First Friday Q&A on Oil & Gas This Week

Welcome back to another episode! This week’s episode is our First Friday Q&A for March. You ask the questions and we answer them. Big thanks to everyone who wrote in. If you want to get a question answered for next month’s FFQA, click the link below. Enjoy!

Have a question? Click here to ask.

Show Notes & Links:

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Questions:

Thanks for your pod cast! I really enjoy it because in my current position I am very isolated from technical staff since I am currently working as a chemical account Manager in the field. On to my question. Do you think a production company could be run using the ROWE principals and a big portion of the technical staff working remotely? I think this could be a great way to attract older professionals that want to work from their retirement home and younger generation that wants to work, but still be able to travel. Thanks for your advice.

Hey Mark and Jake, love the show and have been a listener all through school. I have now graduated and am working as a Landman apprentice. Here is my question, there has to be a better way to assemble Abstracts. It takes tons of time, and I just feel as things are picking up on land there has to be a better way.

Keep rockin the mics gents!

Hello. I am a huge fan of the show! I am actually not in the oil and gas industry but I was wondering how you think the recent shale gas and oil boom in Ohio from the Marcellus and Utica shale formations will impact the state over the next 20-30 years? Can Ohio become the “Texas of the 21st Century”? Do you have any data on how much shale gas is actually in Ohio and how many years of consumption are still in the ground? I’ve read some conflicting data online so I wasn’t sure if you have some definitive answers on that. Finally, in terms of baseball, what inning is the shale gas revolution in the U.S. and Ohio currently in at the moment?

Thanks again and looking forward to hearing from you. Keep up the great work!

When do you expect the CDL driver demand to increase in Eagle Ford area like the Permian area?

There is a new trend of local Permian frac sand mining that is growing out her in the Permian. From what I have been told the locally mined sand is 60% cheaper in than the imported sand that is tradiationaly be used. How do y’all think these companies will do in the market and how will these companies with the massive discount economically effect the profitablty of oil and gas in the coming month/quarter/year and so on? The largest company is called Hi-Crush partners LPP.

Hey mark, I continue to love your show and appreciate your responsiveness to listener comments and questions.

I’ve been hearing about how one piece of why crude has rallied into the $60’s of late is related to the gravity of crude oil that we are producing in the US right now, specifically that we are producing extremely light crude that isn’t a good fit for our (or anybody’s) refineries. Can you help me understand the mechanics here? Specifically: what happens if you try and refine crude with gravity 45+ as if it were gravity of 30? Can you just blend  1 barrel of gravity 45 with 1 barrel of gravity 25 (if that’s available) and get a refineable product? And if this issue is contributing to some kind of scarcity (lots of consecutive drawdowns at Cushing), where is all this ultra light oil going? And obviously anything else you think is relevant to this issue.

I like what you’ve done with the podcast, it is a quick and easy way to stay on top of current events in the industry. As the president of the AADE student chapter here at the University of Oklahoma, I plug you guys in before meetings and I think you are gaining a significant following from students.  Not only is the podcast interesting for US students, many foreign students have indicated their interest in the podcast.

Quick question, with this new administration opening up more offshore areas to drill, do you see companies pushing to drill off the east coast? Or do you think they’ll be more hesitant since many large offshore projects can take 10+ years and the uncertainty of the next administration?