BizBahrain Magazine Nov-Dec 2017

Interview | Licorne Energy
ENERGY INVESTMENTS
FOR THE REGION
Irina Duisimbekova, a long term
resident entrepreneur in Manama
and President & Founder of Licorne
Energy in Houston Texas, along with
Omar Minhaj, President & Founder of
Flamingo Oil in Houston shared with
a panel of investors and diplomats
the new business model their mutual
companies would offer in GCC and
Bahrain based on oil Royalties revenues,
Cocktail & conference held at
the Capital Club of Bahrain, we had
the opportunity to interview them
on this model and their vision of the
cooperation between Texas industries
and the Gulf.
Can you share with us what Licorne
Energy is all about and what it offers for
the investor?
IRINA: Licorne Energy is a Texas
based company that offers to investors
several economic mechanisms in oil &
gas field. One of our core investments are
royalties in oil & gas that can generate
to our investors a fast return, usually
within 4-5 years, with 20-25% gross profit
per year and monthly cash income after
three months following the investment.
Basically, an investor, invests in a
physical production of oil or gas barrels
and get his quota of produced barrels
per day sold by a market current price
which gives him/her a monthly revenu
with proportion of the size of initial
investments.
We are constantly looking for new
royalties with our partner Flamingo Oil
International in order to increase our
portfolio of investments and offer more
flexibility and choice to our investors.
Where do you see energy investment
escalating and diminishing across the
GCC?
OMAR: Energy investments will
continue to grow in the GCC region for
the very fact that the oil & gas reserves
sizes are huge and will continue to
require important investments from
global investors to develop the resource
and infrastructure in the GCC along with
the Governments. Oil demand is solid
and increasing and for last 3 years the
capital investments have been quiet
sluggish due to the weak oil prices
which will have its effects on the reserve
replacements and adding production
capacity for the market. All across GCC
the investments will escalate to catch up
with global oil demand.
What are your interactions with third
parties and what type of activity do you
undertake with them?
OMAR: We work closely with third
parties mainly drilling and completion
services companies and to some
extent EPC contractors to build out
production facilities and water disposal
infrastructure, oil services were hardest
hit due to oil price collapse and a
number of companies went through re
structuring and lay off’s, there will be a
human talent problem in this sector due
to the lack of upstream investments.
How will an investor benefit when they
participate in Licorne’s schemes?
IRINA: Licorne Energy offers to its
investors a large portfolio of investments
in oil & gas royalties and also services
that come along with this type of
investment, from setting up a local
structure based in USA, opening bank
account, obtaining tax identification
number, accounting services, legal
services etc. Basically, Licorne
Energy will handle all the necessary
administrative and legal stages that
concern acquisition of an oil & gas
royalty.
What differentiates you from similar
organizations within your competitors in
oil & gas or from trading houses?
OMAR: We purely focus on E&P
business and keep our operations lean
and efficient to produce the barrel of
oil at a profitable rate, we are not in
the trading business and certainly
interested in working together on some
bigger development across the globe
with them.
Why this kind of investments could be
attractive for GCC investors?
OMAR & IRINA: In reality, this
product has been tailored made upopn
the request of our usual investors from
Saudi Arabia, Bahrain and Kuwait which
were looking for something different
that most of the investment industry is
proposing locally. Gcc investors asked
us to present them something secure
with a fast return on investment and
double digit return, and mainly allowing
to have immediate available cash flow
on a monthly basis immediately after 90
days maximum from the deposit on the
account of the investment, compare to
classic investments where you have to
freeze your money for 5-7 years or even
more which is the case of real estate and
54 November-December 2017