I have no idea why youtube recommended this video to me, nor do I understand why I actually clicked on it. Here I am, grateful to have learned so damn much on a subject I never cared about but now I'm intrigued. Thanks for the video and I'm stoked to have happened upon it.
When you click on a video, it's logged into the system as part of a psychological map of all your interests and political leanings. Corporations use it to sell you stuff. The NSA keeps it so they know which camp to put you in once it's time.
@@TheZachLife dont forget to flip a few trucks , even pieces of equipment every year , you can find them in your area occasionally for cheap and get good money for them. always good to make extra $$
Why is it no one’s business? What is it about the amount you earn that is so intimate and personal? Do you measure your self worth to how much you earn?
@@jimba6486 The ultra rich 1% would prefer we don't discuss finances because people would start to realize how hard some of us are getting boned, but this is exactly why we should, the idea that it's rude or unsavory or something is one of those weird social rules that doesn't benefit anybody at all, except for those rich guys of course
The oil business and the cattle business are both full of big money legends. Not true for the little independent operator. My dad said " all a man needs is 100 barrels of oil a day all his and he will do fine". Zach is the real deal. Nobody is getting rich. Just making a living at what he loves to so. Thanks you Zach.
I grew up in a ranching family. Some ranches around our had oil. My Grandfather told me a few wells made better calves because you could afford the feed.
The way to do it nowadays is scale. You might only be making a few grand a well per year at first, but if you get yourself into a ton of wells over time, you start to both ease out the variability and make more money overall. Where most people get caught is the middle ground, they have the maximum number for them that they can manage themselves, but don't have time or money to jump into double or triple that number where you can keep growing so they stay stuck just barely getting by. Lots of ways out of that situation, most of which involve some hard choices.
Really interesting to finally see how small oil operates in the USA. Such a obscure and closed industry outside of the oil fields and families involved. Important stuff here!
You are refreshing to listen to, my young friend. I have been a petroleum engineer specializing in reservoir dynamics ( go Aggies) for 38 years, and I couldn't have explained it any better than you did.
reading between the lines, you're in a business with large fixed expenses and moderate variable expenses related to maintaining "things". The key to your profitability is your ability to do so many things yourself and not have to pay someone else. Of course, that's completely ignoring your costs to acquire leases.
Also a near constant stream of pure profit with no interruption from the wells with no introductions, the only disruptions being variability in price. Getting that straight oil money with no strings attached lets them take hits to their assets without a ton of risk, which other small businesses struggle to afford
@@averyshaw2142pure profit? These are, from what I can tell, stripper wells with low oil production and high water content. The cost of recovery is high for such leases. I think the key to profitability is Zak. Yes, the wells they've owned for decades are surely profitable but I assume their production declines over time. And clearly, Zak is buying other wells. Unless the sellers are idiots, Zak is paying market prices for his oil leases. Clearly, the key to profitability is Zak being capable of doing multiple jobs that most others would have to pay hourly for....
Absolutely fascinating. I'm an engineer in Canada that specializes in abandoning wells, I couldn't do yours for less then $20,000 (to our standards). A service rig is nearly $1000 an hour now. Our standards would be to use a service rig to pull rods and tubing, set a bridge plug on tubing within 15 meters (49 feet) of the perforations, pressure test, circulate to fresh water, and cap the bridge plug with 8 meters (26 feet) of oil well cement. Then cut and cap 1 meter (3 feet) below ground level. To do multiple cement plugs like you described, that's way more here. I am absolutely fascinated by how much more favorable your economics are.
@@okgroomer1966 Most wells have some gas, so we have to run BOP's, and have a pump and tank. Plus winter is a thing, so a office trailer for the crew to warm up in. I watched Zach's rig video, very bare bones to what we run. He can get away with a 2 man crew, where as we need at least 4 just to move all the gear around, but normally its a 5 man crew.
Thanks for sharing this. Really appreciate going over the cost of plugging the wells too. The fact that you have "skin in the game" and are not willing to scrap pieces of equipment or "write off" material is what makes small business great; they are far less wasteful of capital.
Hmmm. I don't believe that. There's a reason a thing called "economies of scale" exists. If anything small businesses have got to be incredibly wasteful when it comes to capital. I mean I still support them wholesale over giant oligopolies for obvious reasons, but let's be real here, a mom and pop cannot possibly compete with the advantages in efficiencies of a large business.
@@johnjingleheimersmith9259 actually thats only partially true. You can cite economies of scale. But the problem is large companies care more about net profit vs effort.. You can say hey I can continuously keep it profitable.. but the end of the day management will ask your team to walk away from such low profit margins.. I work in oil and gas.. we're always looking for profit vs effort.. If i can make the big discovery by drilling only 1 well.. vs i have to maintain 1000's of these wells.. (which actually is impossible... because of the low headcount now adays..).. you'll see fewer is better.. because the reservoirs are larger..
Very fascinating. Just drove cross country from FL to CA. Saw a lot of these wells along the way. Thanks for a behind the scenes of how they operate and the gory financial details. You're a very good communicator.
@@uwillnevahno6837Regardless, he was able to teach valuable information in a way that people can take and implement into their own strategies. There’s a million facts a professor can learn from even a homeless man. One mistake doesn’t make the whole person. Find God.
Another great video, Zach! You have done an excellent job explaining the business end of a lease operation. I have learned so much from watching all your videos. I like the way you tell it like it is. Thank you for taking the time to put these together while working the leases at the same time. It is so nice to see you enjoy your work and sharing your valuable knowledge with others. Keep up the great work!
You have a gift of making things I don't give a damn about interesting. Your videos are extremely informative and I can almost smell the oilfields you work in. Keep up the good work
Zach, this video answered a ton of my questions. Well Done, Sir. Also, I love the walking beam model you have in the background. One of my hobbies is restoring hundred year old model stationary steam engines. The walking beams are always my favorites.
Thank you so much for trying to explain all that is involed in your business. I used to live in Tx. and drive by those pumps running and wonder how it all worked. I remember staying in Ft. Stocton a few days and seeing all the guys in oil field services and image what it would be like maintaining all these smaller wells. Today, as an old retired guy, I'm grateful for my investments in EPD, and XOM to help with S.S but I much appreciate the hard working guys, that despite the govt. keep this country running! Thanks again.
Worked in the oilfield for a time as a pumper and salt water hauler. Great explanation. I never understood how "stripper wells" were economical but after seeing your spreadsheet and explanation makes sense. Of course, the producer is doing the math to make an economical decision. What baffled me about a well that I used to pump was a well that averaged 1/4bbl every week if I remember correctly and still was being reworked every 2 years. Great content. Keep posting.
@karatekid6026 Is it true that to uphold a lease the well needs to produce or certain amount or be plugged? And that operators will bring in oil from another lease tontge tanks and get it hauled just to make it seem like it's producing?
Great explanations!! Having spent a good deal of my 30s/40s in various oil patches, drilling rigs and on gas pipelines as an OEM turbomachinery vendor, I well understand the costs associated with operation/maintenance/repair of this sort of equipment. I understood the business of leases a lot less than the equipment, so between this video and other ones you've done a while back, I've gained a bunch of totally useless, but otherwise fascinating knowledge about stuff I'll never again be involved with! ;) Beats hell out of the boob tube though!! (I blew up my TV in 1968!) Love the videos Zach. You're as real as it gets and I hope you can go on producing videos for a long time to come! Thank you as always for the time you spend on these videos!
@@Krunch2020 The more, the better, what are you talking about? Are we also going to demonize oxygen? Flat earth is more real than "carbon is bad for earth" hoax.
Thank you again for being willing to open the somewhat personal details to the public. I really appreciate that you included all the "safety margin" numbers of maintenance and taxes because those are important and so many people seem to ignore them (and then they wonder where all their money went). Sounds like you run your business in a fiscally responsibly way, which means you’ll better be able to weather the lean times.
