Disseminated on behalf of: Fiddlehead Resources Corp.
Brent Osmond, Chairman, President and CEO of Fiddlehead Resources Corp. (TSXV: FHR), joins Michael Hainsworth in an exclusive behind-the-scenes interview diving into how Fiddlehead is thoughtfully building one of central Alberta’s most disciplined and high-quality junior oil and gas companies. With owned infrastructure, a deep drilling inventory, and a seasoned team, this company is poised to unlock the full potential of the Cardium fairway.
Growing up in Newfoundland, in the shadow of the Hibernia offshore platform, oil and gas was always in Osmond’s heart even if his career started with a calculator rather than a hard hat. A chartered professional accountant by training, he parlayed that financial discipline into more than 20 years of building innovative energy companies, holding executive roles across Canada and the U.S. with the likes of Husky Energy, Perpetual Energy, and Questerre Energy.
In this video, Osmond shares how that rare combination of financial rigour and operational instinct shaped Fiddlehead’s long-term strategy, what makes the Cardium fairway such a compelling opportunity, and why they believe the company is uniquely positioned to create value at every point in the commodity price cycle.
Transcript
Michael Hainsworth
Hello, I’m Michael Hainsworth, and I’m in the heart of Cochrane, Alta. Got the steel-toe boots on today, because I’m going to drive 90 minutes north to check out some oil field operations from Fiddlehead Resources. But before I do, I’m going to get some fuel in the form of coffee, and meet the CEO, Brent Osmond, and his team, because as I’ve learned from Brent, there’s no “I” in “team.” There’s also no “I” in Brent Osmond, by the way, and as an accountant, he would probably be happy to know that we’re keeping an eye on that.
Meet Brent Osmond. He didn’t start in oil and gas with a hard hat. He started with a calculator. But growing up in Newfoundland, in the shadow of the Hibernia offshore platform, oil and gas has always been in his heart. Brent founded Fiddlehead Resources with a clear vision: to build a scalable producing company by identifying high-quality producing assets with enduring production potential and real upside.
In 2024, Fiddlehead acquired the Ferrier asset from a large-cap Canadian producer, securing full operatorship, owned production infrastructure, and a deep development inventory across central Alberta’s prolific Cardium fairway. Fiddlehead is built on operational excellence and disciplined capital allocation to support sustainable growth. And when it came time to build the team, Brent assembled a group of seasoned professionals with a deep Cardium experience, the people he trusted and worked with in the Cardium before.
You’d rather work with people you know.
Brent Osmond
Well, you know when you trust. Ryan and I have known each other for probably close to 15 years, and then Ron and I worked together at Paramount Energy Trust in 2008, probably? Since 2008, 2009?
Ron Hornseth
Yeah, around that. It’s been 17 years, something like that.
Brent Osmond
Whether it’s working with Ron at Paramount Energy Trust and seeing what he’s been able to accomplish in his career, and all up and down central Alberta, or whether it’s Jim and the deals that he’s been able to put together and the contacts that he has, or his father Ron, who is our geologist.
Michael Hainsworth
What have I got to look forward to when we make the trek north?
Ron Hornseth
That’s going to be picturesque. I’ll go by the town of Rocky Mountain House, which is a gorgeous little town in the foothills of the Rocky Mountains.
Michael Hainsworth
Fiddlehead Resources isn’t just another junior producer. It’s a local operator with deep Cardium roots and a track record of execution. Its stacked play opportunities and substantial infill drilling inventory provide a clear path to scale, operational efficiency, and long-term value.
You kind of had a front-row seat to the oil and gas industry when you were in Newfoundland?
Brent Osmond
Yeah, people were no longer able to go fishing. It was pretty bleak, but then, fortunately, offshore oil was discovered in the ’80s, and then the majors, ExxonMobil predominantly, led the development of the Hibernia platform. And through the late ’80s and into the ’90s, the town where I grew up, Clarenville, (N.L.), really saw an influx of people from all over the world. And it really opened my eyes to the oil and gas.
I always loved the actual business of extracting oil and gas, finding oil and gas, and developing the resource. That was always the most interesting part to me. I know it sounds cliché, but you know, nickels and dimes add up (to) dollars, and for a small company like Fiddlehead, being very disciplined financially and very aware of how we can drive profit and how we can make the most of the opportunity that we’re given here is really an important part of our strategy.
Michael Hainsworth
Fiddlehead’s strategy is focused and disciplined: expand within proven producing fairways, enhance recoveries by applying modern technology and operating practices, and convert existing drilling inventory into measured growth. The result is repeatable execution and predictable value creation. Fiddlehead’s asset strategy centres on hard upstream assets, combining experienced Cardium operators with disciplined reserve selection, reserves that don’t sour or mold, like this one.
