Building Independent Oil & Gas In Texas with Reed Goodman

Reed00:02

So we live, let's see, everyone chat. See, I'll drop a picture in here for you. I don't know how to do that. Okay. We live pretty close to a bunch of the whales that I've been taking over. So I got a whale on last night and I just, man, when I put a new whale on, I'm like, I go check it every two or three hours to make sure there's not a leak somewhere. So I went and checked first thing this morning and like right at sunup and on the way back driving back into our property.

Wade00:24

Right.

Reed00:32

Man, I saw like seven bucks on the way up to the house. And I was like, I'm going to grab my gun and just go walking. And so I did. And so had a real nice eight point just. He was standing there a hundred yards, big mature four and a half year old. Was like, I cannot like there is no reasonable hunter would pass up this opportunity. So yeah.

Wade00:35

You

Nice.

Thank

Peter Brecht00:55

Yeah, that's awesome.

Wade00:57

I got some. That's awesome.

My son and I, he's 15. And we've always hunted with family just a little bit, like one week in a year, two weeks a year. And this year he's like really serious about getting himself a deer. And so we built some like feeders and stuff like that this weekend and went down and set them up. And we've we bought game cameras, like we've got them set up. Every morning he wakes up first thing, he's like looking to see if there's anything on there. We just did it Sunday though. So I mean, we haven't seen a deer yet, but.

Reed01:21

Yeah.

Yeah, that's awesome. Where y'all at?

Wade01:26

We're hopeful, trust.

Well, I live in Tulsa, but my wife's family kind of has like, it was like a hundred acres or something like that down in Southeast Oklahoma. It's pretty neat. We love getting away. All the guys go out there. My father-in-law, my brother-in-law's, niece's, nephews, we all kind of go.

Reed01:41

Cool. Cool.

Wade01:51

We scare the deer away more than anything. I'm like, you got a dozen people in this small area. I'm like, they smell everything. They're like, that's why we never see them. I'm convinced, you know? Congratulations.

Reed01:55

Right.

Peter Brecht02:02

Good stuff. Guys,

I'm so glad we got to make this work, Reid. I know the technical stuff. Like you'd think that we didn't know what we're doing. Wade, I think we had more technical difficulties on this than anything else we've done. Appreciate you sticking with it. But yeah, so Reid, I know nothing about you. Like I'm so excited. This is like our first real conversation. So we'll get to kind of get into that. But I guess I'll kick it off with our little intro, which is nothing crazy and we'll just go into it. And Wade, think our connection, we should be all right.

Wade02:13

Yep.

Peter Brecht02:32

This time. In the office. All right, here we go. Okay, cool. All right. Perfect. All right. Well, hey, welcome to Local Energy. My name is Peter Brecht. I'm here with my co-host, Wade Spear, and our guest today is Reed Goodman. Reed, how are you doing? I'm doing well. Yeah?

Wade02:33

Let's hope. We will see. As long as my phone doesn't overheat.

Reed02:36

Hahaha

I'm doing well. Doing well this morning.

Peter Brecht02:52

Man, thanks for joining. I've been looking forward to this conversation with you for a couple months now. I first saw you posting up some stuff on Collide and then LinkedIn, and I'm not sure if you're out there on any other socials, but what part of the world are you in? And maybe give us a quick overview of who you are.

Reed03:11

Yeah. So from, South Texas, I'm kind of, just crossed I-10 on my way up to go run an errand. And so I'm no longer in South Texas as soon as you get north I-10. That's the, yeah, that's the marker for me. So now I'm in central Texas by about 300 yards. But yeah, I put a lot of miles on end up a lot of different places, which is why I'm.

Wade03:21

Is that the demar the line? Okay.

Peter Brecht03:22

You

Reed03:40

Doing this from the truck and I appreciate y'all accommodating that as well. But yeah, just a small operator most of the time. I do a bit of consulting as well. So I'll go sit, work over rigs and flow back and, oversee some conventional frac stuff and things like that. And so, you asked me this week what I'm up to, and next week, what I'm up to could be totally different ends of the spectrum. Just to

Peter Brecht04:02

You asked me this week what I'm up to and next week what I'm up to. It could be totally different ends of the spectrum. I'm

Kind of trying to figure out my way on being independent and trying not to go get a day job. Yeah. Let's see. So I left my my last corporate role, I guess, was in 2020. And then we started a small tool company and had it for.