Working for the majors in plants,pipelines,lease work,drilling etc etc,new hires have absolutely no clue how much money a company has invested in them before they ever set foot on a job site. You give a great explanation of everything. Tires,fuel,truck maintenance,tools,crackheads stealing tools and trucks and tires and fuel😂. Somebody asked a buddy of mine how much he figured his business would clear for the year. He told them he had no clue,there was still three months left and nothing had gone bad wrong yet. Such is life.
I took a well that once that made a lot of water and a small cut of oil. 97% water saturation. I ran a 1/2" bottom hole choke below a AD-1 tension packer, a perforated sub above the packer then a seat nipple or tubing pump above the sub. It holds back the water. Same as perforating 1 hole in the top of the zone. I went from a skim of oil to 10 barrels per day. You may have to run a 3/8 or 1/4 inch choke in the positive choke nipple to hold fluid back. The perforated sub gives you a annualess on the casing.
@@sf4137 I didn't fill the need to video my work. Never have. Years of experience combined with old school knowledge. The ideal is to hold water back or slow it down. Some wells we had good cement across the zone with 97% water saturation. I drilled the wells myself and caught samples personally. Some I shot one hole in the top of the zone and the well came in flowing with no water. Some wells I didn't get a good cement job. Water pushed the oil away from the perfs. This method helped hold the bottom hole pressure back letting the oil enter the well bore. I had about 20' of sand, and only 8' of good oil sand on top. North Central Texas wells. I've done it in the East Texas field also. But most of these wells were big wash outs behind the casing. I could help the production very little. So I ended up handling the water with sub-pumps, and 192" stroke pumping units. East Texas saltwater takes the water at 6 cents per barrel 2000 barrels+ per day with around 60 barrels of oil per day. Was 250 barrels per day to 600 barrels of water for over 2 years in 2012, into 2015. These are old wells except for 2. Water drive.
Just started watching your videos , I’m from southern Ontario Canada.. I am fascinated with with the old wells and how the old timers did there job in the day, as described and explained by you.. I really enjoyed watching Franks well service rig tear down and Oklahoma jack videos.. love the content thanks 😊
When I was very young my family dabbled in oil wells like yours in Kentucky. Ive always been curious about the process. Thanks for taking time to explain what goes into maintaining and making a profit from them.
Zach, thank you for explaining costs and profits! I own a business and I clearly understand that it takes a considerable amount of gross income to make you a net profit! Glad you are making at least some profit!! much success to you!!
Thank you, I’ve always wondered the cost/expense dynamics as I’ve driven across America and have seen all these wells. You did a great job of explaining it.
God bless you zach. Showing us the unsexy reality of running your own oil wells. I 100% appreciate what you do and wish you a prosperous life and good fortune. Cheers.
My Dad had a plugging company back in the early 90's, he built a rig on a gooseneck and mixed the concrete with a hoe. Back then the RRC wanted all the "stripper wells" plugged, so he did it for free, if he could salvage the well. He sold all the pipe, pump, etc. then cleaned up the pad. He did quite well at it then he sold it, then he worked for that company before retiring for the 3rd or 4th time.
Appreciate the video, I happened upon this and have been curious about those types of wells. Your explanation is easy to follow and explains the situation well. Thanks
Thank you for this video. I’m from Texas and have another part of the equation. I worked as a lease operator for many years for many different oil companies, from very small operators to some of the largest in the nation, and all of the things that you covered are good to discuss. As an owner operator, you are very articulate, and bring light to others that don’t know the industry. Larger companies have different situations with wells that “don’t pay for themselves” they are left in operation because they are the “lease holder” if your long term plan includes potential new wells, that might not be financially back-able at the time, they are produced to keep from loosing the rights to drill.
The internet is so cool. I'm sitting here in Sydney Australia at 7am with a coffee, watching you educate me on your oil lease. I love it. Cheers mate! Appreciate it
I really like your channel! I was out in Midland, earlier this week, on business. Arrrived at 10PM and it was 92 degrees. There was a flare burning with a 30 foot high flame, across I20 from my hotel. I could feel the heat coming off of the flame, almost a quarter mile away. It's amazing how hot it is out there.
Hi there partner, Oh yeah we’ve been getting roasted by this recent heatwave out here in Odessa for past 3 weeks. Even though the feds have slowed down new well production these twin cities midland/odessa are still so overcrowded overpopulated for some reason feels strange now in 2023
Great job explaining the linear costs of running a marginal lease. You’re absolutely correct saying “It’s a job and make little money at it!” Companies buying up these marginal, low profit wells by the 1000’s are out there making a buck then shut them in and sit on them till prices come up. I would say your wells are better maintained.
Really interesting video. I don't know anything about the oil business, and certainly costs/profit etc, but I've learned a lot watching your videos. Thanks for sharing!
Thanks. Very well presented. I have owned a few small businesses and people don’t realize the operating expenses and how that effects actual profit. Well done.
I never understood the idea of it being rude to ask what someone makes. If nobody asks, the people in charge keep getting away with screwing us. It's not until we talk about it with each other that we realize how badly they're trying to screw us. I feel like THAT'S why they don't want people discussing incomes.
@@genehenson8851 it's odd to me that people are often up in arms about their employer but far less bothered about the party that's taking 35% of everything they earn
I absolutely agree with you. I'm an academic economist and to have worthwhile information I need to know how the money flows and I don't see asking as rude. I am willing to say what I earn if the cause is reasonable. Also, in this case, what harm could it do to tell me and all the people in TH-camland what it cost to run a well and the revenue it makes. I guess someone could make mischief with that information but I'm not curious enough to imagine what that may be , barring I'm a local tax officier and he is hiding income. My salary scale in the UK university is public knowledge though where I am on the scale is not but I would have no trouble revealing that.
Great video. It’s unfortunate that people who have never run a small business fail to grasp the dynamics of “how much do you make with that?” There is a huge disparity in financial understanding between those folks who work for a paycheck vs. those who operate a business. It’s not how much you make, it’s how much you keep. I’m recently retired from 30 years with our small business and your explanation was a refreshing reminder of the difference between employees and entrepreneurs. Thanks for sharing. Randy
Keep up the hard work. Appreciate the view into the video. Always wanted to do some oil and gas work, but this way I can see a part of it and stay clean.
Zach, Thanks for the breakdown of operating an oil well and the expenses required to make the business run. I had no idea the costs incurred to operate an oil well. I kinda expected the dollars per barrel you received (gross) but did not know half the costs you incur to keep the well operating on a yearly basis. Again thanks for the breakdown of what's necessary to operate an oil business. Keep the videos coming it is all very interesting and I really enjoy listening to the way you explain things. I worked for a utility for 20 years and one thing I can suggest is; Google and study the theory and installation requirements for electrical surge arresters. All you need are the arresters, copper wire to connect them up and ground rods to complete the circuit. They could save you some money on motor and controls damage. My first thought is to ask your utility to add arresters directly at your tie point and then you can put them at each well for further protection. As a thought, based on your comments regarding reusing materials perhaps you could as a local lineman for the utility if he knows where you could get sone used arresters or if he knows of an abandoned line somewhere where you could scavenge the arresters. If they aren't blown up they are probably OK. As good as they are, if you get a strike at the pole they are mounted on, well nothing will help. (Ha) You are talking about millions of watts in that bolt of lightning. thanks for you explanation of operating an oil business,, Sam
Thanks for the explanation, what I got out of that is that you need a lot of wells which means a lot of work on your part to keep everything operating, what most of us don’t consider is the time and money you have to put in to keep everything running and producing. I relate it to one of my uncles he was a dairy farmer he never took a vacation always either milking ( twice a day 365), planting,harvesting,taking care of the cows, and a lot more.
This a great informative video. I have worked when I was younger, on drilling oil and gas wells and workover wells and I have always wondered about cost and profit on oil wells. Thank you.
On a secondary recovery well it takes even less to make profit. How old the well is helps determine its profit potential. Saying how many times has it paid for itself. The depth also makes a difference. Electricity is the first cost then royalties to land owner if any then taxes and then upkeep and paying oil company to haul the oil. There are so many variables it's really difficult to figure with much accuracy. I am a veteran of the oil field from way back here in Texas.👍 Great video Zach.
