Portfolio and operating experience

Viceroy Petroleum, LP

Family-owned Texas producer, combined in 2006 from two family companies. Grew production from 118 boepd in 2002 to 2,340 boepd by November 2015, about 20x, through six producing-property acquisitions bought at a basis the cash flow could carry. Growth was funded from internal cash flow and self-liquidating bank debt, with no outside equity, through two price collapses.

Put legacy acreage into joint-venture units with EOG, GulfTex, BlackBrush and 1776 as partners, and wrote tag-along and drag-along rights into the joint operating agreements. Four sales from 2016 to 2021 totaled $41.9MM: EnerVest ($22.0MM, 2016), Inpex ($12.1MM, Wiatrek unit, 2019), Britanco ($0.85MM, Richter wells, 2019) and Magnolia Oil & Gas ($7.0MM, Dragon and Clapton, 2021). The three joint-venture sales closed with their drilling debt already retired. Amounts are 100% of the interest Viceroy sold. After the 2015–16 downturn, rolled sale proceeds through a 1031 exchange into ranch land pledged as collateral, lifting available loan-to-value from under 50% to about 80%.

Rebuilt production from a 384 boepd average in 2019 to 1,605 boepd in November 2022, about 4.2x, almost all of it at Cote Blanche Island.

Soldier Operating, LLC

Operating company formed to run Viceroy's Louisiana assets apart from its Texas base. Its main asset was Cote Blanche Island, an inland waters field reachable only by boat or barge.

Bought the field out of the Alta Mesa bankruptcy for $250,000, closed through a novel agreement with Chevron, the Louisiana Department of Natural Resources and the Louisiana State Mineral and Energy Board. Rebuilt the field team, repaired and upgraded facilities, drilled six wells on about $30MM of capital, and took production from 112 boepd at the January 2021 restart to a 2,612 boepd peak day in May 2023, through two hurricane hits.

By mid-2023 one well carried more than 80% of the field's production. A drilling accident and that well's decline followed with no reserve to absorb them, and the field went through a court-supervised sale in 2025. The capital rules Matt now sets with boards come directly from that loss.

The field was never marketed. His internal estimate of its value before the loss was about $61MM ($30,000 per flowing boepd on 2,039 boepd), which a buyer would pay only if the field could survive losing one well. He claims no value from the court-supervised sale.

Foundation Energy Advisors

Acquisition diligence for small and mid-sized E&P buyers, testing seller models for understated plugging liability and expiring leasehold. In three days on a $60MM+ acquisition package, found more than $5MM (about 8%) of mispricing, mainly understated ARO and expired or expiring leases. The seller would not reprice and the client walked rather than overpay.

Tombstone Coil Tubing Services, Inc.

Coil tubing company built around a faster, lower-cost plugging method. Plugged land wells for Viceroy and for outside operators.

Integralog Wireline, LLC

Wireline services company. Deployed digital field ticketing so the cash conversion cycle started on location instead of in the office.

Hornet Oilfield Fishing, LLC

Fishing and recovery services company. Pushed ticket generation and receivables accountability to field supervisors and standardized field-ticket codes to cut overhead.