BBC Oil Field Interview

In the field with the BBC
In the oil field that is. My second day with the BBC film crew allowed me, and partner Del Sloan [above], to give reporters Matt and Kevin a basic primer in the oil business, a tour that they had requested. We ate breakfast at JoJo's Cafe, a good ol' bubba kind of place where Matt was not to impressed with the grits, but Kevin loved the Huevos Rancheros. With their complimentary hard hats in hand and a warning about the dangers of hydrogen sulfide gas, we set off on a world of discovery for them.

We visited pulling units and pumping units, saw a frac job in progress and visited an oil gathering system. We spoke of how, we as lovers of the environment, are fastidious about cleaniness and how if we weren't the State of Texas is, and the amount of fines involved in errant pollution. We talked of the costs involved in drilling one well, a well that usually has a 1 in 5 chance of being really commercially viable. We talked of the geology of the region that is an ancient seabed, a region that produces 20% of all the oil and gas in the continental U.S. Being the digital guy, I explained to Kevin, the BBC digital guy, the slick solar powered metering systems we have, which allow us to see on our office computers what's happening at each well on an instantaneous basis. I think he was impressed.

I believe that Matt and Kevin came away with a new understanding of where the gasoline for their Austin Mini-Coopers comes from, and that being in the oil business is not necessarily evil, is not a ticket to instant riches and that there are many hard working average people involved. But most of all, Del and I and these two BBC guys just had a good time driving around West Texas being guys from different cultures explaining our points of view and discovering that even living an ocean away, we are still pretty much the same. A good sign for humanity.