Waterous leaves Scotiabank

Waterous is leaving his job as global head of investment banking at Scotiabank to start his own private equity company and bet on the next Alberta drilling boom.

Waterous Energy has raised $400 million from investors including Gordon Flatt to capitalize on emerging opportunities in the Canadian and U.S. energy industry, Waterous said Friday. The fund will target controlling positions in private, unconventional oil and gas companies in regions like the Montney and Permian basins.

Technology in unconventional oil and gas has produced returns that are becoming increasingly attractive, Waterous, 55, said.

“The returns have gotten better because the reserves each well is producing has gotten larger and larger,” he said. “Now what you’re having for the first time — and you see it most obviously in Western Canada in the Montney — are companies recording astounding production gains on a year-over-year basis,”

He said that has been demonstrated by companies like Seven Generations Energy Ltd., Tourmaline Oil Corp. and others in Western Canada.

“As an investor, this has gone from an industry of fairly mediocre returns for a long period of time to one where the returns are quite spectacular,” he said. “Now you have a situation where you have this great technology working even in a low-price environment.”

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