Bud Brigham founded Brigham Exploration Company in 1990 and served as its President, Chief Executive Officer, and Chairman of the Board until its sale to Statoil ASA in December 2011. As founder and CEO, Bud managed Brigham Exploration Company’s rapid growth as a private company from an initial investment of $25,000 in 1990 to its initial public offering in 1997. After 1997, Brigham Exploration continued to achieve low finding costs while achieving significant growth in reserves, production, and cash flow. Brigham Exploration was a leading innovator in the Williston Basin, Bakken, and Three Forks oil resource plays and was the first operator in the basin to drill a long-lateral, high-frac stage well substantially expanding the play into far western North Dakota. The Company accumulated 375,000 net acres in the Williston Basin and had drilled approximately 100 long-lateral, high-frac stage wells prior to its sale to Statoil ASA in December 2011 for $4.5 billion.
Bud Brigham subsequently founded Anthem Ventures as his family office, Brigham Development for its real estate ventures, and Anthem Productions for its movie ventures. Bud teamed with other former Brigham Exploration employees to found Brigham Resources and Brigham Minerals for oil and gas investments primarily targeting horizontal drilling and hydraulic fracturing in domestic, unconventional reservoirs. Brigham Resources built an 80,000 net acre position in the Southern Delaware Basin and subsequently sold its position to Diamondback Energy in February 2017 for $2.5 billion.
Prior to Brigham Exploration, Bud served for six years as an exploration geophysicist with Rosewood Resources, an independent oil and gas exploration and production company. Bud began his career in Houston as a seismic data processing geophysicist for Western Geophysical, a provider of 3-D seismic services, after earning his B.S. in Geophysics from The University of Texas. Bud is a member of the National Petroleum Council, the American Association of Petroleum Geologists (AAPG), the Society of Exploration Geophysicists (SEG), the Independent Producers Association of America (IPAA), the Society of Independent Professional Earth Scientists (SIPES), and The Bureau of Economic Geology Visiting Committee. He was inducted into the All-American Wildcatters in April 2012, and, in April 2015, Bud accepted and joined The University of Texas Chancellor’s Council Executive Committee. Bud received the Oil & Gas Investors 2016 Deal of the Year Award for the sale of Brigham Resources’ Southern Delaware position to Diamondback Energy.