Reed04:09

Kind of trying to figure out my way on being independent and trying not to go get a day job.

Wade04:16

How long have you been doing for?

Reed04:18

Let's see, so I left my last corporate role, I guess was in 2020. And then we started a small tool company and had it for

Three and a half years. Went to peak completions, was there for about a year and then decided that I didn't want to be, I didn't want to have any partners. I didn't want to have any employees. I wanted to be kind of fully independent in that way.

Wade04:47

Right.

Reed04:48

Yeah, and so that's been about two, that's been right at two years now that I've been doing that. So yeah, yeah.

Wade04:55

Okay. Gotcha.

Peter Brecht04:58

That whole, I love the name of your company, or maybe it's one of them, but it's War Turkey, is that right? Is that what you went for? Yeah, that's All right, so we've got War Turkey. Okay, all right. Oh, that's awesome. Love it. So I have Jaybird Resources is my production company. We've got about 40 whales in South Texas. And we've got a friend that's got a company called...

Reed05:05

Yeah, that's the, all right, so we've got War Turkey. All right, so I've got, look at this guy. So I have Jaybird Resources is my production company, my little, we've got about 40 whales in South Texas. I've got a friend that's got a company called

Warbird, no Warfield is what his name. And so we were gonna do War.

Warbird resources as a joint venture for some wells we were looking at down here and my geologist couldn't remember Warbird so he started calling a war turkey and I was like man we are rebranding to that so Yeah

Peter Brecht05:36

That's great. I love that. All right.

Wade05:42

What?

Nice. Nice.

Peter Brecht05:50

So

So you work it's I like your comment about like trying to stay independent right? I mean it really is and so my company I'm the same way it's I'm an independent contractor right just kind of meeting people doing things trying to keep things

Peter Brecht06:06

Moving all the time but I mean really when it comes down to the oil field I mean you're out there putting miles on your truck you're doing some creative things to fix wells and get them running at midnight I mean I've seen all kinds of stuff from you I mean what has been maybe the most interesting thing that you've had to do you know in the last couple of months just to kind of keep things moving

Reed06:28

Yeah.

Wade06:29

Okay. Okay.

Reed06:31

Well, the most interesting thing I think is probably trucks breaking down. That's been a real, I think I finally got it kind of got it figured out, but I've put so many miles on and we're so hard on vehicles in this industry. I bought a truck a couple of years ago and it's every six months or so it breaks down on me. So I ended up stuck in Shreveport, Louisiana.

With no vehicle

And no way out. And that's how I ended up in this truck. I've now rented a truck from Premier Truck Rentals. And that was just a really fun three days to get back into moving. When you're in our business, you've got to be able to get the location, got to be able to get to the meeting, right? And so reliability is number one.

Wade07:09

Yeah. Yeah.

Yep.

Peter Brecht07:26

Absolutely. That that's the truck you posted I think on LinkedIn, right? You got a couple mods done to it or just things to make a little more field resistant, right? So yeah. Okay. And I think another thing too that I just appreciated is you do an old ton of video, right? All your videos are great, but it always starts out with a smile, right? There's no, there's no like, man, I'm doing this. I wish I wasn't doing this. Like you can tell there's a genuine love for what you're doing. Like was this a family thing?

Reed07:32

Yeah. Yeah, that's right. Yep.

Wade07:50

Thank

Peter Brecht07:56

Growing up in the oil gas industry? Tell us a little bit like the backstory there. Yeah, my mom's side of the family is on their third compression company. So I grew up kind of monkeying around compressors. My dad was a manufacturing process engineer for Baker Hughes.

Reed08:01

Yeah, my mom's side of the family is on their third compression company. And so I grew up kind of monkeying around compressors. My dad was a manufacturing process engineer for Baker Hughes.

Wade08:07

Hello?

