Reader Responses

There has been so much (well-intentioned, I'm sure) misinformation in the news lately I felt compelled to write.

Oil companies do sit on leases and not develop them. Guess why? Drilling has to be planned, and it sometimes takes years to develop a prospect. Seismic testing often is done to evaluate a prospect. A geologist evaluates the data.

If the prospect appears likely to be productive the lands must be researched to find out who really owns minerals underneath. That can take up to an entire year. I have seen it take that long with 10 people working diligently to establish the title.

At that point a leasing agent contacts the mineral owner and attempts to get a lease. It can easily take a year to get 80 or 90 percent of a prospect leased, and that is what is required. The cost most often is very high in monies paid to mineral owners.

Now we need to pick a drill site. Drilling costs range from $2 to $5 million per well. If it were your money, I'd allow that would be stressful since a dry hole is a fact of life.

We don't have much oil left in East Texas having pumped what was the largest oil field in the world almost dry. These days we are largely drilling for natural gas. And everyone is working around the clock to drill. I know a drilling superintendent who is working 120 hours per week. The industry is working as hard as is humanly possible.

There are supply shortages such as drill pipe and rigs with which to contend.

If you are lucky enough to complete a good gas well, pipeline has to be laid to it to gather the gas. Add yet more time for right of way acquisitions and actual construction. That's why a standard oil and gas lease is for three years with a two-year option.

If you had a "hot" prospect like the Barnett shale in Fort Worth, Haynesville shale in Louisiana or the Bossier shale in Freestone County, where would you be starting the process of drilling a well? The resources go to the place of greatest demand and greatest promise.

You're being fed a line of baloney from the White House and elsewhere but I reckon that is to be expected; it's the political season. Please do your own research and take no one's word for anything. It's like Ronald Reagan said: "Trust, but verify."

Lewis Williams
Tyler