Mr. Bowman is a portfolio manager at Wickham Investment Counsel Inc. michael@wickhaminvestments.com
What are we looking for?
Undervalued, efficient Canadian oil and gas explorers and producers that have been growing their production over the past year.
The screen
My colleague Rob Belanger and I looked for companies that were larger than $400-million (U.S.) in market cap with healthy increases in production.
We gauged production in terms of barrel of oil equivalent, or BOE, which measures supplies of oil or gas in terms of the amount of energy they contain, using a barrel of crude as the standard.
Each barrel contains 5.8 million British thermal units, or 1,700 kilowatt hours.
Other criteria include:
-Recycle ratio: an important measure of the profitability of an oil company. It is the profit per barrel divided by the total cost of discovering and extracting that same barrel. The higher the ratio, the higher the firm’s profitability. Only companies with positive recycle ratios are shown.
-Price-to-BOE reserves. This is the current share price as a multiple of the company’s oil-and-gas reserves. The lower the number, the more undervalued the company may be.
What did we find?
Birchcliff scores very well and appears undervalued according to this screen. Its recycle ratio is second highest, next to Cenovus, and its price-to-BOE reserves is exceptional.
All of Birchcliff’s operations are concentrated in the Peace River Arch area of Alberta where the company increased production by more than 27 per cent in the last year.
Many companies have a recycle ratio that is worse than that of Canadian Natural Resources. Canada’s largest oil company by market cap also comes in second in the price-to-BOE-reserves calculation.
Talisman has increased production by an anemic 3.57 per cent.
While Freehold Royalty is quite efficient at discovering and extracting the barrel, it is the most overvalued company that we found.
What is surprising is the poor price-to-BOE reserves of Crescent Point and Vermillion.
For Crescent Point, 12 of 19 analysts have a buy rating on the company, and the median price estimate 12 months out for Vermillion is 14 per cent higher than the price today.
Canadian oil and gas companies growing production
| Company | Ticker | Recent price $ | Market cap. ($ mil.) |
|---|---|---|---|
| Birchcliff Energy | BIR-T | 6.83 | 966 |
| Can Natural Res. | CNQ-T | 32.23 | 34,896 |
| Pengrowth Energy | PGF-T | 7.00 | 34,699 |
| Cenovus Energy | CVE-T | 34.43 | 25,927 |
| Talisman Energy | TLM-T | 13.62 | 13,817 |
| Crew Energy Inc. | CR-T | 7.60 | 901 |
| Bonavista Energy | BNP-T | 17.76 | 3,285 |
| Enerplus Corp. | ERF-T | 16.68 | 3,320 |
| Penn West Pet. | PWT-T | 15.13 | 7,129 |
| Nexen Inc. | NXY-T | 24.58 | 13,096 |
Source: Wickham Investment Counsel; Bloomberg
| Company | Ticker | Recent price $ | Market cap. ($ mil.) | BOE prod. 1-yr. growth % | Recycle ratio | Pr/BOE reserves $ |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Birchcliff Energy | BIR-T | 6.83 | 966 | 27.22 | 4.14 | 5.48 |
| Can Natural Res. | CNQ-T | 32.23 | 34,896 | 11.54 | 1.82 | 7.22 |
| Pengrowth Energy | PGF-T | 7.00 | 34,699 | 11.15 | 1.76 | 9.15 |
| Cenovus Energy | CVE-T | 34.43 | 25,927 | 10.46 | 5.52 | 11.12 |
| Talisman Energy | TLM-T | 13.62 | 13,817 | 3.57 | 1.48 | 11.22 |
| Crew Energy Inc. | CR-T | 7.60 | 901 | 71.45 | 1.50 | 11.85 |
| Bonavista Energy | BNP-T | 17.76 | 3,285 | 5.07 | 2.10 | 12.36 |
| Enerplus Corp. | ERF-T | 16.68 | 3,320 | 8.92 | 0.41 | 13.69 |
| Penn West Pet. | PWT-T | 15.13 | 7,129 | 4.53 | 1.48 | 14.13 |
| Nexen Inc. | NXY-T | 24.58 | 13,096 | 14.87 | 2.38 | 14.50 |
| Twin Butte Energy | TBE-T | 2.94 | 631 | 87.84 | 2.73 | 18.83 |
| ARC Resources | ARX-T | 24.32 | 7,323 | 14.12 | 2.85 | 19.18 |
| Legacy Oil + Gas | LEG-T | 7.42 | 1,053 | 47.77 | 1.81 | 20.10 |
| Whitecap Resources | WCP-T | 7.74 | 977 | 153.93 | 0.93 | 21.52 |
| PetroBakken Energy | PBN-T | 14.60 | 2,724 | 9.67 | 2.28 | 22.85 |
| Celtic Exploration | CLT-T | 19.06 | 1,954 | 27.65 | 1.20 | 24.73 |
| Surge Energy | SGY-T | 8.46 | 585 | 83.65 | 1.33 | 25.10 |
| Trilogy Energy | TET-T | 24.28 | 2,919 | 17.96 | 0.89 | 43.85 |
| Crescent Point | CPG-T | 45.70 | 15,499 | 46.68 | 2.73 | 45.85 |
| Vermilion Energy | VET-T | 46.43 | 4,578 | 11.21 | 1.96 | 46.43 |
| Paramount Res. | POU-T | 29.02 | 2,421 | 29.68 | 0.30 | 67.95 |
| Freehold Royalties | FRU-T | 20.20 | 1,308 | 14.18 | 2.87 | 91.10 |
Canadian oil and gas companies growing production
- BIR-T
- CNQ-T
- PGF-T
- CVE-T
- TLM-T
- CR-T
- BNP-T
- ERF-T
- PWT-T
- NXY-T
- TBE-T
- ARX-T
- LEG-T
- WCP-T
- PBN-T
- CLT-T
- SGY-T
- TET-T
- CPG-T
- VET-T
- POU-T
- FRU-T