Reed08:15

And then various cousins and uncles and everything are drilling engineers for Marathon and Oxy and those kind of things. So yeah, it was definitely in the family. I grew up, kind of

Just in it right and my first job was was at the compressor company when I was 18 and my uncle said I'll help you get the first one but after that it's on you so you know I got to pressure wash crickets out of the you know the compressors and stuff like that so that's right that's right yeah so I grew up in it and just love the heck out of it I

Peter Brecht08:33

And my uncle said, I'll help you get the first one. But after that, it's on you. So I got to pressure wash crickets out of the compressors and stuff like that. You were doing it from the start. That's right. That's right. Yeah, so I grew up in it. And just love the heck out of

Wade08:46

You were doomed from the

Peter Brecht08:54

It.

Reed08:56

I like cows and horses as well. I like that kind of the ag side and I'm fairly mechanical. And so I decided at some point, if I wanted to own my own ranch, my own cows, I needed to go into the oil and gas side and make a bunch of money. And then I get on the ranch. Otherwise I'd always be working for somebody. So.

Peter Brecht09:15

Right. Yeah, absolutely. So in this is, collecting wells and kind of finding things and assets to buy. What's that process been for you? If you've been doing this for two years or longer, right? Sounds like you have a pretty good career around you. People you trust you're talking with. But how have you built that up to where you're at now where it's like, OK, maybe you're not trying to acquire as quickly or what's that look like? Yeah, so.

Reed09:42

Yeah. So

That's why I have Jaybird resources. And then we also have war turkey. Jaybird was started in 2019 just as a dream. I was living in Midland. I was traveling to like Fort Worth, Dallas area for sales quite often. And I would pass these little pump jacks and it was always a dream of mine to own some of those. And so one day, actually the day T-Boom Pickens died, I pulled in and

Peter Brecht09:44

That's why I have Jaybird resources and then we also have War Turkey. Jaybird was started in 2019 just as dream. I was living in Midland. I was traveling to like Fort Worth Dallas area for sales quite often.

Wade09:45

Okay.

Okay.

Yeah.

Reed10:12

Wrote down a bunch of numbers off one of those pump jacks and started doing a bunch of research and collected some oil out of one that I shouldn't have done now I know, and put it

Wade10:22

Yeah.

Reed10:23

In a mason jar. I've still got that at the house on my desk. But that was kind of the genesis there is like, want some small wells. And so I took that company, Jaybird, slow and steady through acquiring

What I would consider low risk stripper wells. And I quantify a lot of that low risk because my background's been in artificial lift and well bore integrity. And so, I can look kind of at the mechanical side and have some idea of what's going on based on the history of that well, right? And get myself comfortable mechanically with those risks there. But then I also have war turkey because

Wade10:50

Mm-hmm.

Reed11:09

That set of wells at Jaybird has been slowly and very methodically acquired. I have 100 % of the working interests. I don't have any partners. We don't carry any debt. It doesn't make a whole lot of oil, right? And it doesn't hardly pay me anything, which is why I still work all these other jobs, but it's kind of my slow and steady and very intentional and well thought out, right?

Wade11:35

Bass production.

Reed11:36

It's

My baseline, that's right. It's my little nest egg over there. War Turkey is like kind of, I don't want to say the opposite, because it's slow and well thought out on a lot of things, but it's drilling wildcats. It's picking up sticks in the Eagleford and the Permian and trying to find value through the bit. It's re-completions and that sort of stuff. And that is private equity and aggregated money. And so it's two different, you can...

Peter Brecht11:55

It's

Reed12:06

Diverge and take either one of those paths, right? And so I'm trying to keep Jaybird in a way to where it is that that's safe and secure and kind of my legacy and everything's within 30 minutes of the house. So I can go pump whales in my underwear and shoot a deer on the way home and that kind of stuff. Whereas the war turkey is like we have to have

Peter Brecht12:25

No that that

Reed12:26

The meetings and the earnings calls and that's where it's going to end up. And so I forgot what your question was, but hopefully that answers it.

Wade12:30

Right.

Peter Brecht12:35

That answers it entirely yeah Yeah, wait. I don't want to be the only one asking questions. You might be having something burning, but if not, it's all right

Reed12:35

Yeah.

Wade12:35

Well.

