H. H. “Tripp” Wommack III, a native of Texas, BA s North Carolina Chapel Hill ( 77) and JD University of Texas ( 80) has been in the Energy business since 1979 and has lived in Midland, Texas and focused almost exclusively on the Permian Basin since 1980. Mr. Wommack was an active participant in the Austin Chalk early in his career and has done some limited work in the Eagle Ford play in South Texas over the past few years while continuing to focus on the Permian Basin.
Mr. Wommack started his career while still in Law School, buying and reselling leases in the Austin Chalk, retaining cash and royalties from the transactions, purchasing working interests, minerals and royalties in both the Austin Chalk and the Permian. After moving to Midland in 1980, Mr. Wommack shifted his focus virtually entirely to the Permian where he currently remains focused and has for the past 37 years.
In 1983, Wommack contributed his existing operations and energy assets, almost all of which were earned through” sweat equity” as well as $100,000, being $50,000 each from two “friends and family” investors, to form his first Oil & Gas Exploration and Production Company, Southwest Royalties, Inc. Southwest focused on the acquisition and development and exploitation of producing properties and low risk in fill development properties and leases in the Permian Basin.
Not wishing to incur debt and having limited resources all earned through savings from work throughout College and Law School as well as his then to date energy activity Southwest funded its acquisitions via debt free ” Oil & Gas Income Funds ” which purchased royalties and working interests and made monthly distributions of net cash flow. The Fund activity began with $1,000,000 Funds raised primarily from high school and College “friends and family” investors and the Income Funds quickly established by far the best performance track record in the sector.
As the extreme slowdown of 1984 arrived it became a prime time to buy distressed assets in the Permian. With an excellent track record in place, when the crash of 1986 ultimately took prices below $10 per barrel , coupled with a majority of Energy Companies carrying too much debt as well as numerous Bankruptcies of both Energy Companies and Energy lenders ( see laundry list of huge Energy Bank failures , including the largest Independent Bank, First National of Midland and large Penn Square Bank in Oklahoma City) Southwest was able to raise $20,000,000 series of Individual Funds as well as Institutional Funds, ultimately raising nearly $100,000,000 of Funds and spending the proceeds effectively, achieving superior rates of return. As a tribute to the success of the Funds (more on this later) Southwest was later sold for $180,000,000 and the Funds, which still existed, continued to make steady distributions paying out many times over. Note, Wommack and team identified, did due diligence (with never a title or environmental issue), closed and assimilated hundreds of properties from 1983 through 1991.
In 1986 and thereafter, Southwest began to buy entire Companies which were under extreme duress from too much debt. This impressive list included companies with interesting historic attributes. The first “Corporate” acquisition was Ellwood Oil & Gas from Phillips Petroleum as Philips was in the midst of a hostile takeover battle with Boone Pickens. This single acquisition returned over five to one as we sold non-strategic properties and kept the best and mostly Permian properties.
Southwest also bought Midland Southwest Corporation with diverse properties including leases in New York, which were sold, once again retaining the Permian properties and as always retaining any Minerals and Royalties. The next corporate acquisition was the substantial Denenix U.S. Oil Company, a subsidiary of the giant international German Company. Interestingly, this acquisition was partially funded by the “pre-sale” of a large East Texas property at a very aggressive price to the then Energy subsidiary of Union Pacific Railroad.
In 1997, Southwest was able to purchase its largest single group of high quality producing properties from Conoco for $77,000,000. In conjunction with this acquisition and as a quick first step to an immediate Initial Public Offering, Southwest, as a private company, did a $200,000,000 Bond offering, using the proceeds to make the Conoco acquisition, pay off all bank debt and thankfully to add a substantial amount of cash to the balance sheet. After closing the Conoco acquisition and preparing the S1 for the Public Offering and as we were to begin the “road show” for the IPO, the oil price (crash of 1997) crashed and the IPO was pulled from the market.
