I share this not as an anecdotal “look at me” thread, but because I consider you all to be my friends. Many of you have played a vital part in my personal growth as a man and a bowhunter in the past four years. The elation that I feel right now is owed in part to you all. Thanks for the constant support, sound advice, and friendships that have helped me through the past few months.
As you can tell, our meeting went well this morning. The benefits both tangible and intangible stemming from this meeting are nothing short of blessings. Shell Oil will not be purchasing our WV assets. Instead, a team of three individuals in their mid-30’s who are current employees of our, have formed a new energy company that is now the owner of the majority of our WV assets. Their focus is to bolster a proven business plan surrounding our shallow oil production and secondary recovery efforts in our waterfloods. The new President is the product of WV. His grandfather has been in oil and gas in WV for ages. His father helped develop our first waterflood years ago working as a dozer operator. My dad has known this guy since he was a kid helping his dad run the dozer. Another principle in the mix is married to a woman that babysat my wife when she was a kid. He graduated from the same high school I did, attends the same church my wife’s family attends, and lives three doors from my parents. (His house sits where I killed my first deer.) The third member of the group is the son of our former land manager. All three of these guys went to college together, deer hunter, and proudly wear the Redneck label. They are my new bosses, can’t get better than that!
In addition to keeping our current jobs, benefits, and salaries, we will be given the rest of our retention bonus next week. This alone changes lives for everyone in our office. It means our farm will no longer be on the market and instead, will become a place we groom for my grandchildren to inherit. It means I can take a deep breath and know that one of man’s biggest worries, money, is something we all can stop thinking about for a while. I’ll keep my company vehicle and from the sounds of things, by spring, I’ll be back to doing what I love: working on the road buying right-of-ways. I have the opportunity to become WV Land Manage in the next 3-5 years if I seize the opportunity and that was a possibility I figured had long passed me by. I actually have a chance to resurrect a dead career and retire from the oil and gas industry. Ironic that the industry that supported me my entire life, could continue to do so and return the favor to my children; especially when you considered I made a decision to NOT enter oil and gas!
I feel like a new man right now. With the burden of the BEC decision gone; the doubts about my career squashed; money issues corrected for the foreseeable future; and the stress of having no direction is life off my shoulder, I cannot begin to tell you how liberating it is. It is now time to focus on God, family, friends, my career, this forum, and killing things. I’m a simple man from a simple part of town and I’m ready to get on with my simple life…
As you can tell, our meeting went well this morning. The benefits both tangible and intangible stemming from this meeting are nothing short of blessings. Shell Oil will not be purchasing our WV assets. Instead, a team of three individuals in their mid-30’s who are current employees of our, have formed a new energy company that is now the owner of the majority of our WV assets. Their focus is to bolster a proven business plan surrounding our shallow oil production and secondary recovery efforts in our waterfloods. The new President is the product of WV. His grandfather has been in oil and gas in WV for ages. His father helped develop our first waterflood years ago working as a dozer operator. My dad has known this guy since he was a kid helping his dad run the dozer. Another principle in the mix is married to a woman that babysat my wife when she was a kid. He graduated from the same high school I did, attends the same church my wife’s family attends, and lives three doors from my parents. (His house sits where I killed my first deer.) The third member of the group is the son of our former land manager. All three of these guys went to college together, deer hunter, and proudly wear the Redneck label. They are my new bosses, can’t get better than that!
In addition to keeping our current jobs, benefits, and salaries, we will be given the rest of our retention bonus next week. This alone changes lives for everyone in our office. It means our farm will no longer be on the market and instead, will become a place we groom for my grandchildren to inherit. It means I can take a deep breath and know that one of man’s biggest worries, money, is something we all can stop thinking about for a while. I’ll keep my company vehicle and from the sounds of things, by spring, I’ll be back to doing what I love: working on the road buying right-of-ways. I have the opportunity to become WV Land Manage in the next 3-5 years if I seize the opportunity and that was a possibility I figured had long passed me by. I actually have a chance to resurrect a dead career and retire from the oil and gas industry. Ironic that the industry that supported me my entire life, could continue to do so and return the favor to my children; especially when you considered I made a decision to NOT enter oil and gas!
I feel like a new man right now. With the burden of the BEC decision gone; the doubts about my career squashed; money issues corrected for the foreseeable future; and the stress of having no direction is life off my shoulder, I cannot begin to tell you how liberating it is. It is now time to focus on God, family, friends, my career, this forum, and killing things. I’m a simple man from a simple part of town and I’m ready to get on with my simple life…
