What's right with Texas?

[Jeff Lebowski]

The Lone Star State is now known as Saudi Texas...



Drill baby, drill.

So why the sudden surge in production? Higher prices?

[Uncle Ted]

So why the sudden surge in production? Higher prices?

I am sure it has to do a lot with higher prices. It seems like a bunch of drilling is going on these days. Good hell, even the show Dallas is back on the air.

[Moliere]

What's right with Texas?

So why the sudden surge in production? Higher prices?

Higher prices and lax regulatory regimes in the state. Also, easier transport to refineries.

[Uncle Ted]

Higher prices and lax regulatory regimes in the state. Also, easier transport to refineries.

So it has nothing to do with the show Dallas being back?

[Moliere]

What's right with Texas?

So it has nothing to do with the show Dallas being back?

Dallas, in all its forms and iterations, is inconsequential.

[Color Me Badd Fan]

My dad mentioned to me the other day that he's been receiving around $5k a year from some mineral rights my grandfather bought decades ago.

My dad was approached several years ago by a party in Texas that wanted to drill on the land and essentially lease the mineral rights from my grandfather (my dad is the trustee over my grandparents' trust which still owns a somewhat considerable amount of assets). My grandpa died in 1998 and my dad also had no idea that my grandpa ever bought something like that.

My grandfather owned a meat packing plant in California with two partners. His role in the business was going out and buying the cattle and having them transported to California. I think he commonly purchased the cattle out of northern Nevada, but my dad speculates he went out to Texas in the 50s at some point in time to buy cattle and someone talked him into going in on some mineral rights on some random piece of land. He probably gave them a couple hundred bucks and forgot about it.

I'm not sure how it is in northern Utah. But throughout most of the state, the mineral rights are held by the federal government -- even on privately owned land. North Dakota has been booming because it's the one spot out west with a ton of oil shale where the federal government didn't hold onto the mineral rights.

[Color Me Badd Fan]

I saw an interesting youtube video on oil wells that are hidden in plain sight throughout Los Angeles. From what they are saying, Los Angeles just sits on fairly massive oil reserves. In Santa Barbara, oil just oozes out of the ocean floor off shore and washes up on the beach.

Chevron has continually been getting oil out of Bakersfield and they've developed new technologies (something with steam and water -- others on here know probably quite a bit about it) that make these wells continue to produce after people thought they would have dried out long ago.

[statman]

My dad mentioned to me the other day that he's been receiving around $5k a year from some mineral rights my grandfather bought decades ago.

My dad was approached several years ago by a party in Texas that wanted to drill on the land and essentially lease the mineral rights from my grandfather (my dad is the trustee over my grandparents' trust which still owns a somewhat considerable amount of assets). My grandpa died in 1998 and my dad also had no idea that my grandpa ever bought something like that.

My grandfather owned a meat packing plant in California with two partners. His role in the business was going out and buying the cattle and having them transported to California. I think he commonly purchased the cattle out of northern Nevada, but my dad speculates he went out to Texas in the 50s at some point in time to buy cattle and someone talked him into going in on some mineral rights on some random piece of land. He probably gave them a couple hundred bucks and forgot about it.

I'm not sure how it is in northern Utah. But throughout most of the state, the mineral rights are held by the federal government -- even on privately owned land. North Dakota has been booming because it's the one spot out west with a ton of oil shale where the federal government didn't hold onto the mineral rights.

Dividing mineral rights from the ownership of the rest of the land is common in Texas - at least I think it's common. When we bought our house in Ft Worth, we had to sign a seperate document saying that we understood that we were not buying the mineral rights under our .20 acres. Ross Perot's son owned the mineral rights for several thousand acres that his company had developed. And from what I understand, a couple years ago he started exercising those rights - oil and gas wells started popping up in scattered undeveloped pieces of "green space" on the boundaries of completely developed subdivisions.

[Moliere]

Dividing mineral rights from the ownership of the rest of the land is common in Texas - at least I think it's common. When we bought our house in Ft Worth, we had to sign a seperate document saying that we understood that we were not buying the mineral rights under our .20 acres. Ross Perot's son owned the mineral rights for several thousand acres that his company had developed. And from what I understand, a couple years ago he started exercising those rights - oil and gas wells started popping up in scattered undeveloped pieces of "green space" on the boundaries of completely developed subdivisions.

This is very common in Texas. E&P companies usually have a full staffed Land department that spends all their time tracking and updating divided mineral right owners. They have to cut checks to the owners on a monthly basis, and often times there is a signficant amount of money that doesn't get distributed because the owner dies and the company is not notified of any change in ownership. Some of these ownership percentages are very, very small (we are talking $2 monthly checks on some wells).