Yeah, well, I was going to ask you, what are the things that you enjoy most about other than just freedom? For me, I kind of looked at,

I felt like my job satisfaction is based on the tasks that I do, right? So like I love on the drilling side of things that I can make a decision today and kind of see the results tomorrow, like an immediate gratification person. I also like work with a team, right? And so I'm always relying on consultants we've got on the field and superintendents and mud engineers, working.

As kind of a part like that. What are the things you enjoy most about kind of operating your own Wells? I do kind of get to, guess, scratch that it's from both sides in terms of, your bass production. I make my own decisions. I live and die by that. And then also like, I got to make a PowerPoint and convince people, you know.

Reed13:28

Yep. Yeah. It's, it was exactly that. I enjoy, like you said, the immediate gratification. I enjoy. Yesterday I set a new motor. We've, bought a crane truck from a guy out of Louisiana. The crane truck broke like seven times, just trying to get out there and get this motor set. But we finally got it done. I got it turned on late last night and that was, for me that, that immediate gratification, right? Getting something done.

Peter Brecht13:33

I enjoy, like you said, the immediate gratification. Enjoy, yesterday I set a new motor. We bought a crane truck from a guy out of Louisiana. The crane truck broke like seven times just trying to get out there and get this motor set. But we finally got it done. I got it turned on late last night. And that was, for me, that immediate gratification, right? Getting something done,

Wade13:45

Okay.

Hahaha

Right.

Reed13:58

Watching it pump. We've now got oil come to the tanks. I love that and I love the challenge,

Peter Brecht13:58

Watching it pump, we've now got oil come to the tanks. I love that. And I love the,

Reed14:04

Right? I would never be a good painter It's just too boring to sit there and paint a wall all day or too tedious that yeah to hit that corner, know straight and just right. I my brain doesn't work like that. I need the challenge and Interestingly enough even being a small operator and not always managing You know a fleet

Wade14:10

Meticulous. Yeah.

Reed14:28

Completion spread or, whatever it may be. I've still had to develop a ton of those connections and I've got a bunch of guys that I call day to day. Hey, this isn't working. How have you guys handled it economically? Right? Well, makes four barrels a day. I can't just go buy a flare stack. I've got to build one with parts we have in the yard, or some along those lines. So it's.

Wade14:48

Right.

Peter Brecht14:54

Or some along those lines. So

Reed14:57

It still has required that team mentality to figure a lot of that stuff out, but the team just isn't always on my payroll, right? Yeah. Yeah,

Peter Brecht14:57

It still has required that team mentality to figure a lot of that stuff out. The team just isn't always on my payroll. Yeah.

Wade15:06

It's a lot of IOUs.

Reed15:11

That's right. Well, when they call, I've had that a number of times. My wife is like, man, why are you always helping these guys out? I'm like, you don't know how many times I've called them and needed their brain, at 2 a.m. to get something.

Figured out and so that's what makes it go around.

Wade15:28

You hit on something that's really interesting to me. So I've worked at a number of different companies. I would say I haven't, well, maybe now I'm starting to work on one that's kind of the size that you're kind of referring to right here. But I mean, it feels like whenever I worked at bigger companies, there was a lot of competition, not just internally, but also externally, kind of across the fence or across the lease line. But as I work with smaller and smaller companies, there is definitely a lot of kind of, I don't want to just say camaraderie, but I mean teamwork.

Reed15:46

Mm-hmm.

Peter Brecht15:56

I mean, teamwork,

Wade15:57

Whereas before maybe you were fighting for leases and doing these things at big companies, feels like a lot of smaller companies, it's just trying to make sure everything floats, nothing sinks. So that's an interesting trend that I've really just become aware of here over last couple of years.

Peter Brecht15:58

Whereas before maybe you were fighting for leases and doing these things in big companies, feels like a lot of smaller companies is just trying to make sure everything floats, nothing sinks. That's an interesting trend that I've really just become aware of here over the last couple

Wade16:16

It's good to see that.

Peter Brecht16:20

As you're kind of as you're talking to people and I know you kind of grew up in this so you have met friends and made connections along the way but

How, if you were, let's say, working at a company right now and you're like, man, I'm looking at what Reid's doing, I wanna go do that. How do you start to develop those relationships with people around you? And I know this is kinda coming from more of the softer angle of relationships because the reality is this is really hard work that you're putting in. But it does take those people skills and those friends to get it done. But where are you finding these people? I mean, it sounds like you have a great group around you.