Honestly it really isnt anyone's business as to what you make I appreciate what you do share with us about your life keep the videos coming I always enjoy watching
I'm laughing my ass off - Anybody that gives you a hard time about your numbers has never walked in your shoes, that's for damn sure! One time I owned a piece of a little well that was making 100bpd total and 20 bpd oil at @40/bbl (1980's Cherry Canyon Ridge formation). One of the partners was a genius and convinced us to frac that well and bump the oil cut up (in his estimation). The frac job was not cheap but we were fixing to get wealthy(er). When the frac job was done the new water cut was 100%, zero% oil. The frac job had managed to water wet the formation and ruined the well for all eternity. That was one of my oil investment life lessons. As a bonus when you murder a well with stupidity you also get to chip in for the P&A because that's cheaper than perfing other shows behind pipe and your wallet is tapped out.. When you have skin in the game those lessons stick. LOL - keep at it brother! A feller needs a good number of wells to spread out the good news with the bad news. It's a delicate balance between poverty and acquiring bad habits. When I wised up I decided to buy big slab of Exxon (XOM) in the 90's. That investment has grown and now Exxon sends me a nice check every 90 days and I don't have to sweat the details of every well. I also own a chunk of Devon (DVN) - at the moment the investment is in the red! I never said I learned it all! When it's all said and done I made the most bank just working my ass off all over world, working as much overtime at premium rates as my body could handle. Property taxes - most folks outside of TX don't know about property taxes and TX property tax districts. Folks think TX is a tax free zone, they load the U-Haul and move to TX - they get a life lesson welcome to Tejas from the taxing districts. Opps
I have learnt the same lesson re general business the government compliance cost in Australia are extortion. Gave up and just become a share holder in the stock market.
I really appreciate you sharing this as it gives me an idea of what's involved as I might need this in the near future.I new to this so it was very informative.
Hey, thanks for sharing this! I always wondered about the random pump jacks I see in Illinois cornfield. I wanted one until you mentioned figures like 1/5 bbl. per day. My dreams of easy riches have been crushed by reality AGAIN. 7:56
People have no idea how much it cost and margins on oil lease's. You have more bad years than good years. Now that does not mean a bad year is a bust. But every once in a while you will have a complete and total bust year. I had to shut my operation down one year and it was a bust year. Not worth it for me to pump oil at under $7.00 a barrel. I filled up my tank battery's, locked them up and set on the oil until prices came back up. But that did not mean there was no work to be done and money did go out. Those times are when your cleaning out and repairing your separators, doing down hole work, replacing production pipe and distribution pipe from the wells to the tank battery's. Cleaning up the land and staying a head of in my case the OK. Corp. Comm. and the EPA. I ran big over sized injection pumps so I could turn them real slow, keep the load down on there motors. But you still have to repair them. And it's no joke if you don't own the land and mineral rights. Being the outright owner now days in oil country just about never happens. Insurance and just general operating cost can smoke your ass. Is the well a old cable tool well or was it rotary drilled. What formation is it in? Or do you have multiple formations you can produce. I produced from the B'ville Sand, shallow wells down to the Arbuckle and upper ends of the Mississippi and a few other formations. Sometimes you can rest a well if that well rat hole is a honey hole,,, but those are rare and they will play out. Natural gas more times than not is a bigger pain in the butt than it's worth. Best case is you live out on one of your oil fields and can heat your home and use NG to power pump jacks and a injection pumps. But to make enough to market and go through all that crap. It's not worth it because you will end up almost giving it a way. There are thousands and thousands of NG wells capped off all over the southern and gulf states. In states that are not even thought of as petroleum states. I have a old well in my back yard that is plugged. They stopped production on it in 1920 and my house was built in 1921. I have the land and mineral rights. The old well was plugged with pecan tree limbs. They just pounded them down the hole and called it good. They stopped production when it stopped flowing and it has never been pumped. So I know it will produce. I'm retired now so it can set unless we have a complete economic collapse. There is soooo much involved in production and management one can not explain it all. And none of it is easy and it all cost money.
hey, wingingit! I think we may not live very far apart. I'm North of Tulsa, getting ready to buy my first lease here, and was planning on running a natural gas generator for my lease instead of buying from verdigris valley Electric Coop. Going to pump my own wells, do my own service work. It's just something to keep me busy and give me something to do, which will be used for extra income/economic collapse as you also stated! I will make sure I have plenty of oil storage tanks so I can stockpile and sell at top market prices ;P
Good video and very good explanation. The well in Oklahoma that I get my small royalty check from makes around 5 BPD according to the statements I get. The statement lists the amount of oil it makes(per pay period, a month in general), the price received for the oil, the taxes, my percentage, and my amount. All of the other items you mentioned are taken care of by the operators. There were two wells on the lease, but one has not ran for a few years. The pump jack is still there, but major parts are missing. I suspect it is not profitable to fix whatever is wrong with it.
I wish I could come help you operate and/or drill new wells, I have lots of experience operating rigs/driller, mud engineering, and drilling related, I am close to the same age and made a good living in the oil patch, I quit drilling in 2015 and shortly after took a a stable government oil and gas inspector job but at least I sleep in my own bed 99% of the time. This may be a horrible thing to wish for but I hope i own a few leases one day, or one lease with some good wells, Great content and great job, thanks for your videos! If you ever take the “toter home” to northeast utah I have about 20 acres you can camp at bordering forest and blm land, also have welders and a shop for repairs, Be safe and may god bless you my oilfield brother.
You can buy those stripper leases in N Texas, they're around and available. Then you just hire a pumper, which is pretty easy to do as well. A good price to pay is about $10-15k bbl. So, if the lease makes 1bopd, a decent price is $15k. A lease that's making 10bopd, $150k .. Most of the time, the seller of the lease will have an old pumper that will stay on.
Hi Zach, I am always impressed by your working man’s knowledge of the complexities of running a productive enterprise. I’ve watched as you are in your work shed or out in the awful Texas weaTher minding your business. Good on you whatever you earn for your efforts. You did touch on though early in the video a significant element of the cost structure, taxes. I realize that cost is passed on to the consumer. I am as well aware that I as the consumer also pay taxes when I buy a gallon of gasoline. I live in the northeast and there’s a high cost of living here. In the state I live in, federal excise tax plus state gas tax amounts to 42.4 cents per gallon. During the gas price situation in 2004-2005 I learned a petroleum company’s profit on a gallon of gas is from 5 to 7 cents a gallon. So, who really is the big scary oil profiteer here? The people who produce or the government which just waits at the finish line?
The big guys have tons of write-offs and loopholes in the tax code written specifically FOR them that drops their profit down to the amount you listed. If you saw them daily 24/7 & watched & counted what they claimed as "expenses" you would probably laugh & cry at what they get away with though. The big fish always dictate everything, no matter the business.
What you sell a barrel oil for and what profit you have at the end of the year are two different things. Also the profit that you make depends on your accounting. Like you said. Your one well only makes you any profit because you have two others that share some resources. In fact, you can have no declared profits and continue happy for many years. Lots of companies have to write down equipment for years until they actually have profits to pay taxes on.
great video for a technically minded entrepreneur that is always running numbers and viability concepts. Your breakdown is very interesting. Thanks for taking the time to show what it takes to extract some profit from a small oil rig.
Hey Zach, I wanted to thank you for taking the time to explain (over many videos) about how different forces affect you on the financial side of keeping these various rigs, leases, and deals in play running. I do have one question since you have a lot of electric-tied wells and other connections to grid around you. Is there any incentive or even ability (given the nature of these leases) to build a solar panel near the well to either offset electric consumption or to increase revenue?
Wow! That's a lot of very cool information about a subject I had never even thought about before. Thank you for sharing-this is quite a rabbit hole you've sent me down. Thank you for your candor and putting real prices and costs with the information!
