Oak Ridge Natural Resources, an independent oil and natural gas company headquartered in Tulsa, Oklahoma, has received a USD300 million equity commitment from the Kayne Private Energy Income Fund, and members of the management team.
Oak Ridge is a private exploration and production company formed to pursue the acquisition and development of large, long-life producing oil and gas assets in North America, with a specific focus on the Ark-La-Tex and Mid-Continent regions. Chris Jacobsen will lead Oak Ridge as President and CEO and is joined by Brian Wheeler as Chief Technical Officer and Robert Grisaffe as Chief Financial Officer. Prior to forming Oak Ridge, the team formerly ran Premier Natural Resources, an independent oil and gas company with producing assets in the Barnett and Ark-La-Tex regions. Before co-founding Premier, Jacobsen served as Vice President of US Operations at Vintage Petroleum, a publicly-traded oil and gas company that was acquired by Occidental Petroleum for $4.1 billion in 2006.
Jacobsen says: “I am once again excited to be working with this talented group of individuals as we work to build another successful independent oil and gas company. Through our roots at Vintage and Premier, we understand how important the right financial partner is and we are confident that Kayne Anderson has the combination of financial and technical expertise to add significant value to our enterprise.”
“We have known Chris and his team personally for many years and are excited to partner with such a high-calibre group with an impressive operational track record and entrepreneurial history,” says David Iverson, Managing Director at Kayne Anderson.
