MEAGHER ENERGY ADVISORS SELLS TEAPOT DOME OILFIELD FOR $45.2 MILLION
Meagher Energy Advisors provides advisory services to U.S. Department of Energy in their sale of the Teapot Dome Oilfield for $45.2 million
Greenwood Village, Colorado, February 3, 2015 – Denver based Meagher Energy Advisors, Inc. (Meagher), provided advisory services to the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) in the sale of all right, title and interest in the Teapot Dome Oilfield to Stranded Oil Resources Corporation, a subsidiary of Alleghany Capital Corporation. $45.2 million in proceeds from the sale of the oilfield – known officially as the Naval Petroleum Reserve Number 3 (NPR-3) – will be deposited into the U.S. Treasury.
“We are honored to have been awarded the contract to advise on the sale of an oilfield as historically and economically significant as Teapot Dome,” said Matthew E. Meagher, President and CEO of Meagher. “It is an asset with a significant amount of remaining reserves and is an excellent candidate for enhanced oil recovery technologies. The combination of these attributes and the size of the asset generated nine bids. The field was offered to the oil and gas industry in July 2014 with oil trading at $105/barrel and closed on January 30, 2015 at the original high bid of $45.2 million. Oil closed that day at $45/barrel – a $60 drop from the offering date.”
Clarke Turner, Director of the Rocky Mountain Oilfield Testing Center, reported that the U.S. tax payers received an excellent price for the Teapot Dome Oilfield thanks to a strong team of professionals. Meagher Energy Advisors provided the expertise necessary to successfully complete the sale on the 100th anniversary of the field.
Please contact Matt Meagher at (303) 721-6354, extension 230, with any questions.
About the Teapot Dome Oilfield
Teapot Dome, consisting of 9,481 acres, was set aside as a naval oil reserve in 1915, and is best known for its connection to a scandal that rocked the Harding Administration approximately 90 years ago. At the time, the Teapot Dome Scandal captured headlines and received nationwide attention because of a secret deal in which Secretary of the Interior Albert Fall leased the reserve to a private company in return for "gifts" amounting to $400,000. Fall was subsequently convicted of bribery. The Supreme Court invalidated the leases in 1927 and the Teapot Dome field was immediately shut down.
Apart from some exploratory and offset wells drilled in the 1950s and 1960s, the oilfield was essentially closed until full development resumed in 1976. In 1977, jurisdiction for the Teapot Dome reserve was transferred from the Navy to the Energy Department. Now referred to as NPR-3, in 1993 it became the home of the Department’s Rocky Mountain Oilfield Testing Center (RMOTC). For nearly two decades, RMOTC used the reserve as a commercial testing ground primarily for new technologies and processes designed to improve drilling, oil production, and enhanced oil recovery. In nearly 40 years of operation under the Department’s management, this stripper oilfield produced over 22 million barrels of oil resulting in over $569 million deposited into the U.S. Treasury.
About Meagher Energy Advisors, Inc.
Founded in 1985, Meagher Energy Advisors is a full-service firm focused on acquisition and divestiture services to the energy industry. Meagher has facilitated the sale of hundreds of oil and gas assets ranging in transaction size from $5 million to $1.75 billion. In 2012, Meagher successfully leased a 21,000 acre tract known as the Lowry Bombing Range on behalf of the Colorado State Land Board. The upfront bonus of $137 million and 88 well commitment will generate approximately $500 million in royalties for the benefit of Colorado K-12 public schools. For their efforts, the Denver Business Journal presented Meagher with its Power Book Award for excellence in Oil, Gas and Energy. Meagher also has offices in Tulsa, Oklahoma managed by Partner and COO Teri L. Williams.