– Chapter 6 –
Innovation and Technology Will Drive the Winners in Oil $500
I’m a landman. We’re the “deal-doer guys.”
We’re the guys who write the contracts. We negotiate the trades. We buy the leases. (There’s an old saying in the oil business: “No grease without the lease.”) We get the partners. We do all the paperwork to make the deals go. Every company worth its salt has the scientists, the geologists, and the engineers… But the land guys are the “business-side guys.” And good landmen – the really good deal makers – are critical to developing and growing an oil company. Being a landman for 35 years allowed me to work in nearly every important basin producing oil in the U.S. It also allowed me to learn about engineering, geology, and drilling. (You can’t write a proper contract if you don’t know all the ins and outs of the business!) But the most important thing I took away from my time as a landman – what propelled me to Chief Oil and Gas Officer of Forestar Group and many other key positions over the years –is my first-hand experience working in all the major oil-producing basins across the U.S. I learned what part of the basin is dry gas, wet gas, or oil. I learned the geology and the geophysical (seismic) signatures particular to each play. I began to develop an understanding of reservoir engineering principles and reserves.
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