A Conversation with USEG Management

Today I spoke with U.S. Energy Corp. (NASDAQ: USEG) CEO Keith Larsen, CFO Scott Lorimer, and Director of Investor Relations Reggie Larsen, who initiated the call. Some notes from the conversation follow.

- The Brigham Exploration (NASDAQ: BEXP) is intended to make USEG profitable as an oil company alone. CEO Keith Larsen said the company looked at about a hundred oil deals, and looked closely at ten, before picking this one.

- Estimated cumulative revenue from the first six wells (assuming oil prices stay at about ~$70 per barrel) is $1.7 million to $2 million per month, dropping off to about $1 million per month after a year of production.


- USEG is close to a financing deal that will let it borrow $15 million against its Remington Village development at about 5.5% interest. This money may be used for follow up investments in the Bakken field with BEXP. Occupancy there has drifted below 90%, but the management is working to get it back up (by allowing pets, etc.).

- Keith Larsen predicted that USEG's investment in Standard Steam Trust would be a ten-bagger within two years. He noted the advantages of Geothermal versus other alternatives such as solar and wind (Geothermal's always on, so it doesn't need a back up power source), and mentioned that a Canadian geothermal company, Magma Energy recently raised over $100 million in an IPO.

- Re the molybdenum project, Keith and Reggie said that they've been moving forward with preliminary steps on it, but have eschewed publicizing most of them to avoid stirring up the vocal radical environmental opposition. They noted that local blue collar workers have stopped by their offices looking for work, expressing support in the mine project, and asking what they could do to help make it happen. With a weak economy, opposition to the creation of numerous high-paying jobs may lose some political valence.