EnerMax founder and President Bret Boteler stands next to the company’s first well drilled in excess of 17,000 feet.

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Late last year, Hurst, Texas-based EnerMax Inc. became privy to a discovery that could change the industry’s view of potential reserves in the Permian Basin, according to the company. “EnerMax Inc. is a company always on the lookout for market opportunities,” it says, noting that the oil and gas industry is an especially promising sector.

“Oil and gas speculations have captured the focus of the investment market,” EnerMax notes. “This is because all sectors of business are deeply affected by the price and availability of fossil fuels. Oil and gas investments have performed well over the past several years as commodity prices continue in a steady overall uptrend, and the projected growth rate of nations such as China and India continue in a steady overall uptrend.”

The company was founded by President and CEO Bret Boteler in 2001 with a mission to “provide maximum leverage on energy investments by offering prospects at below-industry standards,” Director of Marketing and Public Relations Heather Dessinger says.

“Bret founded EnerMax with a desire to set a new standard of quality for independent Texas oil and gas producers,” she states. “[He] believed that communicating openly and frequently with his partners provided a better way of doing business. The partners agreed, and their support encouraged EnerMax to seek larger, more rewarding projects.”

Today, EnerMax holds leases on 2,300 acres of the Permian Basin, an area that accounts for approximately 20 percent of domestic oil and gas production, Boteler adds. “Timing and agility are everything when it comes to the oil and gas sector,” he says. “EnerMax took all the right steps to secure [our] hold on this discovery, and now [we] are on the verge of explosive growth.”

‘Sweet Spots’
EnerMax bases its success on a process that converts raw seismic data into a “meaningful seismic signature” using algorithms to determine which areas in the Permian Basin are most likely to contain oil and natural gas. Boteler calls these areas “sweet spots” and explains that the company uses two proprietary filtering processes to isolate them.

“Historically, sweet spots in the region have not been identified using traditional geological and geophysical models, and were, therefore, drilled using a hit-or-miss approach,” he says. “Using the proprietary filtering technique, we have created a grid indicating where and where not to drill.”
The most prominent filtering process, he adds, has resulted in an 80 percent success rate in locating commercially viable oil and gas reservoirs.

A Maximum Edge
“Our proprietary filtering technique provides a technical edge over our competitors, but the technique is only a tool, and a tool is only as good as the person using it,” COO Steve Rackley says. “Fortunately, our technical personnel make sure we utilize our resources intelligently, while our experienced management team ensures our day-to-day operations run smoothly. Both sides of our team – technical and management – are always looking to the future, laying the groundwork for the next phase of growth.”

Boteler says its corporate structure is another advantage that EnerMax has over its competition. “We are a fairly small company that operates very efficiently,” he explains. “That makes us extremely agile. When opportunities arise, we can make decisions quickly and capitalize on opportunities in a very timely manner.”

For Maximum Results
Staying ahead of the curve on trends is so important to EnerMax that it incorporated the idea into its guiding principles. “We commit ourselves to strengthening the value of our partners’ holdings,” the company states. “To accomplish this, we react quickly to trends within the industry and strategically position ourselves to take advantage of new business opportunities.”

“One example of following this guiding principle is [our] decision to use out-of-the-box thinking with respect to an opportunity in central-west Texas,” Dessinger says. “There are a large number of reserves in this area, but it has historically been passed over due to technical complications.”

“When oil was $30 a barrel, everybody abandoned this area because it was not commercially viable,” Boteler notes. “Even when oil hit $60 a barrel, it remained inactive. With oil at record highs, and all indications that they will continue to remain so for quite some time, we looked at the technical challenges and determined that we can efficiently and economically retrieve those reserves.”

EnerMax has obtained leases on 10,500 acres in areas of central-west Texas and plans to expand its holdings in the next 12 months. “Our current holdings in the Permian Basin and central-west Texas will allow us to drill an excess of 125 wells, which have a reserve potential in the range of 40 million barrels of oil,” Boteler says. “[This] is a tremendous opportunity.”