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SPE Denver General Meeting April 2026
A View of the Private US Oil and Gas Market and Potential Implications for L48 Exploration
1. The private US oil and gas market is currently adequately capitalized but opportunity poor
1. 25+ funded private equity-backed teams focused on capturing scaled US onshore asset
2. Target asset profile: meaningful PDP/cashflow + remaining development drilling (inside of well control)
3. US onshore asset divestiture market opportunity set currently insufficient to satisfy private capital demand
2. What are the implications?
1. Many funded teams will not be successful in capturing asset in time allowed
2. To capture assets, teams and private capital providers must either accept lower return (i.e. stretch on underwriting) and/or take more risk
3. Private capital providers can take more risk in the following ways
i. Financial risk – take on more acquisition leverage. Capital providers already doing this.
ii. Location/regime risk – target PDP + development assets in non-US L48 locations/regimes (e.g. Alaska, Canada, Argentina, GOA). Capital providers evaluating this.
iii. Geologic risk – step outside of well control to find more oil / take “exploration” risk . Capital providers evaluating this.
3. Conclusion
1. At this point it is not yet clear to what extent (or when) private capital will pivot to take exploration risk in L48
2. A changing commodity price regime could provide the catalyst to take more risk and find more oil
3. Long term $60 WTI strip (as of mid-October) may be insufficient to cause oil supply growth to meet demand if believe US unconventional represents the marginal bbl
Matt Loreman BIO
Matt has 20 years of experience in energy industry. Matt is currently President of Development Capital Resources (DCR), a firm with over $500 million in oil and gas investments. In addition to DCR, he simultaneously served as President of ECR, a company with $800 million in electric generation and gas processing investments. Previously, Matt served as a Managing Director in Evercore’s Energy Investment Banking group in Houston. While at Evercore, Matt focused on the upstream space and executed a variety of merger, acquisition, divestiture, capital raising and restructuring transactions. Prior to joining Evercore, Matt worked in the Energy Investment Banking group of J.P. Morgan in Houston. Matt advised invested and advised clients on transactions in a variety of plays and basins including: Delaware Basin, Midland Basin, STACK/SCOOP, Eagle Ford, Bakken, DJ Basin, Marcellus/Utica, Barnett, California, Rockies Gas, Haynesville, GOM and International Offshore. Mr. Loreman has served on the board of directors of 3 privately-held energy companies. Matt holds a B.A. in Economics, English and Philosophy from Rice University.