canaan resource partners
TRANSCRIPT
HISTORY
Canaan Resource Partners is an Oklahoma City-based management team that has served
as the general partner of a series of private limited partnerships since 1990. Current funds
under management are Canaan Natural Gas Fund IX LP (“Fund IX”), Canaan Natural
Gas Fund X LP (“Fund X”) and Canaan Resource Partners Drilling Fund LP (“CRP”), with
significant levels of combined capital under management. These three funds serve as direct
investment vehicles for an institutional investor group that includes endowments, foundations,
funds of funds, retirement plans and family offices.
Fund IX and Fund X, with vintage years of 2005 and 2008, respectively, were formed
under a risk-averse, acquire-and-exploit investment strategy. The investment model has been
replicated in eight prior funds, posting best-in-class returns for decades – since the team was
founded by Johnnie K. Penton and Leo E. Woodard in 1987, when they began making energy
investments for the benefit of other general partners. In 1990, Mssrs. Penton and Woodard
formed the Coral Reserves Natural Gas Income Fund 1990 Limited Partnership, the first of
eight such funds the two would create and manage as general partners over the next 10
years.
In 2000, the eight partnerships were rolled into a public company with the formation of
Canaan Energy Corporation and traded on the Nasdaq exchange under the symbol KNAN
from October 2000 through June 2002. In June 2002, Chesapeake Energy Corporation
purchased the company’s outstanding shares, providing the final exit for the limited
partners of the first eight funds.
HISTORY
CURRENT FUND 11 STRATEGY FUND INVESTMENT STRATEGY
The advent of the “shale revolution” has caused a major shift in suitable energy investment
strategies for institutional limited partners. With strategic focus, Canaan Resource Partners has
chosen to assume the role of capital provider for development-drilling efforts in domestic, onshore
shale plays. Typically a non-operator, CRP is technically proficient in evaluating the investment
suitability of projects within America’s top shale plays, closely following the development phases of
each. We have a compelling level of capital to be committed for deployment in an immediate time
frame for projects deemed suitable available at both modest and significant investment levels. We
are well-equipped to review development-drilling projects with exceptional speed using proprietary
“big data” analysis and creative deal structures.
Please make us aware of any interest you may have for further discussion.
Johnnie K. Penton, Dean S. Sergent and Chris Gordon serve as managing partners of CRP,
currently is in its investment phase.
JOHNNIE K. PENTON, 59, was a co-founder of Coral
Reserves Group Ltd. and, along with Leo E. Woodard, formed the
original management team of Canaan’s predecessor entities. Mr.
Penton served as a general partner of the first eight partnerships, as
well as president of Canaan Energy Corporation. Currently, he serves
as a general partner of Canaan’s Fund IX and Fund X, as well as
CEO of each fund’s operating companies. Mr. Penton will be actively
involved in all aspects of the funds, with a particular focus on
acquisitions, divestitures and financing.
Through his career, Mr. Penton has developed a tremendous contact
resource base that covers a range of energy companies, brokers and
financial institutions.
Mr. Penton received a B.S. in economics from Oklahoma City
University in 1978 and an MBA from the University of Central
Oklahoma in 1980. He was employed by Hunt Energy Corporation as
a petroleum landman in its Oklahoma City office from 1980 through
1984. From 1984. until the founding of Canaan in 1987, he owned
and managed Newport Resources Inc., an independent exploration
company based in Oklahoma City.
DEAN S. SERGENT, 52, has been with the Canaan team
for more than nine years, sharing more than 25 years of reservoir
engineering and acquisition experience. In 1985, Mr. Sergent
began working for Tenneco Oil Company in Oklahoma City, where
he gained significant experience in acquisitions and risk analysis.
After Tenneco sold its oil company in 1988, Mr. Sergent attended
The University of Texas and earned an MBA. After graduation,
he returned to Oklahoma City to launch and direct an acquisition
effort for Raydon Exploration.
Prior to Canaan, Mr. Sergent worked for Devon Energy, where his
latest assignment was a management position in Devon’s Barnett
Shale asset group. While there, he supervised a budget in excess
of $800 million and participated in a research effort with the
University of Oklahoma to better understand the producing
characteristics of shales.
At Canaan, Mr. Sergent has been instrumental in the development
of a portfolio model, as well as analytical techniques and risk-
analysis software to properly evaluate resource plays.
Mr. Sergent graduated Phi Beta Kappa from Marietta College in
1985 with a B.S. in petroleum engineering and is a registered
professional engineer.
CHRIS GORDON, 57, has had both a professional and personal
relationship with Mr. Penton since 1980, when Mr. Gordon began his
career at Gulf Oil Company and Mr. Penton began work with Hunt
Energy Corporation. After leaving Gulf and Hunt to begin their
independent efforts, Mssrs. Gordon and Penton co-partnered their
respective businesses, combining offices, employees and capital
sourcing from 1984 through 1987, when Mr. Penton (along with Mr.
Woodard) formed the original Canaan management team.
Over the past 30 years, Mr. Gordon has been a primary catalyst to
effect the drilling of more than a thousand oil and natural gas wells,
located exclusively onshore and focused in the Mid-Continent region,
with substantive funding provided by industry partners and outside
investors. Since the beginning of the shale revolution, he has been
an active minerals participant, deploying more than $150 million to
acquire some 350,000 acres in the various shale plays – Marcellus,
Utica, Niobrara, Mississippian, Woodford, Granite Wash and SCOOP –
for the benefit of institutional-level family offices.
Throughout the past three decades, Mr. Gordon has developed a deep
inventory of industry relationships with experience in all facets of the oil
and gas sector. He holds a B.A. in business administration from The
University of Oklahoma with a major in petroleum land management.
FREDDIE BARELA, Partner
Office: 405-604-9231 | Main: 405-604-9300
SHILPA ABBITT, Partner
Office: 405-604-9225 | Main: 405-604-9300
JAN MILANOWSKI, Land Manager
Office: 405-604-9214 | Main: 405-604-9300
CONTACT INFORMATION
1101 N. Broadway Ave., Suite 300
Oklahoma City, OK 73103
405-604-9300
Canaan Resource Partners now is located in
the newly renovated historic Buick Building on
Automobile Alley in Midtown Oklahoma City.