Magnolia Petroleum (LON:MAGP) is an AIM listed independent oil and gas exploration and production company, targeting prime areas of US oil and gas development in North Dakota and Oklahoma. Having been invested in Magnolia Petroleum since the company moved onto the AIM during late 2011, and having previously conducted a satellite Q&A interview with Rita Fern Whittington, the Magnolia Petroleum, Chief Operations Officer, I was delighted to have the opportunity to meet up with her in person at the St Brides Media and Finance office at Bow Lane yesterday.
I was actually visiting London this week primarily to attend the Annual Retail Lecture, delivered by the John Lewis Chairman, Charlie Mayfield at the very impressive Willis building. The lecture was very insightful and useful to me as a Business Studies Lecturer (as opposed to the usual staff development such as using SMART boards or differentiation or health and safety!) and threw many thought provoking ideas with regards to the sector going forward. So while in town, I decided to make the most of my time and met up with Rita Whittington and also separately, Gerald Cheyne of Kalimantan Gold (LON:KLG) for a pleasant Starbucks coffee and catch up following the recent Q&A.
A big part of my investing strategy is the quality of management and how approachable they are especially to the private investors and I must say that the experience of meeting Rita Whittington was for me personally a total pleasure and I found her a very warm, realistic and sincere person. Rita, a Petroleum Landman with 32 years experience in the oil and gas industry was clearly very knowledgeable about the operational aspects, the O&G sector and the opportunities that Magnolia were hoping to capitalise on. Previously, I have met up with many O&G bosses, and it’s on occasions a big spin from beginning to end with a big promise of jam tomorrow, Rita stuck to the facts, highlighting what they have achieved to date, where they are going and the plan to get to there. After meeting up with Rita, it has reaffirmed my personal investment strategy for Magnolia Petroleum.
To start off, I asked Rita, what do you hope to achieve during your visit to the capital and can you give us a flavour of the meetings and appointments you…
