A Short History

South Bay Resources, LLC was formed by three veterans of the oil patch to pursue a technology-based exploitation strategy combining state-of-the-art modeling of old oil fields and the new economics of the oil industry. Scott Rubsamen, Steve Slack, and Steve Tobias, have a combined 90+ years of experience in the oil and gas industry in a variety of positions that cover all aspects of exploration, operations and finance.

Initial operations began in June 2003 with the purchase of 150 square miles of non-proprietary 3D seismic data covering a segment of Matagorda County near Bay City, Texas. Matagorda is hallmarked by stratigraphic and structural complexity and is one of the most densely drilled counties in the United States. The specific three-square-mile area of South Bay’s focus had been drilled since the early 1930’s with a resultant density of seven wells per square mile. Beginning in June 2004, South Bay drilled thirteen commercial producers on that area with an estimated ultimate recovery of 28 BCFE.

The founders believed that the successful application of their approach to an area as heavily analyzed and drilled as Matagorda County argued for an extension of the model to areas of similar characteristics that had yet to be densely drilled and exploited. To that end, South Bay created and funded a Canadian entity in 2005, South Bay Resources Canada LP, to pursue an identical strategy north of the border. Initial activity in Canada has been concentrated in two areas, Radway and Mikwan-Huxley, located in the east-central region of the province of Alberta.

The Radway gas properties northeast of Edmonton had been extensively drilled for shallow Mannville targets for over twenty years. Not one of the previously-drilled wells in the South Bay acreage or nearby sections had produced more than 0.3 BCFE; and less than ten percent of the wells were commercial. To date, South Bay has drilled seven wells and completed five with gas reserves totaling 2.4 BCFE.

As part of a reef-oriented exploration/exploitation program in the Mikwan-Huxley area just northeast of Calgary, South Bay has drilled five reef targets, found three reefs, and completed two of these as oil producers. More than a dozen additional prospects have been identified that will be drilled as time and financing permits.

Based on successful results in Matagorda County that were reproduced in both Radway and Mikwan-Huxley, South Bay has proven the ability to find commercial quantities of overlooked oil and gas in previously-produced areas of complex geology.