April 28, 2018, Erick E. Nordling, Executive Secretary of the Southwest Kansas Royalty Owners Association (SWKROA) presided over the Association’s Seventieth Annual Meeting in Hugoton. The SWKROA membership and guests heard presentations on several topics.
Scott Soptick, a certified public accountant with the Lewis, Hooper & Dick, Certified Public Accounting firm in Garden City, opened the meeting with practical tips about what documents members should keep, as well as what and when documents should be discarded.
Dr. David Newell, Associate Scientist of petroleum geology and stratigraphy with the Kansas Geological Survey in Lawrence, gave an informative presentation entitled “Southwestern Kansas Oil and Gas Production: where we’ve been, where we are… uh, where are we going?” Dr. Newell’s overview of Kansas production of gas and oil by county and historical contributions of gas and oil produced from southwest Kansas also highlighted the characteristics of the gas found in the vast Hugoton and Panoma Council Grove gas fields, including the BTU content (heating value) of produced gases and concentration of helium throughout the fields. He also provided insight about how prices for gas and oil influence new exploration and drilling of wells. During the question and answer session, Dr. Newell explored the prospect of discovering new gas and oil reserves in and under the ‘basement’ granite formations.
Finishing off the morning session, Charlie Wagner, a natural gas consultant from Hugoton, provided a historical overview of the development of the Hugoton Natural Gas Field following the drilling of the 1927 Crawford No. 1 discovery well four miles southwest of Hugoton. Mr. Wagner related how his career with Republic Natural Gas Company in 1953 in the Hugoton Field area conducting gas well back pressure testing and proration, which progressed with numerous assignments with Republic and later with Panhandle Eastern Pipeline Company including maintaining pressure and production data, determining reserves and preparation of KCC and FERC reports and rate case exhibits.
