, is an independent crude oil and
natural gas exploration and production company whose interests are concentrated
in the United States Gulf of Mexico (“GOM”) federal waters offshore
Louisiana in less than 450 feet of water depth. The Company currently has under
lease twelve federal
Since March 2013, we have been singularly focused on identifying high-potential
oil and gas prospects located on the shelf in the U.S. GOM. We have licensed
3-D seismic data covering approximately 2.2 million acres and have evaluated
this data using advanced interpretation technologies. As a result of these analyses,
we have identified and acquired leases on multiple prospects that we believe
may contain economically recoverable hydrocarbon deposits, and we plan to continue
to conduct more refined analyses of our prospects as well as target additional
lease and property acquisitions. We have given preference to areas with water
depths of 450 feet or less where production infrastructure already exists, which
will allow for any discoveries to be developed rapidly and cost effectively
with the goal to reduce economic risk while increasing returns.
Experienced management. Our management has significant experience in finding
and developing oil and natural gas. Our team has a track record of discovering
and developing multi-billion dollar projects worldwide. The management team
is led by John N. Seitz and Ronald A. Bain, who have over 80 years of combined
industry experience exploring, discovering, and developing oil and natural gas.
We successfully deployed a technical team with over 150 years of combined industry
experience exploring for and developing oil and natural gas in the development
and execution of our technical strategy. We believe the application of advanced
geophysical techniques on a specific geographic area with unique geologic features
such as conventional reservoirs whose trapping configurations have been obscured
by overlying salt layers distinguishes us from most exploration and production
(“E&P”) companies today.
Advanced seismic image processing. Commercial improvements in 3-D seismic data
imaging and the development of advanced processing algorithms, including pre-stack
depth, beam, and reverse time migration have allowed the industry to better
distinguish hydrocarbon traps and identify previously unknown prospects. Specifically,
advanced processing techniques improve the definition of the seismic data from
a scale of time to a scale of depth, thus correctly locating the images in three
dimensions. Our technical team has significant experience utilizing advanced
seismic image processing techniques in our area of concentration.
Industry leading position in our area of concentration. As a result of interpreting
our 3-D seismic data, we currently have twelve blocks under lease. We believe
the proprietary reprocessing and contiguous nature of our licensed 3-D seismic
data gives us an advantage over other E&P companies operating in our focus
area. We will continue to identify additional leasing opportunities in our focus
area that would further enhance our exploration drilling portfolio.
Efficient capital utilization. Our strategy has been to maximize efficiency
of our capital utilization by obtaining and reprocessing 3-D seismic data in
areas we believe offer significant opportunities at low entry costs. Substantially
all of our capital deployed since March 2013 has been for the acquisition of
leases in the Gulf of Mexico, licensing of seismic data, expenses related to
the salaries of the technical staff who interpret the data, acquisition of the
workstation hardware and software used to interpret that data, and the leasing
of required office space. We have licensed our 3-D seismic data covering approximately
2.2 million acres on what we believe to be favorable terms.
We believe that a major obstacle to identifying potential hydrocarbon accumulations
globally has been the inability of seismic technology to accurately image the
geologic formations as a result of complex subsurface stratigraphy and structure.
Certain subsurface layers can highly distort the seismic ray paths, potentially
causing a misinterpretation of the underlying geology. Thus, we believe that
the opportunity exists for a technology-driven petroleum exploration company
to extensively apply the most advanced seismic technologies possible, with the
goal of achieving higher commercial discovery rates for exploratory wells, and
their subsequent appraisal and development, potentially having a positive impact
on returns on invested capital. These tools and techniques have been proven
to be effective in deep water exploration and production worldwide, and we have
chosen to use them in an area of the shallower waters of the GOM where industry
activity has been absent for over 20 years.
Our technical approach to exploration and development is to deploy a team of
highly experienced geo-scientists who have current and extensive understanding
of the geology and geophysics of the petroleum system within our focus area,
thereby decreasing the traditional timing and execution risks of advancing up
a learning curve. For data purchases, re-processing and interpretation, our
technical staff has prioritized specific geographic areas, with the goal to
optimize initial capital outlays.
Modern 3-D seismic datasets with acquisition parameters suitable for improved
imaging at various depths are readily available in many of these basins, and
can be licensed on commercially reasonable terms. Critical to the technical
success is the application of the best seismic imaging technology available,
in order to optimize delineation of prospective structures and to detect the
presence of hydrocarbon-charged reservoirs below many complex geologic features.
An example of such a seismic technology is reverse time migration, which we
believe to be the most accurate, fastest, and yet affordable, seismic imaging
technology for critical depth imaging available today.
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