From Oil Fields to Farmers Markets: Michael Waid's Journey

Machine-generated transcript of “From Oil Fields to Farmers Markets: Michael Waid's Journey”. Paragraph breaks mark a change of speaker. Click a timestamp to play from that point.

0:02 This is Under Pressure. Compressor Talk by Midwest Compressor. Strategies, systems, and stories from the compressor world. With your host, David Abshire. And now, on to the show.

0:20 All right, good morning. This is David Abshire with the podcast Under Pressure Midwest Compressor here this morning with Michael Wade. Uh Michael, thank you for joining us this morning. Good, good. Welcome, welcome to our podcast. Uh we definitely appreciate you taking some time out of your day and jumping on with us. We'll uh we'll get started uh and kind of walk through everything. Mike, can you start by walking us through your background and how you got into the oil and gas business?

0:46 Yeah. I grew up in South Texas. I grew up working on a ranch, a pretty blue collar, and wanted to be a civil engineer and uh got accepted at Texas AM. And uh the petroleum program and the civil program are all the same. All the engineering programs are the same. Except for the petroleum engineering program said, Hey, we've got some uh we got some cot scholarship dollars for you. And I said, Okay, that sounds great. And uh took the scholarship and uh took my first petroleum class. Uh, was really expecting to transfer back into civil engineering, and to be honest, it was just the first petroleum class I took, I was hooked, and uh my grades soared after getting the petroleum engineering and it's just something that's always really clicked with me.

1:24 Uh I had a Texas AM student on last week, and I kind of got to hear his story, and he actually had grew up on the East Coast and ended up at Texas AM just for petroleum engineering, and some of the cool stories uh he was talking about the engineering program there at AM, and of course, too, just being able to talk about the SVE and what they do there at that program. Of course, you know, kind of connecting everybody and getting people to be able to do internships and kind of learn along the way. So it was it was really cool. You're the second person, of course, that's brought up the AM engineering program, which I definitely have had tons of people in the industry brag on their program as well.

2:04 So, Michael, I think all I think all alumni of every school like to brag about something about their school.

2:09 Yeah, no, I get it. I completely agree. So, so what are you working on today in your main role, Michael?

2:14 So me and one of my old business partners, him and I were together for about 11 years before COVID. Uh, we are currently working on putting together a new acquisition startup company. It's called 18G Energy. It's uh myself, him, and a couple other people. And uh we're doing kind of twofold right now. One, uh, we're working on raising capital to get this startup off the ground. This will be him and I's third startup together. And then also we're evaluating some packages right now. Kind of old school. You wanted your money in hand before you had a deal. And uh, you know, times have just really changed, and now a lot of people, before they look at, you know, giving you any money, they want you to have that deal in hand. And so we're kind of playing both sides of the ball right now. We're working on raising funds, but also evaluating uh uh deals along the uh Gulf Coast right now.

2:58 Your guys' company is 18G Energy?

3:01 Yeah, my business partner and uh the other uh chairman of the board between the two of them, they've got 18 grandkids, so that's where the 18G comes from.

3:09 That's a super cool name. So sounds intense already, but you mentioned you're juggling something else too. Can you tell us a little bit about that as well?

3:16 Uh you're talking about my side job? Uh so it's funny, uh, a couple years ago, uh me and my wife were big gardeners, and uh we started a uh small farmer's market business off to the side, and uh it's mainly dealing with uh peppers, heirs and tomatoes, other stuff like that. But to be honest, that thing has taken off and it's it's become its own uh own company, own little entity. And uh, you know, for just a little side deal this year, we had revenue of about 50,000. So uh it is when I'm not doing oily gas, which is all the time, it is it is doing this all the time. And so I s I feel like I'm either in front of the computer or I'm cooking all the time. It's one of the two. So but uh that's a business that me and my wife are gonna continue growing. Hopefully we get uh 18G off the ground and my wife will stop her uh full-time job and take that. It is growing that much. So a pretty wide uh range of things here engineering and and you know growing food.

