Entrepreneurial Empire
Learn the fundamentals of where you are in business and how to scale with your host Jacqueline. Your business will go through many stages, and every stage will have it's own set of requirements. Let's unravel the journey ahead together and find strategic solutions that will help you conquer it all.
Entrepreneurial Empire
Drill Baby Drill With Margaret P Graham In The Oil and Gas Industry
Welcome to the Entrepreneurial Empire podcast. This is the place where you can find business and career strategies, techniques and real life success journeys of individuals who have built their businesses to the million dollar revenue mark and beyond. I'm Jacqueline Hernandez, life coach and business development consultant. I have worked with startups, fortune 100 companies, network marketing, direct sale organizations, churches, nonprofits and government agencies all to become the authority experts in their industry, lead with people and scale their revenue. Let's get started. Okay, we, we ready, babe, all right, entrepreneurs, welcome back to Entrepreneurial Empire. Today's guest is a phenomenal woman. Her name is Margaret P Graham and she is over at MPG Petroleum. Yes, that's right, we're going to talk about oil here today in the state of Texas. Ready, let's go, margaret. Welcome to the show. Ready, let's go, margaret. Welcome to the show.
Speaker 2:Thank you so much for having me, Jacqueline. It's my pleasure and my honor to be here with you today.
Speaker 1:Awesome, oh my gosh. Well, I am so excited. I'm total fangirling over here. You're such an inspiration and amazing at what you do. You're in the oil and gas industry petroleum. Tell us a little bit about that and tell us a little bit about your background, I guess.
Speaker 2:Well, actually I'm a geologist, Geologist, okay, and I went immediately into the oil and gas exploration business when I graduated from Trinity University here in San Antonio. I had been involved in the oil and gas business from the age of 21 until today, and I'm not going to tell you what that age is.
Speaker 1:How long has MPG been?
Speaker 2:business. Well, MPG was formed in 1985, and you do the math.
Speaker 1:Okay, so you guys have been around for a while. You're not the new kids on the block and you definitely know exactly what you're doing, Very experienced in your industry. Tell us a little bit about your first experiences out on the field.
Speaker 2:Well, let me tell you the reason that I formed MPG Petroleum. Like most things come from an entrepreneurial spirit to do it all myself. I was young and working. I had worked for large corporations Tesoro, petroleum and Gulf Energy early in my career and were trained by, you know, the very, very best oil and gas guys that were second and third generation oil and gas people.
Speaker 1:So I had the benefit of that experience. Now, that's impressive because you had some really good mentors.
Speaker 2:Absolutely Ernie Horton, curtis Golson, tom Chaney if it weren't for those gentlemen giving me a chance right out of college and training me and, by the way, they weren't easy on me, they were tough on me and wanted to make sure that I wasn't given any favors or anything for being a girl in the business the only girl geologist you know, any favors or anything for being a girl in the business, the only girl geologist you know at that age in their departments. So it wasn't, it was about you know. Here you are, you've got your chance. Now show us what you can do. And so I was given a great opportunity by great men in the business.
Speaker 2:But as the oil and gas industry has been cyclical historically, I experienced a down cycle early in my career and it informed me that I don't want to be in a position of vulnerability that market changes or corporate decisions to either merge or sell off or spin off would impact me, you know, without me being part of that decision. So I think that informed me very early on that I wanted to take matters into my own hands and even though I stayed working as a consultant for smaller oil companies for another three years, that gave me the opportunity as well to see how a small company operates versus a large company, and I could see much more beyond my drafting table as a geologist generating oil and gas exploration projects. Now I got to see other phases of the business the land acquisition side, the capitalization of the project side and I was able to then get the idea that you know if they could do it, that I could probably do it.
Speaker 2:So with all of the courage and bravery of a 27-year-old 28-year-old, I think I I was I decided that I think I could do this myself, and so that's what I did, and that's when I formed MPG Petroleum and nearly started to death for the first year.
Speaker 1:Wow, okay. So, margaret, that is amazing, because we really addressed that elephant in the room right like you're a woman in the petroleum industry. What does that mean? I mean tell viewers what that really means, because that's that's pretty boss.
Speaker 2:Thank you, thank you so much. It's it is somewhat of a rarity, especially in my role as the as leading an oil and gas exploration firm. What we do is we generate drilling ventures that are not your everyday in-field development, in brownfield-type developments. What I really do is leading edge or frontier edge exploration, and so you know we are relatively few period male or female, but much more so rare from a woman doing this, and so my experience of it is really just my own. I only see things through my own periscope, so it's really hard for me to have you know, an insight as to how the thinking is or the impact to others, but I know, I do know this, that it is.
Speaker 2:There was a famous actress that once said and I think it applies well here to be a woman in this business, you have to do everything in high heels and backwards. I believe it was Ginger Rogers. We have to do, we have to everything in high heels and backwards. I believe it was Ginger Rogers. We have to do, we have to dance in high heels and backwards, and fortunately this is not difficult for us.
