OUR GREAT MINDS

    by Tina Olivero

    Birchcliff Energy: Stock down 64% yet company is profitable

    Here’s how they did it.

    Birchcliff Energy Ltd. is an intermediate oil and gas company operating primarily out of the Peace River Arch of Alberta. Jeffery Tonken, CEO of Birchcliff Energy in Alberta, says their stock is down 64% compared to a year ago, yet the company is more profitable than ever.

    How does that happen?

    The short answer. Companies that are strategic with an ironclad profit plan regardless of the investment climate and price of oil can succeed in the current market.

    The Birchcliff Strategy

    Birchcliff’s strategy was ensured that the 5000 locations that they drill In Peace River Arch were 100% owned by them.  They have no partners and they own their infrastructure. This insular approach ensured a level of responsibility for the outcome of their business, and as a result, profitability was stronger than ever.  Tonken believed that reliance on investment to keep the company afloat would negatively impact the bottom line.

    Where many companies are failing is in designing a plan that overcomes all possible declines, including oil price and investment. Tonken warns that companies that have to rely on outside equity to grow or produce oil at this time, would suffer in company profitability, based on a lack of current investors in the oil and gas market.

    Today Birchcliff Energy Inc. produces 70,000 barrels of oil a day. In a year from now, they expect to be at 100,000 barrels a day. At the current industry average estimate of oil price $54 oil and $3 gas, Tonken says, “We are a low-cost producer and sustain a small dividend which we intend to grow over the next number of years. There are some moving pieces to consider;
    Do you have the properties, people, and the assets to execute a growth plan?
    Do you have a good balance sheet?
    Are you living within your means so that the growth profile is not so high that you outspend your cash flow?”

    He continues, “I’m very unhappy with my stock price but I know my business strategy holds together, and I can execute it. And I believe that over time, as the commodity’s energy stock returns to a better place, the value players will start to buy our stock and it will go back up. And I know one this for sure, I can survive at low commodity prices.”

    Jeffery Tonken – CEO of Birchcliff Energy

    Jeffery Tonken – CEO of Birchcliff Energy

    Canada’s Demise: The Perfect Storm

    A carbon tax, corporate tax, property tax, personal income tax added to an oil price decline, longer regulatory processes and an investment decline is a recipe for the perfect storm. That storm may take down the country’s economic engine which is a powerful contributor to our healthcare and other social services. 

Tonken says, “when you add costs, and more costs, and more costs, to the energy business eventually you are going to kill it. In the US, they are becoming very pro-energy, and they are driving their costs down, and their tax regimes are more competitive for them to do business down there. If we don’t be careful in Canada, we are going to add too many taxes to our businesses and strangle the golden goose.”

    Pictures and Source:
    Birchcliff Energy Inc.
    BNN News

    Tina Olivero

    30 years ago, Tina Olivero looked into the future and saw an opportunity to make a difference for her province and people. That difference came in the form of the oil and gas sector. Six years before there was even a drop of oil brought to the shores of Newfoundland, she founded The Oil and Gas Magazine (THE OGM) from a back room in her home on Signal Hill Road, in St. John’s, Newfoundland. A single mother, no financing, no previous journalism or oil and gas experience, she forged ahead, with a creative vision and one heck of a heaping dose of sheer determination. With her pioneering spirit, Ms. Olivero developed a magazine that would educate, inspire, motivate and entertain oil and gas readers around the world — She prides herself in marketing and promoting our province and resources in unprecedented ways. The OGM is a magazine that focuses on our projects, our people, our opportunities and ultimately becomes the bridge to new energy outcomes and a sustainable new energy world. Now diversifying into the communications realms, a natural progression from the Magazine, The OGM now offers an entirely new division - Oil & Gas Media. Today, The Oil and Gas Magazine is a global phenomenon that operates not only in Newfoundland, but also in Calgary and is read by oil and gas enthusiasts in Norway, Aberdeen, across the US and as far reaching as Abu Dhabi, in the Middle East. Believing that Energy is everyone’s business, Ms. Olivero has combined energy + culture to embrace the worlds commitment to a balance of work and home life as well as fostering a foundation for health and well being. In this era of growth and development business and lifestyle are an eloquent mix, there is no beginning or end. Partnering with over 90 oil and gas exhibitions and conferences around the world, Ms. Olivero's role as a Global Visionary is to embrace communication in a way that fosters oil and gas business and industry growth in new and creative ways.

      Would you like to know more about this story?

      Let us know who you are and how we can assist you.

      First Name *required

      Last Name

      Company

      Website

      Email *required

      Mobile required

      What are you interested In?

      Learning more about this story?Contacting the company in this story?Marketing for your company?Business Development for your company?

      I am interested in...


      Did you enjoy this article?

      Get Media Kit


      OGM - Our Great Minds