4:07 Yeah, that's that's super cool. So I have a nephew that actually has a hot sauce company, and it's just a small one. He's based out of Chicago, and so of course I've heard you know little tidbits and you know, started off at farmers markets and doing it kind of as a side hustle, and he really, really loves it. It's it's super cool uh just to hear people's story as they kind of get into it and kind of get things like that taken off and the amount of revenue that it can bring in, of course, too, but you know, just by you know taking off with these little small hobbies start off, of course, and then turns into the full-time businesses.

4:40 Turn it to a real business. We we had zero stores at the end of October, and we're currently in six local stores. So And the people the the people that are the people that we're in stores with, they are actually people that have found us at different festivals or markets and said, Hey, I love your product so much, I want to carry it in my store. So uh that's been pretty exciting.

5:00 Awesome. Now, what's the name of it if you don't mind me asking? We can put a plug out there this morning.

5:04 Yeah, it's called Small Batch Texas. Okay, and so our uh website is just Small Batch TX. And uh, you know, we can order online, you can find where we're gonna be at. We're at different events every weekend. Uh we got stuff this Friday or this Saturday, this this Sunday. Uh almost every weekend we've got stuff going on. So yeah, it's called Small Batch Texas. Small Batch TX.

5:24 Awesome. That's that's super cool. I always love to hear those kind of stories. So, from your perspective, what's what's one big thing that people outside the industry completely misunderstand about oil and gas?

5:36 How really difficult it is to get oil and gas out of the ground, get it out of economically. You know, people they see oil, you know, whether it be $50, $7,500 a barrel, and they just think the wells are just gushing money. They don't think anything about the front end, the capital, continued maintenance, uh, just things it takes daily to keep it going, workovers. You know, people just have no idea how intense the oil and gas industry is to get a barrel or an MCF out of the ground and get it, you know, to the end user. It's not just, you know, it's a it's a low double-digit return business. And and to be honest, that's, you know, um Bill Gaiden, he was the owner of Merit Energy uh company that I learned a lot from. And you know, Bill Gaden, he said it's a 12 to 15% rate of return business. This is not a 20, 30, 40 percent rate of return business. We're talking barely double digits, and that's across the average. So, you know, you got some lean times kind of like right now. Well, oil in the 50s, it's just not doing anybody any favors.

6:31 So okay, great. I think people's perception, you know, in my opinion, is right along with you where they don't see how hard it is to produce these wells, and of course, the amount of work that goes into it, and then the rate of return, you know, everybody thinks oil and gas, they think everybody's rich, right? There's billions of dollars. And of course, we all know that's not the case. But on the on the funny part, I always like to bring up the Beverly Hillbillies little opening scene, you know, when Jed shoots at something and misses and strikes oil, you know.

7:00 Yeah.

7:01 I I think that perception kind of goes out there, you know, to everybody, and everybody thinks, oh man, the oil and gas business is so easy, they just gotta go out there and poke a hole in the ground, and you know, millions of dollars just flow out of it. And of course, we know on this side of the business it's extremely hard to stay profitable, and of course, too, to get that oil and gas out of the ground.

7:22 Yeah, it is. You know, people don't realize, you know, you're working uh, you know, half a mile, a mile, two miles down in the ground, you know, in a hole that's just a couple inches big. I mean, it's it's fascinating, to be honest, to be on this side of it and to know what the uh industry can do in a hole that's only a few inches around, you know, and two miles down the ground.

7:39 Absolutely. Well, when when you think about students or young engineers listening to what lessons are you most excited to share with them, kind of some of your wisdom and some of your experience in the industry.

7:50 You know, the biggest thing that it's not really even a class that they teach is networking. It's getting out there and it's getting to know everybody, whether it be in your organization, top to bottom, you know, the highest person in your organization, all the way down to the lowest guys out there in the field in your own personal life, just having a wide cross-section of people. Uh, to me, the biggest thing is is getting uh guys to understand how small this industry is. And the more you network and the more people you know, the deeper range you'll be in it, the better you'll be. Because when you have a problem, you know, you'll you'll have a network of people you can go to and get a solution. Uh, I don't think people give enough credit to networking and how important that can be for both your personal career, your own social life, and and just you know, your professionalism in in general is is having a wide range of people contacts, uh it's really important. Uh everything from knowledge to being able to move companies when the situation's right. Yeah, people need to really uh work on their networking.

