Elephant has established itself as an industry leader in the identification and exploitation of unconventional resource plays. Through various ventures in the upstream sector, Elephant has built a comprehensive technical knowledge base and operating expertise in every key basin in the continental United States. Currently, Elephant is leveraging this platform to scale an upstream business through accretive acquisitions of quality assets in core areas. With a strong technical, commercial and operational background, Elephant is uniquely positioned to create value for its partners and stakeholders.
The Elephant story began in 2006 after its founders leveraged a successful venture in the Fayetteville Shale to fund the company’s formation and entry into the Barnett Shale. Over the next six years, Elephant expanded into the Midland Basin and the Delaware Basin. Along the way, Elephant realized significant returns for its partners and stakeholders, eventually resulting in the sale of the company to Talon Oil & Gas II (Talon II) in 2012.
Elephant management stayed on after the sale to Talon II and worked with the legacy Talon management team, initially, to expand the company’s position in the Permian Basin, and later, to enter into a JV in the Eagle Ford with Venado Oil & Gas. In 2015, Elephant management spun out a new venture in collaboration with Encap Investments L.P., Talon Oil & Gas III (Talon III), to target large format acquisition opportunities across the continental United States. Talon III evaluated over 375 opportunities and submitted bids surpassing several billion dollars in aggregate. The team was highly disciplined in its approach to underwriting potential acquisitions and found that the value proposition was lacking in the vast majority of the available opportunities. Seeing opportunity elsewhere, the team pivoted to a consolidation model and assembled a position in the northern Delaware Basin that rapidly developed into the premier unconventional oil play in the United States. As valuations skyrocketed, Talon III monetized the assets in a sale to Marathon Oil in the summer of 2017 for an impressive return on investment.
The most recent Elephant venture, Elephant Resources, was formed in February 2018 by Elephant’s team of high-caliber industry professionals in collaboration with Trilantic Capital Management L.P., to build upon the teams track record of value creation. The company’s vision was to grow through the targeted acquisition and development of high-quality oil and natural gas properties in emerging resource plays. Elephant successfully consolidated several small private operators in the heart of the Powder River Basin in Wyoming. The application of cutting-edge technology coupled with modern drilling and completion techniques has unlocked the value that was hidden in the rocks.
In May 2022, RedBird Capital, in partnership with management and family office investors, formed RedElephant Resources to acquire all of Trilantic Capital’s interest in the Powder River Basin business. RedElephant is actively developing the assets and is pursuing additional opportunities both in the Powder River Basin and more broadly across all major U.S. basins.