Offshore operator reports show that personnel were evacuated from 21 production platforms (3.5 percent of the manned platforms in the Gulf) and 2 rigs (2.6 percent) during Hurricane Isaac in late August, according to the Oil and Gas Journal. About 1.3 million b/d of production was offline at the height of the storm. The Journal […]
Outside the Box: PBIOS Celebrates an Innovator
The Permian Basin International Oil Show, slated for Oct. 16-18, will celebrate an innovative and independent-minded thinker, Charles Perry, as its industry honoree. Three times during our interview, Charles R. Perry’s cell phone rang. Each time, it was someone with a technical question about Perry’s gas processors. “My title is chairman emeritus,” Perry quipped, “but […]
News Reviews
George P. Mitchell, who in the 1990s as the wildcatting boss of Mitchell Energy and Development pioneered hydraulic fracturing, favors more government regulation of fracking. “The administration is trying to tighten controls,” he told Forbes. “I think it’s a good idea. They should have very strict controls. The Department of Energy should do it.” Mitchell […]
News Reviews
Across the United States, there’s “a growing understanding of how to use the technology to get at the resources.” Domestic crude oil production in the U.S. averaged more than six million bbl/d for the first quarter of 2012 for the first time since 1998. The U.S. Energy Information Administration attributed the milestone to growth of […]
The Future of Co2
A temporary lack of available CO2 has limited its oilfield usage, but remedies are on the way even as CO2 technology sees new horizons. Even Steve Melzer admitted that the injection of carbon dioxide for use in enhanced oil recovery projects in the Permian Basin has taken a backseat to the much more publicized unconventional […]
Making It Happen: The Irrepressible Clayton Williams
It is with sadness that we report the recent passing of the highly accomplished and much-revered West Texas oilman Clayton Williams. As a remembrance of his life, we share once again this personality profile we published some years ago. Our condolences go to his family and many friends. “You can’t help but enjoy life […]
News Reviews
Barry Smitherman, chairman of the Texas Railroad Commission, testified in Washington, D.C., June 6 before the Energy and Commerce Committee of the U.S. House of Representatives about how some federal policies of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency are “misguided and detrimental” to energy production in Texas. “Mr. [Al] Armendariz’ agenda was seemingly politically driven and […]
Green Tree Gold Tournament
An Ace of a Tournament A record number of participants hit the links April 23 for the annual PBPA Green Tree Golf Tournament, as 336 entrants vied for a variety of exciting prizes. Supreme among those was a prize that probably no one expected would be won that day—the offer of a brand new F-150 […]
News Reviews
Ripple Effects As the wider public gets a fuller appreciation for the Permian’s productivity, estimates keep climbing, boom towns keep booming, and export prospects pick up traction. Scott Sheffield says Wall Street never loved the Spraberry, a large oil field in six counties of west Texas, until three or four years ago. But at the […]
Profile: Mark Machen, president of Blue Quail Water Transfer
In an industry that is chock full of dizzyingly complicated technological processes and procedures, there’s something somehow gratifying in contemplating a trade that anyone can grasp. The business of “water transfer” fits that description. It’s an essential task—a veritable “from Point A to Point B” logistic—but it calls for professionalism and its own unique set […]