Reed16:57

Yeah, so many people I found through places

Like Collide and LinkedIn and you asked about socials. Those are actually the only two I have anymore. I got rid of my Instagram and my Facebook and I mean, they still exist, right? But I don't have time to really put up with those. But so much of it has been organic connections. One of my best, I say best mentors, maybe your closest, confidants right now.

Wade17:11

Right.

Reed17:25

Is a guy out of Fort Worth that was a mutual friend. Heard what he was doing, heard what I was doing. He's like, hey, you guys need to get together and talk. And I brought it up to him a couple weeks ago. He's like, I didn't even realize I introduced you two. But me and this guy Phil have just become really, really good friends. He is, it's funny because I'm an internal optimist and he's a.

I'm not an eternal pessimist, but he's definitely a realist, right? And so I'm pitching him his idea and he's thinking of all the all the things that are wrong with it and I need that guy right so we bounce a lot of ideas off of each other You know that was just organic somebody heard about what we were doing and put the two of us in touch So much of this I've had to

Wade17:55

Right.

Reed18:19

Just kind of put myself out there and say, does anybody know somebody that does XYZ or is an expert in this? It's hard because you hear often people will say things like, don't talk about it too much, just go do it, right? Like guys that are doers, don't talk about it, don't tell everybody your dreams. But...

If I wasn't talking about it wasn't telling people what it is I'm trying to achieve, I wouldn't have learned half of this. And a lot of the stuff I might fall on my face, right, at some point. That doesn't really scare me, but if I wasn't talking about it, people wouldn't know that I was looking for that information. And so I don't have a problem sharing all the time. Kind of what we're up to and what we're trying to get done. And I don't see many other people

Wade19:06

Right.

Reed19:17

Wanting to share like that, right? Or asking the questions nearly as much as they should. And so I think a big portion of it is just putting yourself out there and saying, I'm working on this. I need an expert. I need a guy that knows something here. Tell me what I don't know. And asking even dumb questions a lot of times. I've taken to doing that sometimes on Collide, right? Where I'm like, hey, y'all tell me what you know about this. I might have some preconceived notions, but.

Instead of asking something very guided I asked something very general so that I can test my assumptions on it, too And I think that's been real helpful

Peter Brecht19:50

So that I can test my assumptions on it too.

Yeah.

We have to kind of fight an algorithm these days too. For example, Twitter, love, I love that's like my social media choice. It's how I met Wade actually through a connection on there. And I learned a lot through that, but the algorithm in the last couple of weeks has changed. And so now I'll put something out there and like, get no views, no responses. I mean, it's like, just, it just shut off and same thing for a lot of people, but, you've kind of found a way I think to get your head above water on a lot of this and you do get great.

Wade20:14

Thank

Thank you.

Peter Brecht20:22

Get response. But so kind of part of that with everything too is even starting this podcast and kind of me just asking Wade, all that started out was me just asking Wade questions about drilling. I knew enough about drilling to get my job done, but not enough to feel like comfortable in the conversation, right? And the next thing you know, it's like, hey, I just want to talk to more people, right? So this has been a lot of fun for that, but

When you're going out to buy a well, and I kinda liken this a lot to buying a rental property, right? There's always gonna be work involved, to have somebody in there. I think it's less, at least in California where I'm from, a little bit less hazardous, because there's a people element to a rental. But what are some of the challenges or the weird, like have you ever bought a well and been like, damn it, I, this is a bad idea, I shouldn't have done this, I mean, or is it always like, hey, I can figure this out?

Reed21:19

A lot of them make me very nervous. Yes. Pressure. Yeah, pressure makes me nervous, like high pressure, right? Gas makes me nervous. I went to work on a well for somebody else one time and it had maybe a PSI on it. Maybe one PSI. And I was asked to shoot a fluid level in there to see where the level was in the casing. So we can determine, kind of prove casing integrity for the

Wade21:21

They test that optimism.

Peter Brecht21:21

Okay.