I think this is valuable for anyone considering a business venture. The gross profit /widget made may look huge but most don't understand how much all the periphery of a business costs, right down to floor sweeping and paper clips, eats into that. You also mentioned insurance. I would be curious to know what that costs in the US because that shows the perception of risk by the underwriters.
True but he did make a channel to share his life. Naturally people are curious to know the details. He doesn't have to share, but I think he gave people a good enough idea what the economics of this life are. It's not like people were asking for exact dollar amounts in his personal accounts.
Thank you for explaining the numbers. I appreciate your sharing your experience and perspective as an Oil Man. Is that a Stirling Engine sitting on top of your file cabinet? I have 4 Stirling Engines and would like to know more about yours.
Hi Zach. Well thanks for all the info, interesting, you do work your butt off. I still must be old school it's just no ones business how much money you make, but gads the money you pay out for equipment is staggering. Ok Zach take care and hope ya hit the mother load of oil wells😁and get richer than snot😋.............................see ya
This is the damned best video I've seen lately. I always wanted to know the general numbers of the business. I based my numbers upon producing 10 bbls per day and running for 100 years just like Zach. Oh, I can't wait until that first $100 k check gets here. Gonna get me a new Cadillac w spinner rims and haul my tools in the trunk. Life will be grand. Right now the RRC is looking at my crap. Once approved, I will have 1 of a million wells that don't produce anything. Then, the fun starts.
All students Say GM to ZACH SIR... BEST TEACHER... WHO TEACH US PROPER KNOWLEDGE.... DEEPAK SHRIKHANDE SIR JALGAON MAHARASHTRA SAFETY INSTRUCTOR MUMBAI GOV. APPROVED INSTRUCTOR... 🇮🇳❤️🇺🇲👌💐🙏✊.
Thanks, we all knew you were making the big bucks because of all those designer T-shirts & CNC & digital-readout machinery in your shop. Nice work man! :) :) :) Also, when oil dropped to $0 during Covid, were you at capacity & forced to sell it, or just cut power & wait it out?
I would like to touch on this when I get back to the bbls into dollars series, but long story short we had already sold some oil that month and when the price went negative it basically wiped out that months check.
One other question occurs to me.... When you acquire leases, do you expect to improve production or maintain production at the current level? In other words, are you looking for underperforming wells that you can improve?
Even if other leases nearby make more oil, every well is different so there is no absolute way to know this lease isnt producing the best it can. I suppose if you looked it over and found equipment issues that can cause problems you would get some sense it could be increased but that’s about it without knowing a lot about the history of the lease and the geology of the field. Investing in new leases is very much a gamble. But if the cost is very low it could be worth a chance. In Zacks case they would also need to be nearby to him as he does most things himself so driving a couple hours each way to check or fix something wastes a lot of timr.
The only way you will improve production on an old lease, is if there are wells that were left down, you shoot another zone, or push water. Cleaning up the wellbore helps, but from experience it only gets you flush production, the well returns to normal after a couple weeks.
@@caseymitchell5477IF there is another zone and if the wellbore is safe to re-enter.. Some older wells have stepped up after fracking but that’s very expensive. Always wondered if re- entering and running some horizontal legs would pay off but that’s a big investment as it requires a rig on site for weeks. Water flood is a cheap way, but that requires a lot of water injected at high pressure and might be outside the comfort zone of smaller producers. Sometimes all the lease owners in an area jointly pay for that based on their fractions of the overall field production.
"Crack pipe looking device" 🤣 Thanks, Zach. So your oil gets pumped into the big black tank, then what? Does a truck come and empty it periodically? On call?
Nice thing about a big tank is you can sit on the oil and watch the market and try to sell your oil when you make the most from it. Same thing with say a grain elevator/storage for farmers.
So cool to see these old school wells. I'm an electrician in ND working on exxon sites with gas lift wells that produce around 10000 barrels a day, and many of their sites have 6 wells. It's cool to see guys that are able to make a buck on wells that make 1-2 barrels a day!
Don’t get frustrated. You are correct, that is a rude question to ask! That being said, the people asking obviously have no idea how a business operates. Some of us enjoy learning new things, round numbers are close enough for my education. There are so many incalculable exspenses in a business like yours, you’d go mad trying to put a cost on each well. Keep doing what you do and don’t let the few sour you on videos.
Is it when he made a channel to share his life? Normally I'd agree but this situation is a bit different. He still can not answer but the curiosity from people is fair. He gave up some of his privacy after making the channel.
Very interesting video post that came up in my feed. I had been thinking about my mineral rights in western Oklahoma and what they might be worth. This gave me a bit of insight to the process. No lease on my mineral rights since I inherited them, but I think about them from time to time.
I have no idea why youtube recommended this video to me, nor do I understand why I actually clicked on it. Here I am, grateful to have learned so damn much on a subject I never cared about but now I'm intrigued. Thanks for the video and I'm stoked to have happened upon it.
Haha, thanks for watching.
@@TheZachLife I'm convinced you could explain complex algorithms and we would be able to understand because of how you break things down.
When you click on a video, it's logged into the system as part of a psychological map of all your interests and political leanings. Corporations use it to sell you stuff. The NSA keeps it so they know which camp to put you in once it's time.
@@TheZachLife dont forget to flip a few trucks , even pieces of equipment every year , you can find them in your area occasionally for cheap and get good money for them. always good to make extra $$
100% same scenario for me. ha!
How much money you make is none of my business. The economics of owning individual wells is interesting to me.
Agreed 👍
Why is it no one’s business?
What is it about the amount you earn that is so intimate and personal?
Do you measure your self worth to how much you earn?
@@jimba6486 I believe in privacy
Lol well guy did title the video how much he makes.
@@jimba6486 The ultra rich 1% would prefer we don't discuss finances because people would start to realize how hard some of us are getting boned, but this is exactly why we should, the idea that it's rude or unsavory or something is one of those weird social rules that doesn't benefit anybody at all, except for those rich guys of course
The oil business and the cattle business are both full of big money legends. Not true for the little independent operator. My dad said " all a man needs is 100 barrels of oil a day all his and he will do fine". Zach is the real deal. Nobody is getting rich. Just making a living at what he loves to so. Thanks you Zach.
I grew up in a ranching family. Some ranches around our had oil. My Grandfather told me a few wells made better calves because you could afford the feed.
I drove on 405 Santa Monica Getty center today, and the messy "art" houses reminds me of the hard work of an oil potato Zach
Yeah $7000 a day would be nice 😆
The way to do it nowadays is scale. You might only be making a few grand a well per year at first, but if you get yourself into a ton of wells over time, you start to both ease out the variability and make more money overall. Where most people get caught is the middle ground, they have the maximum number for them that they can manage themselves, but don't have time or money to jump into double or triple that number where you can keep growing so they stay stuck just barely getting by. Lots of ways out of that situation, most of which involve some hard choices.
And both are full of people who have irreversibly damaged the planet
Really interesting to finally see how small oil operates in the USA. Such a obscure and closed industry outside of the oil fields and families involved. Important stuff here!
You are refreshing to listen to, my young friend. I have been a petroleum engineer specializing in reservoir dynamics ( go Aggies) for 38 years, and I couldn't have explained it any better than you did.
38 years? Did I go to school with you? I'm A&M Class of '82, I have no idea how many years ago that is, I need Zach's spreadsheet. Gig'em
Whoop! 23'
Former welder here currently working in midstream.
What's the top pay in the engineering field?
Whoop
reading between the lines, you're in a business with large fixed expenses and moderate variable expenses related to maintaining "things". The key to your profitability is your ability to do so many things yourself and not have to pay someone else. Of course, that's completely ignoring your costs to acquire leases.
