25 Feb 2021debt financing▼ Bad
A second short extension, to 31 March 2021, on unchanged borrowing base and availability.
Announcements, explained
Each one in plain English, with the numbers worked through for a shareholder.
1 Feb 2021debt financing▼ Bad
The syndicated facility was extended only to 26 February 2021, a four-week reprieve, with the $550 million borrowing base and $450 million of availability unchanged and the lenders keeping the right to redetermine at the new date. Three of the seven wells were rig-released and the Bigoray restoration was finished on its $2 million estimate.
5 Jan 2021drilling progress report▲ Good
A $40 million first-half 2021 programme - $35 million of capital and $5 million of decommissioning - for seven Willesden Green Cardium wells, expandable to eight, most of them beside the 2020 wells.
30 Nov 2020drilling progress report▲ Good
After suspending capital spending for most of 2020, Obsidian added $3.2 million to restart Cardium drilling with a three-well pad at Willesden Green in early December. It also took ownership of over 15 km of Bigoray pipelines and put $2 million into one of its own processing facilities to restore 450 boe/d of high-netback oil lost when a third-party plant closed permanently, protecting more than a million barrels of oil equivalent of proved developed producing reserves and saving about $1 million a year of operating cost.
2 Apr 2020listing compliance notice▼ BadMajor
Obsidian never recovered the US$1.00 price and the NYSE suspended trading; United States trading moved to the OTCQB under OBELF on 2 April, with the Toronto listing unaffected. Six price notices in four and a half years ended in delisting. The company put the saving at about $1 million a year and said it would seek the OTCQX if the shares averaged over US$0.25.
16 Mar 2020debt financing▲ GoodMajor
Noteholders agreed to align every senior note maturity on 30 November 2021 - pulling the 2022 and 2025 notes forward as well as extending the 2020 ones - and agreed in principle to loosen the leverage covenants as oil collapsed: senior debt to adjusted EBITDA capped at 3.5x to 30 June 2020, then 4.1x to 30 September, then 6.0x through to 30 June 2021. The ceiling rises through the year: this is downturn relief, not tightening.
28 Feb 2020debt financing▼ BadMajor
The facility was extended - revolving to 31 May 2021, term to 30 November 2021 - but availability was cut $10 million to $450 million and the lenders kept a June 2020 reconfirmation at which they could pull the revolving period back to 30 June 2020. The extension was conditional on US$27 million of senior notes maturing in March, May and December 2020 being pushed out to at least 30 November 2021.
2 Dec 2019debt financing● Neutral
Stephen Loukas replaced Michael Faust as interim president and chief executive and Peter Scott became chief financial officer, alongside a reconfirmation of the syndicated credit facility, a hedging update and approval of a $49.4 million first-half 2020 capital plan. The strategic alternatives process begun in September was still running.
2 Oct 2019listing compliance notice▼ Bad
A sixth sub-US$1.00 notice from the NYSE. The board had begun a formal strategic alternatives process three weeks earlier.
28 Aug 2019material agreement termination▼ BadMajor
The Peace River sale collapsed. The consents needed to transfer the partnership units and the operatorship were never obtained and the agreement was terminated. Obsidian said it would pursue other routes out of the partnership while focusing on its Cardium light oil asset.
13 Aug 2019debt financing▲ Good
The facility was extended properly this time - revolving to 28 February 2020, term-out to 30 November 2020 - with interim reconfirmation dates in November and January. The Peace River partner waived both its right of first refusal and its tag-along, and the sale cleared the Competition Bureau; on closing, availability would fall from $460 million to $420 million.
1 July 2019debt financing● Neutral
A second short extension of the redetermination date, to 30 August, on unchanged terms, with the Peace River sale expected to close about 31 July and the bond offering still only a possibility.
3 June 2019debt financing● Neutral
The bank syndicate pushed the borrowing base redetermination out to 30 June while Obsidian marketed an unsecured bond and its Peace River partner worked through its rights. The $550 million borrowing base and $460 million of capacity held, and the syndicate added a minimum liability management rating covenant of 1.50, a well-abandonment solvency test, against a current rating of about 1.74.
17 May 2019asset acquisition disposition▲ GoodMajor
Agreed to sell its 55% interest in the Peace River Oil Partnership for about $97 million - $85.8 million of it cash, the rest purchaser shares and the present value of assumed liabilities - subject to financing and to the partner's 30-day right of first refusal and 15-day tag-along right.
