It is a gratifying and somewhat rare experience when things go according to plan, when events unfold more or less as intended, despite the multitude of ways they can go wrong. Indeed, best laid plans, as the saying goes, often go awry.
At Saturn Oil & Gas Inc., the plan – a blueprint put together a number of years ago – has not only worked out, it has worked out well. To the satisfaction of CEO John Jeffrey, the strategy has resulted in the fastest growing energy company in Canada, and the fourth fastest growing in the Americas.
“It’s really exciting times for us right now,” Jeffrey confirms from Saturn’s offices in downtown Calgary. “We’re thrilled. We’ve had a lot of growth and a lot of success. The best part is we put together a blueprint a number of years ago, and to see it in action, to see the success actually materialize from how we planned it, relatively in line with what we expected, is really exciting for us.”
Impressive growth, to be sure. Saturn’s production has increased from 300 barrels per day in 2021 to 43,000 today. With only five employees in the early days, the company now has three offices and almost 400 employees.
A primarily light oil company (85 per cent liquids), Saturn’s blueprint is straightforward and effective: target light oil mid-lifecycle assets in places it knows and that are adjacent to its own assets, and where the team believes they can add value.
“To see the team execute the blueprint and grow and continue to be successful,” Jeffrey says, “has been a lot of fun to watch and one of the biggest honours of my life.”
The company was formed in 2001 as a junior mining exploration play in minerals, gold and coal. Though the company eventually discovered one of the largest coal seams in North America, coal prices cratered at the same time and the project was abandoned.
Oil became the next target and with some promising projects, Saturn’s leadership approached Axiom Exploration, then run by Jeffrey and Justin Kaufmann, now Saturn’s chief development officer.
“At the time, Axiom was a venture Justin and I had started,” Jeffrey explains. “Saturn came to us and asked us to step in. They had no assets, no cash. But they were publicly traded and had a good shareholder base. We took over starting from zero.”
Jeffrey and Kaufmann [NM1] purchased their first production in 2017 and grew more or less organically from there. “When we first started, we couldn’t really afford to pay ourselves,” Jeffrey reminisces. “We were going out in the fields on weekends, taking up our plans, doing everything at $60 oil. We learned to be very efficient. And that’s one thing that Justin and I carried with us the whole time: to operate lean, and be efficient and nimble.”
While Jeffrey’s background is in finance, Kaufmann [NM2] is a geologist by trade: “Our opening joke every time is that he’s dirt, I’m dollars,” Jeffrey chuckles.
Following the blueprint, Saturn has made six material acquisitions since 2017 and has looked at over 120 prospects. “I don’t want to own anything we can’t add value to,” he explains. “We have to be able to add material value to it for us to be interested in buying it, or we have to get it at such a ridiculous price that the cashflow speaks for itself.”
Mid-lifecycle assets that are contiguous to Saturn’s assets, and where all the infrastructure is in place, are attractive. “If we can step in and reduce the cost by five or 10 per cent, find little ways to get incremental reserves out of the ground, then it starts to make material value creation,” Jeffrey says. “We’re relatively shallow oil guys, which is to say, I don’t have the stomach to drill deep.”
Saturn’s three core areas are southeast Saskatchewan, west Saskatchewan and central Alberta. Saskatchewan is near and dear to Saturn’s core; both Jeffrey and Kaufmann [NM3] are University of Saskatchewan grads, as are the other three original guys at the company.
“I think we’re the fourth largest producer in Saskatchewan, and we have a lot of pride in those Saskatchewan roots,” Jeffrey says. “We like being able to work with the government and we give back quite a lot to the communities there.”
“Southeast Saskatchewan is our crown jewel,” he continues. “That would be the biggest piece of operation we have. Most of our tier one inventory is down there. Right now, we have 2,300 drilling locations, which can help keep our production there flat for about the next 20 years.”
He notes that Saturn is not a high growth company but rather targets keeping production flat and paying down debt quickly. “We’re not high growth or high risk,” he says. “We hedge out a lot of oil. We’ve maintained about a 55 per cent hedge over the next 12 months. So, if oil goes to $0 per barrel, we are cashflow positive for 12 months.”
Major disturbances to the price of oil typically last between eight and 11 months (the COVID pandemic disruption, for example, lasted about 11 months and saw Saturn’s production drop from 1,400 barrels per day to 300). Hence the strategy of maintaining a hedge book for that duration, in order to bridge it and survive to the other side.
When it comes to future plans, Jeffrey is hesitant to commit to specific targets. “Our goal is to be opportunistic,” he explains. “The reason we spend so much effort paying down debt is to keep us nimble and flexible so that if a good deal comes up, we can buy it. I want to do what makes the most sense for the business at the time.”
For example, he notes Saturn’s acquisition of Ridgeback Resources in 2023, where it paid 1.7-times cashflow: “It was one of the best deals we’ve seen, it was fantastic for us. It was a no-brainer. If that deal came up every six months, I would do my best to buy it at the same metrics. But for $1.2 billion, I don’t want it.”
He also points out how in the second quarter of 2025, Saturn’s debt was trading at 85 to 87 cents on the dollar, so they purchased $20 million worth of it. “We spent $20 million buying up debt because it was cheap,” he explains. “But now it’s trading at over 100 cents on the dollar, so it no longer makes sense to buy it. We just try to be flexible and do whatever’s going to give us the highest rate of return. Hopefully shareholders trust that.”
With a relatively young team (Jeffrey is 41), the entrepreneurial thinking that comes from operating outside of big oil company playbooks is both common at Saturn and an advantage. “We just do what makes sense for us,” he says. “Being a younger company means doing things a different way. We try to have fun events. Some of my closest friends work here and I think that’s the case for a lot of people. We work hard, play hard, and have a lot of social groups and committees to share the culture.”
Respect for each other is paramount: “This is one team. We have one set of goals, regardless of what independent responsibilities we have. We’re all working towards the same thing. We like it open, collaborative and in the same direction.”
A commitment to ESG principles manifests in meaningful ways. As one of the first companies to roll out bitcoin mining at its operations, Saturn found a way to use strata gas rather than flare or vent it.
The company also gives back. “The causes we’re really passionate about are children’s health and families,” he says. “We’re a big donor to Ronald McDonald House and Children’s Cottage Society. We typically do a couple larger donations per year and then donate as much as we can in the communities in which we operate.”
Saturn also offers internships to university students, a way to encourage young people interested in the industry: “It’s a way to get more exposure, more eyes, more excitement. To show the next generation that the energy industry can be sustainable and done in a responsible way.”
With a solid blueprint and a young, passionate team, the sky’s the limit for Saturn. Surely they will stick to the plan.
