?18 Jul 2018 12:20
t's a common theme among Utah's junior explorers. Rose Petroleum, formerly a mining company, pivoted into oil exploration in 2013, when crude was topping $100 a barrel. Enefit, the oil-shale company, started buying acreage in Utah around the same time. Both companies had to pull back when prices crashed in 2014, the start of a downturn that bankrupted 144 exploration companies, according to law firm Haynes and Boone LLP.
Now Enefit is in the final stages of permitting for its plant, and Rose plans to spud its first well in the fall. Blyumkin said he invested nearly $10 million of his own money into Petroteq, which he said will produce its first 1,000 barrels in September.
‘Same Boat'
“Everyone is really in the same boat,” said Rose Chief Executive Officer Matthew Idiens. “Money gets attracted to big things as long as people think the oil price is going to stay where it is.”