Wade21:29

Thank

Reed21:48

The railroad commission. I have like half a PSI, which means fluid was more or less to surface. Couldn't get my gun on there. So I pulled a swab tank out there to get that half a PSI off, see what little bit would bleed off. And it didn't bleed off. And then the well came in and I shut it in and it blew a hole in that casing. And we went from half a PSI to a hole in casing.

Peter Brecht21:51

I have like half a PSI which means fluid was more or less to surface. Couldn't get my gun on there. So I pulled a swab tank out there to get that half a PSI off. See what little bit would bleed off.

Reed22:18

It'll just like that, right? And when you work with these older wells, you have so many unknowns. And there is nothing that I, for the most part, there's nothing that I could have known with the information that I had or done differently. And so anytime we touch a wellhead that we don't have great records on and that we haven't spent an ordinate amount of time understanding the integrity of that well, there's a lot of risks there.

Wade22:44

Thank

Reed22:46

And so anything that has pressure on it scares the heck out of me that, we could go to open this valve and never get it shut or that that pipe nipple could be corroded internally and it just breaks off and now we have this issue. And so, yeah, I get real nervous on a mechanical side. I've also ended up several times with the well that I had some assumptions of, well, when it cut off, it was making 10 burls oil a day.

And all the paperwork that I have says that it, you I should be able to flick it on. It goes back to making 10 barrels of oil a day. Well, they forgot to put one sheet in that paperwork that they squeezed the zone and went up and shot another zone. And you get in there and you get to looking around and you're like, well, shoot, you know? And so, particularly in the portion of the industry that I'm in, I'm not taking wells directly from Shell or Exxon or somebody that tends to have a really good...

Wade23:32

Bye.

Reed23:45

Set of records. And most of the wells that I've taken, haven't paid anything for, right? I take them as BNA liability. I take them as orphan wells from the Rover Commission, or what's called a single signature P4. And so I'm taking these wells as high risk, high reward, right? But with little to no information. And yeah, it makes me nervous all this thinking time.

Wade23:46

Mm-hmm.

Peter Brecht23:49

I take them as orphan wells from the river commission or what's called a single signature P4. And so I'm taking these wells as high risk, high reward, right? But with little to no information. Yeah, it makes me nervous all the

Wade24:12

I imagine.

Peter Brecht24:14

How real are, there's an account, I'm sure you've seen it, called Zombie Wells, or that's the handle at least. There's some stuff out there, they just track issues in Texas and these leaks and all that. How real is that? I've always wanted to ask somebody that's actually out there, is that a real thing?

Reed24:31

Yeah, the Permian in particular, there's a lot of wells kind of that flavor. Maybe I shouldn't say a lot. There's a number of wells of that flavor. And one of the things that has kept me from operating anything in the Permian is while I was at peak completions, we did a lot of remediation work. We did a lot of squeeze work and liners and that kind of stuff. I would describe the Permian basin as a subsurface cesspool.

Everything is is all the formations are commingled and these wells in the 50s weren't designed for the pressures We're subjecting them to in the night in the 2020s, you know 70 years later So, yeah, the zombie wells are real there's also there's a there's an orphan well on a lease that I have right now And we drove by one day and it was leaking

It was actively bubbling and had some oil coming out of one of the valves that was partially shut on the casing, right? And you can see this trail of oil coming from this wellhead. It's not my wellbore. Technically not my responsibility. Called the railroad commission and said, hey guys, meet me out here. We need to look at this. This is an orphan well you all have. And the inspector that came out and looked at it, I said, well, are you going to shut that valve? Do you know to...

To try to stop this leak. He said, well, I can't touch that valve yet. Like we don't have authorization on it. I'm like, it's actively leaking. Well, within our legal framework, he's like, I can't touch that. He said, when I walk around to the other side of the truck to grab my notepad, I can't tell you what to do. I was like, okay. He walked around to the other side of the truck to grab his notepad and I went ahead and shut that valve. But it's interesting the red tape we have, the framework that we've built, the red tape we have about what we can do with some of these wells.

Peter Brecht26:00

Yeah. Well, within our legal framework, it's like I can't touch that. Said, but when I walk around to the other side of the truck to grab my notepad, I can't tell you what to do. I was like, okay. He walked around to other side of the truck to grab his notepad and I went ahead and shut that valve. But it's interesting the red tape we have, the framework that we've built, the red tape we have about what we can do with some of these.

