This is the second in a series of reports shedding light on who is financing the Obama campaign. Today we focus on Obama’s oil & natural gas connections which run deeper than any other candidate. Despite Obama’s claims that he doesn’t take money from oil companies, which are frankly among the most duplicitous claims made by any candidate to date since the 1907 Tillman Act prohibits direct contributions to political candidates from corporations. Senator Obama has done quite well with oil & gas executives nonetheless.
Gracie & Robert Cavnar
Both of this Houston-based husband & wife team are bundlers for Obama. Gracie Cavnar does not actually run any oil companies yet she is listed in financial disclosures by the Obama campaign as being the CEO of Milagro Exploration LLC, a privately held exploration and production company. Her husband is actually the CEO. Mrs. Cavnar instead works to combat childhood obesity through a program she founded called Recipe for Success. Both Recipe for Success and Milagro Exploration list the Houston address (1401 McKinney, Suite 925, Houston, TX 77010) as their place of business. Obesity and natural gas, it’s a match.
Mr. Cavnar is listed in Obama’s financial disclosures as the CEO of Mission Resources. Formerly known as Bellweather Exploration, Mission Resources was an independent company that explored for oil and natural gas along the Texas and Louisiana Gulf Coast and in the Permian Basin of West Texas and southeastern New Mexico. The funny thing is that Mission Resources ceased to exist as an independent entity in April 2005. Combined the Cavnars have bundled at least $100,000 for the Obama campaign.
The rather odd thing is the tangled web of financial transactions the Milagro Exploration and Mission Resources. In April 2005, Petrohawk Energy Corporation agreed to acquire Mission Resources Corporation in a cash-and-stock transaction. Under the terms of the deal, Petrohawk acquired Mission Resources for $135 million in cash and about 19.2 million Petrohawk shares. Petrohawk also assumed all of Mission Resources debt. During his tenure at Mission, Cavnar led the recovery of the company’s financial strength through balance-sheet restructuring and realignment of producing properties. The firm’s market capitalization rose from approximately $13 million to $350 million at the merger. Then in December 2007, George Cavnar and his new company, Milagro Exploration then reacquired some of the assets they had sold back from Petrohawk Energy. And yet this year, Milagro faced an industry credit crunch and the deal seemed on the verge of falling apart. However, Milagro was able to raise $825 million to pay for the Petrohawk acquisition by securing an investment from Eschelon Energy Partners, a private equity firm that specializes in the oil & gas industry and which is run by Thomas Glanville. And who is Thomas Glanville? A Bush-Cheney energy man. And who voted for the Bush-Cheney Energy Plan? Barack Obama. There is more to Barack Obama’s energy connections than meets the eye.