Marginal Oil and Gas Well Survey
The historical importance of the energy industry in the economy
of Oklahoma is widely understood. Somewhat less known are the
demographic and business characteristics of the firms, families,
and individual participants working in the oil patches and gas
fields of the state.
As with any integrated industry, the energy industry consists
of many different occupations and businesses integrated with contractual
arrangements or through market channels to discover, extract,
refine, and distribute the basic resources to the final consumers.
The operators of the oil and gas wells constitute one such group
that plays a key role in the extraction of the state's energy
resources and maintenance of the environment, both of which are
important to the people of Oklahoma.
The purpose of this study is to obtain a demographic profile of
characteristics perceived to be relevant to decision-making processes
of the "marginal" oil and gas well operators in the
state. For operational purposes, this group was defined to be
the bonded operators on file with the Oklahoma Corporation Commission
smaller than the top 150 business units ordered by volume of production.
They number in excess of 3,000 operators and typically work other
jobs and have other sources of income for their families. They
operate a large share of the operating wells in the state, but
like other small business units, they do not account for the majority
of the oil and gas actually produced. They are likely, however,
to play a significant role in making the decisions on whether
to keep low-volume wells operating. Those decisions have further
impacts on the value of output from the state, on the employment
in the localized rural regions where the wells are operated, and
on the government revenues related to the severance taxes paid
on the these resources.
A survey questionnaire was sent to 1,500 "marginal operators"
and 696 were returned. The response rate of 46.4 was considered
remarkably good and indicative of the interest and concern of
the operators for the future of their industry. Those responses,
along with some research from non-survey, secondary sources are
summarized.