Replies to This Discussion

Permalink Reply by Skip Peel - Mineral Consultant on February 11, 2016 at 4:54

Keith and I landed in the Haynesville Shale about the same time.  I was recruited to land work because of my computer skills.  I started compiling data from the Louisiana State database, SONRIS, for analysis by others.  Fortunately for me I got to be part of those discussions.  I formed relations with law firms with significant energy practices, geologists and individuals with operating experience.  I am grateful to them all for their patience in answering my questions and explaining the complexities of all three areas of expertise.  In essence, I got a crash course in all things O&G in NW LA.  Over time I learned to navigate the databases for other states:  Texas, Arkansas and Mississippi.  I also maintain a number of remote access accounts to public records in parishes within the Haynesville Play AOI.  The bulk of my clients are the owners of large mineral interests and the law firms that represent them.  I have one long term industry client, a midstream company.  I spend the bulk of my time in research on the computer and look in on GHS regularly to post articles and opinion and see what mineral owners are posting.  The comments and replies help me fill in some blanks that just can't be accomplished with public records.  I owe the industry my livelihood but do not hesitate to be critical when I see problems.  I also try to help limit the misunderstanding of the industry by mineral owners who rightly find much of what they do a mystery.  In so doing I occasionally "get caught in the middle" of heated discussions.  I've grown a thick skin.  LOL! 

Disclaimer:  For those who visit my personal GHS page, I do not "Own The Site".  I was an early supporter by way of an ad.  I thank Keith (and Anna) for the site and for their forbearance in my constant suggestions and alerts when something goes awry.  The age of the Internet and the websites published by  Keith have changed the dynamic of owning and managing mineral interests for the general public.  He is a pioneer with a lot of well deserved fans who have found substantial benefit in all his websites.

• ▶ Reply

Permalink Reply by Steve P on February 15, 2016 at 18:10

i am a NW Louisiana native, and still have family, land and minerals across the Haynesville Shale area. i read a good deal of the postins on GHS, and have benefitted from what i have learned here. A La expat living in CA.

Not much patience with the "highly opiniated but poorly informed" contributors, but i generally refrain from engaging with those folk. when i post or contribute, i try to be constructive, objective and helpful.

• ▶ Reply

Permalink Reply by Keith Mauck (Site Publisher) on February 17, 2016 at 10:53

Thanks Steve...so you are all those visits I see coming from California, : ) Are you in Southern or Northern?

• ▶ Reply

Permalink Reply by Steve P on February 18, 2016 at 12:13

Bay Area

• ▶ Reply

Permalink Reply by olddog573 on February 15, 2016 at 23:40

When the HS kicked off we were in the process of selling every piece of land we had that we were not living on and had already sold a 200 acre parcel that we had a 50 acre interest in.  The land was undivided and of no particular use to any of use to any of us at that time.  Then my wife and I got a late night call from our CPA who was going over our taxes and advised us to stop selling property.  Luckily the majority of the family property is still intact and we have reaped the benefits of land that has been in the family since the French came up the river.  Now if only prices would come back so we can reap some more :)

• ▶ Reply

Permalink Reply by Keith Mauck (Site Publisher) on February 17, 2016 at 10:54

Wow, there's a good CPA.

• ▶ Reply

Permalink Reply by William C. Morrison on February 22, 2016 at 12:11

Kieth, my family has been land owners in Pointe Coupee Parish for 165 years and we are relative new comers to the region.  Pointe Coupee history predates the American Revolution, records go back to 1771 in the Pointe Coupee Parish Clerk of Court (records repository in Louisiana).  Our farm has been leased countless times and was in Tucaloosa Trend gas production for a couple of years.  The well sanded over, the cost of gas dropped and reword was not economical.  So it has been shut in and abandoned.

Every time the price of crude and/or gas goes up, the land men come out and we get a new lease.  I personally have participated in a lease three times so far.  But no drilling yet.

Now it appears we may be in the bottom edge of the Tuscaloosa Marine Shale which overlays the Tuscaloosa Trend.  We are also in the Austin Chalk play.  But again, it is all driven by the price of crude.

I personally have invested in Eagle Ford royalties and of recent times in a couple of Sterling County, Texas wells.  Those can be said to be in the edge of the Permian Basin.  Also have a minor holding in and around Rockdale, TX (a stripper operation).  All of that has taught me a lot and I have lot more to learn.

The forum has been invaluable to me and my friends.  It is a great source of information.  You provide an outstanding service.  Please keep it up even though the oil patch seems to be suffering pretty badly at the moment.

