40 years ago a drilling manager that retired said he was going to put a bit on the front of his car and drive until somebody asked him what it was.
The Mafia in my part of the business in Houston has been eating its own in the last few years. Be grateful the Permian is doing well.
The drilling manager actually had a place at Fredericksburg, not a place I ever pined for or understood (none of the whole Hill Country thing ever caught my attention). He said he was going to get a little drillling rig model and put it outside near his patio. He said he would get up, fix his coffee and then go outside to relieve himself off the patio onto the drilling rig model. Never could understand that since I loved the oilfield from the first day I started work at Fort Stockton. You should never do anything you hate that much though I was sick and tired of all the mess in Houston.
I miss O&G most of all as far as the people in it. Never had more fun or riches. $140 a barrel and the Marcellus play was brand new, me a headhunter entrenched in it all where everybody said yes. The Oilman’s prayer: Dear Lord, please give me just one more boom and I promise I won’t piss it away next time.
“drilling manager that retired said he was going to put a bit on the front of his car and drive until somebody asked him what it was.”
When my friend in Alaska retired he said he would drive south until someone asked him why there was an electrical plug sticking out of the front of his car. IIRC, that’s exactly what he did.