Speaker 1:I love it. Yes, absolutely no. I really have to say that is very impressive to be dominating not just existing, but dominating in a very male organized industry. You know and you're out there and you're really you're making things happen. You're looking at investors and you are qualifying to. You're just like you're not just taking anybody, you're really qualifying people that are going to be a part of things that you're doing and projects that you're a part of. So I really like that. I've had the opportunity to have many conversations with you now and I just have to say, all the way around, impressed, impressed with who you are as a person, as an individual, as a mom, I mean as a woman, as a leading lady and then also leading your industry and the knowledge that you have in your industry. So, thank you. People that know you, they know you and they say these three words alignment, articulation and abundance. Tell me what that means to you.
Speaker 2:Well, the alignment aspect really is that we are in the golden age, the new golden age of America, with the administration, recent administration, of our president, our fine president, Donald Trump. He is a big focus on energy development here in the United States. He loves to say drill, baby drill, and so it's become a catchphrase. Sarah Palin, I believe, actually was the first person that coined that she was the governor of Alaska, was the first person that coined that she was the governor of Alaska and of course there's a lot of oil and gas in Alaska. So she was a big cheerleader for oil and gas because it generates most of the revenue for the state.
Speaker 2:But Donald Trump was quick to pick up on that phraseology and recognizing that oil and gas is the lifeblood of not only our economy here in the United States, but it is the lifeblood of not only our economy here in the United States, but it is the lifeblood of the economy of the world, regardless of the push towards green renewables, which has really been a heavily subsidized and highly unsuccessful endeavor. We occupy a majority, about 85 percent, of the power grid as far as oil and gas and coal are concerned. Now, that is, those are hydrocarbons, oil, gas, carbon. All come from Mother Nature. They come from the richness, the vastness of the earth, and you know most of the things that you use in your everyday life your air conditioning, your cooling, your clothing, the manufacturing to do Chat.
Speaker 2:GBT. You said yeah, without chat, gbt, there's a gas well powering that electricity typically. So oil and gas does occupy the vast majority of the power grid and we will continue to do so for the foreseeable future, and we will continue to do so for the foreseeable future. So, president Trump, knowing that and being the pragmatist business, so alignment is alignment with the new political regime and I think America is behind it. After all, he was voted for the highest popular vote in many, many years.
Speaker 1:Yes, definitely Okay. And then articulation. I feel like you are extremely knowledgeable. I've met many different people here in Texas that talk a good game, but you, I mean, you nail it at every end. So tell us a little bit about that articulation.
Speaker 2:Well, I've been doing it for a little minute, you know, you may know a little something about it, and I would like to give a nod to my alma mater, trinity University, who provided me with a very strong foundation in geology.
Speaker 2:And so the basic building blocks have to be in place first, and then what you do with them after that is your business. So what I did with those building blocks is I went to work in an oil company where I would have eyeballs on me of strong oil and gas leadership who would just throw me right into the pit and have me do what it takes to learn our business. And so I was quickly put out in the field to sit wells and learn how to work, drill cutting samples and keep track of drilling time and, in the morning, call in my report as to what happened the day before on that. Well, now, this was before the days of cell phones, so you had to go to the local cafe or to a hotel or wherever you could find a pay phone and make your morning report to the office.
Speaker 2:And so the report was an overview of the progress where we had oil and gas, shows at what depths they were encountered, what the rate of penetration was at those depths, and those sort of things. So I was thrown right in the middle of it, never myself having ever seen a drilling rig. The education at Trinity University is a very classic geological fundamental focus and not particularly focused on oil and gas or anything else. So, yeah, my first time out in the field, I was just amazed by the sounds and the sights and the smell and I could barely understand, actually the language of the men working in the field, the roughnecks. I thought they were actually speaking a different language because the jargon was such that I had never heard. And then also, you know the accents, the heavy accents, from whatever locale they happened to be from, whether they were from Louisiana or South Texas or whatever.
Speaker 2:And so, yeah, I'm thinking like, what did you say? So it took me a little while to really get my legs, but I laser focused on it and found that I enjoyed so much the experience of watching a well drill, being the first to look at the drill cuttings that are circulated up from the bottom of the hole, washing them, looking at them under a microscope, describing them, putting them through a fluoroscope to determine whether or not there was any presence of oil in them, and the whole experience to me was just fascinating. I had my nose in a bag of drill cuttings all the time and I loved it.
Speaker 1:I love it. I got to see you speak on a on a panel, and I have to say I am so again, the word that just keeps coming to mind is so impressed. You handle yourself very well when it comes to knowledge, especially when you get you know people in the room in the audience. Usually you know you get these individuals that you know hear a great catchphrases and they throw, throw them at you and you're like, ok, well, hold on, let's dial that back, and then you really educate people in the room with your knowledge and your experience. So thank you so much for for doing what you do. But I want to talk about also, margaret, from the beginning, what piqued your interest to get into petroleum.
