OpStrat
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A gloved hand resting on the handwheel of a wellhead gate valve at dusk
Upstream Energy Operating & Advisory

One team from the wellhead to the capital stack.

Principals who have run the wells and closed the deals. Built for owners, family offices, lenders, and non‑operated partners.

Begin descent
Across their careers
  • $5B+M&A closed
  • $2B+Capital deployed
  • 3,000+Wellbores
The full arc

See clearly.
Decide responsibly.
Operate better.

One team across the arcOPERATE · OPTIMIZE · ENABLE · ADVANCE
The arc
Where value is made, lost, or decided.

We work at every point on this line. Each stage is where something physical or financial happens; each diamond is a decision that connects one stage to the next.

Hover or tap any stage or decision. Click to pin it.Tap any stage or decision. Tap again to release.
The usual way, and ours
14+
separate contributors to manage
1
accountable team,
wellhead to capital stack
The usual way
A field operatoran AI consultanta drilling engineera completions engineera reservoir engineera geologista GIS & mapping analysta regulatory & HSE consultanta land & title shopan accounting groupa marketing & hedging deska treasury & FP&A teama capital & M&A advisora systems & data vendor

Separate hires, each speaking a different language, with the handoff gaps in between where value quietly leaks.

The OpStrat way
One team. One language. One set of facts.

Principals who have run these functions at the top, so the decision made in the office reflects what is actually happening at the well.

When to call us

The moments we usually get the call.

Four common reasons clients call, and all of them doors into the same four disciplines below. If it is upstream and consequential, ask; you will get a straight answer either way.

What we do

Four disciplines along one line.

01
How do we execute responsibly today?
Operate
01OPERATE

Operate

How do we execute responsibly today?

We take on the day-to-day management of running energy assets safely, reliably, and cost-effectively. You get a hands-on operating team accountable for what happens in the field and in the ledger, not a consultant who reviews it after the fact. You remain operator of record; the permit, the bonds, and the revenue stay in your name. We run the field, the vendors, the close, and the reporting under it.

Services
Field operations managementProduction & HSEPost-close transitionBack office & accountingInterim operating leadership
What arrives
  • A Day 1 readiness plan and a first-100-day operating plan, with an owner against every line
  • A monthly operating package: production, LOE, capital against plan, and a variance note on anything that moved
  • A field and vendor roster you can audit
02
What is actually happening, and what should improve?
Optimize
02OPTIMIZE

Optimize

What is actually happening, and what should improve?

We pull the production data, the well files, and the ledger into one view, and use it to lift production, cut avoidable cost, and sharpen the decisions the numbers drive. We separate what the data supports from what we are assuming, and name the uncertainty plainly.

Services
DiagnosticsReservoir & subsurfaceProduction optimizationEconomicsForecasting
What arrives
  • A well-by-well diagnostic that separates what was measured from what was assumed
  • A ranked list of actions, with the evidence and the uncertainty
  • A forecast kept next to the outcome
03
What has to still work after we leave?
Enable
03ENABLE

Enable

What has to still work after we leave?

We build the parts of an operation that outlast us: a monthly close and reporting a lender will trust; subsurface and engineering judgment (geology, reservoir, completions, production) wired into how the next well and the next dollar get decided; systems that turn scattered well files and ledgers into decisions; and clear ownership of every call. AI takes the clerical load, and a person still signs the conclusion. The test: after we step back, it still runs.

Services
Finance & systemsOperating-model designOrg & governanceAI-enabled workflowsPost-project lookbacks
What arrives
  • A close calendar and a monthly reporting pack a lender can read
  • A decision-rights matrix
  • A written operating manual, so the next hire runs it without us
04
What should we do next?
Advance
04ADVANCE

Advance

What should we do next?

We sit on your side of the table for the decisions that are hard to reverse: what to buy, what to sell, what to borrow against, and when to walk away. We build the model you will actually be underwritten on, and we write down the reasoning and the dissent. Because we have operated, the advice carries the weight of the crew that will have to run it the day after it closes.