Lucky for him, his family has owned them since 1959
Also a near constant stream of pure profit with no interruption from the wells with no introductions, the only disruptions being variability in price. Getting that straight oil money with no strings attached lets them take hits to their assets without a ton of risk, which other small businesses struggle to afford
@@averyshaw2142pure profit? These are, from what I can tell, stripper wells with low oil production and high water content. The cost of recovery is high for such leases. I think the key to profitability is Zak. Yes, the wells they've owned for decades are surely profitable but I assume their production declines over time. And clearly, Zak is buying other wells. Unless the sellers are idiots, Zak is paying market prices for his oil leases. Clearly, the key to profitability is Zak being capable of doing multiple jobs that most others would have to pay hourly for....
Absolutely fascinating. I'm an engineer in Canada that specializes in abandoning wells, I couldn't do yours for less then $20,000 (to our standards). A service rig is nearly $1000 an hour now. Our standards would be to use a service rig to pull rods and tubing, set a bridge plug on tubing within 15 meters (49 feet) of the perforations, pressure test, circulate to fresh water, and cap the bridge plug with 8 meters (26 feet) of oil well cement. Then cut and cap 1 meter (3 feet) below ground level. To do multiple cement plugs like you described, that's way more here. I am absolutely fascinated by how much more favorable your economics are.
As an Albertan I have always heaerd about the cost of abandoning, now I know why. Cheers from Calgary.
Do you have more gas in the area? Zach said he doesn't produce gas and I'd imagine that reduces the costs dramatically no?
@@johnkufeldt3564 Gawd Bless Corb Lund
I work on reclamation south calgary at turner valley the clean up cost near 1 millions and we have lot heavy equipment yes nothing cheap up north.
@@okgroomer1966 Most wells have some gas, so we have to run BOP's, and have a pump and tank. Plus winter is a thing, so a office trailer for the crew to warm up in. I watched Zach's rig video, very bare bones to what we run. He can get away with a 2 man crew, where as we need at least 4 just to move all the gear around, but normally its a 5 man crew.
Thanks for sharing this. Really appreciate going over the cost of plugging the wells too. The fact that you have "skin in the game" and are not willing to scrap pieces of equipment or "write off" material is what makes small business great; they are far less wasteful of capital.
Hmmm. I don't believe that. There's a reason a thing called "economies of scale" exists. If anything small businesses have got to be incredibly wasteful when it comes to capital. I mean I still support them wholesale over giant oligopolies for obvious reasons, but let's be real here, a mom and pop cannot possibly compete with the advantages in efficiencies of a large business.
@@johnjingleheimersmith9259 actually thats only partially true. You can cite economies of scale. But the problem is large companies care more about net profit vs effort.. You can say hey I can continuously keep it profitable.. but the end of the day management will ask your team to walk away from such low profit margins.. I work in oil and gas.. we're always looking for profit vs effort.. If i can make the big discovery by drilling only 1 well.. vs i have to maintain 1000's of these wells.. (which actually is impossible... because of the low headcount now adays..).. you'll see fewer is better.. because the reservoirs are larger..
@@johnjingleheimersmith9259 Economies of scale are better only in terms of throughput, but in terms of efficiency they become worse.
Super Kind of you, Zach, to run through all these operating details ... the independents like you keep a lot of wheels turning! ... Thank You ...
I worked for Halliburton in Kern county from 1978-86 as a cementer, sand control & in fracking. your video was very enlightening. Thank you.
Very fascinating. Just drove cross country from FL to CA. Saw a lot of these wells along the way. Thanks for a behind the scenes of how they operate and the gory financial details. You're a very good communicator.
dude, you taught this better than some profs at very expensive universities
You realize this guy thinks "inanswerable" is a word?
@@uwillnevahno6837Regardless, he was able to teach valuable information in a way that people can take and implement into their own strategies. There’s a million facts a professor can learn from even a homeless man. One mistake doesn’t make the whole person. Find God.
@@uwillnevahno6837 Just because his English isn't perfect doesn't mean he's stupid
Yes because he does actually it vs read about it
@@weslitton2567 You think profs at A&M don't "do it"?
Another great video, Zach! You have done an excellent job explaining the business end of a lease operation.
I have learned so much from watching all your videos. I like the way you tell it like it is. Thank you for taking the time to put these together while working the leases at the same time. It is so nice to see you enjoy your work and sharing your valuable knowledge with others. Keep up the great work!
You have a gift of making things I don't give a damn about interesting. Your videos are extremely informative and I can almost smell the oilfields you work in. Keep up the good work
Zach, this video answered a ton of my questions. Well Done, Sir.
Also, I love the walking beam model you have in the background. One of my hobbies is restoring hundred year old model stationary steam engines. The walking beams are always my favorites.
Thank you so much for trying to explain all that is involed in your business. I used to live in Tx. and drive by those pumps running and wonder how it all worked. I remember staying in Ft. Stocton a few days and seeing all the guys in oil field services and image what it would be like maintaining all these smaller wells. Today, as an old retired guy, I'm grateful for my investments in EPD, and XOM to help with S.S but I much appreciate the hard working guys, that despite the govt. keep this country running! Thanks again.
Worked in the oilfield for a time as a pumper and salt water hauler. Great explanation. I never understood how "stripper wells" were economical but after seeing your spreadsheet and explanation makes sense. Of course, the producer is doing the math to make an economical decision. What baffled me about a well that I used to pump was a well that averaged 1/4bbl every week if I remember correctly and still was being reworked every 2 years. Great content. Keep posting.
Somebody probably stealing some oil someplace and cooking the books on that 1/4 bbl a week well.
@karatekid6026 Is it true that to uphold a lease the well needs to produce or certain amount or be plugged? And that operators will bring in oil from another lease tontge tanks and get it hauled just to make it seem like it's producing?
Absolutely spot on explanation! You have convinced me to change my mind of, ( a life long dream) owing my own oil well.
Great videos. Very interesting for those of us never exposed to oil leases. Cool seeing a family business last so long.
Great explanations!!
Having spent a good deal of my 30s/40s in various oil patches, drilling rigs and on gas pipelines as an OEM turbomachinery vendor, I well understand the costs associated with operation/maintenance/repair of this sort of equipment. I understood the business of leases a lot less than the equipment, so between this video and other ones you've done a while back, I've gained a bunch of totally useless, but otherwise fascinating knowledge about stuff I'll never again be involved with! ;) Beats hell out of the boob tube though!! (I blew up my TV in 1968!)
Love the videos Zach. You're as real as it gets and I hope you can go on producing videos for a long time to come! Thank you as always for the time you spend on these videos!
What is the cost of all of the carbon in the atmosphere?
@@Krunch2020How much C02 is in the air right now? what amount or present do you think it is?
@@Krunch2020 probably trees growing, life on planet earth flourishing? oh right, carbon is bad for carbon based lifeforms now
@@Krunch2020 If you count all carbon based life forms, I'd say in the billions of trillions.
@@Krunch2020 The more, the better, what are you talking about? Are we also going to demonize oxygen? Flat earth is more real than "carbon is bad for earth" hoax.
Thank you again for being willing to open the somewhat personal details to the public. I really appreciate that you included all the "safety margin" numbers of maintenance and taxes because those are important and so many people seem to ignore them (and then they wonder where all their money went). Sounds like you run your business in a fiscally responsibly way, which means you’ll better be able to weather the lean times.
Working for the majors in plants,pipelines,lease work,drilling etc etc,new hires have absolutely no clue how much money a company has invested in them before they ever set foot on a job site.
You give a great explanation of everything. Tires,fuel,truck maintenance,tools,crackheads stealing tools and trucks and tires and fuel😂.
Somebody asked a buddy of mine how much he figured his business would clear for the year. He told them he had no clue,there was still three months left and nothing had gone bad wrong yet.
Such is life.
I took a well that once that made a lot of water and a small cut of oil. 97% water saturation.
I ran a 1/2" bottom hole choke below a AD-1 tension packer, a perforated sub above the packer then a seat nipple or tubing pump above the sub.
It holds back the water. Same as perforating 1 hole in the top of the zone. I went from a skim of oil to 10 barrels per day. You may have to run a 3/8 or 1/4 inch choke in the positive choke nipple to hold fluid back.
The perforated sub gives you a annualess on the casing.