8:44 I I think that's one of the things that I've I've learned over my career is that you know, just being able to have a a array of people that you can call if you have questions, and just having that kind of phone-a-friend relationship where you know, hey, if I'm out on a location and you know, I'm not a chemical guy, uh, you know, I'm a compressor guy. So, you know, you you want to have your guy that you can call and say, Hey, I have some questions. Uh, I don't know what what this is doing, and this is what it looks like, and kind of point you in the right direction. And I've seen tons of folks, you know, in our industry are always willing to help each other, which is great. And I think too, that's that helps all of us be profitable, the ones that of course stay in the business long enough to be profitable as well. So I I completely agree. Most of my guys that work for me come from different backgrounds, and so I've got a chemical guy, I've got an oil oil specialist guy that worked in lubricants for 20 years. So all these different diverse backgrounds, mechanical engineers, different things, and I have those guys to where I can just call and know, hey, they're gonna they're gonna help me get me in the right direction if I need answers on these type of things, because we all know that there's so many different uh operations that's on the oil and gas side that you know you you gotta have a good frat guy, you gotta have a good workover guy, all of those you you just gotta have such a diverse uh application that you can reach out to and help you be successful.

10:05 Yeah, I mean I've got some service guy friends that uh um we've we've moved beyond professional. You know, we're personal friends now, and and I'll call them up and I haven't actually done any business with him in ten years. It just happens to be where his group is working and where I've been working having crossed. But him and I still get together a couple times a year, you know, have dinner, uh call each other bullshit. You know, it's it's it goes beyond just uh just work relationships.

10:34 Yeah, absolutely. Well, are they any projects or innovations you're currently working on that you'd want to highlight today?

10:40 Uh you know, there's there's nothing that's really like uh on the on the edge. I've got a big project that I'm evaluating right now. It's over uh over in Louisiana. Uh it's one that we're trying to talk to people about, raising some funds for. It's it's pretty tight hole. I think it's one of the premier uh opportunities left on the Gulf Coast. And so we're we're going through right now, trying to work on how to make a deal. And it's definitely uh more drilling than anything else. Uh right now, current prices, you know. A lot of people don't have an appetite for spending cash to begin with, let alone drilling. But this is a really, really good opportunity. And so uh we're taking a look at that. But other than that, it's just you know the daily grind of of taking oil and gas packages and evaluating them and putting a price tag on them.

11:22 So I'm super excited for for you guys to be able to, you know, get into these new acquisitions and look at you know these prospects. And like you said, with the oil prices where they are, a lot of people are kind of holding back until they can get a you know a quicker return on their investment. Um, because when you talk about the amount of money it takes to drill these wells, of course, too, lots of people they don't understand that and they don't know what it what it takes to go in there, produce uh to get these things flowing and and making money. Sometimes it's a year, two years, three years, depending on the rate of return. So it's a big investment for the ones that you know definitely jump into it. So what are the biggest challenges, Michael, that you've seen for operators and service companies uh, you know, that we're kind of dealing with now in the market?

12:08 You know, I'll tell you, uh evaluating packages right now, one of the biggest things I'm seeing is just a lack of clear quality data. Everybody's using different systems, everybody's got their own way of doing everything. And uh so anytime we evaluate something, it's always something new. We're always having to reprocess or reinterpret someone else's data. You know, that's one thing I'm finding is is it's definitely not, you know, consistent across the board. And so evaluating people's uh the way they're doing their operations, you know, some of them are automated, some of them are, you know, they're doing everything by hand. And so just trying to always, you know, one thing I've learned is looking at so many different operators, that we are not all operating the same. Uh, there is a wide range of thoughts about how to do things. There's a wide range of how people are recording data, how they're handling their business. And so for us, going from one operator to another, it's trying to wrap our hands around how they are doing their operations.

