The industry veteran joined the Texas-basedoil and natural gas specialist as a vice president of finance some five monthsbefore the group unveiled plans to price the sale of nearly 16 million sharesat $14 to $16.00 a piece.
Prior to signing up with Energy &Exploration Burk covered offshore stocks for Canaccord Genuity, which is listedas one of lead underwriters of a deal that is also backed by Johnson Rice &Company, Global Hunter Securities, Knight and other familiar names.
The analyst’s departure has promptedquestions about whether the Canadian investment bank still intends to devoteresources to research on US-quoted shipowners, which wasconsidered a real possibility when Burk joined after leaving Oppenheimer &Co a year ago.
A handful of Wall Street observers saythey are pleased to see another shipping analyst bow out of the conventional maritime sector as some believe there are far too many equity researcherscovering the tanker, bulker and containership markets.
Energy & Exploration, whichmade recent headlines when it purchased acreage from Chesapeake Energy, says its capital expenditure budget includes $320mfor drilling and development, $15m for the purchase of additional oil andnatural gas leases and $10m for acquiring 3D seismic data.