Let's hope he sees this
Where's your video?
@@sf4137 I didn't fill the need to video my work. Never have. Years of experience combined with old school knowledge.
The ideal is to hold water back or slow it down. Some wells we had good cement across the zone with 97% water saturation. I drilled the wells myself and caught samples personally.
Some I shot one hole in the top of the zone and the well came in flowing with no water.
Some wells I didn't get a good cement job. Water pushed the oil away from the perfs.
This method helped hold the bottom hole pressure back letting the oil enter the well bore. I had about 20' of sand, and only 8' of good oil sand on top. North Central Texas wells.
I've done it in the East Texas field also. But most of these wells were big wash outs behind the casing. I could help the production very little. So I ended up handling the water with sub-pumps, and 192" stroke pumping units. East Texas saltwater takes the water at 6 cents per barrel 2000 barrels+ per day with around 60 barrels of oil per day.
Was 250 barrels per day to 600 barrels of water for over 2 years in 2012, into 2015.
These are old wells except for 2. Water drive.
I don't understand anything you said but it sounds correct.
@@jamesbarber3854so if you sold one barrel for 70 bucks how much would you get after royalties and all expenses?
Just started watching your videos , I’m from southern Ontario Canada.. I am fascinated with with the old wells and how the old timers did there job in the day, as described and explained by you.. I really enjoyed watching Franks well service rig tear down and Oklahoma jack videos.. love the content thanks 😊
Awesome. Thanks for watching.
When I was very young my family dabbled in oil wells like yours in Kentucky. Ive always been curious about the process. Thanks for taking time to explain what goes into maintaining and making a profit from them.
Zach, thank you for explaining costs and profits! I own a business and I clearly understand that it takes a considerable amount of gross income to make you a net profit! Glad you are making at least some profit!! much success to you!!
This was a great explanation for how the revenue and expenses break down, and all the variables - thanks!
Thank you, I’ve always wondered the cost/expense dynamics as I’ve driven across America and have seen all these wells. You did a great job of explaining it.
God bless you zach.
Showing us the unsexy reality of running your own oil wells.
I 100% appreciate what you do and wish you a prosperous life and good fortune.
Cheers.
My Dad had a plugging company back in the early 90's, he built a rig on a gooseneck and mixed the concrete with a hoe. Back then the RRC wanted all the "stripper wells" plugged, so he did it for free, if he could salvage the well. He sold all the pipe, pump, etc. then cleaned up the pad. He did quite well at it then he sold it, then he worked for that company before retiring for the 3rd or 4th time.
Appreciate the video, I happened upon this and have been curious about those types of wells. Your explanation is easy to follow and explains the situation well. Thanks
What a great lecture on Applied Theory of the Firm - a retired university economics lecturer 👏👏
Great video my friend, well put, to the point, and sure it answered a lot of questions for folks who’ve never been around the Oldfield or worked in it
Thank you for this video. I’m from Texas and have another part of the equation. I worked as a lease operator for many years for many different oil companies, from very small operators to some of the largest in the nation, and all of the things that you covered are good to discuss. As an owner operator, you are very articulate, and bring light to others that don’t know the industry. Larger companies have different situations with wells that “don’t pay for themselves” they are left in operation because they are the “lease holder” if your long term plan includes potential new wells, that might not be financially back-able at the time, they are produced to keep from loosing the rights to drill.
The internet is so cool. I'm sitting here in Sydney Australia at 7am with a coffee, watching you educate me on your oil lease. I love it. Cheers mate! Appreciate it
Great Info. I have hauled oil out of the oil fields of Wyo. and Colo. and always wondered how this part of it worked. Thanks!!!
I really like your channel! I was out in Midland, earlier this week, on business. Arrrived at 10PM and it was 92 degrees. There was a flare burning with a 30 foot high flame, across I20 from my hotel. I could feel the heat coming off of the flame, almost a quarter mile away. It's amazing how hot it is out there.
Hi there partner,
Oh yeah we’ve been getting roasted by this recent heatwave out here in Odessa for past 3 weeks.
Even though the feds have slowed down new well production these twin cities midland/odessa are still so overcrowded overpopulated for some reason feels strange now in 2023
Great job explaining the linear costs of running a marginal lease. You’re absolutely correct saying “It’s a job and make little money at it!”
Companies buying up these marginal, low profit wells by the 1000’s are out there making a buck then shut them in and sit on them till prices come up. I would say your wells are better maintained.
Really interesting video. I don't know anything about the oil business, and certainly costs/profit etc, but I've learned a lot watching your videos. Thanks for sharing!
Thanks. Very well presented. I have owned a few small businesses and people don’t realize the operating expenses and how that effects actual profit. Well done.
I never understood the idea of it being rude to ask what someone makes. If nobody asks, the people in charge keep getting away with screwing us. It's not until we talk about it with each other that we realize how badly they're trying to screw us. I feel like THAT'S why they don't want people discussing incomes.
Yeah. Secrecy about it only benefits those writing the paychecks.
@@genehenson8851 it's odd to me that people are often up in arms about their employer but far less bothered about the party that's taking 35% of everything they earn
I absolutely agree with you. I'm an academic economist and to have worthwhile information I need to know how the money flows and I don't see asking as rude. I am willing to say what I earn if the cause is reasonable. Also, in this case, what harm could it do to tell me and all the people in TH-camland what it cost to run a well and the revenue it makes. I guess someone could make mischief with that information but I'm not curious enough to imagine what that may be , barring I'm a local tax officier and he is hiding income. My salary scale in the UK university is public knowledge though where I am on the scale is not but I would have no trouble revealing that.
Great video. It’s unfortunate that people who have never run a small business fail to grasp the dynamics of “how much do you make with that?”
There is a huge disparity in financial understanding between those folks who work for a paycheck vs. those who operate a business. It’s not how much you make, it’s how much you keep. I’m recently retired from 30 years with our small business and your explanation was a refreshing reminder of the difference between employees and entrepreneurs. Thanks for sharing. Randy
If you don't make enough to keep any then how do you keep it.
Yep 100% thanks.
Anybody asking how much he makes is really asking what his net take home is.
Keep up the hard work. Appreciate the view into the video. Always wanted to do some oil and gas work, but this way I can see a part of it and stay clean.
Zach,
Thanks for the breakdown of operating an oil well and the expenses required to make the business run. I had no idea the costs incurred to operate an oil well. I kinda expected the dollars per barrel you received (gross) but did not know half the costs you incur to keep the well operating on a yearly basis. Again thanks for the breakdown of what's necessary to operate an oil business. Keep the videos coming it is all very interesting and I really enjoy listening to the way you explain things.
I worked for a utility for 20 years and one thing I can suggest is; Google and study the theory and installation requirements for electrical surge arresters. All you need are the arresters, copper wire to connect them up and ground rods to complete the circuit. They could save you some money on motor and controls damage. My first thought is to ask your utility to add arresters directly at your tie point and then you can put them at each well for further protection. As a thought, based on your comments regarding reusing materials perhaps you could as a local lineman for the utility if he knows where you could get sone used arresters or if he knows of an abandoned line somewhere where you could scavenge the arresters. If they aren't blown up they are probably OK. As good as they are, if you get a strike at the pole they are mounted on, well nothing will help. (Ha) You are talking about millions of watts in that bolt of lightning.
thanks for you explanation of operating an oil business,,
Sam
The level of lightning protection needed is what they do in much of Japan and Taiwan where there is a grounded static line over all the primaries.
Nothing stops a three kilometer long spark.
EE here 😁
Thanks for the explanation, what I got out of that is that you need a lot of wells which means a lot of work on your part to keep everything operating, what most of us don’t consider is the time and money you have to put in to keep everything running and producing. I relate it to one of my uncles he was a dairy farmer he never took a vacation always either milking ( twice a day 365), planting,harvesting,taking care of the cows, and a lot more.
He owns some fraction of the well and 100% of the headaches.
I always wondered how that oil well business works. Thanks for sharing!
