by Bobby Weaver The oil and gas industry produces many products ranging from fuel to plastics, but few are aware that the extraction of rare gases are an important, albeit a small, part of that activity. Perhaps the most important of those gases is helium. When the term helium is mentioned, the vision that comes […]
Oil Patch Tales: Bait and Switch
by Bobby Weaver Some people, usually of the male gender, just plain like to fight. That is especially true of oil field hands. Now myself, I never was much of a hand at fisticuffs. For one thing I was a tad small for the activity and besides my threshold for pain was always […]
Back In The Day: Telling a Story
Telling a Story The fine photography collected, as well as (often) shot, by oilfield photographer Mitch Mayborn in middle-to-later 20th Century, working for Drilling Magazine, holds up as documentary imagery of that day, and as a nice primer to the various components of the patch.
HRIQ: Oil and Gas Technology and Labor
by Bill Price Technology has dramatically changed the oil and gas industry in the last decade. We know the effect of enhanced oil extraction on production but this was only possible through the introduction of sophisticated technology. The energy industry has become less labor intensive, as is true of most industries. The industry has experienced […]
Company Town
There are stories aplenty of “company towns” built by oil companies in oil’s early 20th century heyday, but no company town fit the mold better than a Basin town, Texon, that endured for generations. by Bobby Weaver Back in 1955 Tennessee Ernie Ford had a hit song entitled “Sixteen Tons” concerning the travails of a […]
HRIQ: Child Labor – Is It Okay?
by Bill Price It might seem surprising to see a headline calling attention to a discussion of child labor, and child labor laws—that whole topic seeming like something right out of the 19th century. But child labor is still a topic of discussion, even today, and knowing about it, and about its governance, is […]
The Well That Launched the Permian
Santa Rita #1 was the discovery well that opened what would prove to be the biggest oilfield in America, and what might someday become the biggest in the world. Its story is one that epitomizes what the oilfield is all about. by Bobby Weaver It has been almost one hundred years since the Santa […]
Q&A with Ben Shepperd
With the PBPA Annual Meeting looming near, we present a question-and-answer conversation with Ben on the meeting to come. Permian Basin Oil and Gas Magazine: It’s already coming back around again! What can we expect in the October Annual Meeting? Ben: We have a full slate of sessions and we’re pleased to have some very […]
PBPA Matters: On Texas and the National Economy
The discussion that follows was the luncheon presentation at the Sept. 23 meeting of the membership of the Permian Basin Petroleum Association, held at the Midland Country Club, in Midland, Texas. The proceedings were taped and this is an edited transcript of that event. PBPA President Ben Shepperd: We’re going to hear a conversation […]
From Fresnos to Caterpillars
Dirt Work is the oilfield’s under-appreciated trade, and yet nothing gets done in the Patch until the dirt’s been worked. by Bobby Weaver I’ll never forget the first time I went out on a tanking job. It happened early in the summer of ’55, when we contracted to build a battery of two hi-fives in […]
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