Wade26:04

Right.

Mm.

Reed26:24

When these things are happening and yes, it, sadly it does happen. And it's frustrating. It is because we want to be good stewards, right? And we want a good image. We want to take care of what we've been given. What God has given us. We also want a good image of the industry to the rest of the world so that they know that we're being responsible and they get behind us. And, when we have situations like that, it's really hard.

Peter Brecht26:24

Totally. We want to take care of what we've been given, what God has given us. We also want a good image of the industry to the rest of the world so that they know that we're being responsible and they get behind us. And when we have situations like that, it's really hard.

Reed26:53

So.

Peter Brecht26:53

So absolutely. Well, thank you for confirming that. I always see the videos of those and I'm like, man, that is a mess. And I don't maybe they're posting the worst of the worst, but I'm sure there's some easy ones that are fixable. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.

Reed26:55

Yeah.

They are typically. Yeah.

Wade27:06

Well, and I think too, it's a small percentage of wells that do that, but there's so

Many wells that I mean, there's quite a few out there, you know. It's a tough situation.

Reed27:13

Yep. Yeah.

It is, I don't know what the right answer is for it. There's, that's a long spiel about, what we could do to have better plugging and abandonment programs. What we could do to better bond our wells so that when operators walk away, there's more money, held in trust for that. That's something that I'm very passionate about that I've tried to not be too vocal about yet, because I need to keep my head down and get where I'm going.

Wade27:29

Yeah.

Peter Brecht27:34

Walk away, there's more money held in trust for that. That's something that I'm very passionate about that I've tried to not be too vocal about yet because I need to keep my head down and get where I'm going

Wade27:39

To deal with the issue.

Peter Brecht27:48

So that I can pop up and have some money and some influence to really pursue that. But it's on my mind all the time.

Reed27:48

So that I can pop up and have some money and some influence to really pursue that. But it's on my mind all the time, because it's

Peter Brecht27:57

It's largely a

Reed27:57

Largely a mess.

Peter Brecht27:58

Mess. Yeah. Well, the I mean, the history of the railroad commission, I mean, there's so much there and gosh, who's the there's a guy. His name escapes me. I've been trying to rack my brain for his name for the past, five minutes as we're talking through this. But he just ran out there, to kind of fix some things and clean it up. And I don't know if you want or not, but I mean, he was. Yeah. Yeah. Hawk Dunlap. I can't believe I forgot his name. But Hawk, if you're out there and you're listening, I apologize. But anyways, he was so vocal.

Reed28:17

Yeah, hawk, dunlap.

Peter Brecht28:27

And I mean he was going to all the I mean he had played up such a great case for every piece of what he was trying to do and just because he's seen it right and you know I don't know everything about him or his campaign, but you know talk about a guy with a reach right you know trying to try to make something happen so it was interesting to kind of watch that as a complete bystander not a Texan but if you want to know how to plug in a band and just come to California because that's all we do

Reed28:41

Huh.

Sadly, y'all aren't drooling any new ones.

Peter Brecht28:57

It's horrible.

They're trying. They're trying. So I know we're coming up here on the 30 minute mark. And I think, we might have a couple of things, but one thing I wanted to ask is, are you guys drilling, you've got this, war turkey or planning on drilling or have you drilled wells or what's the plan on that?

Reed29:21

Yeah, so I've got a couple of different things going right now with it. I can talk fairly loosely about it because we have a bunch of acreage already leased up around it, but there's a new basin that we're trying to prove up. Actually, tomorrow I'll be with my geologist doing that thing you were talking about, refining the pitch deck and the presentation and the PowerPoint so that we can start sending it out to a couple of guys.

Wade29:45

Right.

Reed29:49

Doing the office work, which is the hardest part for me. Yes, so we've got a deal there. We want to drill six wells to prove up about 400,000 acres in this basin and get a little bit more of the science project done there. We have a new drill down in Duval County that's just finished leasing and I think I've got it 100 % sold. And so that'll go in the next couple of weeks.