This a great informative video. I have worked when I was younger, on drilling oil and gas wells and workover wells and I have always wondered about cost and profit on oil wells. Thank you.
Thanks.
On a secondary recovery well it takes even less to make profit. How old the well is helps determine its profit potential. Saying how many times has it paid for itself. The depth also makes a difference. Electricity is the first cost then royalties to land owner if any then taxes and then upkeep and paying oil company to haul the oil. There are so many variables it's really difficult to figure with much accuracy. I am a veteran of the oil field from way back here in Texas.👍 Great video Zach.
I can't think of anything more typical of Texans (the real ones) than dranking coffee, looking up running the numbers in your head like ole Zach.
Enjoy your content and advice! I jst burnt the heck outta my hand on my grill hood chasing after my dog off the deck...
This was a good video. BTW, I love the pumping unit on the file cabinet.
Thanks for the overview. I remeber my grandfather doing these assessments every couple months to keep an eye on things.
Honestly it really isnt anyone's business as to what you make I appreciate what you do share with us about your life keep the videos coming I always enjoy watching
I'm laughing my ass off - Anybody that gives you a hard time about your numbers has never walked in your shoes, that's for damn sure! One time I owned a piece of a little well that was making 100bpd total and 20 bpd oil at @40/bbl (1980's Cherry Canyon Ridge formation). One of the partners was a genius and convinced us to frac that well and bump the oil cut up (in his estimation). The frac job was not cheap but we were fixing to get wealthy(er). When the frac job was done the new water cut was 100%, zero% oil. The frac job had managed to water wet the formation and ruined the well for all eternity. That was one of my oil investment life lessons. As a bonus when you murder a well with stupidity you also get to chip in for the P&A because that's cheaper than perfing other shows behind pipe and your wallet is tapped out.. When you have skin in the game those lessons stick. LOL - keep at it brother! A feller needs a good number of wells to spread out the good news with the bad news. It's a delicate balance between poverty and acquiring bad habits. When I wised up I decided to buy big slab of Exxon (XOM) in the 90's. That investment has grown and now Exxon sends me a nice check every 90 days and I don't have to sweat the details of every well. I also own a chunk of Devon (DVN) - at the moment the investment is in the red! I never said I learned it all! When it's all said and done I made the most bank just working my ass off all over world, working as much overtime at premium rates as my body could handle. Property taxes - most folks outside of TX don't know about property taxes and TX property tax districts. Folks think TX is a tax free zone, they load the U-Haul and move to TX - they get a life lesson welcome to Tejas from the taxing districts. Opps
I have learnt the same lesson re general business the government compliance cost in Australia are extortion. Gave up and just become a share holder in the stock market.
I really appreciate you sharing this as it gives me an idea of what's involved as I might need this in the near future.I new to this so it was very informative.
Was nice of you to put this together, Zach. No ones business what you make on anything, but it was a fun an educational watch!
Hey, thanks for sharing this! I always wondered about the random pump jacks I see in Illinois cornfield.
I wanted one until you mentioned figures like 1/5 bbl. per day.
My dreams of easy riches have been crushed by reality AGAIN. 7:56
People have no idea how much it cost and margins on oil lease's. You have more bad years than good years. Now that does not mean a bad year is a bust. But every once in a while you will have a complete and total bust year. I had to shut my operation down one year and it was a bust year. Not worth it for me to pump oil at under $7.00 a barrel. I filled up my tank battery's, locked them up and set on the oil until prices came back up. But that did not mean there was no work to be done and money did go out. Those times are when your cleaning out and repairing your separators, doing down hole work, replacing production pipe and distribution pipe from the wells to the tank battery's. Cleaning up the land and staying a head of in my case the OK. Corp. Comm. and the EPA. I ran big over sized injection pumps so I could turn them real slow, keep the load down on there motors. But you still have to repair them. And it's no joke if you don't own the land and mineral rights. Being the outright owner now days in oil country just about never happens. Insurance and just general operating cost can smoke your ass. Is the well a old cable tool well or was it rotary drilled. What formation is it in? Or do you have multiple formations you can produce. I produced from the B'ville Sand, shallow wells down to the Arbuckle and upper ends of the Mississippi and a few other formations. Sometimes you can rest a well if that well rat hole is a honey hole,,, but those are rare and they will play out. Natural gas more times than not is a bigger pain in the butt than it's worth. Best case is you live out on one of your oil fields and can heat your home and use NG to power pump jacks and a injection pumps. But to make enough to market and go through all that crap. It's not worth it because you will end up almost giving it a way. There are thousands and thousands of NG wells capped off all over the southern and gulf states. In states that are not even thought of as petroleum states. I have a old well in my back yard that is plugged. They stopped production on it in 1920 and my house was built in 1921. I have the land and mineral rights. The old well was plugged with pecan tree limbs. They just pounded them down the hole and called it good. They stopped production when it stopped flowing and it has never been pumped. So I know it will produce. I'm retired now so it can set unless we have a complete economic collapse. There is soooo much involved in production and management one can not explain it all. And none of it is easy and it all cost money.
hey, wingingit! I think we may not live very far apart. I'm North of Tulsa, getting ready to buy my first lease here, and was planning on running a natural gas generator for my lease instead of buying from verdigris valley Electric Coop. Going to pump my own wells, do my own service work. It's just something to keep me busy and give me something to do, which will be used for extra income/economic collapse as you also stated! I will make sure I have plenty of oil storage tanks so I can stockpile and sell at top market prices ;P
@@SniperPetro You getting a lease in Rogers county? I use to have a few around Chelsea.
There were some good ones on the east side of the lake.
Thank you so much, that answered a lot of questions for me my wish for you is to have a lot of success and a great and safe life
Very impressive analytics of running a small oil lease. Don’t know how this video popped up for me, but now I’m a subscriber.
Good video and very good explanation. The well in Oklahoma that I get my small royalty check from makes around 5 BPD according to the statements I get. The statement lists the amount of oil it makes(per pay period, a month in general), the price received for the oil, the taxes, my percentage, and my amount. All of the other items you mentioned are taken care of by the operators. There were two wells on the lease, but one has not ran for a few years. The pump jack is still there, but major parts are missing. I suspect it is not profitable to fix whatever is wrong with it.
Do you have any experience investing in publicly traded royaltys?
@@stephengomolka9798 No.
I wish I could come help you operate and/or drill new wells, I have lots of experience operating rigs/driller, mud engineering, and drilling related, I am close to the same age and made a good living in the oil patch, I quit drilling in 2015 and shortly after took a a stable government oil and gas inspector job but at least I sleep in my own bed 99% of the time. This may be a horrible thing to wish for but I hope i own a few leases one day, or one lease with some good wells, Great content and great job, thanks for your videos! If you ever take the “toter home” to northeast utah I have about 20 acres you can camp at bordering forest and blm land, also have welders and a shop for repairs, Be safe and may god bless you my oilfield brother.
You can buy those stripper leases in N Texas, they're around and available. Then you just hire a pumper, which is pretty easy to do as well. A good price to pay is about $10-15k bbl. So, if the lease makes 1bopd, a decent price is $15k. A lease that's making 10bopd, $150k .. Most of the time, the seller of the lease will have an old pumper that will stay on.
Thank You for this information. I find it so interesting learning about things I have no clue about but I am curious
Thanks a million! Another wonderfully informative video,
Hi Zach, I am always impressed by your working man’s knowledge of the complexities of running a productive enterprise. I’ve watched as you are in your work shed or out in the awful Texas weaTher minding your business. Good on you whatever you earn for your efforts.
You did touch on though early in the video a significant element of the cost structure, taxes. I realize that cost is passed on to the consumer. I am as well aware that I as the consumer also pay taxes when I buy a gallon of gasoline. I live in the northeast and there’s a high cost of living here. In the state I live in, federal excise tax plus state gas tax amounts to 42.4 cents per gallon. During the gas price situation in 2004-2005 I learned a petroleum company’s profit on a gallon of gas is from 5 to 7 cents a gallon. So, who really is the big scary oil profiteer here? The people who produce or the government which just waits at the finish line?
exactly 100%
The big guys have tons of write-offs and loopholes in the tax code written specifically FOR them that drops their profit down to the amount you listed.
