The Roxanna Story
Roxanna was founded in 1987 by Marlan W. Downey following his retirement as President of Pecten (Shell) International. In the early years, Roxanna was active internationally acquiring interests in exploration projects, and providing consulting services to the industry. In 1990, Marlan was asked to join ARCO as President, International Exploration. During that time, Roxanna remained active, led by Dr. R. Michael Lloyd, who successfully steered Roxanna into a number of successful non-op plays in the US. During this time, Roxanna began to build an organically grown company, by reinvesting profits into new play concepts, never taking on debt. After retiring from ARCO 1997, Marlan rejoined Roxanna as Chairman, and his daughter, Julie Garvin, took over as President in 2005 after a 23 year career with Marathon Oil.
Marlan’s background as an organic geochemist, led him to closely watch as George Mitchell began to develop the concept of shale gas development in the Barnett, and in 2004 Roxanna purchased a large royalty position in the Barnett shale based on our understanding of the relationship of organic geochemistry to productivity. Roxanna was quick to recognize the vast potential of shale gas in the US, and began taking positions in various play extensions. In 2006, Shell Oil approached us to assist their new unconventional team to develop additional shale gas plays, and through this partnership, we developed multiple investment opportunities in new shale gas plays throughout the US. Our agreement with Shell, allowed us to take a direct working interest in any opportunity we recommended, and this business model of “putting our money where our mouth is” continues today. Later, in 2008, Marathon Oil Company asked our team to assist them in identify new shale plays in the Appalachian Basin. During this time, Roxanna successfully identified and mapped numerous shale plays, recommending the Marcellus before any horizontals had been drilled. Marathon successfully entered the play early, acquiring over 80,000 acres.
Later, as we were closely following the early results of the Bakken, we recognized that under the right geochemical and geological conditions, a vast resource of oil shale plays could be developed. Roxanna took an early position in the Woodford/Miss Lime play in Kingfisher Co, Ok in 2013, later selling a portion of our working interest to Longfellow Energy, successfully developing and exiting the play 2019. Roxanna currently holds a royalty position in over 100 wells, in over 60,000 acres, in what is known today as the Stack Play.
In 2013, Roxanna entered into a partnership with Kimmeridge Energy, participating as an LP in their first two funds, and as their technical consultants responsible for identifying new play investment opportunities. During our five year partnership, Roxanna identified and technically vetted over 50 new plays and participated in the acquisition of over 500,000 acres in multiple plays in the US and Europe. In addition, we participated in the formation of Arris Petroleum, a Permian Basin operating company, which was later sold for $1.6 B to PDC Energy.
In 2016, Roxanna became focused on acquiring leases in mature, underdeveloped carbonate fields that held vast undrained reserves due their discontinuous nature. We successfully operated and drilled the first horizontal well in the Fall City Field in Nebraska doubling the fields total production. In addition, we have acquired over 24,000 acres in the Pendleton Field of Louisiana, and have drilled 4 horizontals, one vertical and in the process of completing our water disposal well. Roxanna operates the project, and have plans to enter into a development program in 2021.
These successes and our willingness to coinvest with our partners and clients have enabled the company to continue to grow organically, and develop a reputation in the industry as technical experts, business-wise, and unquestionable ethics. As our founder, Marlan Downey said, “Geology is Science, Exploration is a Business”.
