Hot on the heels of kicking off the oil well pad construction at the Rafael Shallow 1 project in Western Australia’s Canning Basin earlier this week, Buru Energy (ASX: BRU) has named David Maxwell as the company’s new chairman.
Maxwell will immediately replace Buru’s retiring chairman and founding shareholder Eric Streitberg, who is regarded as an industry stalwart after compiling a 50-year career.
In a rapid leadership rise, Maxwell only joined the company as a non-executive director 17 days ago. But he has a long history in the oil and gas sector and has held senior executive roles at Santos and Woodside Energy before becoming managing director and chief executive officer of the $500 million, ASX-listed Cooper Energy in 2011 until his retirement from that company last year.
Streitberg served Buru for 14 years. His early public company director experience started as managing director for ASX-listed Discovery Petroleum – a firm still regarded as the key participant in the renaissance of the Perth Onshore Basin, which subsequently has developed into a major source of new gas discoveries by companies such Strike Energy, as Carnarvon Energy and Warrego Energy.
The latter was subject to a heated takeover battle 18 months ago that was eventually won by WA billionaire, Gina Rinehart, with a slam dunk $438 price tag.
Buru has an exciting future both in the near-term with the planned drilling program and the development of the game-changing Rafael gas condensate field, which also has the potential for further value accretive discoveries. The Buru team has persevered and set the Company up for future success. I am grateful to have made many friendships amongst the traditional owners in the Kimberley during my time at Buru. I wish them and the Company all the best for the future.
Buru Energy Retiring Chairman Eric Streitberg
The company’s main focus of exploration is the onshore Canning Basin that encompasses 530,000 square kilometres of ground east of Broome and Derby in WA.
Buru’s 2021 Rafael 1 wet gas discovery, with a contingent resource of 85 billion cubic feet (Bcf) of gas and nearly 2 million barrels of condensate, has not only provided it with a sizeable resource base, but data from that hole has also led to a much greater understanding of the region and may open up the prospect of much wider areas for significant discoveries going forward.
With a refreshed and revitalised leadership team, Buru is gearing up for a busy end to the year. It has farmed out 70 per cent of the oil and gas assets adjoining Rafael to Sabre Energy and expects to drill its Mars well before the year’s end in efforts to reopen the oilfield and generate a robust cash flow.
Additionally, the company is courting partners with a view to drilling a shallow Rafael wildcat target, 100km inland from Broome, and it is expected to be spudded at a similar time to Mars. Sabre can also grab 50 per cent cent of any commercial discovery and production at the prospective Rafael Shallow oil well, which is expected to be spudded late next month, by spending $6 million in drilling and testing costs.
Buru may have lost a significant leader in the Australian oil and gas industry with Streitberg’s decision to hang up his boots, but while the company will miss the guidance of the veteran oilman, it appears he has left an oil and gas portfolio brimming with potential and a new leader who has earned his stripes.
The company’s trajectory feels a bit like a repeat of Discovery Petroleum’s plans under Streitberg’s stewardship when it first explored the Perth Basin in the 1990s. The rest, as the old saying goes, is history.
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