If you saw them daily 24/7 & watched & counted what they claimed as "expenses" you would probably laugh & cry at what they get away with though.
The big fish always dictate everything, no matter the business.
What you sell a barrel oil for and what profit you have at the end of the year are two different things. Also the profit that you make depends on your accounting. Like you said. Your one well only makes you any profit because you have two others that share some resources. In fact, you can have no declared profits and continue happy for many years. Lots of companies have to write down equipment for years until they actually have profits to pay taxes on.
Great video Zach. Please keep them coming!
great video for a technically minded entrepreneur that is always running numbers and viability concepts. Your breakdown is very interesting. Thanks for taking the time to show what it takes to extract some profit from a small oil rig.
Hey Zach,
I wanted to thank you for taking the time to explain (over many videos) about how different forces affect you on the financial side of keeping these various rigs, leases, and deals in play running. I do have one question since you have a lot of electric-tied wells and other connections to grid around you. Is there any incentive or even ability (given the nature of these leases) to build a solar panel near the well to either offset electric consumption or to increase revenue?
Take it from me as a farmer. DON’T determine how much it costs you to operate a business. You will just be depressed. LOLOL
🤣😂
Love the channel,young man. Native Texan, and know almost nothing about production etc but hope to get educated by you. Thank you!
Wow! That's a lot of very cool information about a subject I had never even thought about before. Thank you for sharing-this is quite a rabbit hole you've sent me down. Thank you for your candor and putting real prices and costs with the information!
I think this is valuable for anyone considering a business venture. The gross profit /widget made may look huge but most don't understand how much all the periphery of a business costs, right down to floor sweeping and paper clips, eats into that. You also mentioned insurance. I would be curious to know what that costs in the US because that shows the perception of risk by the underwriters.
Such a positive outlook.
Zach, no one has the right to know how much you make. Thank you for taking time to explain how the economics work for that well. Always interesting!
True but he did make a channel to share his life. Naturally people are curious to know the details. He doesn't have to share, but I think he gave people a good enough idea what the economics of this life are. It's not like people were asking for exact dollar amounts in his personal accounts.
Great Video. There is something about your presentation that makes your videos great to view and I have learned a lot. JD at Portland,OR
I really, really enjoy your videos. You would make a great college professor. Your parents did a good job raising you.
Thank you for explaining the numbers. I appreciate your sharing your experience and perspective as an Oil Man. Is that a Stirling Engine sitting on top of your file cabinet? I have 4 Stirling Engines and would like to know more about yours.
it's a steam running on a fishtank pump.
Hi Zach. Well thanks for all the info, interesting, you do work your butt off. I still must be old school it's just no ones business how much money you make, but gads the money you pay out for equipment is staggering. Ok Zach take care and hope ya hit the mother load of oil wells😁and get richer than snot😋.............................see ya
Haha thanks.
I’ve been pumpin for bout a year now n u described this better than the guys that taught me 3 different routes… thanks buddy greatly appreciate u👍🏻👍🏻
Thanks for explaining this! Interesting to know how you make it work!
This is the damned best video I've seen lately. I always wanted to know the general numbers of the business. I based my numbers upon producing 10 bbls per day and running for 100 years just like Zach. Oh, I can't wait until that first $100 k check gets here. Gonna get me a new Cadillac w spinner rims and haul my tools in the trunk. Life will be grand. Right now the RRC is looking at my crap. Once approved, I will have 1 of a million wells that don't produce anything. Then, the fun starts.
You were raised properly.
Another good honest video Zach. Thx for sharing your explanation to noisy people
Excellent. Well done and great explanation. Business is never simple.
All students Say GM to ZACH SIR... BEST TEACHER... WHO TEACH US PROPER KNOWLEDGE.... DEEPAK SHRIKHANDE SIR JALGAON MAHARASHTRA SAFETY INSTRUCTOR MUMBAI GOV. APPROVED INSTRUCTOR...
🇮🇳❤️🇺🇲👌💐🙏✊.
Thanks, we all knew you were making the big bucks because of all those designer T-shirts & CNC & digital-readout machinery in your shop. Nice work man! :) :) :)
Also, when oil dropped to $0 during Covid, were you at capacity & forced to sell it, or just cut power & wait it out?
I would like to touch on this when I get back to the bbls into dollars series, but long story short we had already sold some oil that month and when the price went negative it basically wiped out that months check.
Hi Zach, great vids. Thanks for posting buddy.
Real life breakdown, outstanding explanation 🙏🏽🙏🏽🙏🏽🙏🏽🙏🏽
Do not tell them the Gross on T-Shirt Sales....!!!!
I was a operator in east Texas for many years on a work over rig. Kinda brings back memories watching your videos.
I worked in the oil fields in Canada. These wells do not produce 100% oil 100% of the time. There are other liquids in it.
Thanks for sharing Zach. Your income is none of my business. I just appreciate seeing real numbers on operating and maintenance costs.
That was fascinating. Thank you very much.
One other question occurs to me.... When you acquire leases, do you expect to improve production or maintain production at the current level? In other words, are you looking for underperforming wells that you can improve?
Why don't you tell us about YOUR income?
Even if other leases nearby make more oil, every well is different so there is no absolute way to know this lease isnt producing the best it can. I suppose if you looked it over and found equipment issues that can cause problems you would get some sense it could be increased but that’s about it without knowing a lot about the history of the lease and the geology of the field. Investing in new leases is very much a gamble. But if the cost is very low it could be worth a chance. In Zacks case they would also need to be nearby to him as he does most things himself so driving a couple hours each way to check or fix something wastes a lot of timr.
The only way you will improve production on an old lease, is if there are wells that were left down, you shoot another zone, or push water. Cleaning up the wellbore helps, but from experience it only gets you flush production, the well returns to normal after a couple weeks.
@@caseymitchell5477IF there is another zone and if the wellbore is safe to re-enter.. Some older wells have stepped up after fracking but that’s very expensive. Always wondered if re- entering and running some horizontal legs would pay off but that’s a big investment as it requires a rig on site for weeks. Water flood is a cheap way, but that requires a lot of water injected at high pressure and might be outside the comfort zone of smaller producers. Sometimes all the lease owners in an area jointly pay for that based on their fractions of the overall field production.
"Crack pipe looking device" 🤣
Thanks, Zach. So your oil gets pumped into the big black tank, then what? Does a truck come and empty it periodically? On call?
Nice thing about a big tank is you can sit on the oil and watch the market and try to sell your oil when you make the most from it. Same thing with say a grain elevator/storage for farmers.
Thanks Zach, nice insight into small oil operations
So cool to see these old school wells. I'm an electrician in ND working on exxon sites with gas lift wells that produce around 10000 barrels a day, and many of their sites have 6 wells. It's cool to see guys that are able to make a buck on wells that make 1-2 barrels a day!
well Zach I prefer you LIE to us and tell us you making J.R.EWING money - then the next videos will be who killed ZACH !!! ohhhnooo !!! :)
Don’t get frustrated. You are correct, that is a rude question to ask! That being said, the people asking obviously have no idea how a business operates. Some of us enjoy learning new things, round numbers are close enough for my education. There are so many incalculable exspenses in a business like yours, you’d go mad trying to put a cost on each well. Keep doing what you do and don’t let the few sour you on videos.
Is it when he made a channel to share his life? Normally I'd agree but this situation is a bit different. He still can not answer but the curiosity from people is fair. He gave up some of his privacy after making the channel.
Really enjoyed that. I knew nothing about oil wells, and now I know a tiny bit!
Very interesting video post that came up in my feed. I had been thinking about my mineral rights in western Oklahoma and what they might be worth. This gave me a bit of insight to the process. No lease on my mineral rights since I inherited them, but I think about them from time to time.