Travelogue: Odessa and Midland, Texas, Permian Oil Basin

Friday night (March 4, 2011) I learned that a friend from Bowman, North Dakota, and his wife were staying overnight in Odessa, Texas, while touring the New Mexico/west Texas area the past few days.

I knew they were planning to visit this part of the country but due to my schedule, I did not think I would be able to catch up with them, despite being only three- to four-hundred miles away.

But after getting their e-mail update about 8:00 p.m. Friday night, I called Enterprise rental, and asked if they had a car available for 24 hours. They said they did, and I went over to Enterprise -- they are about five minutes away from where I live -- I can walk there -- and rented a great little 2011 (I assume) Volkswagen beetle.

By midnight I was on the road. I timed my departure so that I would be in Odessa at the break of dawn and could join Don and Kathy for breakfast. I drove all night -- yeah, an Orbison video could be placed here, but perhaps not -- and reached the Deluxe Inn about 7:30 a.m.

I can't say it was a beautiful drive, because I didn't see anything. It is really, really dark at night in west Texas. UFO sightings are not unusual in west Texas, but not even that broke up the drive this time.

The daytime 80-mph speed limit is reduced to 65 at night. Playing cat and mouse with a late vintage yellow Mustang kept me busy for about an hour. Have you ever had the experience of a car cutting in between you and a passing semi at 70 mph and then slamming on brakes about to box us both in? He moved on, alternating his lane position and speed position for quite some time. I had no desire to pass him but just stayed back a comfortable distance. Fortunately he (she?) generally sped along and we made good time and finally the Mustang exited somewhere west of Kerrville.

In Odessa, Don, Kathy, and I had breakfast, and talked about oil for two hours before moving down the road to their first destination of the day, the Petroleum Museum in Midland, Texas. I did not know what to expect, but I certainly had not imagined that the museum was going to be as good as it was. It was awesome. I cannot articulate how much I learned about the oil industry. I joke that I now know about one percent of what modern drilling is all about.

The museum walks you through the Permian basin in west Texas, and the drilling methods used from the beginning (oil was discovered in that area in 1926) to the modern era, but does not include horizontal drilling or fracture stimulation. One can see the evolution in the rigs, but the actual drilling process has not changed remarkably. Obviously, it has, but a roughneck working in 1926 would probably feel comfortable on a rig in 2011. And a whole lot safer.

However, I finally learned, or at least have a better idea, from Don, how "they" can drill horizontally, or more correctly, in any direction they want to go: up, down, left, horizontally, vertically. Interestingly enough, I cannot find a good link on the internet to explain it. And I'm certainly not going to try.

We spent the morning in Odessa and the museum, and then to lunch. I had promised Enterprise I would have their car back by 9:00 p.m. Saturday night so I had to leave about 1:00 p.m. I drove back through the Midland/Odessa area by a different route so I could see more of the operations in the area.

Don suggested that I view the area from the perspective of what North Dakota might look like fifty years from now. That's at least as long as the Permian Basin has been in development; by comparison, the Bakken is still a toddler.

The first thing I noticed was the landscape. The rigs, the pumpers, the trucks, the storage tanks, the natural gas gathering stations, did not catch my attention. I was used to seeing all that in oil country. What caught my attention was how unsuitable the land was from a ranching or farming point of view. It was nothing but cactus and scrub. I only saw one small "herd" of goats and one much larger herd of sheep. The sheep did not look happy among the cactus.

Due to climate (and I assume soil), the land really has nothing to offer farmers or ranchers. In addition, much of it -- where the oil activity is -- is absolutely flat. I did not see the "beauty" of the countryside that I see in North Dakota.

Perhaps because I am biased, having grown up in North Dakota, western North Dakota is absolutely beautiful -- stunningly beautiful -- in comparison with the Odessa/Midland area of west Texas. I'm sure I just stepped on a lot of toes of those from that area, and I apologize. But the vista of the rolling hills of North Dakota in the Killdeer Mountains, the immense wheat fields north of Williston, and the grandeur, as they say, of the area around and including the Teddy Roosevelt National Park, is (are?) so much more appealing than the flat, cactus/scrub brush-covered desert in the Permian Basin.

Having said that, I think the oil industry in North Dakota will blend into the natural landscape of the the Dakotas and Montana over time. The industrial parks and businesses around the periphery of Williston, Watford City, Dickinson will grow and change, but that will only encompass a few miles on the edges of those towns. Then one will be back in the countryside. The pumpers will eventually dot the landscape at 160-acre intervals, but there will still be immense stretches of green grass in the spring and early summer, and golden grain in the autumn. The number of pumps will be jarring to many, maybe most, at first, but over time, they will blend in. Or we will just get used to them. If there is an effort to maintain the pads, the pumpers, the roads, the fences and the gates, I think the landscape can actually be quite pleasant and interesting. In fact, as much as I'm against more regulation, I would have no problem with North Dakota enacting some sort of "eye pollution" regulation regarding the upkeep of steel on land. Nothing looks worse than abandoned, rusted out remnants of the oil industry -- or any industry -- along the countryside.

From a distance, wind turbines look fascinating and beautiful in their own way, and they certainly disrupt the land as much or more than pumpers. But somehow I am not affected negatively by seeing wind turbines either, and I saw hundreds south of Odessa and Midland off into the west. They break up the landscape and make the drive more interesting. I assume I was looking at the Indian Mesa Wind Farm, Pecos County, Texas, off in the distance. This is exactly what I saw: Indian Mesa, Texas, wind turbines (just a few of the total):

I got back to San Antonio at 8:00 p.m. The drive was wonderful. The speed limit during the day, as noted earlier, is 80 mph, so one can make good time. Even at that speed limit, there were a number of folks stopped for speeding along the way. I was impressed with the little Volkswagen beetle. The Enterprise folks asked me how the mileage  was -- I kept track -- but was vague in answering. At 80 mph one is not going to maximize fuel efficiency. For the record, I don't think it quite hit 30 miles per gallon. I will recheck the overall figures and report back if wrong.

I believe the quoted price for a 24-hour rental for a compact (or however they classify the beetle) is $19/day. With insurance, fees, taxes, etc., the bill will be appreciably more but $19/day is not bad. The gas for that 800-mile round trip exceeded the cost of the rental. But what a grand tour.

By the way, the only car rental agency I rent from is Enterprise, unless they are not available. They have been wonderful over the years. 

Supposedly, over the past year or so, I have lost a number of wagers with Don regarding the Bakken oil industry, costing me several hamburgers going forward. For the record, I have now paid for the first wager with that wonderful hamburger stop in Midland.

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As long as I've rambled this long, one last Enterprise rental story. About five years ago or so, I got a letter from Enterprise along with a $15 dollar refund. Apparently about a year earlier I had rented from Enterprise, and in doing some kind of audit they realized they had overcharged me (it was probably a week-long rental for $200 or so).  I was amazed that almost a year later I was getting a refund for an overcharge I was not even aware of. I mentioned this story to the folks at Enterprise last night and they said that "they can't close their books" if the books don't balance at the monthly and yearly audits.

This is the Enterprise rental office in San Antonio, and the rental I took, $19/day:

Actually it's one of several Chaparral racing cars designed by Jim Hall starting in 1965. These cars are in the Chaparral Gallery in The Petroleum Museum, Midland, Texas.

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By the way, Enterprise is one of the few places I never review the charge at the end of the rental because I don't want to spoil a wonderful road trip with a bill. When they get ready to show me the statement, I ask them not to tell me the final figure. I just fold it up, take it sight  unseen, and mosey on down the road. I figure if there's a problem "we" will catch it later.