16 Apr 2019drilling progress report▲ GoodMajor
All 19 wells of the Cardium campaign begun in July 2018 were completed and on production at an average $3.8 million each to drill, complete, equip and tie in. The 14 wells drilled in 2018 averaged 540 boe/d over their first 30 days at 87% oil; the last three wells showed single-day peak rates above 1,000 boe/d per well, which is a peak-day figure and not comparable with a 30-day average.
17 Dec 2018debt financing▲ Good
The semi-annual redetermination raised the syndicated facility $30 million to $470 million - the increase coming from July's retirement of a sterling cross-currency swap rather than from any change to the $550 million borrowing base. The same release reported the second-half Cardium programme running early and under budget: 14 wells drilled at Willesden Green, with the three-well 8-9 pad averaging 587 boe/d per well over its first 30 days, 407 of it oil.
18 Sept 2018listing compliance notice▼ Bad
A fifth sub-US$1.00 notice, again at a 30-day average of US$0.99, with six months to recover before the exchange starts delisting.
13 Mar 2018listing compliance notice▼ Bad
A fourth sub-US$1.00 notice from the NYSE, at a 30-day average of US$0.99. Obsidian repeated that it would put a share consolidation to the annual general meeting to reduce its equity float.
15 Nov 2017financial restatement▲ GoodMajor
Settled with the SEC for US$8.5 million, without admitting or denying the allegations, plus an injunction against future violations and subject to court approval. The case continues against the former Penn West employees named in the complaint. Three years on, the company's own exposure to the 2014 restatement is closed.
1 Nov 2017listing compliance notice▲ Good
Regained NYSE price compliance as of 31 October, seven weeks after the September notice.
15 Sept 2017listing compliance notice▼ Bad
Below US$1.00 on the NYSE again at a 30-day average of US$0.99 - the third such notice since September 2015, and the first under the Obsidian Energy name.
28 June 2017financial restatement▼ BadMajor
The SEC sued the company - by then renamed Obsidian Energy - and two former officers in the Southern District of New York over the accounting practices Penn West itself had discovered and reported to the SEC in July 2014. The complaint alleges breaches of Sections 10(b) and 13(b) of the Exchange Act and seeks injunctive and financial relief.
26 May 2017other material event● Neutral
Penn West proposed changing its name to Obsidian Energy Ltd, to be voted on at the annual and special meeting - the formal end of the Penn West name after a restructuring that had touched the balance sheet, the asset base and the management.
18 May 2017debt financing▲ GoodMajor
Penn West replaced its old facility with a reserve-based revolving syndicated credit facility from nine lenders led by RBC and Scotiabank. The borrowing base is $550 million less outstanding pari passu senior notes, giving $410 million of availability against the $285 million drawn on the previous line at 30 April, with semi-annual redeterminations each May and November.
3 Oct 2016debt financing▲ GoodMajor
Offered $448 million of cash to senior noteholders to prepay at par, pro rata, against about $576 million of notes outstanding - the note agreements allow asset sale proceeds to be used this way. The money came from 2016 sales other than Saskatchewan. Pro forma senior debt falls to about $470 million from $2.0 billion at the end of 2015, and senior debt to EBITDA to 2.0 times against a 4.5 times covenant.
5 July 2016listing compliance notice▲ Good
Regained NYSE price compliance at the close on 30 June, six months after the January notice.
24 June 2016asset acquisition disposition▲ GoodMajor
Closed the $975 million Saskatchewan sale. The net cash proceeds are to be offered to lenders and noteholders at par, pro rata, under the 2015 amending agreements. The CFO said the company expected full covenant compliance at quarter end and the removal of the going concern note from its accounts.
22 June 2016asset acquisition disposition▲ Good
Competition Act clearance came through, the only regulatory approval the Saskatchewan sale needed, with closing set for about 24 June. About $27 million of the $140 million of Alberta sales had already closed, the remaining $113 million expected on 27 June.
13 June 2016asset acquisition disposition▲ GoodMajor
Agreed to sell all of its Saskatchewan assets - including the Dodsland Viking over which it had sold Freehold a royalty a year earlier - to Teine Energy, backed by the Canada Pension Plan Investment Board, for $975 million cash, alongside about $140 million of further Alberta sales. That takes 2016 disposals to roughly $1.3 billion and cuts pro forma net debt to about $600 million from $2.1 billion at the end of 2015, which Penn West said would leave it comfortably inside its covenants for the rest of the year.
18 Apr 2016asset acquisition disposition▲ GoodMajor
Closed the Slave Point sale for about $148 million and roughly $50 million of the $80 million of other non-core sales, with a further $30 million under contract to close in the second quarter.