Over the past decade and a half Robur has developed a proprietary stock-in-trade: Strong Relationships with marketing centers, pipelines, storage facilities, and sources of oil and gas production, and Human Capital within Robur resulting from many years’ work in a niche marketing activity.
Each month, Robur nominates expected production on pipelines; monitors actual production from various sources; sells production to competitive buyers; carefully accounts for joint interests, royalties, and production taxes; and makes payments to various accounts. These functions repeatedly utilize Robur's most valuable assets–(a) stable and long-term relationships with pipelines, storage facilities, buyers of production, and sources of production, and (b) the human capital developed by a tight-knit and nimble organization that routinely strengthens and draws upon the business relationships.
Robur's most valuable assets, and the activities surrounding them, generate and process millions monthly, and tens of millions annually, in oil and gas sales and related financial transactions.
Robur owns hard assets related to its core business of supply and logistics, such as land, easements, and pipeline facilities. However, Robur tends not to depend on its own facilities in order to achieve its business objectives. Instead, Robur “rents” the facilities it needs on a short-term, flexible basis. Robur makes advantageous use of many open facilities under common tariffs, without over-committing supply to any given facility. Strategically using open facilities, rather than expending its capital to build and maintain an elaborate facilities infrastructure, enables Robur to minimize, and often avoid, the downturns associated with commodity price risk, including declining volume throughput and price-sensitive marketing arrangements like percentage of products/proceeds contracts.
