The latest news is Southwestern Energy aka Southwester Energy Exploration Co. or SEECO, has sold its Fayetteville Shale properties. The price was $1.8 billion and the buyer a private concern known as Flywheel LLC.  SWN investors met the news by dropping stock prices over 3%.  Investors expected them to buy back more stock instead spending for additional drilling… Read More »

As a landowner, I leased out my farmland to a farmer who did rotation between soybeans and wheat. This summer, when the wheat was absolutely ready, he took off on a vacation.  After returning, he tried to catch up, the wheat had been ready for weeks and the soybeans needed planted before a certain time to qualify for… Read More »

I ain’t buying it. The Permian is now touted as the best thing since hot cakes. Companies are dumping acreage in the Eagle Ford, Bakken and elsewhere and stampeding to West Texas claiming that drilling costs are lower, production higher, and they (the explorers) will make investors a lot of money. Perhaps. Perhaps serendipity will play a major… Read More »

Some interest in south Arkansas seems intriguing. The most unexplored area in Arkansas is the Desha (Dee-Shay) Basin, but there is potential oil or gas there. As time progresses, I think there is opportunity for the frontier explorer.  Meanwhile, several folks have attempted to drill in South Arkansas and the success rate isn’t spectacular but the costs are… Read More »

 “The difference between an idiot and a genius is that genius has its limits.” The internet can be educational and scientific. It can also commit to a media hideous lies and half-truths. And even outright fabrications can be passed on over the time immortal. Lies spread a lot faster than truth. I stumbled across a couple of such… Read More »

The Fayetteville Shale v. Moorefield Shale The Moorefield Shale is between the Boone Formation and the Fayetteville and rapidly thickens to the southeast. Some geologists believe the lower Fayetteville is actually Moorefield age. The Fayetteville transitions to a deep water facies called the Stanley in the Ouachita Basin.  Beds are predominately level with a northeast-southwest trend of linears… Read More »

Reporters need schooled on how and what they are seeing in regards to a drilling rig. The accident in Quinton, Oklahoma in January 2018 is classic. They could not identify the parts of a rig for the most part although a few got the “derrick” correct.  Honestly, few knew what they were even seeing.  One reporter was obviously… Read More »

  I hate to say that I don’t “Believe” in science, rather I mean I don’t think of science as a belief system. It is not a religion. It is a systematic testing of hypothesis. It is not anecdotal quid pro quo. It is a procedure which passes muster so long as nothing contrary is discovered. Once it… Read More »

It baffles me somewhat that there are still a lot of people who get money from an oil company lease but have no idea whatsoever what is the underlying property to that money. In fact, I’ve had people contact me who could not even tell me if they had inherited a mineral interest, or a working interest, or… Read More »

Over the past twenty years an awful lot of tech, finance, and especially oil companies, have moved to Houston. Concentrating all their resources in one megalopolis seems economic until your entire operation is shut down by a mega event like Harvey. Take ConocoPhillips. Continental Oil was a creation of J.P.Morgan about 1920. They bought out Marland Oil in… Read More »