Given this history, energy investors are primed to be suspicious. As a result, energy entrepreneurship attracts good storytellers. For conventional energy companies, each attempt to drill has a cost, and companies sometimes need to raise funds after a series of dry holes. While they could raise more capital up front, doing so would mean giving away more of the upside if they were to get lucky early. The companies that survive this dynamic are often those that operate in a chronically under-capitalized way, and are therefore good at convincing investors to take the risk and fund one last
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