Reporters need schooled on how and what they are seeing in regards to a drilling rig. The accident in Quinton, Oklahoma in January 2018 is classic. They could not identify the parts of a rig for the most part although a few got the “derrick” correct.  Honestly, few knew what they were even seeing.  One reporter was obviously… Read More »

  I hate to say that I don’t “Believe” in science, rather I mean I don’t think of science as a belief system. It is not a religion. It is a systematic testing of hypothesis. It is not anecdotal quid pro quo. It is a procedure which passes muster so long as nothing contrary is discovered. Once it… Read More »

It baffles me somewhat that there are still a lot of people who get money from an oil company lease but have no idea whatsoever what is the underlying property to that money. In fact, I’ve had people contact me who could not even tell me if they had inherited a mineral interest, or a working interest, or… Read More »

Over the past twenty years an awful lot of tech, finance, and especially oil companies, have moved to Houston. Concentrating all their resources in one megalopolis seems economic until your entire operation is shut down by a mega event like Harvey. Take ConocoPhillips. Continental Oil was a creation of J.P.Morgan about 1920. They bought out Marland Oil in… Read More »

Just crunched some numbers from a Miss. Well in Garfield Co., OK and 20,000′ Woodford well in (South)Blaine County. First is area where $2000 buys the mineral right. Production in steep decline for oil, and gas is flat at 250,000 a day. I value them separately. By funny math, most would convert the gas to oil on a… Read More »

It came out this week that Permian Basin players are getting $1 for every $1.33 that they spend. Yet we see the notion that “shale oil” has made the USA the top producer and swing player. Imports are “down” to 25% of our consumption. Actually imports make up about 50% of our production because we import oil and… Read More »

Snow v SEECO is an Arkansas class action settlement out of Conway County, AR proposed (as of this date not approved). It purports to refund to the class of SEECO mineral owners some $30 million …but wait! Half is somehow taken out of the mix, and the lawyers want 45% of the $30 million for their fee. That… Read More »

How did you get your mineral rights? Did you buy them? Inherit them? Did your farm get leased? Do you know other than someone told you to file an affidavit of heirship and get the money rolling in? To value your mineral, the valuer needs to know what the legal description is – first and foremost. So you… Read More »

I am not a good bookkeeper but when my check stub arrives I read it and post it in a spreadsheet, then distribute the money to the stakeholders in our family trust. That partnership has a means of smooth transition so if I die suddenly, the checks continue to flow into the account and the names change on… Read More »

Peer review was supposed to be a method whereby a scientist who published articles had their scientific work scrutinized by a body of “peers”. The peer system is broken. There have been a huge number of self-serving periodicals, journals and on line journals that are “peer reviewed” by like-minded friends of the author. So much for peer review.… Read More »