“We’ve built an oil-finding team,” he said

“It has given us control over our projects, helped us get the equipment we need when we need it, and allowed us to build credibility with people on the ground.

“We have initiated long-term oil production and cashflows and have acquired more than 40,000 acres near large oil fields.

“We are now considered one of the emerging niche operators in California and people are prepared to bring their deals to us and talk business.”

Begg used to run Voyager Energy, which was absorbed by Arc Energy in 2005 through a friendly merger. At a loose end, he was invited to step into the leadership role at struggling alternative energy company Renewable Energy, which was soon after renamed Salinas Energy.

He told the conference that the company’s strategy was to use modern, off-the-shelf technologies to target oil in good conventional sandstone reservoirs in onshore US.

Salinas wanted controlling interests and operatorship in its projects and was building a portfolio that mixed low-risk oil field developments with high-impact exploration.

While Salinas would pursue opportunities in other parts of the US, it had started out in California.

“The opportunity came through personal contacts and we decided it had enough merit to proceed,” he said.

“I only had two criteria – to acquire large quantities in the acreage and to be an operator, not a partner.”

Begg pointed out California has languished in recent times compared to Texas.

“The exploration and exploitation of opportunities here has dropped off notably and we used that to our advantage,” he said.

“Consequently, we have found the competition for acreage here has been less than in other US states.”

Salinas’s two current areas of interest in the state are the Salinas Basin and the San Joaquin Basin.

The Salinas offers low-risk redevelopment of heavy oil fields, characterised by high margins, according to Salinas, which is already the basin’s second largest acreage holder after the majors.

The San Joaquin offers exploration opportunities near giant oil fields, Begg said. It has high margins and multiple high-impact targets. Again, Salinas has already built up a large acreage position.

“We are maturing our prospects from a multi-million dollar database and mapping project,” Begg said.

“This is delivering a portfolio of 10-50 million barrel drilling opportunities.”

Salinas expects to drill 15 wells next year, with the first of these being the follow-up to the company’s North Yowlumne oil discovery.

North Yowlumne 2-26 will be about 800m northeast of the first well, North Yowlumne 1-26, which last year tested light oil from Miocene age reservoir targets. The well has a planned total depth of 3960m.

“The location has been chosen after review of 3D seismic and, based on Salinas’ in-house mapping, should encounter the reservoir section structurally updip and in a position where thicker sands are present,” Begg said.

Next year, the company will also step outside California for the first time with an onshore well at the Reese prospect in Louisiana.

It will also drill several development wells at its North San Ardo heavy oil project.

“We’ve drilled four wells at North San Ardo, all with substantial oil columns,” Begg said. “We production-tested them and got results beyond our expectations.”