I had two Luncheons this week that provided a contrast. Both were related to the energy industry but they had totally opposite flavor.

Wednesday, I attended a luncheon at the Tulsa Country Club northwest of downtown Tulsa. A geologist there was talking about the Woodford Shales in Oklahoma. Shales are huge right now. For years it was known they contained fabulous amounts of natural gas but nobody could figure out how to get it out of the rock.

Well, they have figured it out and literally billions of dollars are being spent in a huge rush. In addition to the Woodford Shales of Oklahoma there is the gigantic Barnett Shale field in the Fort Worth area (that is what the wells are drilling for at the DFW airport if you notice next time yout go through there).

There is also the potentially even bigger Haynesville Shale in north Louisiana and East Texas and what might be the biggest gas field ever found in the United States, the Marcellus Shale that stretches from upstate New York south to Virginia. These are all potential right now, but who knows what may happen.

Anyway back to the lunch. The man speaking was a geolgist who specialized in the Woodford Shale and in a particular aspect called “vitrinite reflectance.” It has to do with how much the rock is cooked. If you own shales in with a VR in the gas “window” which is between 1.15 and 3. Its time to have a party. You might have gas! All you need is to lease the drilling rights. ($5,000 per acre, 640 acres minimum or about $3 million), and $7.5 million to drill the well. If you find gas. You get to pay a company like mine about 10% of the value so that we can gather and condition your gas for you, 3/16 right off the top to the mineral owners, 7% off the top to the state for severence taxes, and so on.

In other words, you better have a good well.

The attendees were very studious and intense. Notes were being taken, questions were asked. Lots of looking around to see who else was there. Not much chatting afterward.

Most of the wells being drilled are “tite.” In other words they are not discussing what they are doing or where they are looking.

It was pretty much a male deal. Out of 150 people or so, maybe five women. My tablemates were geologists and well service guys. Nice guys all of them. Very informative.

On the way back to the office I checked on me and SuperPizzaBoy’s Tulsa Country Club Cache. Go find it sometime if you have a chance. I’ll loan you a gps. Its in a formerly fashionable but now almost forgotten area of Tulsa near the Country Club.

Today’s luncheon was the Gas Association at a nice venue in south Tulsa. These people are deal makers. Lots and lots of yakking and gossiping going on.

The speaker talked about Federal pipeline regulation. (Nice time for a nap.)

I sat with my girlfriends. Sonja (we are having our 20th anniversary of working together this year), Susan, Pam, and Cathey. We had a good time. I sign up for these luncheons but hardly ever go because I think I am too busy. My loss. I had a good time.

I’ll tell you why I love my girlfriends. We sat down at our table and one of the wait staff came over and said that we would have to move because it was an overflow table only and we would have to disperse to the scattered seats remaining at the various tables since there were no salads at our table. The girlfriends told him that since we were already seated maybe he should either go gather up those salads and bring them to us or get us new salads. He tried to argue but was ignored so he did as he was instructed.

I love the girlfriends but I don’t cross them either.