Tulsa startup Bluestone II buying up Texas natural gas properties at steady pace
BY ROD WALTON World Staff Writer
Wednesday, January 16, 2013
The second version of Bluestone Natural Resources is growing fast but staying focused on buying steady, conventional natural gas assets much like its original incarnation did over five years, president John Redmond said.
Tulsa-based Bluestone Natural Resources II, founded in February 2012, announced its seventh acquisition in the past 11 months. Bluestone II bought 75 unconventional wells in south Texas from an undisclosed buyer, bringing the company’s proved reserves to more than 100 billion cubic feet equivalent.
“We had a very busy 2012 and it’s gearing up to be a busy 2013,” Redmond said. “Everybody here loves what they do.”
Redmond and his team started the original Bluestone Natural Resources, known as Bluestone I, in 2006 with a $40 million commitment from the Natural Gas Partners private equity firm based in Irving, Texas.
Much of Bluestone I’s assets were merged with Houston-based Memorial Energy Partners in late 2011. The Tulsa firm, however, still exists and continues to develop its Mossy Grove holdings that include approximately 22,000 net acres in east Texas.
Bluestone II, like Natural Gas Partners and New York equity firm KKR & Co, is investing in natural gas drilling sites despite the commodity’s current low price at market. KKR and Natural Gas Partners teamed up with other investors to buy Tulsa-based natural gas heavy Samson Investment Co. in December 2011.
Redmond sees his company on the same path, buying up gas leases at a time when other firms are desperate to raise the oil percentage of their holdings. Bluestone II was started off with a $100 million commitment from Natural Gas Partners.
