Press Release (July 3, 2019)
On July 3rd, 2019, Riverside Energy Michigan, LLC (“Riverside”) closed the acquisition of a package of oil and gas assets that represent the second largest operating position in Michigan, second only to Riverside’s own operations. The package comprises 1,656 operated wells and interests in 468 wells operated by third parties, these wells producing primarily natural gas from the Antrim Shale with a minority of wells producing oil or gas from the Burnt Bluff, Niagaran, and Prairie du Chien formations.
Rob Gerhard, CEO of Riverside, said, “Since our acquisition of Chevron’s assets in April 2016, Riverside’s vision has been to be good stewards of the great natural resource that is the Antrim Shale, to prolong its life, to create a fantastic working environment for our staff to prosper, and make a positive impact on local communities, which includes being good caretakers of our natural environment.”
“One key to achieving that vision is to consolidate other properties in the Antrim so that we can maximize efficiency and the quality of operations. The production we acquired from Chevron in 2016 was a large chunk (~20%) of the Antrim Shale. We grew to ~27% through various acquisitions of smaller companies (such as OIL and SRW) and of individual properties. This latest acquisition takes us to 46% of the total operated Antrim Shale production with over 4,300 wells under our care, excluding the many non-operated interests we have in other Antrim and oil-producing wells.”
“To put that in context, Riverside now produces almost 40% of all natural gas in Michigan. Once we integrate the team from the purchased assets into Riverside, we will have almost 150 people on our team that work together to do that job.”
“This latest acquisition is certainly not the end of the road for us. We remain focused on making a positive impact in Northern Michigan in the long term and particularly to extending the life of the Antrim Shale, a precious resource in our region. As such, we will continue to seek high quality acquisition, to consolidate properties under our operations, to increase production in the Antrim Shale, and to pursue initiatives that add downstream value to our natural gas and to our CO2 by-product streams.”