I saw an interesting youtube video on oil wells that are hidden in plain sight throughout Los Angeles. From what they are saying, Los Angeles just sits on fairly massive oil reserves. In Santa Barbara, oil just oozes out of the ocean floor off shore and washes up on the beach.

Chevron has continually been getting oil out of Bakersfield and they've developed new technologies (something with steam and water -- others on here know probably quite a bit about it) that make these wells continue to produce after people thought they would have dried out long ago.

It's called "lifting" and companies include it in their profitability analysis of wells. They do lift with steam or water, but they also can use natural gas (I think this is common in Alaska where they don't have the infrastructure to export the natural gas to the continental US. This is basically what those old oil pumps do, you know the ones scattered across Texas that constantly turn around and around. When oil prices start to rise you'll see many old wells will start to get "lifted" as the cost of lifting the remaining oil will be less than the value of the oil produced. Improvements in lifting technology are what continue to keep some of the old oil fields viable long after the initial well life was first determined.

[Pheidippides]

What's right with Texas?

This is very common in Texas. E&P companies usually have a full staffed Land department that spends all their time tracking and updating divided mineral right owners. They have to cut checks to the owners on a monthly basis, and often times there is a signficant amount of money that doesn't get distributed because the owner dies and the company is not notified of any change in ownership. Some of these ownership percentages are very, very small (we are talking $2 monthly checks on some wells).



It's called "lifting" and companies include it in their profitability analysis of wells. They do lift with steam or water, but they also can use natural gas (I think this is common in Alaska where they don't have the infrastructure to export the natural gas to the continental US. This is basically what those old oil pumps do, you know the ones scattered across Texas that constantly turn around and around. When oil prices start to rise you'll see many old wells will start to get "lifted" as the cost of lifting the remaining oil will be less than the value of the oil produced. Improvements in lifting technology are what continue to keep some of the old oil fields viable long after the initial well life was first determined.

Why does nobody think to ask the Texas qualified O&G lawyer about this?

(Pretty much what Moliere said. I'll add that the effective recovery of wells is very low. Like single digits low as a percentage of hydrocarbons down there).

[Moliere]

Why does nobody think to ask the Texas qualified O&G lawyer about this?

(Pretty much what Moliere said. I'll add that the effective recovery of wells is very low. Like single digits low as a percentage of hydrocarbons down there).

I thought the recovery was higher, but I honestly wouldn't know. I fully expect technology to continue to keep current wells producing for quite some time longer than currently expected. Back in the early 2000s people were thinking we'd run out of natural gas in 50-60 years. One company actually was setting up asset retirement liabilities for their pipelines to remove them when the gas reservoirs were depleted. Funny how things change when two small innovations (horizontal drilling (one of my favorite O&G terms) and fracking) are made workable on a large scale. Now we have too much natural gas.

[il Padrino Ute]

Senator Cornyn is another thing that is right with Texas. He's got a "Days without a budget" clock on his Senate website.

[Uncle Ted]

Texas independence day.

[YOUTUBE]8-cFtSPIF4Q[/YOUTUBE]

[Green Monstah]

Why does nobody think to ask the Texas qualified O&G lawyer about this?

(Pretty much what Moliere said. I'll add that the effective recovery of wells is very low. Like single digits low as a percentage of hydrocarbons down there).

Nik's right. Someone should have asked me.

Interestingly, I used to represent a company in with wells in Beverly Hills; however the pump jacks and production facilities were all covered by a facade that looks like a home or office suitable for the area.

[Uncle Ted]

Texas (and Wyoming) will roll out the welcome wagon for company that Colorado law makers may drive out of the state.

Unnoticed amid dozens of tract homes in the Denver suburbs, a nondescript industrial building is suddenly in the middle of the gun control debate in Colorado.

The company, started in an ex-Marine's basement in 1999, is in a standoff with Colorado Democrats who want to restrict the size of ammunition magazines after mass shootings in a suburban Denver movie theater and a Connecticut elementary school. Magpul has issued lawmakers an ultimatum potentially worth millions: Pass the bill, and the business will move.

[...]

As the debate unfolds, states have made overtures to Magpul, including offering to pay their moving costs. The company won't name the states, but Wyoming and Texas have expressed interest in netting the $85 million the company projects it will spend in Colorado next year in payments to suppliers, subcontractors and service providers. Magpul said the move would also impact its 200 employees, plus an additional 400 who work for suppliers and subcontractors.

[...]


Fitzpatrick said the bill's requirement that all magazines have serial numbers adds enough production costs to make it worth leaving. He also said smaller magazines can be easily connected to each other -- magazines can be hooked up to make a 60-round magazine, for example -- and the company fears it would legally liable if people were to do that.


[...]

http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2013/03/02/company-will-move-if-colorado-approves-gun-control/?test=latestnews