To Celebrate an Incredible Achievement - Permian Basin Oil and Gas Magazine

Stepping to the podium at a wellsite just outside Midland operated by Double Eagle Energy, President Donald Trump on July 29 opened his address with these words:

“I really am thrilled to be here in Midland, Texas, with the extraordinary men and women of Double Eagle Energy… [applause] and what a nice welcome. Thank you very much. I have this big beautiful rig behind me. Thanks to the hardworking citizens like you the United States of America is now the number one energy superpower anywhere in the world. Congratulations.

“We are here today to celebrate your incredible achievement. And also here to send a clear message to the zealots, radicals, and extremists trying to shut down your industry and trying to make America subservient to foreign producers.

“That won’t happen to this nation again. It took a long time to be independent. And as long as I am president, we will never let anyone put American energy out of business, which is what they would like to do.

“We will never again be reliant upon hostile foreign suppliers.

“We will defend your jobs and we will defend the Lone Star State [applause]—I love this state—and we will defend America’s newfound energy independence.”

The President’s circuit of the Midland-Odessa area included a fund-raiser event held for his campaign at the Odessa Marriott Hotel and Conference Center. The trip marked Trump’s first visit to Midland-Odessa during his presidency, but the 16th trip he has made to Texas since taking office.

In the week following the event, Double Eagle co-CEOs and co-founders John Sellers and Cody Campbell spoke to PB Oil and Gas magazine from their Fort Worth headquarters about the visit and their company’s own part in it.

Asked how it came about that their company received the honor of being selected for the rig visit, CEO Sellers remarked that it occurred by happenstance.

“They contacted us and asked us if we’d be interested in hosting the President at a well site,” Sellers said. “And that was kind of the extent of it. We do know some people in the White House, but I don’t know if that had anything to do with their asking us, or if it all was just kind of random.”

For his own part, Cody Campbell, the other company founder, cited the practicality of the arrangement, and the likelihood that the research was done by the White House itself.

“They wanted to find rigs that were close to town, that were accessible,” Campbell said. “And we had a couple of rigs that are close to town. I think they contacted several of the operators in the area.”

He acknowledged that timing could have been an issue, where other operators were concerned.

“It’s possible that, operationally, they just weren’t in a good spot to host them. Maybe they had something going on where they really couldn’t shut their rig down for a day and a half. As for us, at that point we were just running pipe, so it wasn’t really disruptive to our operations. And so it worked out.”

Campbell said it was exciting to be hosting the President on their well. “It would be an honor for anybody,” he said.

“I’ve never been through anything like that,” he said.

As for what surprised him most about the visit, Campbell said it was the sheer scale of the occasion, and the intensity that is evident in the logistics and effort of moving the President around and maintaining his schedule through a single day. “What he does is just pretty incredible,” Campbell said. “So many people are involved in making sure he’s safe and making sure he’s where he needs to be. And making sure that things are happening the way they’re supposed to happen. That’s what I think was most remarkable about it.”

Campbell said that the White House staffers had to set up communications offices to be at the ready in case anything critical happened during the President’s visit to the region.

Sellers said that the size of the operation, and the logistics of it, was most surprising to him as well.

“Obviously, you would expect that the President travels with a large staff and a lot of security, but just the amount of manpower it takes, and the effort it takes to move him around—it’s all pretty remarkable,” he said.

Double Eagle Energy is one of the more active independent E&Ps in the Permian Basin during these challenging times of low crude prices. The firm was established in 2008 but in 2017 that early iteration of the company was sold to Parsley Energy. Immediately after the sale, the principals in Double Eagle began afresh to amass acreage and build a new version of the company. Currently Double Eagle is one of the largest organic acquirers of acres in the Permian Basin and also is active in the Eagle Ford, Mid-Continent (Mississippian, SCOOP, Penn Shales), and the Rocky Mountains (DJ Basin, Powder River Basin). The company also maintains an office in Midland.

In April 2013, Co-CEOs Sellers and Campbell formed a partnership with an affiliate of a New York-based private equity firm, Apollo Global Management. This financial backing allowed Double Eagle to further expand its footprint and pursue larger and more extensive development projects.

Sellers said that Double Eagle currently is running five rigs and is soon to pick up a sixth. “We’re doing about 50,000 barrels of oil equivalent a day and growing,” he said. The company employs about 165.

Asked how the company has been able to be as active as it has in these tough times, Campbell was quick to cite their proficiency in matters pertaining to acreage.

“We have really good acreage—really economic acreage—and so we’re fortunate in that we still can make pretty good returns with oil prices where they are now,” he said. “Our returns justify more [continued] drilling. We’ve been good, historically, at putting together acreage positions and making them drillable. That has served us well in this [environment]. We’ve been able to put together a position in the core of the Midland Basin of about 100,000 acres, and that’s why right now we’re able to make returns, even in lower oil prices, and been able to justify keeping the rigs running.”

Neither of the CEOs felt he was able to make predictions for crude prices over what remains of this year.

Campbell said, “There’s so much that we’re dealing with right now in the world that’s just completely unprecedented, and so it’s hard to predict oil price, and we really don’t try to. I think, overall, the Permian is going to do better than other areas, because our economics are just better, and we have a better resource than is found in other basins. And so, I think longterm you can expect more activity in the Permian than you can in other places.”

Sellers added: “Until this pandemic is resolved, it’s really hard to predict what’s going to happen with oil prices.”

Asked what he found most pleasing about the President’s words, and his appearance, in the region, Campbell said he thought that just the act of coming to the Permian Basin was itself highly significant.

“It was just the fact that he showed up out here,” Campbell said. “His presence spoke pretty loudly. He clearly understands the importance of what we’re doing out here. He clearly understands how important this region is to the national economy and to national security. And he was here to just show his support by being present.”

For their own part, Double Eagle will be staying busy and making the most of their resources.

“We’re drilling a lot of wells, and we have plans to ramp up even further,” he said. “It’s just kind of nose-to-the-grindstone for us. And continuing to put wells down.”