Just like a fine wine, the AAPG Prospect
and Property Expo keeps getting better with age.
Indeed, this year's third annual APPEX event encouraging
you to "Live Long and Prospect" appears destined to be the best
yet when it kicks off Sept. 9 for a three-day meet at the George
R. Brown Convention Center in Houston.
The organizers, including co-conveners SIPES, the
Houston Geological Society and PLS, anticipate the get-together
will attract 3,000 attendees and 400 booths, a significant jump
ahead of the 2002 total of 2,000 registrants and 300 booths.
Dan Doss, vice president of exploration at prospect-generating-shop
RIMCO Production succinctly sums up the appeal:
"What you've got is buyers who are truly looking
for prospects, and they've found you so you didn't go looking for
them," Doss said. "They're already interested in a trend, a certain
type of prospect.
"You have the opportunity to make maybe 30-40 presentations
a day and present to two or three potential buyers at once," he
noted. "Also, some of them have positive things to share because
they're aware of things in the area or the trend."
Doss believes prospect expos are the only way to
go.
"I've been attending these shows since way back when
NAPE started theirs," he said. "I've sold prospects at every show
or at least within two weeks as a direct result of being in the
show.
"But you can't structure the timing so that all your
prospects come up early in the year," he noted. "Having APPEX is
perfect -- it's what was needed."
RIMCO's APPEX experience represents one of many success
stories spawned by the expo.
The company had two booths at last year's event,
where its prospect offerings included a deal in LaFourche Parish,
La, which was being marketed for the first time. By the second day
of the meeting, it boasted a "sold" sign. A well was drilling there
at 7,200 feet at press time.
"Instead of spending hours on the phone arranging
for presentations for office meetings and visiting with 15-20 companies
trying to find one that's the right fit for the prospect and spending
$10 - $20 thousand on prospect brochures," Doss said, "we sold it
at APPEX in one day.
"The money spent on a booth is less than 10 percent
of taking a prospect door-to-door," he said, "and the exposure is
phenomenal."
He compared the expo experience to a sale done in
the "old style."
The company recently had to market a property that
had farmout issues, so it had to be moved too quickly to wait for
the upcoming APPEX.
"I made about 30 phone calls and sent executive summaries
via e-mail to 30 companies to get four presentations," Doss said.
"I basically spent three or four hours a day on the phone for a
week."
Like a number of other companies, RIMCO utilizes
the APPEX advantage to the max, playing both sides of the fence
as buyer and seller. The typical pattern is to buy maybe six prospects
either at the show or shortly thereafter.
"A lot of companies don't want to buy until the show,"
Doss said. "If they only buy four or five a year, they can look
at 70 or 80 there, and the odds of finding the type prospect they're
looking for is way higher at APPEX than otherwise."
Shortly after APPEX 2002, RIMCO sold still another
prospect -- this one to 3TEC Energy (currently in merger mode with
Plains Exploration) -- as a direct result of the event.
"We saw the deal at APPEX and made an appointment
to see it in more detail," said Charles Cusack, senior geologist
at 3TEC. "We wound up taking it in three days, and I was nervous
because they had shown it to so many at APPEX," he said. "But he
honored that we were working with him.
"Then the first prospect indirectly led to another
one that we took and drilled with them," Cusack said. "In fact,
that's what led us to postpone drilling the first one."
Cusack said he has definite plans to attend APPEX
2003.
"Even if you don't buy," he said, "a lot of times
it leads to something else you're working on and maybe fixing to
show."
And there's nothing like a success story to motivate
a company to go for an encore.
"We'll be back this year with two booths and three
prospects," Doss noted.