Now that I’ve given a little background on the origin and purpose of PetroBlog, I’d like to tell you a little bit more about myself – my background, what I know, and maybe even more importantly, what I don’t.

I am an engineer with over ten years of experience in the oil and gas industry. I hold both a Bachelor of Science and Master of Engineering in petroleum engineering and I am a registered professional engineer in three states. Although I have some experience in drilling, my background consists primarily of reservoir engineering and operations engineering for mid-size oil and gas companies in the western United States.

A reservoir engineer focuses on “big picture” items such as field development, forecasting oil and gas production, estimating future revenue, and corporate planning. You may not think this is of particular interest, however, the purpose of Petrolitix is to take these industry methods and make them available to royalty and mineral owners. At Petrolitix, we are able to forecast production and revenue from oil and gas royalties with reasonable certainty, and in some cases, we are even able to do this for a well that is not yet drilled.

Operations engineers are generally involved in the day-to-day activities on individual wells. These activities may range from establishing production after a well is drilled, to optimizing daily production and fixing problems, and even the final abandonment of a well. My background in this area will allow me to address questions such as “why do my royalty checks keep getting smaller?”, or “why would an oil company shut in a well?”. Future posts will address these questions.

Unfortunately, I don’t know much about the leasing process or the legal issues royalty and mineral owners often encounter. At an oil and gas company, the land department or a landman writes and reviews leases, interacts with mineral owners, and addresses basic legal questions. I am aware that most questions a mineral or royalty owner has relate to land, so I will often have a guest author, who is a landman, address these issues. Although unaffiliated with Petrolitix, any guest author has our endorsement and will advertise his services within the body of a post.

I have numerous topics I plan to discuss in future posts, but this blog needs to be relevant to you. So, I’ve included a page on this site where readers can submit their own questions to be answered. I can’t promise that each question will be answered, but I will do my best to address them or have a guest author do so.