Industry Veteran Validus Energy Trusts ComboCurve to Hunt for its Next Asset

What is the technology accelerator for their next acquisition? ComboCurve, according to Senior Reservoir Engineer Scott Baker.

Validus primarily buys large assets with significant existing production and high-potential acreage for future development.

They sought the help of ComboCurve to optimize data collection and analysis of prospective acquisitions. This enabled Scott and his team to spend more time gaining a deeper understanding.

The implementation impact was huge, according to Senior Reservoir Engineer Scott Baker. ComboCurve cuts the time usually needed to evaluate currently producing assets from five days to one. This allows the company to focus more time on the undeveloped side of a project.

Saved 80% of the Team’s Time

Validus Energy currently uses ComboCurve for production forecasting. They believe that it is miles ahead of the tools Validus previously used to forecast production data.

The company has been able to complete forecasts in a fraction of the time it took prior to ComboCurve’s implementation.

“We’ve been in, over a dozen marketed processes over the last six months or so,” Baker said. “Pulling wells into ComboCurve and forecasting them, being able to understand at a high level where production concentration is, understanding splits of horizontal versus vertical, production allocation, things like that – it’s been really helpful to digest what’s going to matter, and to have that assessment within two hours of getting data.”

In a live process for Validus Energy, there are typically three weeks to perform an analysis. The team would traditionally break that down into a week of PDP, a week of undev, and a few days to roll it all together and figure out which pieces mattered. What Baker says is most beneficial is that the week allocated to PDP work can now be done in one day. This allows Validus to focus more time on having a differentiating view of value.

“I can have time to think instead of just working and cramming to get from A to B,” Baker said. “A lot of the time, there is just so much work to be done, there is no time to just think through the outputs, figure out if it makes sense, and identify what really matters. Being able to save three or four days in that three-week timeframe is so valuable. It may not always change the end product, but it changes the confidence that you have in it. And finding those areas that truly matter might allow you to differentiate yourself. That is where I really see the time-efficient savings pay off.”

Gained Trust and Confidence While Expediting Decision-Making

Forecasting is a cyclical process, and ComboCurve accelerates the feedback loop.

“Instead of spending so much time on the forecasting piece, then moving to the analysis piece to understand the type curves is really where you can have more confidence in underwriting an undeveloped program in a bid,” Baker said.

Baker has gained significant confidence in his decisions and can confidently say whether Validus Energy should or should not transact on a deal thanks to ComboCurve. He believes that some of the best deals you can make are not transacting on the bad ones.

So, even if his organization really likes a deal, Scott has concrete data to back it up if he thinks it is the wrong choice for the company. The time savings allow him to really understand the deals that are on the company’s radar. He can walk away from bad investments faster, and entertain new deals as soon as they emerge.

“I think that’s a powerful, inadvertent feature of efficiency that comes with the ComboCurve platform,” Baker said.