Rampart Energy Ltd (ASX:RTD) announced participation in the North Slope of Alaska

Sydney, 16th July 2013

Rampart Energy Ltd (ASX:RTD) is an emerging petroleum explorer who has managed to complete the impossible over the last 6 months , acquire an asset which could be worth hundreds of millions of dollars in the backyard of Super-major oil companies while having a market cap of ~$4 million dollars. Rampart represents a rare multi bagger investment potential opportunity! While we frequently read/hear about the perils of the current market, Rampart shows that there is still life in the capital markets for the right mix of high impact assets which could deliver once in a lifetime upside.

The Company has completed a turnaround which began late in 2012 which has seen it broaden its energy mix from a geothermal pure play to include oil and gas assets. After recapitalising and cleaning house, the Company recently announced participation in the North Slope of Alaska. While Alaska has been a happy hunting ground around the Cook Inlet area for several ASX companies over the last 10 years, the North Slope has remained the realm of the super-majors. Completely surrounded by household names like BP, Shell, ConocoPhilips, ExxonMobil, Anadarko (the list goes on), it’s hard to see why many have not heard of this place. In basic terms, the North Slope is home to the biggest oilfields in the United States, and for many years produced up to 25% of its oil.

Why are such big players there? Well to give a better idea of the potential of the area, it’s best to note that Prudhoe Bay has up to 50 Billion Barrels of Oil Originally In Place (‘OOIP’). The entire North Slope area has had varying potential resource figures put on it of up to 100 billion barrels of recoverable oil!

The recent boom in unconventional (shale) exploration globally has been slow to get to Alaska, which has given Rampart the opportunity to get in. Ultimately the prospectivity of the Shale play is demonstrated best by the overall prospectivity of the North Slope – the shales are the sources for the biggest conventional discoveries in the United States, thus, they must be highly prospective too. Rampart has been able to secure a material position in potentially one of the last major shale plays in the US with the added attraction of a convention play sitting above it!

The smart money has started to move into the North Slope with Rampart’s neighbour Great Bear Petroleum being backed by the high profile energy group Riverstone. Riverstone is an energy and power-focused private investment firm founded in 2000 with approximately $25 billion of equity capital raised across seven investment funds. It counts Lord Browne (ex-British Petroleum CEO) as one of its partners!

Despite all this propectivity, the Alaskan government has taken steps to make itself the number one investment destination around – it gives you money back! That’s right, the tax program there means that up to 85% of every dollar you spend will be paid back to you by the state; regardless of success or failure. How often will anyone see a low risk sovereign nation with huge prospectivity, massive internal resources and feel the need to guarantee the downside to just 15c in the dollar. I don’t think we will ever see this again, but Rampart is front and centre of this benefit too, hitting the timeline perfectly.

First mover advantage, on great terms with a busy program ahead focussed on an area of immense potential which has the smart money moving in. This one is definitely something to watch as generally, we at wholesaleinvestor.com.au rarely see something that has a big project, with big partners, big plans and correspondingly big upside.

Remember the code (ASX:RTD) as we will all be hearing more on this one.