Technology Changed the Oil Industry

To the Editor:

I wish to respond to Mr. Mikus’ letter in the Aug. 8 edition of the FCR where he maligned President Trump and insulted the people of Fayette County with his “piece of the story.”Although he seems to be 100% political with his letter, it would be nice if he reported all of the pertinent facts in his arguments.

For introduction purposes only, I enjoyed a fantastic 45 year career on the Oil Patch designing, engineering, drilling and completing hundreds of oil and gas wells on three continents and in two seas, Bass Strait of Australia and the Gulf of America.

The reality that was omitted from the referenced letter is that the Petroleum Industry, especially the Upstream (pre-refinery) side, has been completely transformed by technology, not by who sits in the Oval Office. There is no argument with his documented figures, but by themselves, they are extremely misleading and unreflective of the oil and gas industry today.

Mr. Mikus addresses two main issues: Rig Count and Production. First, let’s look at the Rig Count: As of August 8, 2025, ( aogr.com), as accurately reported-by Mr. Mikus, the U.S. rig count was 539 total drilling rigs (411 oil, 123 gas, and 5 miscellaneous). This compares with the all-time high rig count in the U.S. of 4,530 rigs in December 1981 ( pipexch.com); I’m certain that many of your readers can remember those days (good or bad). Personally, I was sitting on rigs south of Winchester near the Colorado River at that time. During the early ‘80s in the 8-10 county area around La Grange there probably were more Austin Chalk rigs running than in the entire country today. It was an extremely active drilling time. It is worth noting that these rigs were working for private individuals or corporations, not National Oil Companies (NOC). Since very few rigs were drilling for gas, the number of oil-drilling rigs was over ten times the oil rigs operating today.

So what changed? As I said earlier: technology. In the 1980’s “horizontal drilling” was born, and today virtually all of the wells drilled in the U.S. are drilled directionally, if not horizontally. To illustrate the significance of this development, many of the wells drilled in the ‘70s, ‘80s, ‘90s and early 2000s from a single drilling pad penetrated the Austin Chalk Formation vertically for 50-200’ with 5” production casing installed. Once completed and secured, oil production was realized from 50-200’ of open (or perforated) interval.

Contrast that with what is happening today. A drilling rig can be moved to a drilling pad and consecutively drill multiple wells from that pad by simply sliding the rig only a few feet or yards for each well. Instead of being totally vertical, now the wells are drilled vertically to the hydrocarbon productive formation and then drilled horizontally to near the end of the landowner’s lease, or the Texas Railroad Commission’s designated unit boundary. I recently saw some documents that reflected three wellbores being drilled in Gonzales County from the same pad that once they penetrated the geologically desired formation were drilled a total of 26,267’ (in three well bores) horizontally. This resulted in 26,267’ of productive Austin Chalk oil to be recovered through the 5” casing (200’ in the 1980s vs 26,267’ in 2025).

That leads to Mr. Mikus’ second point: Production. Performing the math, whether you are on “the left” or “the right,” it is obvious which type of wells to drill: the ones exposing the most oil-laden formation.

One last point to be made concerning Mr. Mikus’ letter: Oil and Gas (i.e., Production) comes to the surface through completed wells, not drilled wells. Therefore, a significant amount of the reported daily production figures are actually coming from wells drilled horizontally months or years ago, but have remained “Drilled/ Uncompleted” (DUC’s) due to inadequate economics for the producers as well as the land or mineral owners. Therefore, Rig Counts and Production Volumes are only a “piece of the story.”

Bottom line is this: Biden was not better on oil. He had nothing to do with the figures quoted by Mr. Mikus, and I am not sure Biden understands the difference in a “can of oil” and a “can of beans.”

Technology and capitalism have made the oil industry what it is today. And, if you want to think about the rest of the world, keep in mind that much of global petroleum success began with the U.S.

J. Michael Gatlin O’Quinn