How the development, validation, and large-scale deployment of online solids management systems is saving operators money by releasing flowback equipment sooner, minimizing equipment damage due to solids carry-over, and reducing the need for shutdowns and confined space entry cleanout operations. Pounding Sand Oil and gas wells seldom produce a nice clean stream of hydrocarbons. A […]
Getting a Line on Wireline
Click here to listen to the Audio verison of this story! Change comes to every sector of the oilfield, working its way through the various niches. Sometimes it comes by technological advance, sometimes by economic realities asserting themselves, sometimes by scarcity—or abundance—of resources. And sometimes it comes from ripple effects of mergers, acquisitions, and […]
Mental Health is Also Health
Welcome and salutations! We may be going into some tough times, not that we as Americans—or as members of the oil and gas community—haven’t had our share already. One topic that is prevalent in our industry and often skirted or glossed over is mental health. It is a given that our industry is a “dog […]
The Changing Landscape of Leasing and Minerals
Click here to listen to the Audio verison of this story! The flurry of merger and acquisition (M&A) activity over the last two years has changed the minerals landscape in the Permian Basin, along with most producing basins in the United States. Fewer operators control larger acreages. Also, the definition of what constitutes a […]
Electrifying the Permian
There is a new sheriff in the White House, and with his administration embracing the oil and gas industry, excitement and relief has permeated throughout. Although the doors of possibility have now opened upon a gleaming prospect of four prosperous years ahead, certain of the industry’s lingering challenges will need solutions if growth is to […]
In the Air or on the Ground, Safety Is Still Safety
The NTSB estimated a total of nearly 24 million flight hours in 2007, when 6.84 of every 100,000 flight hours yielded an airplane crash while 1.19 of every 100,000 yielded a fatal crash. This was down from an all-time high of 9.08 accidents per 100,000 hours in 1994. It is an old statistic that I’m […]
Taking Carbon Captive
Carbon capture and storage grows technology, but legal and geological questions remain. The old saying about change and things staying the same may itself need to change, especially in the energy sector. “The more things change, the more they continue to change,” would better codify the rapid acceleration of new technologies and landscapes. And with […]
Welded Together
As a whole, the oil patch is a tight-knit community, especially in the Permian Basin, where almost everyone is in the business one way or another. And the welding community seems to be particularly close-knit—or more precisely, welded together. Here are stories of two entrepreneuring welders—Daniel Rodriguez of Shadow Welding and Jaron Tuttle of Tuttle’s […]
The Produced Water Challenge
You are probably aware that the water problem in the Permian Basin is dire—it is the desert, after all. But the issue isn’t so seemingly obvious. Of course, as a natural resource, water is scarce in the Permian, and that is an issue that in itself places constraints on growth and development. But that is […]
Let’s Go Hunting!
Throughout the years, numerous policies and procedures have been developed to increase safety awareness and improve workplace safety. Ideas come and go based on needs, studies, and action plans. The action plans seem more reactive as opposed to proactive. The key word, though, is active. Reactive, as the word itself suggests, usually follows an accident, […]
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