13:04 Absolutely. I I completely agree. The data is something that we all rely on, especially when we're trying to make educated decisions anymore. And I think too, you know, twenty years ago when I got into the industry, nobody talked about data, right? And now everybody is talking about data because of course we just know that what we're all looking at and what the predictions are, and we're gonna use that data to make educated decisions so we can make more money, of course. So it's super important. Um you know, when I first got into business, you know, you just had the old guy on location that knew everything, and you kind of went to him. And now, you know, folks like us, we've kind of evolved and like, well, can we see the can we see the production reports for the last five years, right? And we start asking for that kind of information, and we can put it into these programs and tell us, you know, what the decline rate's gonna be and all those things. And it's just super, super cool how the industry's changed and how we've got better at what we do, I think for sure. Because anymore, if anybody's gonna spend, you know, $20 million going and drill some wells, they're gonna know going in, hey, we want to see some data and something that's gonna give us a good warm feeling at the end of the day that we're gonna make our money back and make it back quickly.

14:17 So yeah, everybody's everybody's looking for that edge that they can feel confident that those decisions they're making, like you said, are are are gonna end up being good ones. You know, everything from especially, you know, you get a lot of these shale plays that you know you're looking at he's got these initial steep declines and they flatten out. You've got to really be pretty good at being able to figure out what those reserves are gonna be, because you know, when you're spending as much money as you are drawing extensive laterals, stuff like that in the industry, you've really got to be on top of of knowing what all those inputs are because you know you don't want to be spending, you know, X millions of dollars and then you're you're off on your your late life by 20% on your reserves. You know, it's gonna make a big difference. And so it's all about data, data, data right now.

14:59 Yeah, yeah, you're exactly right. So are there any recurring operational bottom bottlenecks that drive you crazy?

15:07 Uh for me, uh, I think it's just that because our industry is so cyclical, you get prices. Me personally, I've seen as low as negatives uh COVID, April 2020. I've seen as high as $147 oil back in uh 08. And uh the problem is when you get such wild swings, you know, when times are great, people making money, but when times start getting tough, kind of like right now, you know, everybody starts cutting back on expenses. And, you know, it's one of those things that it it ends up biting you in the ass later down the road. You know, you're you're cutting back chemicals right now, you're cutting back personnel, you're cutting back whatever you can trying to stay economic. And unfortunately, these are maintenance items and and things that are going to come see you down the line. You can't just turn chemicals off and get the same results over time. You can't cut personnel and and have a pumper handling twice as many wells and expect the same quality. And so for me, that's that's what I see a lot of is is kind of dealing with a lot of cleanup of of old problems. Uh shortcuts, to me, that's that's the biggest thing is is coming back as an acquisition company, you're buying everyone else's properties. And sometimes it's been well taken care of, a lot of times it's joke. And so for us, uh, you know, it's it's trying to come along and trying to figure out if what's going on is that gonna maintain. You love to hear people talk about, oh, well, that that expense that those workovers we did, that's non-recurring. And then you sit there and you look back in the LOS two or three years, and it's just continued and continued, you're like, that's not non-recurring, that's recurring expenses. And so you're asking yourself, what is it gonna take to make those non-recurring? You know, do we need to put a bunch of capital up front? Well, when you're in a low price environment like right now, you know, that's a tough thing for operators to do. And so I think that's one of the biggest things I find is just having to keep older wells up. And uh it's you know, you just see shortcuts that other people have taken, and then you've got to come back and clean those up. And that's a lot of what I see, you know, looking at so many different properties is is just how different operators take care of their business in both good and lean times.

17:09 So one of the things that of course, you know, we all wish we had was a magic wand to improve uh, you know, what's one thing if you had a magic wand that you wish you could, you know, improve in the oil and gas operations, you know, today? Um and we joke about it all the time, you know, and always tell everybody my magic wand's broke and you know, stuff like that. Uh, you know, I wish I could fix all your problems in one one afternoon. But on from your perspective, uh in the engineering role that you're in and the you know, all the things that you've seen over your career, what what do you think uh, you know, that would be?

