Oil Well lease with engines on eBay

[Paul Spence]

Neat item . Check it out to see engines in use on an oil lease that is for sale. Paul

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That is pretty neat Paul,I wonder how much the income is per year on a average.I think it is a little far for me to travel from NC to check on them. Benny

I wouldn't plan on getting rich from it. I live in Washington County, the Athens County line is just across the holler from me. My mother-in-law owns four leases and is supposed to be getting free gas from them. She also owns the land, but doesn't control the oil and gas being pulled from the wells. The tender will shut off the gas going to her house whenever it suits him, even in the dead of winter, and she or her son have to trek up to the wells to turn the gas back on to get heat. I know quite a few farmers in both Athens and Washington Counties that in the last ten years have had wells drilled with promises of riches, then they just drill them and cap them. You can own the lease, and the land, but if the oil company doesn't pull it, there ain't a whole lot you can do about it. I can take you around and show you a couple of dozen wells that will produce, but are capped. I can't explain all the reasons for this, except I do think the government controls part of what can be produced, and what is to be kept as an oil reserve. Same thing was going on when I was a derrick man in the Texas oil fields some 20 years ago. A lot of the wells we dug were capped. I was told then that a certain percentage had to be set aside as a reserve in case of another world war and we were cut off from outside resources. David.

One reason for a lot of capped wells is they don't produce much oil. If your pumping all day and only getting 20 gallons of oil, it doesn't pay to pump. As the price of oil goes up, then more wells start getting pump because it is more feasable at that point.

They don't want to produce too much gas and oil. If they did they would flood the market and the price would come down. They don't want that.

William

I have lived in an oil field all my life, 50-plus years, and there are oil and gas wells all around here. All of them that are capable of commercial production are on production, and that has been the case all along. The equipment on some of these wells dates to 1918, proof that they were produced long before I was born, through war, peace, depression and dustbowl. I don't know of a single verifiable case of ANYONE who controlled commercial oil and gas production who "sat on it".

I work for an oil company. In ritchie County Wva, not far from Washington County Ohio, and all the wells they have are being produced or are being serviced. Today i was on a site with a 28 bucyrus erie spudder, cleaning out and drilling deeper on an old frac well. We got it to make about half a barrel an hour. Which is pretty good. I can tell you from experience, if any oil is in a well, they will try to get it out, no reserving anything at the price of oil now adays.

I'll be sure to tell my mother-in-law this winter when they shut her well down that it's all her imagination and the heat is really on and she's not really freezing her butt off. I can't speak for the experiences you other guys have had, but I know for a fact around here they do not pull from the wells on a daily basis. Occasionally, in a real crisis like in the 70's and once, I believe, in the 80's, the government will open up the reserves. Where do you think these reserves come from? Maybe not in your area, but they have to come from somewhere, don't they. You guys shouldn't assume your personal experiences cover the whole world. Or do you really believe that the U.S. does not hold oil in reserve, that our government is stupid enough to use our own oil at the rate that if the OPEC countries should suddenly decide to cut us off one day that the next day we will be out of oil when the tankers stop coming in? Considering that our country at the present is only producing 6 percent of the world's oil supply, I'd say there is a whole lot more held in reserve than what you might think there is. Personally, even though I don't like the gas prices any better than anyone else does, I would rather pay the prices now and have the government hold the oil in reserve while we use up OPEC's oil, then to someday be caught with our pants down and nothing to run our machinery and keep our country alive. It's no different than on a personal level with my winter supplies, I don't use up my last bit of food in the middle of winter hoping that the next day the roads won't be snowed in and I can't get to the store. I stockpile food and water, draw from it when I need it, replenish it as soon as possible so the next storm doesn't leave me with no food. David.

Too bad your mother-in-law does not have any gas bottle, wood or oil for backup?

Maybe cold weather is the propblem. It is possible that the gas gathering lines and meters freeze up and force the operator to shut the well in from time to time during cold weather. Or, the line to the house may be freezing up. It may be possible to make improvements to the gas line to prevent freeze-ups by installing "drips" and drains. It is also possible to use alcohol to prevent freezing in some cases. Using raw natural gas to heat houses can be very dangerous. A lot of people have died for "free gas". It sounds like a back-up propane tank would be a good idea if the gas supply is subject to interuption.

Also many times companies will "shut in" wells, which means they turn off the valves at the well head, so that the pressure can build back up in the well, so as to be able to pump the oil out, and to be able to get the gas out of the well.

Also in winter time like patrick said, lines freeze up. Sometimes a pumper will just shut the line off to prevent that. A person can install a thing called a Dryer, which takes the gas into a pipe like structure full of calcium. The calcium takes the liquid out of the gas to keep it from freezing. And yes once lines are frozen, alcohol can be poured into them to thaw the liquid. Since the gas only goes out in the winter i would say freezing is the problem, or the pressure gets too low on the well, and the regulator on the line trips and shuts the line off. So actually the person may be pulling the pin on the regulator rather than turning the valve back on, and blaming the pumper.

zach

A good idea and one that is being looked into. This has only been a minor problem in the past but is getting worse every year. They will shut the well off and on during the summer months, also, but it really becomes a problem in the winter months. She has checked into a propane tank, but there is a required usage she has to agree to. She lives on her husband's pension and won't accept help. Oh well, at least she has a son and grandson that live right beside her and check in on her all the time. David.

How about a corn stove? Stoves are a little pricey, but fuel is cheap and easy to come by. Burns alot cleaner then wood.

What they had before was electric baseboard heating, electric is the only utility they have out there. When they got the gas stoves they tore out the baseboards to set furniture around where they couldn't before. My opinion is she should go back to that and close off some of the rooms when she needs to. Even as expensive as it is to heat with electricity in that old house, it's not something she uses all the time, just 'til she gets the well going again. She's not getting any younger, and electric is just a flip of the switch. My apologies, Paul, for getting your thread going in a different direction, I didn't mean for that to happen. David.

[Paul Spence]

David: Getting a thread going in a different direction is OK with me. Sure makes interesting reading while on "BREAK" and we seem to always be learning something new. OOPS, got an alarm, break is over . Paul