Drillinginfo Acquires MineralSoft to Expand Focus on Managing Mineral and Non-operated Interests
Targets $1 trillion asset class with differentiated technology solution
Jan 15, 2019, 09:26 ET
AUSTIN, Texas, Jan. 15, 2019 /PRNewswire/ -- Drillinginfo, the leading energy SaaS and data analytics company, announced today it has acquired MineralSoft, a software platform designed to make managing mineral, royalty, and non-operated working interests easier and more profitable.
Collaboration between Drillinginfo and MineralSoft began in 2017 when the two companies announced a strategic alliance focused on understanding the value of mineral and non-operated assets by providing portfolio insights and analytics in real time. MineralSoft leverages Drillinginfo data and is best known for its comprehensive, user-friendly platform designed to combine critical data sets for managing mineral and non-operated portfolios, including revenue and expense data; production and regulatory data; and a full land and document management system.
Drillinginfo analysts believe oil and gas mineral interests in the U.S. generate more than $50 billion per year in income for nearly 12 million owners. Unfortunately, tools to access, monitor, and effectively manage these interests are severely limited, with owners often suffering from limited information to value their assets. Mineral interests are one of the most valuable, yet least liquid, asset classes in energy today.
"When it comes to minerals, there are thousands of operators, varying lease terms and fee structures, countless payments being made and audits to perform. Managing mineral interests in thousands of wells is far too complex to be handled on a spreadsheet or using an accounting system alone," said Jeff Hughes, CEO and President of Drillinginfo. "Mineral interest owners want to know if they are being paid correctly, how commodity price changes will affect them, and how their interests stack up compared to their neighbors or competitors," said Hughes.
"Traditionally, E&P-centric software tools had been repurposed toward mineral and non-operated asset management to address activity tracking, audit, and portfolio intelligence. The resulting solutions simply were not a good fit, and MineralSoft seized the opportunity to build a category-defining company focused solely on this asset class. What previously was a cottage industry of mineral buyers has turned into an important $1 trillion asset class with more players, greater sophistication, and much more capital. We're seeing significant private equity allocations to minerals and non-operated assets, a growing number of large aggregators and public companies in this area, as well as an increasing awareness among the E&P community that a dedicated non-operated strategy can be an important way to drive incremental value from their asset base," said Hughes.
Gabe Wilcox, CEO and Co-Founder at MineralSoft added, "The most exciting part of this acquisition is on the technology and data exchange side. We know our systems work seamlessly together because we've been collaborating for nearly two years. Every monthly revenue statement or joint interest billing that our customers receive, which might consist of hundreds of pages and thousands of line items, is full of potentially valuable data and actionable insights about the portfolio, but it's hard to unlock that value when the data is sitting in a static spreadsheet, filing cabinet, or – almost as bad – in an oil and gas accounting system that was never designed to be a portfolio management and analytics tool."
By digging deeper into asset inventory, land documents, and monthly revenue and expense data in the context of regulatory and other asset information, Drillinginfo answers questions that are important for mineral and non-operated owners and for reporting to shareholders impacted by strategic decisions, such as forecasting asset values, identifying inaccurate or missing payments, and providing insights into portfolio performance.
Currently, MineralSoft works with more than 120 institutional clients, and handles more than $100M of royalty and non-operated revenue monthly across 225,000 client-owned wells. In 2018 alone, MineralSoft clients logged more than $1.3B of mineral acquisitions on the platform.
Drillinginfo recently acquired Oildex, the largest oil & gas financial automation software firm in North America, and announced intent to acquire Cortex, a Network-as-a-Service company that enables automation of accounts payable and receivable (AP and AR) processes for the oil and gas industry.
About Drillinginfo
Drillinginfo delivers business-critical insights to the energy, power, and commodities markets. Its state-of-the-art SaaS platform offers sophisticated technology, powerful analytics, and industry-leading data. Drillinginfo's solutions deliver value across upstream, midstream and downstream markets, empowering exploration and production (E&P), oilfield services, midstream, utilities, trading and risk, and capital markets companies to be more collaborative, efficient, and competitive. Drillinginfo delivers actionable intelligence over mobile, web, and desktop to analyze and reduce risk, conduct competitive benchmarking, and uncover market insights. Drillinginfo is a portfolio company of Genstar Capital and serves over 5,000 companies globally from its Austin, Texas, headquarters and has more than 1,000 employees. For more information visit drillinginfo.com.
About MineralSoft
MineralSoft, previously backed by Cottonwood Venture Partners, Blue Bear Capital, and Y Combinator, is the leading software platform for managing minerals, royalties, and non-operated working interests. Focused exclusively on helping owners of these non-operated assets maximize value, MineralSoft delivers powerful revenue and land management solutions through its SaaS platform. MineralSoft's customers include investment funds, foundations and endowments, corporations and institutions, family offices and trusts, and individuals. The platform helps customers manage their mineral portfolios more efficiently, maximize revenue across all their assets, and make informed, data-driven decisions. MineralSoft has 35 employees and is headquartered in Austin, Texas. Learn more at mineralsoft.com.
SOURCE Drillinginfo