• ▶ Reply

Permalink Reply by Keith Mauck (Site Publisher) on February 22, 2016 at 15:24

William, very interesting history. What led you to invest in minerals; are you in the industry? 

• ▶ Reply

Permalink Reply by William C. Morrison on February 23, 2016 at 1:26

I invested in minerals because it is an alternative to other investments.   I knew a little about geology, my home area, etc.  So I was more comfortable in minerals than farming, construction or other industries.  I have always be frugal, living within my means and coping with the situation.  I had a successful military career, aerospace career and have seen much of the free world except for South and Central America.  So I am in the twilight of my life and can afford to dabble, at least to learn what to dabble in. 

No I am not in the industry, just an interested person that sometimes invests.  I can use the write offs and wait for the benefits.

• ▶ Reply

Permalink Reply by Hopeful About Natural Gas on February 29, 2016 at 10:30

I've been on GHS since late 2008. The folks on here have helped me immeasurably. It's great to see a board where professionals are willing to share their knowledge with novice mineral owners. I really appreciate Keith's vision for this board and I'm glad he's been able to keep it up during these lean times.

I grew up near Shreveport and graduated from Byrd (same year as Skip!) I go back to Sport every few years to see old friends and family. It's been fascinating to watch the rise, fall and hopefully rise again of natural gas. Go Haynesville Shale has chronicled it all and helped lots of folks along the way.

In the late 70's I moved to the West Coast. It's beautiful out here and if I drive an hour to the west I can be at the Pacific Ocean and walk on the beach. If I drive just over an hour to the east I can make a snowball in the Cascade Mts.

I've had a couple of names on GHS but I settled on Hopeful About Natural Gas. I still am hopeful about natural gas. The shale revolution has shaken up the fossil fuels world. I don't know what the future holds, but it's good to see nations who were formerly dependent on OPEC or Russia be able to develop their own energy sources. The Gas Crisis of the early 70's had a big influence on my thinking. That's why I've always supported cleaner forms of energy - natural gas and renewable energy. To me, making energy cleaner and more abundant is the goal.

HANG

PS: I did not realize HANG was the spelt when I picked the name, Hopeful About Natural Gas years ago!

• ▶ Reply

Permalink Reply by William C. Morrison on February 29, 2016 at 12:04

HANG, I lived for years in Redlands, CA, snow was right up in the San Bernardino mountains about 8 or 9 miles away and the Pacific was about 70 miles away.  Chino is the western most point of San Bernardino County and is 20 miles from the Pacific Ocean, the other boundary, the eastern boundary of San Bernardino County is the Colorado River and the Arizona State line. Actually, you can snow ski in Los Angles County off Cajon Pass and be even closer to the Pacific Ocean as that is a border of the County.

Did you know that there is a huge shale deposit in that region and California will not allow it to be developed?  Oil was and is still pumped out of the ground in Los Angeles County.  I worked for Rockwell Int, and there were pumping oil wells on the plant site just off the Riverside Freeway in the edge of Anaheim.

Unfortunately, natural gas is dirt cheap at the moment.  Gas drilling rigs are packing it in.  And I now live in Weatherford, TX sitting right on top of the Barnett Shale.  Things are unwinding here pretty quick, Frack Rigs sitting in parking lots in storage.  Sign of the times.

Hang in there HANG.

• ▶ Reply

Permalink Reply by Skip Peel - Mineral Consultant on February 29, 2016 at 12:19

It's not that California will not allow the Monterey Shale to be developed, it is non-economic to do so.  From the Los Angeles Times, Feb. 2014, exceprt:

Federal energy authorities have slashed by 96% the estimated amount of recoverable oil buried in California's vast Monterey Shale deposits, deflating its potential as a national "black gold mine" of petroleum.

Just 600 million barrels of oil can be extracted with existing technology, far below the 13.7 billion barrels once thought recoverable from the jumbled layers of subterranean rock spread across much of Central California, the U.S. Energy Information Administration said.

The new estimate, expected to be released publicly next month, is a blow to the nation's oil future and to projections that an oil boom would bring as many as 2.8 million new jobs to California and boost tax revenue by $24.6 billion annually.

The Monterey Shale formation contains about two-thirds of the nation's shale oil reserves. It had been seen as an enormous bonanza, reducing the nation's need for foreign oil imports through the use of the latest in extraction techniques, including acid treatments, horizontal drilling and fracking.

The energy agency said the earlier estimate of recoverable oil, issued in 2011 by an independent firm under contract with the government, broadly assumed that deposits in the Monterey Shale formation were as easily recoverable as those found in shale formations elsewhere.

• ▶ Reply