17:43 You know, it's a again, like you're saying, it's gonna be a magic wand because it doesn't exist, but somehow if there was a way to be able to see failure sooner, so whether it be a pump, whether it be rods, whether it be an ESP, you know, what always catches everybody off guard is when wells go down. I'm expecting it, everything's looking great. You know, wells making, you know, 25 barrels a day, pumping smooth, and all of a sudden, you know, craps out. And um I I think you know, if there was a magic wand where we had some sort of better uh field intelligence to be able to say, you know, hey, this based on some of the vibrations or whatever, you know, there's probably a rod failure that's going to be coming up. Or other things like this. Like you said, it's a magic wand. I don't have this magic wand, but I think somehow if we are able to foresee uh problems a little bit sooner, or to know to identify exactly what the problem is, you know, like when you've got a field with uh ESPs that go down, you know, a lot of times you're like, well, could be the pump, could be the cable, could be who knows, you know. And so you've you you you're literally just drawing a blank and you're going into the workover with the mindset that, you know, we've got to pull all this equipment and then figure out the problem. You don't know what those costs are gonna be. And so if I had a magic wand, being able to have a better idea of workovers and failures, you know, that'd be nice. But like you said, it's a magic wand and I personally don't have one.

18:59 Absolutely. There we go. The mic's back awake now. Well, I I completely agree as well. I mean, you know, on my side of things, I think about, you know, over my career and just being able to do any kind of prediction like you said, you know, and try to plan, of course, and kind of have some insight to what's gonna happen, uh, definitely would be helpful, especially especially for the people that are writing the checks, right? To be able to budget ahead. And I think too, that's one of the things where lots of times we come in as a compressor company is you know, we can flatten those costs, right? Because they don't have to plan for you know huge overhauls, stuff like that. Of course, uh down times and stuff like that. But we generally have equipment readily available. So if something wants to go down major, we could just swap it out. And of course, too, it keeps our base costs flat. So we definitely understand that from this side of the business as well. So looking back on your career, what what mindset or habit has helped you survive long term in such a volatile industry?

19:56 Uh uh man, you gotta be resilient and you gotta be patient. Um, and you just have to know the cycle. The industry is just cycle after cycle. There's never gonna be a flat price, there's never gonna be things are all perfect. It's funny because uh if you look at like right now, the 12-month curve for oil, you know, so it's kind of hanging right around 60, going up a little bit. But if you plot that every month on what the actual oil price has been, the industry is never following the forward curve at all. I mean, it's just up and down, up and down. And I think the biggest thing is is you've just got to be patient in this industry and understand that if you're gonna work in the oil and gas business, there's gonna be some times that are absolute booms, and there's gonna be some times that are absolute busts. And, you know, one of the things is to prepare for those busts. Um, you know, it's pretty rare to find somebody who hasn't been laid off in this soil and gas industry at least once. And, you know, it's it's no reflection on the person themselves. I've seen some absolutely amazing people get caught up in layoffs, and uh I think the biggest thing is just understanding that's where this industry is. And if you're gonna work in this industry, you've just got to be prepared for the highs and lows. When things are great, don't get overextended. And when things are tough, hang in because it's gonna come back around. I mean, I really we're really excited about getting an oil and gas uh acquisition company off the ground right now because we we see in the next 12 to 24 months a nice price improvement, and uh but that's us just being resilient and patient.

21:23 So one of the things that you know I've seen, of course, is you know the resilience part of the grid that always like to tell everybody about the oil and gas industry to survive. I do agree that you bring out people being laid off. Definitely not an involved on their own people from different backgrounds you know, from electricians, controlling engineers who uh you know, heads uh you know CEOs and companies that get laid off in the transition and merger lots of times anymore, especially the last five years, right? Super highly skilled, and generally they land on their feet back in the industry somewhere else as long as they want to stay in it. And I think that's one of the things too that I've seen that this industry really takes care of it to be in. I'm one of the first ones to look for somebody that has oil and gas experience when we get ready to hire whatever it is, and they always bring a new price perspective. And I've had those that you know electricians or welders on pipelines and all these different jobs that they've had, and be able to put them into other positions in our company because I knew they had a good oil and gas experience. And to me, when I see that on somebody's resume, whether they was a pumper, you know, a welder, electrician, whatever it was, you know, they they've got to have some skill set and some work ethic, right? Because if you don't have work ethic in the oil and gas business, you're out of here, right? Like you're you're not gonna survive. And that's one thing I still appreciate about the industry. And I've got one of my daughters uh that works for me currently, and my youngest one is fixing to graduate in May, and she's gonna come on board. And I've explained to both of them, hey, this is not an industry for somebody that's not gonna come in and work, right? Like you've got to have the work ethic, the resilience, the grit, all the stuff that you just mentioned to survive and put in the effort, and it's gonna take care of you. And I think too, it's exciting to see the younger folks come in, and as I'm able to speak to them and and kind of coach them and mentor them. We've had several petroleum engineering interns. Uh, I had one last year from Texas Tech, but the year before we had one from West Texas AM. As these kids are able to come in and learn our industry and kind of see different perspectives. You know, we take them out to the field, we introduce them to the engineers that are on the ground that our customers were working with so they can understand the applications, build those relationships, those connections, and hopefully, you know, when they graduate, you know, they're they're hitting the ground running, you know, being able to just, you know, go get a job and work for these major companies and get some experience and you know, kind of be on a projectory path of success. And I've even encouraged my own kids to go work for some majors to, you know, try to get out there and and get some good experience and understand what they're going through on their side as operations and stuff to be able to come back to this side of the business and just have a fresh perspective. But it's definitely exciting for sure to see the younger kids come in.

