In my last article on Kodiak (AMEX: KOG), I mentioned how the oil rush in North Dakota is slowly turning the tide in favor of investors and companies. Newly released data substantiate my view.
The ongoing Middle East crisis has already taken a toll on global oil supply, pushing prices beyond the $100-per-barrel mark. While events unfolding in the Middle East world have not gone down well with investors, a jump in Kodiak's estimated proven reserves have brought a small sigh of relief. At the end of 2010, the company's reserves had surged an impressive 158% to about 11.5 million barrels of oil equivalent (MMBoe), compared with 4.5 MMBoe at the end of 2009. In other words, Kodiak is for real.
Here to stay
This company's future appears exciting, even as one crisis after another threatens to derail an already shaky global economic recovery. According to a 2008 estimate by the United States Geological Survey (USGS), the Bakken Formation holds up to 4.3 billion barrels of technically recoverable oil. Of course, as of now, this is only about a tenth of the 46.4 billion barrels of proven oil reserves in Libya. However, there is every chance that this value may be revised upward as more detail comes up via survey, as we have just seen for Kodiak.
Who knows?
If major players in the Bakken oil play like ExxonMobil (NYSE: XOM) and Continental Resources (NYSE: CLR) can crank up their production levels along with the smaller players like Kodiak, the country might not even need to import the estimated 71,000 bbl/d from Libya that it currently does. Of course, this is just a speculation, but it's definitely worth a thought.
An energy-hungry world and rising oil prices have, without doubt, put Kodiak -- and similar companies -- on the right track. This, I believe, will likely help the company's bottom line.
The Foolish bottom line
The company estimates that its future net cash flows from proved reserves, discounted at an annual rate of 10 percent before giving effect to income taxes, to be a little over $161 million. This is a huge 312% increase as compared with $39.1 million in 2009. This value shows the jump in the worth of the company's proved assets. With more cash than debt and an unstable oil environment in the medium term, the future looks really exciting for investors in this stock. Investing in this stock will be a safe bet in the long run.
