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Daily Insider Buy Stocks
Discuss stocks with recent Insider purchases. Our staff starts off a topic about a stock that has recent insider purchase. We do not provide commentary but use facts directly from the SEC Filings. The goal is to have the community do the scuttlebutt so that we all can profit together.

• The Daily Insider Buying Stock for 12/15/2008 is Venoco Inc.
  Venoco Inc. CEO Timothy Marquez bought 750000 shares on 12-08-2008 at $2.8
  
  BUSINESS OVERVIEW
  
  We are an independent energy company primarily engaged in the acquisition, exploration, exploitation and development of oil and natural gas properties. Since our founding in 1992, our core areas of focus have been offshore and onshore California. Our principal properties are located offshore southern California, onshore in California's Sacramento Basin and onshore along the Gulf Coast of Texas, and are characterized by long reserve lives, predictable production profiles and substantial opportunities for further exploitation and development.
  
  We are one of the largest independent oil and natural gas companies in California based on production volumes. According to a reserve report prepared by DeGolyer & MacNaughton, we had proved reserves of approximately 99.9 MMBOE as of December 31, 2007, of which 64% were oil and 61% were proved developed. The PV-10 value of our proved reserves as of that date was approximately $2.4 billion. Our definition of PV-10, and a reconciliation of a standardized measure of discounted future net cash flows to PV-10, is set forth in "Management's Discussion and Analysis of Financial Condition and Results of Operation—PV-10 Value and Reserve Replacement Costs." Our average net production in the fourth quarter of 2007 was 20,098 BOE/d, implying a proved reserves to production ratio of 13.6 years.
  
  Our Strengths
  
  We believe that the following strengths provide us with significant competitive advantages:
  
  High quality asset base with a long reserve life. Most of our reserves are located in fields that have large volumes of hydrocarbons in place in multiple geologic horizons. One of our primary objectives is to use our engineering expertise to improve recovery rates from these fields and thereby increase our production and reserves. Our offshore California fields and our Texas Gulf Coast fields generally have well-established production histories and exhibit relatively moderate production declines. As of December 31, 2007, our proved reserves to production ratio was 13.6 years and our proved developed reserves to production ratio was 8.3 years, in each case based on production during the fourth quarter of 2007. We believe that this relatively stable base of long-lived production is a strong platform to support further growth in our reserves and production.
  
  Significant drilling inventory and growth potential. We believe that the continued exploitation and development of our properties will allow us to increase our proved reserves and our average net daily production even if we do not make additional acquisitions. Growth projects that we expect to pursue include a full-field development project, including an extension of the lease area, in our South Ellwood field and a hydraulic fracturing program in the Sacramento Basin. We have also entered into an agreement with Denbury Resources Inc. relating to a potential CO 2 enhanced recovery project at the Hastings complex in Texas. See "—Description of Properties" for more information regarding each of these projects. As of December 31, 2007, we had identified 620 drilling locations on our properties, and we anticipate identifying additional locations on those properties as we pursue our exploitation and development activities.
  
  Attractive reserve replacement costs. From our inception in 1992 through December 31, 2007, we made approximately $1.5 billion in capital expenditures to acquire, develop and/or discover 161.5 MMBOE of proved reserves at an average reserve replacement cost (including reserve revisions) of $9.30 per BOE. These capital expenditures consisted of $732.2 million used to complete 45 acquisitions and $769.5 million used for exploitation, development and exploration projects. See "Management's Discussion and Analysis of Financial Condition and Results of Operation—PV-10 Value and Reserve Replacement Costs" for a description of how we calculate reserve replacement cost.
  
  Strong position in the Sacramento Basin. We have considerable expertise in the exploration, exploitation and development of properties in the Sacramento Basin, where we have operated since 1996 and are currently one of the largest producers. We believe that our experience, expertise and substantial presence in the basin will allow us to take advantage of attractive acquisition, exploration, exploitation and development opportunities there. In addition, we believe that the basin's proximity to northern California natural gas markets, its substantial gathering infrastructure and pipeline capacity and the relatively small differential to NYMEX prices received for natural gas produced there contribute to the value of our position.
  
  Extensive knowledge of the Monterey shale formation. A substantial portion of our production consists of offshore production from an unconventional reservoir, the fractured Monterey shale formation in California. Our technical team has extensive offshore experience with the evaluation and exploitation of this reservoir. We believe that there are significant exploration, exploitation and development opportunities relating to the Monterey formation onshore as well, and that our offshore expertise will help us take advantage of those opportunities.
  
  Experienced, proven management and operations team. The members of our management team have an average of over 25 years of experience in the oil and natural gas industry. Prior to founding our company in 1992, our CEO, Timothy Marquez, worked for Unocal for 13 years in both engineering and managerial positions. Our operations team has significant experience in the California and Texas oil and natural gas industry across a broad range of disciplines, including geology, drilling and operations, and regulatory and environmental matters. Our team includes 48 engineers and geoscientists as of December 31, 2007. We believe that our experience and knowledge of the California oil and natural gas industry, including the unconventional Monterey reservoir, are important competitive advantages for us.
  
  High percentage of operated properties. We have operating control of substantially all of our properties, operating approximately 95% of our production in the fourth quarter of 2007. Maintaining control of our properties allows us to use our technical and operational expertise to manage overhead, production and drilling costs and capital expenditures and to control the timing of exploration, exploitation and development activities.
  
  Reputation for environmental, safety and regulatory compliance. We believe that we have established a reputation among regulators and other oil and natural gas companies as having a commitment to safe environmental practices. For example, the state of California has presented us with awards for outstanding lease maintenance at our Beverly Hills and Santa Clara Avenue fields. We believe that our reputation is an important advantage for us when we are competing to acquire properties, particularly those in environmentally sensitive areas, because sellers are often concerned that they could be held responsible for environmental problems caused by the purchaser.
  
  Good relationships with local communities. We have devoted substantial effort towards establishing and maintaining good relationships with the communities in which we operate, and have won several awards for our community service and outreach programs. We believe that maintaining strong community ties can, among other things, help to facilitate the process of obtaining the governmental approvals needed to expand our operations.
  
  Our Strategy
  
  We intend to continue to use our competitive strengths to advance our corporate strategy. The following are key elements of that strategy:
  
  Grow through relatively low-risk exploration, exploitation and development projects. We operate properties with substantial volumes of remaining hydrocarbons. We believe that we can expand reserves and increase production from these properties on a cost-effective basis with relatively limited risk. We expect that our exploration, exploitation and development capital expenditures in 2008 will be approximately $235.0 million.
  
  Make opportunistic acquisitions of underdeveloped properties. We pursue acquisitions that we believe will expand our reserves and production on a cost-effective basis. Our primary focus is on operated interests in large, mature fields that are located in our core operating regions and have significant production histories, established proved reserves and potential for further exploitation and development. Historically, we have had success acquiring offshore California properties from major oil companies, including Chevron and ExxonMobil. We believe that we have established a strong reputation as a reliable and safe operator and that this will lead to future opportunities to acquire properties from major oil companies. In addition, many large properties in California are held by smaller indepe