Peter Brecht29:53

Yes, so we've got a deal there. We want to drill six wells to prove up about 400,000 acres in this basin and get a little bit more of the science project done there.

Reed30:18

Maybe by the time this drops, we'll have it done. So yeah, there's definitely some things going on there. Yeah, go ahead.

Peter Brecht30:27

So it's less it's

Less it's not just a vision at this point It's actually like you are 100 % like you're doing this. It's just this is not just a okay. Hopefully we get it done like you're active on it, okay Yeah, and it's an interesting time with the M&A world too, right? So I'm learning a bunch of different facets at the same time. I'm really trying to dig into geology and I'm really gonna have to start drinking from a fire hose on becoming a driller. I've got some, talk about network, I've got some really good support from...

Reed30:36

Yeah.

Yeah, and it's interesting time with the M&A world too, right? So I'm learning a bunch of different facets at the same time. I'm really trying to dig into geology and I'm really gonna have to start drinking from a fire hose on becoming a driller. And I've got some, talk about network, I've got some really good support from

JT Wilkerson and the guys at Draas Command. And so I've got some good guys behind me to help do some of those things, but.

The M&A world is, it's a very one exclusive to try to hear about these opportunities. And then two, when you're nobody to get a meeting can often be hard. And then three, it's really tight right now. There's not a lot out there, not a lot of great things to go buy. You need to go dig up your own prospects and start from zero on a lot of this. There's not just a bunch of sticks laying around to go be drilled.

Wade31:34

Run.

Peter Brecht31:38

Yeah, I would say I think anytime. I can experience what you're saying being a nobody, right? It's kind of like, man, no one knows who I am when I call and I'm sure there's a bit of a sales angle you got to take on things that can feel unnatural at times, depending on who you are, right? And it's like, but you got to put yourself out there and just get after it. So my last question is, is there something in oil and gas that maybe we're not talking about that we

Reed31:52

Yeah.

Peter Brecht32:08

Should be talking about.

Reed32:12

Yeah, think most of that is the orphan wells, or not even the orphan wells. Plugging liability, one of the things my dad and I talk about quite a bit is like the zombie wells, Chevron did everything they could to plug that well properly in 1958. But here it is a problem 70 years later. So as we go through as an operating company,

We do everything we can to a T today. But what one legacy are we leaving and what liability are we carrying for the next 70 years or 100 years, right? And so I don't think there's enough. I think there's a lot of conversation around that in back rooms. People are talking about it in hushed voices trying to figure it out. Think.

If you want to talk about it as like ESG, like we should have some more opinion of where is that line of, Chevron plugged it and everything that day to the T to the letter of the law as good as they could. Is that still the responsibility 70 years later or is that the people's responsibility? I don't really have the answer, but I think there needs to be a lot more conversation about, and because I don't want to carry that for 70 years.

I don't want my kids, if they're involved in the business, to have to inherit that problem. So, trying to understand how that carries through for the next generation and how we can be the most responsible on it. I think that's a big conversation that needs to be had.

Peter Brecht33:44

I love

It man. I love where your thinking is and where you're heading with all that. Where's a good place for people to connect? Know Collide, if you're already on Collide you'll see Reed on there. If you're not on Collide check it out, but where else should people connect?

Reed34:06

Yeah, Collide and LinkedIn's where I'm at. I give my phone number out pretty

Readily. If people have questions about something they're doing, about a project they're on, or how to get into the business, if they've been thinking about wanting to start their operating company, I'll give you a very true look at, what it's been for me. Of course, your mileage may vary, but...

It doesn't cost me but a couple of minutes going down the highway to help somebody understand what they're, what it is they're really asking for. Yeah, would love to connect to anybody that's, wanting to do something like that. I think we're going to need a lot more independence. All the old ones are dying and nobody's filling their shoes. Yeah.

Peter Brecht34:58

Absolutely.

Well, Reed, man, thank you so much for taking the time out of your day and

And pulling over in the truck and just chatting with us. But have a great week. Wade, thank you for jumping on too. I always look forward to these conversations with you too. But yeah, until next week. Thank you guys and we'll see you again soon. Awesome, thanks guys. All right.

Wade35:14

I love it.

Reed35:19

Awesome, thanks guys.