The company previously known as Crescent Point has been swallowed

By Brian Zinchuk

CALGARY – The company that pretty much defined Saskatchewan’s Bakken Boom, gobbling up over 30 companies (most of them in southeast Saskatchewan) is no more.

Known for most of its history as Crescent Point Energy Corp., and as Veren Inc, for the last year, the most significant serial acquirer in Saskatchewan in recent decades has, itself, been swallowed up in a merger which closed on Monday, May 12.

Whitecap Resources Inc. announced the successful closing of its strategic combination with Veren Inc., creating the seventh largest oil and natural gas producer and the fifth largest natural gas producer in Canada. Whitecap said it is now the largest Alberta Montney and Duvernay landholder and a prominent light oil producer in Saskatchewan with an enviable portfolio of premium drilling opportunities which provides for decades of sustainable production and funds flow growth. “We plan to leverage the combined asset base and technical expertise to drive incremental improvements to profitability and increased returns to shareholders,” Whitecap’s press release said.

Crescent Point was the leading player in the Bakken Boom, spending over $700 million in the 2008 land sales that drove the largest Crown land sales in Saskatchewan history. That year, Saskatchewan had over a billion dollars in land sales. Most of that was driven by Crescent Point in the Viewfield Bakken.

That kicked off an intense oil boom that rocked southeast Saskatchewan with an intensity that is hard to describe. The $100 per barrel oil prices led to labour shortages and housing shortages as workers flocked to the region. Drilling rigs in the Stoughton area could be seen in all directions. Saskatchewan’s rig count hit over 100, and most of that was in southeast Saskatchewan. They either drilling wells for Crescent Point, or as often as not, wells that would eventually be owned by Crescent Point. Many fortunes were made, both big and small, as individuals sought the high paying jobs, service companies grew by leaps and bounds, and junior oil producers sprung up like spring flowers.

In its heyday during the Bakken Boom, Crescent Point was briefly the largest oil producer in Saskatchewan and its then-CEO Scott Saxberg was named Saskatchewan Oilman of the Year. Over the course of those dozens of acquisitions there was a common pattern – a bought deal financing package would be announced, and a few weeks later, the next acquisition was made public. Many millions were made as small teams of executives would launch a small junior oil company in southeast Saskatchewan, grow it through the drill bit or maybe an acquisition or two, then hit the exit point. In most cases, the exit plan or “liquidity event” was simple: sell to Crescent Point. And they did, time and time again. Some teams flipped several companies into Crescent Point, often for hundreds of millions of dollars each. The company seemed to buy everything they could get their hands on.

And then in late November, 2014, Saudi Arabia opened the valves and flooded the market. The days of $100 oil were over, and Crescent Point was carrying a lot of debt on its books.

When the seven-year oil downturn hit in late 2014, Crescent Point demanded its vendors cut rates, but promised to keep activity going while other companies pulled in their horns and all but shut down. And keep drilling, it did, for several years being the most active driller in the country, often employing more rigs than the number 2 and 3 oil companies drilling activity combined. In January, 2015, the company employed 26 rigs, nearly all in Saskatchewan. Most were in southeast Saskatchewan, but a few were in the Shaunavon area and usually one or two in the Kindersley area.

It also acquired vast swaths of land across southern Saskatchewan as part of those 30+ acquisitions. By 2018, mounting debt and a change in CEO saw the company start to shed assets through numerous sales. Tundra Oil and Gas, Whitecap Resources, Woodland Development and Saturn Oil and Gas were among the buyers. It also sold off its American operations, first in Utah, then in the North Dakota Bakken.

Eventually all that remained in Saskatchewan was its play in the Shaunavon area, Torquay’s Flat Lake play and the Viewfield Bakken. For each of these areas, Crescent Point had locked up most of the acreage in that respective play. They were the last to go within Saskatchewan.

And while the company had clearly lost interest in Saskatchewan in recent years, it invested heavily in Alberta’s Duvernay and Montney plays, frequently drilling wells that were the best producers in Alberta at the time. For the company that was once mostly a Saskatchewan oil company, even dare say thee Saskatchewan oil company, it had evolved into one focused on Alberta and those two plays. While the Bakken was good in its time, in the Duvernay and Montney, Crescent Point’s drilling program was frequently knocking it out of the park, frequently drilling wells with over 1,200 bpd production.

And now, all of that is part of Whitecap.