Sentimental? No, not nearly. Exxon got the Pioneer deal done with the worst government requirements ever announced. It is now starting to reorganize its holdings. What that means is the legacy part of Pioneer, the conventional drilling that put them on the map appears to be going away. Exxon announced the pending sale of up […]
Portrait of a Roustabout
A roustabout is, in some ways, the essence of what the oil patch is all about. Sometimes confused by the public as a roughneck, a roustabout is generally thought of as just a less-skilled oilfield hand than a roughneck, but the fact is, their occupations are different. Roughnecks work on the rig floor, in proximity […]
Spring Swing: Fairways and Fellowship
ODESSA, TEXAS—It was a beautiful Monday, the 8th of April, the day of the solar eclipse, when the membership of the Permian Basin Petroleum Association took over the Links Course and the Old Course at the magnificent Odessa Country Club and once again participated in the grand tradition that is PBPA’s Spring Swing Golf Tournament. […]
The Unsung Permian Basin
I’m going to provide a spoiler alert up front: I love living in the Permian Basin and believe the already high quality of life is only growing. The ethos of the Permian is that of the wildcatters back in the day: If you have a dream and are willing to do the work, you can […]
The Ability to Drill a Crooked Hole on Purpose
The horizontal drilling techniques of today’s oil patch are the culmination of a long series of technological advances begun in the earliest days of the oil and gas industry. Originally, directional drilling—or sidetracking—using a variety of deflection drilling devices was developed to solve a number of problems associated with well drilling. In those very first […]
Roll On
by Paul Wiseman From the last mile, in almost every case, to every mile in many cases, trucks are indispensable in today’s delivery-based economy. Nowhere is that more true than in the oil patch, where trucks haul everything from drill pipe to drilling rigs to the oil itself, over tens of thousands of road-miles every […]
They Swung into Spring
It was a balmy and beautiful Monday, the 17th of April, when the membership of the Permian Basin Petroleum Association took over the Links Course and the Old Course at the magnificent Odessa Country Club and once again participated in the grand tradition that is PBPA’s Spring Swing Golf Tournament. This four-man scramble brings food, […]
API says U.S. petroleum demand fell in April year-to-year for fifth straight month
Washington, D.C.-based American Petroleum Institute said this week that U.S. petroleum demand – as measured by total domestic petroleum deliveries – increased by only 17,000 barrels per day in April compared to March (to 19.8 million b/d). But compared to April 2022, U.S. petroleum demand fell 0.8 percent – the fifth straight month of year-to-year […]
The World’s Biggest Oilfield
Saint Rita of Cascia (Italy), later to be known as the Patron Saint of the Impossible, left this earth on May 27, 1357. Exactly 466 years and one day later (May 22, 1923), a well named after her, extending about 3,050 feet into the earth she’d left, began alternately flowing, and blowing out, for about […]
How Oil Populated the Permian Basin
Population growth created by the first ten years of oil production in the Permian Basin was remarkable. Once the Big Lake field began to develop, a veritable deluge of oil men poured into the Permian Basin. As it turned out, during the mid to late 1920s, that vast lightly inhabited region with no known oil […]
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