The oil price chased Sun out of the US onshore market over the past few years, particularly the costly Woodbine shale play, but the company has recalibrated and managing director Alex Parks is now looking for a farmin partner. 

 

"We're looking for somebody who thinks the same we do, not too big or too small," Parks told Energy News, to make up a third member of a joint venture that includes US-based Pinnacle Exploration 

 

"We're getting ready to go out and get it all together." 

 

After the oil price crash the onshore leases were no longer economic, and the company let them lapse and started looking for what  Parks calls "low risk, low entry cost" areas with operating costs that could hover around US$40 per barrel. 

 

Louisiana's Bowsprit was attractive for the company with ultra-shallower water capable of barge-mounted rigs meaning the company wasn't "subject to the vagaries of the rig market". 

 

Most of the majors had quit the area, which has historically been a gas field, in the 1980s, however with new technologies juniors can shoot better quality 3D seismic, while horizontal wells might have a better chance of flowing oil, he said, noting Sun's US junior peers generally felt more comfortable onshore than off. 

 

"We're comfortable offshore… it's drilling we're more comfortable doing," he said. 

 

At this point Sun is working towards operating in a $40/bbl oil price environment, but Park thinks Brent might recover before year's end. 

 

"On the basis of supply and demand I think it's going to creep back up to $80," he said. 

 

Sun was trading at 0.5cps this morning.