Southwest weathered the long oil price storm which began in 1997 and in 2001, backed by the Trust Company of the West, was able to repurchase all outstanding Bond debt at roughly 50 cents on the dollar. The company had no bank debt.
In 2004 Southwest was sold for $180,000,000 achieving huge returns for the initial and early Equity (“friends and family” partners). Southwest had operated as many as 4,000 wells and at the time of sale operated roughly 2,200 wells.
The day after closing Southwest, Wommack opened, in the same offices and using equity from his sale and reinvestment of” friends and family “profits, Saber Resources. Saber was able to grow with very little equity through acquisitions but most substantially through development of a large property purchased in Bankruptcy, an area in which we have much experience as a buyer.
Saber Resources was able to grow steadily through 2008 when, by pure luck, it was sold in August, just prior to the price crash for a very aggressive (by the buyer) price of $90,000,000. Saber Oil & Gas Ventures was opened the next day, again in the same offices where Resources had operated.
Saber Oil & Gas has been able to acquire and develop numerous properties to date. The company purchased a large producing property in Andrews County, Texas based upon existing production and cash flow from the Wolfcamp formation. We soon discovered that the deeper Devonian formation could be successfully horizontally drilled, leading to the best discovery of my career and acquired via a conservative acquisition of a large producing property which turns out to have numerous pay zones and multiple locations.
In June, 2016, Wommack left the day to day running of Saber and founded Anchor Energy Resources, LLC.
Wommack started Anchor Energy Resources to take advantage of distressed or Bankrupt, under-managed properties in traditional vertical and primarily gas plays abundant in the Permian. The intention is to absolutely avoid the overvalued II hot II plays where with crazy acreage prices being paid, it is doubtful the economics will ultimately work. The focus on the 11 hot II glamorous horizontal plays have left the very economical traditional plays overlooked. There is little competition for these currently cash flowing properties and their upside potential.
In 2017, Wommack also started Warrior Technologies, LLC. Warrior is a company specializing in proprietary oil field tank and tank bottom cleaning, line locating, and packer services in the Permian Basin of West Texas and Southeast New Mexico.
Mr. Wommack is currently on the board of Amplisine Holdings, a high tech energy monitoring and Automation Company. Earlier in his career, Wommack purchased Midland Southwest Software near Bankruptcy, created and marketed OGAS, an oil and gas accounting and production software system.
Wommack has also been a passive investor in numerous real estate ventures since 1985. He currently serves as Chairman of Cibolo Creek Partners, a commercial real estate company, which actively purchases, develops and operates retail, medical, office, hotels and special care Alzheimer facilities.
Since 1991 Mr. Wommack has been involved in the energy service sector, founding Basic Energy Services in 1991. Wommack took Basic (BAS) public in 2003 and served as Chairman, President and CEO prior to taking the company public thereafter he remained on the board until 2009.
Just Oil Tools was founded by Wommack in 2008. Just Oil Tools later purchased Packer Sales and Rental, the oldest independent oil tool company in the Permian Basin. Both companies were later merged with Globe Energy Services where Wommack served as Chairman. Globe was recapitalized in 2017.
Wommack served on the board of C&J Energy Services (CJES) from 2010-2016. While on the C&J board he chaired the Compensation Committee. Wommack left C&J and has served on the Key Energy Services ( KES) board of directors since 2016 to present where he serves as the Chairman of the Audit Committee.
In August of 2017, Mr. Wommack founded Warrior Technologies, LLC. Warrior Technologies, LLC offers specialized, proprietary , competitively priced, economical, fast and super-efficient cleaning of tank bottoms, tank battery clean up, pit clean outs, Hydro Excavating and line finding.
In 2012, Mr. Wommack founded and chaired Petro Waste Environmental. Petro Waste permitted, built and operated oil field solid waste disposal facilities in the Permian and Eagle Ford. Petro Waste sold to Waste Management in a major transaction in February, 2019.