At least five senior Statoil executives and engineers have left the Norwegian oil giant’s North Dakota unit to form their own U.S. exploration and production company backed by $500 million in private equity. The move is one of the first to show that billions of dollars waiting to finance energy deals in the wake of the last year’s crude price drop have started flowing to industry veterans eager to strike out on their own. It also highlights that the wildcatter, the nostalgic American term for investors who prospected, well by well, for oil and built their own companies, is still very much alive despite doubts the entrepreneurial practice could survive after so much land was gobbled up by the U.S. shale boom. Lance Langford, until recently the head of Statoil’s North Dakota unit, has formed Luxe Energy LLC in Austin, Texas, with equity financing from […]