Freeport McMoran Returns to the Oil Business

This morning’s news that Freeport McMoran is acquiring two E&P businesses (Plains Exploration and McMoran Exploration) is the first real M&A activity since BHP’s acquisition of Petrohawk in the middle of last year. Subsequently BHP had to take significant write downs on their newly acquired assets and the fervor for buying E&P names steadily cooled.

Some names in the sector are relatively attractively priced. Devon Energy (DVN) trades below the price of its proved reserves and is 100% U.S. so no geopolitical risk. At some point they could represent an attractive way to supplement depleting energy reserves for one of the major integrated oil companies. Range Resources (RRC) has also been weak lately and offers some significant upside if they can successfuly extract a good percentage of their 50 Trillion Cubic Feet Equivalent (TCFE) of potential natural gas reserves. Comstock Resources (CRK) is also at the low end of its recent range. With a market cap of less than $1BN it would be an easy acquisition for many big companies. The 25% short interest in CRK also reveals some healthy skepticism.

We are long DVN, RRC and CRK.