[3][1][4][5] John Doran was the CEO and founder of Roc Oil Company from 1999 to 2008, ending due to an untimely passing.
[6] Doran had extensive experience in both geology as well as being classified as an 'oil man' after large involvement in the expansion of gas exploration and production across Europe, the Middle East and Australia.
[9] In April 2001, Roc Oil Company made a friendly unsolicited offer to acquire 40% of Gulfstream Resources Canada.
Following this capital raise in April, In December Roc Oil announced the sale of 100% of the subsidiary which owned the Saltfleetby Gas Field (acquired in 1999) for $110 million.
[11] The buyer of the subsidiary was Wingas, a joint venture between Wintershall as well as OAO Gazprom (Russian gas company and one of the largest in the world).
In June, ROC began further expanding its presence in Asia by planning to make a move to acquire a 24.5% stake in a China Oil Field off Apache (hydrocarbon explorer).
[12] To refine ROC's focus in terms of geographic operations, the company was planning on selling off its North Sea and Africa assets.
[13] ROC had a 12.5% stake in the Blane Oil Field (Located in the North Sea) and because of drilling uncovering mostly dry wells, CEO Bruce Clements stated the company will aim to sell off these assets in order to refocus ROC's efforts in currently occupied territories including Asia and Australia.
In September, the shareholders of the UK located Anzon Energy approved of the $600 million merger with ROC Oil.
However, before the merger process was completed with Horizon, Transcendent Resources (a subsidiary of Fosun International) [7] sent an off-market takeover bid for ROC Oil Company.
[19] In 2006 ROC commenced drilling a side-track appraisal well in the Beibu Gulf region, off shore China.
ROC further drilled a side track to an aggregate depth of 1,265 metres which further confirmed the presence of oil in the very top of the Jiaowei formation.
ROC CEO, Alan Linn said the "discovery adds potentially valuable incremental oil to the larger project".
[27] The project was less successful than anticipated, with the five of the seven wells in the drilling program failing to find commercial quantities of oil.