No changes, no permits

Fisher county ended June with no new drilling permits. Scurry county had four. Three were on the Sacroc Unit, one was Strawberry 87 that was mentioned in an earlier post.

West Texas Intermediate is still hanging around $39. Some producers (mine) are saying oilfield development will be delayed six to eight months.

Force Majeure, anybody?

- Dusty sunrise -

Okay, remember the letter I got a few weeks ago? Well, today I got another one, from my landman, notifying me that they are claiming a force majeure extension of my current lease, without pay, due to current events (aka Act of God; circumstances beyond our control,etc.).

What I found interesting was that it was not all the property, as was mentioned in the previous letter. The parameters of the producers interest has become more clear to me by their expression of exactly where they want to implement the force majeure clause. I think I came out with a better deal by them doing it this way.

I've gotta say, if I never hear the words "in these trying times",  "the new normal" or yet another explanation of how many feet I am supposed to stand from other people, it will be too soon.  No one is blaming anything on Mexico or the bossa nova, anymore. The COVID is taking all the heat.

Leasing activity still going on in county

West Texas Intermediate opened at $39.12 this evening, and, despite the lull of drilling permits in Fisher county, there's still a lot of leasing activity going on, according to the May 2020 county records.

It looks like Peregrine, Moriah and others have been adding amendments and correcting existing leases, while Magnus Resources and a new player, Orange Dutch, LLC, out of Midland, have been making new ones. Weathervane Management and Permico have been purchasing mineral deeds.

Peregrine has a new drilling permit, in Scurry county. It's for an injection well, the Strawberry 87. That's the only June permit that has been issued in that county. Fisher has none, so far.

Check out Texas File for in-depth information about mineral activities.

The thing about the messenger

I think maybe the messenger isn't so innocent.

When tv stations allow scam commercials, some featuring the likes of Tom Selleck, Alex Trebek and Joe Namath, people I used to to respect (but, who cares!), to air, aren't they complicit in the crime? I mean, to me, the station is endorsing the product by airing it, and especially because they're taking money for it!

And in newspapers and magazines, all those scammy ads in the classifieds; do they approve of the message by printing it? Aren't they supposed to want to be known as factual purveyors of the truth? Do I have to mince through copy and decide for myself what warrants believability and what is chaff?

How about the postal service? Anyone can mail anything to my house, even bilkers from Sweden who want me to send them $35 to tell me the meaning of my magic number. The postal service wants us to trust them, but, again, it's up to me to figure out which mail is junk and which is from a legitimate source.

I know I have to watch out for myself, but it would be so helpful if "trusted sources" would weed out some of the sinners that try to fleece the unwitting.

I have to walk the line in life, but these shysters are making money on defrauding people, in plain sight.

Another thing, when anyone, any show, on ABC claims they are more watched, that's true, but just because it's the only station that everyone can get, digital, antennae or streaming. It really skews the curve, David Muir. You want me to believe you're the number one trusted newscaster, but when you shape facts to fit your box, you have not gained my confidence.

Phew! I just had to say all that. Now, on to facebook to start an argument about anything.

Hello, sucker!

- Summer mimosa -

The headline is a quote used by Texas Guinan, a famous 1920's New York speakeasy hostess, who was born in Waco, Texas, to greet customers visiting her establishment.  I had never heard of her until yesterday, after I read about her in a book I picked up at the Sweetwater Goodwill, The American Heritage History of the 20's and 30's.

Another interesting find was Pointie Talkie, a little 5" x 4" x 1/4" book. According to the China-Burma-India Theater website, it is an interpretation guide issued to United States Army Air Force personnel during World War II in case they were downed over China. English phrases are printed on one side, with the corresponding Chinese printed next to it.

Alright, now that I've dived into the 20's, 30's and 40's, lets come back to the present. I check the Railroad Commission drilling permit website daily, and Fisher county had been stuck at 294 pages for quite awhile. I was looking forward to getting to 295. Then, this week, it had suddenly jumped to 299. I was pretty excited, but I couldn't see any new permits issued. I'm still looking for the reason for the increase. Maybe an update in the way the permits are listed changed the number.

I received a letter from my landman this week asking me to extend my mineral rights leases by a year, without extra pay, to help them catch up on development delays caused by the last three months disasters. Maybe he should have opened the letter with Guinan's catch phrase.

The photo today is of the mimosa tree in my back yard. It smells so good in the still of the morning and attracts hummingbirds and butterflies. It's pretty messy, too, with dead blooms clinging to clothes on the line and covering the ground like bits of old, pink cotton. I'll take it, though, for the pleasure of its shade and sweet scent.

Drilling permits double from April to May

- Flare on Emilys -

That means there were two for the month. See how easy it is to misconstrue the truth? Oh, don't mind me, I've got a shed full of old axes to grind.

It seems to me that since the news got our attention with the virus, they're eager to tell us what to do and what to think.

Also, what's with all the pandering to donate here and there? We're broke, non-profits! Quit asking us for a handout, we can barely take care of ourselves! Whoops, sorry, now I'm telling people what to do.

