Starting Your Own Busines with really Buying!
Jul 8, 2022 20:26:17 #
During the frantic oil boom in the 1980s one of our offices was in Elk City, Oklahoma. It was where the largest land rig in the world and was drilling the deepest well in the U.S. at the time. As best as I can remember we had supplied the mud volume and Mud flow instruments for this operation which took almost a year, and turned out to not be an adequate producer.
It was boom time in Elk City. You always had to be sure of a hotel reservation to have a place to sleep. One we had flown out and visited our operations in New Mexico, Colorado and Wyoming and were headed back to Elk City for the night. It was later than we had intended so we had to call for some of our crew in Elk City to come to the airport and shine their pickup lights on the landing strip so we could land!
I found that the motel where I stayed, there would be a fight that drew almost all the patrons outside
several times during the evening. I suppose the testosterone was so strong and surging the young men had
go outdoors and ‘duke it out’!
Elk City is on I-40 and what was formerly old Route 88. During this summer the heat was above 100 degrees. Driving home from a visit once I noticed bank’s time and temperature sign in Wichita Falls was at 105 degrees. We had several different reasons to be in Elk City. One it was a hotspot for the rental of all
of our rental equipment and a little espionage. The largest drilling rig was working about 10 miles
out of town. At the time we were considering beginning manufacturing a drilling line anchor. The
anchor on this big rig was at least five feet in diameter and handled 1 ¾” drilling line. We were considering
a six foot anchor that would handle 2" drilling line! My responsibility was to go on the rig’s floor, measure the anchor, take some photographs, and collect any other details as I might discover.
Now, for the surprise. Our resident salesman was a young guy perhaps 30 years old. He had been
doing a reasonable job keeping our rental gear working. We never had any problems or complaints
about his service. I had ridden with him several times and found him to be likeable and competent.
Little did I know then that he was in the process of stealing some of our equipment, to later start his
own blow-out safety business there in Elk City. Now as far as I know we had never taken an inventory of
all the equipment in all the different shops.
Along with all this frothy growth, I was asked to take over the H2S safety and relinquished my role
as marketing manager of the U.S. shops. It was also in about the same time the crash of oil prices
caused the cataclysmic crash of all the oil field service companies. I often wondered just how the
Oklahoma thief managed with the shut down of all activities in the U.S. as a response to the drop
in oil prices worldwide. Just Sayin…RJS
It was boom time in Elk City. You always had to be sure of a hotel reservation to have a place to sleep. One we had flown out and visited our operations in New Mexico, Colorado and Wyoming and were headed back to Elk City for the night. It was later than we had intended so we had to call for some of our crew in Elk City to come to the airport and shine their pickup lights on the landing strip so we could land!
I found that the motel where I stayed, there would be a fight that drew almost all the patrons outside
several times during the evening. I suppose the testosterone was so strong and surging the young men had
go outdoors and ‘duke it out’!
Elk City is on I-40 and what was formerly old Route 88. During this summer the heat was above 100 degrees. Driving home from a visit once I noticed bank’s time and temperature sign in Wichita Falls was at 105 degrees. We had several different reasons to be in Elk City. One it was a hotspot for the rental of all
of our rental equipment and a little espionage. The largest drilling rig was working about 10 miles
out of town. At the time we were considering beginning manufacturing a drilling line anchor. The
anchor on this big rig was at least five feet in diameter and handled 1 ¾” drilling line. We were considering
a six foot anchor that would handle 2" drilling line! My responsibility was to go on the rig’s floor, measure the anchor, take some photographs, and collect any other details as I might discover.
Now, for the surprise. Our resident salesman was a young guy perhaps 30 years old. He had been
doing a reasonable job keeping our rental gear working. We never had any problems or complaints
about his service. I had ridden with him several times and found him to be likeable and competent.
Little did I know then that he was in the process of stealing some of our equipment, to later start his
own blow-out safety business there in Elk City. Now as far as I know we had never taken an inventory of
all the equipment in all the different shops.
Along with all this frothy growth, I was asked to take over the H2S safety and relinquished my role
as marketing manager of the U.S. shops. It was also in about the same time the crash of oil prices
caused the cataclysmic crash of all the oil field service companies. I often wondered just how the
Oklahoma thief managed with the shut down of all activities in the U.S. as a response to the drop
in oil prices worldwide. Just Sayin…RJS
Jul 8, 2022 20:54:00 #
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