What should I do with my oil well?

Try to get a seat on OPEC?

 

Sell it to the highest bidder and throw a party for all your PriusChat friends?

Save it and make your great-great grandchildren rich beyond their wildest dreams?

 

when it was on-line what was the monthly production? How much water did the output contain? was it "Sweet Crude" ?

OH move to Beverly Hills and change your name to Jeb Clamit.

OH forgot what was the gas production? any "BAD" gas with this well?

OK, with those questions out of the way.. who is the "Major" player in your area that is in the production Biz? Shell, ExxonMobil? depending on the producing rate there might be lots of options...

 

What was the watercut when it was shut in? Do you own the leases for the remaining 265 acres? Perhaps I'll leave it to Daniel Day Louis (from There Will Be Blood):

"I'm an oilman, ladies and gentlemen. I have numerous concerns spread across this state. I have many wells flowing at many thousand barrels per day, so I like to think of myself as an oilman."

But seriously, you should probably go partners with me, and we will bring the well back on. Just kidding (sorta)

 

that is the coolest news of the day

 

Do you want to be part of the problem, or of the solution? It might do the world some good to get the gas from it. But please leave the oil in the ground. The faster prices go up the sooner we'll develop alternatives.

 

I think we lack enough information to offer any advice. Do you have the technical and business expertise to operate the well? Are there operators who would be interested in re-opening it? Is there financial risk involved in re-opening it or is it certain to produce a profit? If so, how much? How badly do you need the money? Do you have kids or grandkids you'd like to make rich by leaving them some oil that will likely be fabulously valuable in the future?

If the risk is high or the return is low and if you don't need the money, I'd say leave it in the ground. That's the environmentalist choice. If there's no risk and the return is high, the capitalist way would be to suck it out and spend it. If the potential profit is small, and the land is desirable, you might find the land is worth more than the oil. But if land prices are low and the well has good potential, then the oil is worth more.

So you could sell it, lease the well, operate it yourself, or keep it in the ground for your kids or your grandkids, who will likely sell it and spend the money. But before I could give you any advice, I'd need to know more about the well, your finances, and your feelings about the environment.

 

It is almost certain that oil prices will continue to rise. So unless you need the money, you can leave it in the ground and wait.

 

Hmm, if it was my well I'd squeeze it for every drop which made a profit to be part of the solution to wean America from relying on foreign oil. I'm surprised Bill you waited this long to explore the possibility of whether the well is feasible. What do you expect from this well? 2, maybe 3 bbls a day? After costs maybe you could expect a nice check each month. An article was on the nightly news about a family who literally drilled (I believe it was in Indiana) in their backyard and struck oil. Not a gusher but they will start making a profit in a few years. Good for them.

Here we go again, anyone and anything that produces oil is evil, only out to make a buck, shame on them... I assume your Prius uses some other form of fuel other than gasoline. Stones and glass houses, pots calling the kettle black. But of course you are better than most because you care and most everyone else is an SUV driving slob.

Oh really? Please clue me in. I have been out of the Global Warming crowd lately (frankly, they bore me). Is natural gas OK now?? Gasoline bad, natural gas good?? Please tell me what the "consensus" is at present?

Nice guy. Hoping fuel prices only rise higher. Tell that to the millions of retirees on fixed incomes, to those who toil 50 or 60 hours a week in blue collar jobs trying to make ends meet, the tens of thousands of independent truckers working endless hours just to purchase diesel, the average joe who now cannot visit his/her elderly parents because it costs too much to fly... Obviously with your financial situation fuel costs are not an issue with you. I, and I don't think I am alone here, can only hope I achieve the wealth level you have to essentially not give a hoot regarding current fuel prices.

Rick
#4 2006

 

No matter what we do, no matter what anybody says or "wishes," the price of oil is going up and up until we bring an alternative on line, whose cost will set the new price level.

Regarding oil, we as a society have two choices:

1. Burn it all as fast as we can. This will very slightly retard the rise in prices so Americans have a little more time to drive their gas guzzlers. But it will leave the next generation with no oil at all for plastics and pharmaceuticals.

2. Stop burning it while there is still some left. This will mean the end of affordable fossil fuel a little bit sooner, and Americans will suffer the inevitable dislocations a little earlier. But the next generation will have a little bit to use for purposes other than transportation.

The me-first generation says #1 is best. Folks who care about their kids and their grand-kids say #2 is best.

But the OP is such a small part of the equation that all the oil in his well would probably last the world for about three one-thousandths of an eyeblink. So his choice is purely personal. And you are 100% correct in saying that nobody who burns gasoline has any right to criticize him if he decides to extract his oil.

When the Exxon Valdez dumped its load of crude oil onto the beaches of Alaska, Greenpeace put out a poster, with the ship's captain's picture on it, and the caption: THIS MAN'S DRIVING DID NOT CAUSE THE OIL SPILL. YOURS DID. The OP and his much bigger cousins in the oil extraction industry are not the problem. Those of us who burn fossil fuel are the problem. (But car companies that use hard-sell and scientific propaganda and lies to get people to buy gas guzzlers are also part of the problem.)

 

Just put it on eBay. Let the market forces work it out.

 

Be leary of signing away mineral rights to make money. Depending on who the operator is, destroying the surrounding area to maximize profit could easily result. Unfortunately, your well is such small pickings that a good operator is unlikely to be interested.