It seems like the panic has also caused correct spelling to go out the window. I know I'm a mess on this here blog, although I try to be consistent with capitalization and tenses, but I'm aware I'm all over the place. Here's the thing: I don't get paid to do this and I don't influence thousands of people. It's very disappointing to start in on an article of interest and find misspellings. I lose confidence in the source and quit reading.

When I worked at the Sweetwater Reporter, we all used to read each other's articles and make corrections or tell a writer when something was awkwardly written. Then the paste up people would put their two cents in. Each article went through many readings before it went to print.

At the Snyder Daily News, the articles were printed out and put in an area where everyone would walk by and read them, then mark them up with red pencils. The writer would then apply the corrections to their article before submission. Again, everything was scanned and scrutinized by many eyes.

Okay, now I sound like the used-to-be who thinks things were perfect a long time ago. If you knew how inept I was at my job now, and running my life in general, you would have quit reading a long time ago.

Anyway, click on the permits tab at the top of the page to see the ones that were approved for May. Both are vertical wells.

Oil & onions

- Onions on strings -

Flares are starting to be lighted and traffic is picking up in this area. West Texas Intermediate is hanging around $33 and there's talk that the oil field is fixing to open back up. I'm just waiting to see.

I had a bumper crop of onions this year, for me anyway. I have way more than one person would need. I was despairing that they would all go to ruin when someone suggested I tie them up. A little help from the interweb made me look like a mad genius ready for the farmer's market. It was surprisingly easy and entertaining to weave the onions onto a piece of rope. They look so pretty! That just might be in the eye of the beholder, though. I didn't wash them off, I thought I'd let the rain do that.

I've been spending a lot of time in the cellar, lately. It seems like hail comes with every bit of rain. You know, a couple of years of windshield- and window-breaking hail have made me paranoid for life, even if it did happen fifteen years ago. The storms are really fierce out here, they just growl and grind and blow. So frightening.

It looks like it's going to be a wet week. I've been running around planting seeds everywhere, taking advantage of the moisture. I'm determined not to let the stickers take over my yard, to have pretty flowers and plants pushing them out. The problem is my perseverance falters when summer comes. I don't want to stand in the heat watering and have to pay a big bill. Eventually I'll just have a bunch of dried out stems and vines with stickers poking out between. It happens every year.

April 2020 drilling permit, singular

Well, we only had one permit for Fisher County this month. I'm surprised there was even one. It was for W. B. Unit 1H, down on US 180.

I have to tell you, I haven't really been too freaked out through all this that's been going on, until I saw West Texas Intermediate fall into the negatives a couple of weeks ago. I had to go outside and smoke a few cigarettes in a row.

Out here, the oilfield traffic has slowed down dramatically. Poor little Ashley's looking forlorn, with the orange fencing where they were going to spike the well having fallen over and the water pits starting to dry up. Yesterday there were guys rolling up tubing.

The Mojave and Two Emilys flares went dark this past week.

Prices are hovering around $19 today. The Rail Road Commission is supposed to meet again on Tuesday at 9:30 a.m. There are 190 items on the agenda. It looks like they'll probably go into executive session to discuss proration. Commissioner Wayne Christian is absolutely against it, Commissioner Ryan Sitton is for it, so it'll be up to Commissioner Christi Craddock to break the tie.

Rolling down memory lane

- Templeton pic picks -

I went into the vault of family paraphernalia today, looking for a scrap of paper that had the handwritten word "Quarantine" on it to use for my picture today. I remember asking Dad about it and he told me it was from when he had measles, probably during the 1940's.

I combed through everything, but I couldn't find that paper. It took hours to go through the farm records, letters, photos, documents, and decorations. I can now say that it is all sorted and in order. I've had all this stuff for so long that I can't remember when I didn't have it, and every time I've wanted to find something, I've had to go through it all. My dad's graduation cards were mixed in with sympathy cards from my grandpa's funeral, papers went back and forth from 1918 to 1974, with a mass of photos mixed throughout. It was a hot mess.

The photos I chose to showcase are, starting upper left, going clockwise: my grandma, Ollie Daisy Patrick, at the time; unknown ladies in hats; my cousin Jimmy Don Stapleton, being sassy in his cowboy boots; and unknown girls in rubber boots.

Every once in a while I think about scanning all the photos onto a website for the family, but I think I'm doing pretty good just to sort them into a box by themselves. We'll put a pin in that scanning idea.

RRC meeting at 9:30 a.m., gauntlets have been thrown

The Railroad Commission, overseer of the Texas oil universe, will meet virtually this morning to discuss the pros and cons of prorating oil prices and restricting oil production.

According to the meeting agenda, this is in response to a verified complaint of Pioneer Natural Resources U.S.A.  Inc. and Parsley Energy Inc. to determine reasonable market demand for oil in the state of Texas.

147 comments were submitted laying out reasons for and against the pro rata. Devon Energy, who was influential in the rise of the current Fisher County oil boom, has come out against it. There is a great divide. It seems some environmentalists are misconstruing the purpose of the meeting to encourage disassembly of the oil industry altogether.

A list of comments can be found here.

The meeting can be viewed live or later here.