Unprecedented growth in the Basin calls for an extensive road plan overhaul. By Julie Anderson As a 37-year resident of Odessa and now Ector County’s chief administrative officer, County Judge Debi Hays is proud of the contribution the Permian Basin makes not only to the Lone Star State, but to the nation. In fact, she […]
Digging Into The Dug, Part 2
It was sand, water, logistics, services, and completion technology as the second full day of the DUG Permian Basin Conference brought the event to a conclusion. The two days in Fort Worth were an immersion course in Basin basics. By Jesse Mullins | Photography by Tom Fox Last month we shared the messages of Day […]
Rigged to Succeed
In his five decades in the drilling industry, Ray Brazzel has bored down to the things that really matter. Ray Brazzel admitted he has seen a lot of changes in more than a half century of working in the oil and gas industry. “Technology has improved and rigs are safer now, but they need to […]
Well Servicing: A Trade in Transition
It is not surprising that well service companies consider hiring and housing as two of their top issues, as oil prices continue parked at just under $100 per barrel. The words used to relate the topic do open the eyes a bit. “Theft” was how Rich Fontenot described it. Fontenot, senior sales representative for Nabors […]
Pipe Dreams: Smith Pipe of Abilene
ABILENE, TEXAS—Just four miles southwest of this town on Highway 277 South, the road that leads to San Angelo, is the community of Caps. For years, those driving down the highway barely encountered any indications that Caps even existed, except for a sign in front of the Caps Baptist Church and a highway sign that […]
Vital Independence Part III: Broad Vista
Big Oil is outside looking in. As the major oil companies return from offshore and overseas to American fields to grab a piece of the shale revolution, a revolutioncreated by independent oil and gas companies—largely in Texas and New Mexico—the Bigs find that the independents sit upon the leaseholds they (the majors) once controlled. And […]
Drilling Efficiency
Drilling efficiency is the phrase on everyone’s lips, as the bar keeps getting set higher and higher. Industry observers weigh in on getting the most drilling done in the least time for the least money. Reducing drilling costs is an everyday topic in the oil patch and there is no simple answer. Is that site […]
The Vitality of the Independents
America has not fully grasped what has happened in the hinterlands of domestic energy, where old fashioned American ingenuity has achieved one of its greatest triumphs. In our first installment, we took up the idea that it wasn’t the major oil companies who re-invented the oil and gas industry—it was the independents, mainly in the […]
The Essential Element
Water, the universal solvent, the element that puts the “hydraulic” in hydraulic fracturing—this force of nature that also is a force that drives oil and gas exploration and production—is the hottest commodity in the industry. The No. 1 issue facing the Permian Basin today is not jobs or the economy. It is water. With drought […]