24:24 Yeah, I've got a uh daughter right now, she's uh working her civil engineering degree, and you know, I'm encouraging her. She worked for one company last year, and I'm encouraging her. She's working for a different one. I'm like, take your time in these internships, go get experience in different places, and that way you have an idea when you come out of school, you know, of different company cultures to look for, different uh things that might interest you. You know, if you work for the same company every year, you're gonna have one perspective. And as a as a student, you know, no one's gonna hold you if you didn't take an intern with us, internship with us, that you're out, you know, forever. And obviously, if someone offered somebody an internship, they saw value in that person. And uh so I like to tell my daughter, I said, even if you turn somebody down, you stay in contact and you network with them because you know she turned somebody down for an offer this past summer, worked for a different company, and now she's going to work for the one that she turned down the previous summer. And I said, Hey, it's great. I said, You stayed in contact with him, you stayed networking, you didn't say, Hey, I'm working for this other company, I don't like you guys anymore. You know, and so she's she's getting around, and like you said, she's uh she's learning different perspective, different cultures, and and that's definitely something I would encourage the uh the younger generation of engineers and stuff is to try to get a job early. Even if you're a low man in a totem pole out in the field, you will learn a ton. Uh it's a lot better than going and and going back to your hometown for the summer and you know doing some job that's that's not going to really you know relate to your your year end or your uh you know your career goals. Uh definitely I love you know these students going out and working for different companies and and just getting to see different aspects in the industry.

25:58 Absolutely. I completely agree with you. I think too, you know, as a parent, you know, that's one of the things that you know we're able to see our kids flourish and and learn and get educated and just be open-minded to get out there. And one of the things that you brought up today, I really appreciate was the networking part. You know, that's that's one of the things that you know lots of folks take for granted and don't take advantage of when they're in college and being able to make these relationships and being able to reach out and you know, just just explore all the options that are out there and just be able to flourish too with that experience. Because I've always always tried to encourage everybody that I know in the industry, you know, to learn as much as you can about, you know, on one side of the business and the other side, you know, there's so many different diverse parts of the oil and gas business that I think people just forget about. My youngest daughter that's going to graduate in May, she's gonna have a degree in business and finance, right? So I already know, you know, of course she's gonna be on the finance side, which is great. And, you know, uh, I think too, you just try to push those folks in the right directions and set them up for success and definitely, definitely be able to see them flourish over their career. Well, Michael, uh, I definitely appreciate your time today. Thank you so much for jumping on. One of the things that we like to do for any podcast guests that come on, we definitely like to send them out some Midwest Compressor Swags. So just when you get a chance, no rush, send me an email with your uh phone number and uh mailing address and stuff like that. And what I'm gonna do is is we're gonna get you some Midwest compressor swag set out. We always have some pool hats and that's awesome. We like to send to all our guests. And I definitely appreciate you coming on today. Uh, and I'll definitely be looking for you out in the business. I know you guys are gonna be crazy successful. So 18G energy, I'm gonna be looking for as you guys are out there kicking butt. So uh definitely appreciate you coming on, and you guys have a great rest of your week and stay safe out there, buddy. Thank you so much. You bet, absolutely. Thank you.

27:59 This has been another great episode of Under Pressure Compressor Talk by Midwest Compressor with your host, David Abshire. Until next time, keep pumping.