Brent Osmond
When we bought assets, we looked specifically for assets that had the right equipment and had a gathering system, so that we could control our operating costs, control our volumes, and really squeeze the most out of an asset.
This is one well just behind us here, and a gathering and compression facility also behind us. And so the one well and the other wells in the area flow into this system.
It gets processed here to knock out any water or natural gas liquids that go into that holding tank right over there. And then the dry gas gets compressed and sent off to a sales point a couple of miles away.
Michael Hainsworth
So, this line runs all the way over, goes underground way over there, and ends up getting sold to the market. (Brent: That’s right.) It’s like farm-to-table, but with gas.
Brent Osmond
Yes. Yes, exactly.
Michael Hainsworth
How’s it feel to get the band back together?
Ron Hornseth
Oh, it’s pretty exciting. When Brent approached me, and I had the opportunity to join the team, I was at a pretty good position in my life where I’d been previously at a company that got acquired, and ended up leading that company after about six months and had the opportunity to join a startup that was pretty exciting.
Michael Hainsworth
This doesn’t look like what I would’ve assumed a stereotypical well would look like.
Ron Hornseth
First of all, it’s incredibly clean. You look around, you’ll notice it’s just kind of clean gravel and no spills, no fluids anywhere. All of these wells we have out in this field, pretty much everything for the last 10 years or so, has been a horizontal well. You’ll have a surface, and then you’ll have a well that goes down and then goes out horizontally towards the reservoir you wish to access.
Michael Hainsworth
Now you’re not going to tell us the secret sauce or anything, but what is it that makes you the guy that this guy wants to be making the decisions about where the next acquisitions come from?
Ron Hornseth
Well, I’ve spent about 30 years in this industry, mostly in the Western Canadian Sedimentary Basin. So, I have a lot of experience, particularly in this area, around Rocky Mountain House and in the Cardium play, which is what we’re currently working on. I know it very well, and I know where to find the oil, and how to get it out of the ground, and push it through a sales metre.
Michael Hainsworth
On gas handling, Fiddlehead has it covered. With owned gas handling and gathering infrastructure, the company maintains full control over production rates, costs, and the value realized from every molecule.
You’ve been described as a master and a planner. How does that ultimately, at the end of the day, benefit investors in Fiddlehead?
Ron Hornseth
The key to profitability in this industry is to be able to plan out your development in the most efficient manner. You need to minimize the cost. You need to minimize the number of surface locations that you have, to maximize the number of wells you can get on those surface locations (and) minimize the cost to tie it into various facilities, like we looked at earlier. And that’s sort of the key to maximizing your cash flow and generating good returns.
Michael Hainsworth
With all of this, what does the natural gas market look like to you right now?
Brent Osmond
What we’re really looking forward to seeing is the expansion of LNG off the West Coast to get those molecules out to the world market. And that obviously makes a big change in the demand for the product that we’re generating from wells, just like this one. And we’re looking forward to an increase in pricing as a result.
Michael Hainsworth
Are you in an acquiring mode?
Brent Osmond
We always look at the opportunities around us, and when we first settled on this area two years ago, we saw that there were numerous potential acquisition opportunities that we could use to grow quickly. And I think we continue to scan the market for those opportunities as they come up, and we’re well-positioned to be able to consolidate the area.
Michael Hainsworth
Right, so if you build a proper financial foundation for the company, you can leverage that through tuck-in acquisitions along the way.
Brent Osmond
Ron’s come up with different plays that are on our land base that are not Cardium. I mean, we’re not a one-trick pony. We have Belly River resources. We have Viking waterflood. We have glauconitic opportunities that we found by Ron looking at the different geology and the different horizons that are there, and the rights that we have.
Ron, thanks for showing us around today and pointing out all the different facilities and the different well technology that we have in place. Really appreciate you giving us the time to walk us through the operation.
Ron Hornseth
It’s always good to get out in the field, especially when you happen to catch a pretty nice day in the fall.
Michael Hainsworth
If there’s one thing you want an investor to remember from our time together, what should it be?
Brent Osmond
Fiddlehead is uniquely positioned to create value at every point in the commodity price cycle. (Michael: Up or down.) Up or down.
And I think Fiddlehead is exactly where we need it to be right now to be able to acquire molecules at that right time in the cycle to take advantage of it when prices recover.
About Fiddlehead Resources Corp.
Fiddlehead Resources Corp. (TSXV: FHR) is a Calgary-based upstream energy company focused on oil and gas development and production in central Alberta. The company’s approach centres on operatorship of low-decline assets, infrastructure capacity, and disciplined capital allocation to drive sustainable production growth and long-term profitability.
To learn more about Fiddlehead, visit their website. For the latest updates, follow Fiddlehead on social media: LinkedIn.
