Past year: ▼ 95%(0.25c – 7.40c USD)
Each one in plain English, with the numbers worked through for a shareholder.
22 Nov 2013debt financing● NeutralMajor
Issued a further $400 million of the 7.875% 2022 notes, taking that single issue to $850 million. Combined with the 2020 notes, unsecured bond debt was now well over $1.1 billion - the same notes whose holders would later be wiped down to a rights offering in bankruptcy.
18 Nov 2013material agreement● Neutral
Sold 19 million units at $18.22 for about $333 million to repay the borrowings used for Whiting. Each raise is bigger and each price lower than the last.
18 July 2013asset acquisition disposition● NeutralMajor
Closed the Whiting purchase at about $846 million, with Whiting continuing to run the fields until the end of October. Breitburn had roughly doubled its debt to buy a mature enhanced-oil-recovery project whose economics depend on a high oil price.
25 June 2013material agreement● NeutralMajor
Agreed to pay Whiting Oil and Gas $860 million for the Postle and North East Hardesty carbon-dioxide flood fields in the Oklahoma Panhandle plus the pipelines, gas plant and CO2 supply contracts that feed them. Three times the size of anything Breitburn had bought before, and it brought midstream assets and a decade of CO2 purchase commitments with it.
12 Feb 2013material agreement● Neutral
Sold 15 million units at $19.86 for about $285 million, the largest equity raise so far, once more to repay the revolver emptied by the Permian buying.
28 Dec 2012material agreement● Neutral
Closed the second round of Permian purchases from CrownRock and Lynden for about $189 million.
12 Dec 2012material agreement● NeutralMajor
Went back to CrownRock five months after the first Permian deal, agreeing to pay it $165 million and Lynden USA $25 million for more Wolfberry acreage - another $190 million on the bank line.
6 Dec 2012asset acquisition disposition● Neutral
Closed the Belridge purchase, issuing the 3.0 million units privately to the seller.
27 Nov 2012capital raising announcement● Neutral
Agreed to buy Belridge field oil properties in Kern County, California, from American Energy Operations for $40 million cash plus 3.0 million units - about 825 barrels a day. Paying partly in units rather than cash was new, and a sign the revolver was already working hard.
28 Sept 2012debt financing● NeutralMajor
Added $200 million to the 7.875% 2022 notes, taking that issue to $450 million, again to repay bank borrowings. Bond debt was growing faster than the asset base it funded.
11 Sept 2012material agreement● Neutral
Sold 11.5 million units at $18.51 for about $204 million to clear the revolver drawn for the Permian deals.
2 July 2012material agreement● NeutralMajor
Closed both Permian deals - $150 million to Element and $70 million to CrownRock - with CrownRock's affiliate operating most of the roughly 160 future drilling locations. Breitburn was now a Permian owner but not, on the growth acreage, the operator.
29 June 2012material agreement● Neutral
Closed the NiMin Big Horn purchase at about $93 million after knocking $2.3 million off the price over two disputed leases.
11 May 2012material agreement● NeutralMajor
Two agreements on the same day - $146 million to Element Petroleum and the balance to CrownRock, about $220 million together - took Breitburn into the Permian Basin for the first time, funded on the bank line. Its seventh state and a deliberate tilt towards oil.
9 May 2012material agreement termination● Neutral
The affiliated California company PCEC (the old BreitBurn Energy Company) floated a royalty trust, and in the reshuffle Breitburn dissolved the joint partnership that held the East Coyote and Sawtelle fields, took over as operator with a 62.4% working interest, and stopped paying PCEC an operating fee. The related-party tangle from the 2008 Provident split was being simplified, though not severed.
27 Apr 2012material agreement● Neutral
Agreed to buy Big Horn Basin oil properties in Wyoming from NiMin Energy's Legacy Energy for $98 million. Only about 600 barrels a day, and next to fields Breitburn already ran - a bolt-on, not a new area.
8 Feb 2012material agreement● Neutral
Sold 9.2 million units at $18.80 for about $166 million, again to pay down the revolver. Note the price is falling with each raise: $21.25 a year earlier, $18.80 now.
13 Jan 2012debt financing● NeutralMajor
Raised $250 million of 7.875% notes due 2022 to repay the revolver. Same manoeuvre as the 2020 notes: bank borrowings used for acquisitions were termed out into long-dated bonds, leaving the revolver free to be drawn again.
2 Dec 2011material agreement● Neutral
Quicksilver sold its remaining 8 million units at $16.52 - well below the $19.78 it got six months earlier - and left the register entirely. Breitburn again received none of the money; the last piece of the old ownership dispute was gone.
7 Oct 2011asset acquisition disposition● NeutralMajor
Closed the Cabot purchase at $283 million, adding the Evanston and Green River Basin gas fields in Wyoming.
29 July 2011material agreement● NeutralMajor
Agreed to buy Cabot Oil & Gas's south-west Wyoming properties for $285 million, 95% natural gas, funded entirely on the bank revolver. The largest purchase to date and a deliberate move back towards gas.
20 June 2011material agreement● Neutral
Quicksilver Resources, a year after settling its lawsuit, sold 7 million Breitburn units at $19.78, cutting its stake to between 13% and 15%. Breitburn received nothing from the sale; the effect was simply that a large, previously hostile holder was heading for the exit.
10 Feb 2011material agreement● Neutral
Sold 4.9 million new units at $21.25 for about $100 million and used all of it to pay down the revolver. This is the pattern for the next four years: draw the bank line to buy assets, then issue units to clear the line.
7 Oct 2010debt financing● NeutralMajor
Breitburn's first bond issue: $305 million of 8.625% notes due 2020, sold privately to institutions, with the bank borrowing base reaffirmed alongside. The partnership now had long-dated debt as well as a revolver - the beginning of the capital structure that eventually broke it.
9 Feb 2010material agreement▲ GoodMajor
Breitburn settled all litigation with Quicksilver Resources for $13 million, expected to be covered by insurance, and immediately restored cash distributions at $1.50 a unit a year - the first since the 2008 crisis. The dispute that had frozen payouts and board composition since the Provident break-up was over.
23 Dec 2008security holder rights change● Neutral
With the unit price collapsing in the 2008 crash, the board adopted a takeover defence: every unitholder got a right to buy an extra unit at $40 if anyone accumulated 20% or more. A defensive move, not an operational one.
2 Sept 2008material agreement● NeutralMajor
The other half of the Provident separation: Breitburn's own senior managers, with Metalmark Capital and Greenhill Capital, bought the California predecessor company BreitBurn Energy Company from Provident. That company became a permanent related party - the same two co-CEOs sat on both sides - governed by a services agreement and a non-compete that split future opportunities between them.
23 June 2008asset acquisition disposition● NeutralMajor
Breitburn bought its own sponsor out: it paid Provident Energy Trust $335 million for 14.4 million of its own units and a further $10 million for 95.55% of the management company that controls its general partner. From here the partnership ran itself rather than being run by a Canadian parent.