Services
Corporate & portfolio strategyM&A and diligenceCapital structure advisoryLender & investor materials
What arrives
  • The model you will be underwritten on, with known, assumed, and forecast kept separate
  • A written recommendation with the reasoning and the dissent
  • Lender and investor materials built from the same numbers the field reports
What we believe

Trust is borrowed judgment.

When an owner trusts an operator, they are borrowing that operator's judgment instead of forming their own. It is a loan, and loans can be called. An operator keeps the loan outstanding not by being right every time, but by keeping the reasoning visible. Field and office should work from the same data for the same reason: shared facts are what make borrowed judgment safe to extend.

The partners

Principals accountable for the barrel and the balance sheet.

Careers at Pioneer Natural Resources · Range Resources · Teal Natural Resources · Revenant Energy · Pitts Oil · PricewaterhouseCoopers Prior sponsors, JV partner & faculty NGP Energy Capital · Pearl Energy · ConocoPhillips · SMU

Why OpStrat

Strategy disciplined by operating reality.

No handoff gaps

Field, subsurface, and commercial sit on the same team and work from the same facts. Nothing falls between providers, and no provider points at another when something goes wrong.

Disciplined and traceable

Decisions are owned and can be traced back to what they rest on. When something changes, you can see who decided, on what evidence, and what happened next.

Grounded in operating reality

We come from operations, not slide decks. Our recommendations are shaped by real field experience, and we stand behind how they turn out on the ground.

Clarity for owners and lenders

Our reporting separates what is known from what is assumed and what is forecast. The people funding the work can see that difference.

Experience & reach

Operating experience across sixteen states.

Across our careers, the companies we have worked in have operated from the Permian and Eagle Ford to the Rockies, the Mid-Continent, and Appalachia. Our advisory, capital, and management-services work is not bound to any of it; it follows the assets and the decisions.

Alaska · inset 01Midland Basin 02Eagle Ford 03East Texas 04Appalachia

Shaded: states where the principals have contributed to projects for prior employers or as consultants. Pins: four positions from their own records, two per principal.

Anchors
  1. 01
    Midland Basin
    600,000 acres originally mapped.
    Neil Basu
  2. 02
    Eagle Ford
    150 operated wellbores, $250MM+ deployed, exit to two public companies.
    Neil Basu
  3. 03
    East Texas
    A 100,000-acre E&P: finance function built from launch as its CFO, through an institutional capital raise.
    Mike Perkes
  4. 04
    Appalachia
    Public-company finance and strategy on the Marcellus program.
    Mike Perkes
Sixteen states, by region
  • Texas & New MexicoTexas, New Mexico
  • Gulf CoastLouisiana, Mississippi
  • Mid-Continent & Ark-La-TexOklahoma, Kansas, Arkansas
  • RockiesNorth Dakota, Montana, Colorado, Utah
  • AppalachiaPennsylvania, Ohio, West Virginia, Virginia
  • Alaska

How we work

Who you meet is who you get.

You deal with a principal from the first call, and the partner who scopes the work stays accountable for it through delivery. Most engagements arrive through people who already know how we operate, but a cold note gets the same treatment: a straight answer about whether we are the right fit. The engagement itself is simple: scope it, do the work, hand it back.

01

Scope

A conversation first, then a written scope: the decision on the table, the deliverables, the people, the timing, and the fee. Signed before anything is billed.

02

Work

The work happens against the operating facts, with the field, the subsurface, and the ledger in one view, and the partner who signed the scope accountable end to end.

03

Handback

Every scope says how it ends: a date, a milestone, or ten business days’ notice from either side. The deliverables stay with you, in files you can open and change, built to keep running after we step back.

What holds for every engagement
  1. 01

    Fees

    Hourly, a monthly retainer, or a fixed fee against a defined scope. On larger projects where skin in the game makes sense, a contingency or success fee. Set in writing before work starts.

  2. 02

    People

    The people named in your statement of work are the people who do the work, from a principal to a wellsite supervisor. We do not swap a named person without talking to you first.

  3. 03

    Candor

    When something moves, you hear it from us in writing, and where we disagree with you, we say so.

  4. 04

    Confidentiality

    We sign your NDA before we see your data. We do not name clients or their assets on this page.

We take on only what we can genuinely move, and we will tell you plainly when we are not the right fit.


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