Speaker 2:Also, margaret, from the beginning. What piqued your interest to get into petroleum? You know it was completely a fluke. I knew nobody who was a geologist. No one in my family came from that area of the world. I was raised by a single mother who raised myself and my two older brothers on a waitress's income.
Speaker 1:Wow, yes, oh my gosh.
Speaker 2:She had three children by the time she was age 25 years old and making it happen.
Speaker 2:And she worked her her little tail off to be able to raise us and support us as head of the household. And she was very independent. She never remarried. So it never occurred to me that there was anything different than working hard, getting a job, working hard, doing what you needed to do to, you know, keep your, you know, a roof over your head and food on the table. It seemed really quite natural to me.
Speaker 2:I was at Highlands High School which you know is on the other side of the railroad tracks, for those that are local San Antonians and in my freshman year I had gotten ill and could not take gym class. So I was put to work in the office of the school counselor, just typing and filing for her, running errands, whatever it is that she needed. And when it was time for me to go back to gym class Miss Fowler I'm a Fowler, a beautiful little lady who probably saved my life she offered me the opportunity to continue working for her or to go back to gym class. I said, oh, I'd rather stay here working for you.
Speaker 2:And so that is what I did and she, I think, just absorbed me, just absorbed me over the next few years. And then she said to me you know, margaret, you're very, very bright and I would like to have you tested. And so she put me through a battery of tests that happened to be held at Trinity University and it was something in the area of credit by examination, and so I was able, by my test scores, to place out of a whole year of high school, and so I went from being a sophomore to a senior and I also worked half a day at city public service. So I was part of the vocational office education program. So I left school at noon my last two years of high school and went downtown to type and file for city public service.
Speaker 2:I worked for Earl Condor and Pinky Bingham in the materials control department, and they were wonderful to me, and so, at any rate, I finished school early. Miss Fowler helped my mother file the paperwork to obtain grants and for me to be able to get a loan, and also then Trinity University offered me a scholarship to come and study there, and so that's what I did, and I was just 16, about to ready to turn 17 when I went into Trinity University. I had no idea about what I wanted to do, so I just looked at the catalog of courses and picked out the things that I thought were fun. I took classical guitar that year. I took French, I took the beginning of a computer programming class, I took environmental studies, which is a brand new department at Trinity, and I thought that I wanted to be an environmentalist. I really thought that would be my area of endeavor, and the environmental studies department required a science foundation, and so I had a choice of multiple things like chemistry or physics or biology or geology, and I just love the description of the geology department. It talked about field trips being required as part of the curriculum and I thought, oh, we have to go camping, so, okay, I'm on for this.
Speaker 2:And so I walked into the geology department. The introductory course that year happened to be taught by the head of the geology department, dr Donald McGannon. That year happened to be taught by the head of the geology department, dr Donald McGannon, and he was a tough nut guy, kind of like a Telly Savalas, a Kojak kind of personality, you know, hard nosed and tough and bright as heck and very, very macho sort of guy. Anyway, he was tough on all of us. You don't dare walk into his class late and if you do you're going to have an eraser thrown at you?
Speaker 2:Oh no, you don't dare walk into his class late, and if you do you're going to have an eraser thrown at you. You don't dare walk into his class late, and so I became just enthralled by geology, and a lot of it had to do with his persona. He made it come alive, and so I then took paleontology, and two years later I look up, I have more hours in geology than I do in environmental. And so I decided to declare a double major environmental and geology, and again having no idea where that was going to lead me, specifically job or career-wise. But at the end of the day, when it's time for me to graduate, I recognize that the good paying jobs were in oil and gas, and that is really the sole reason that I went in that direction.
Speaker 1:I love it. I love that. I love your story about your mom too, and just you know really that that real life, living real life, that way you know, and then it opened up these doors to these opportunities.
Speaker 2:My mother was a very bright woman. If she had had an education, my mother would have done phenomenally, because she was inherently very bright, also very funny and also very cute. She was damn cute, and there was nothing that she wouldn't take on and do it to the best of her ability. So there was no slack in my mother, and I so admired her that I knew that, as she had taken care of us, she was always very generous with me, particularly letting me buy, you know, expensive clothing for school. Whereas my brothers received jeans and tennis shoes and some new shirts, I got to have pretty well anything I wanted. My mother was extremely kind and generous with me, and so I always knew that I wanted to make a lot of money so I could do the same for her.
Speaker 1:And that's what I did. I love that. That is a great one. Okay, so we talked about the people that know you. They talked about you and explained you in those three words. The last one is abundance.
Speaker 2:Tell us a little bit about abundance the abundance is about the abundance of the resources that are below the surface of the ground, and that is what we do in oil and gas.
Speaker 2:We find treasure that is buried in sediments, sometimes tens of thousands of feet deep, and bring it to the surface, and it doesn't have to be manufactured the earth manufactured it, and so if you're smart enough to find it and you're business savvy enough to raise the capital and get a project drilled, and lucky enough then to have the result that you were seeking, then you can literally create generational wealth for yourself and for all the partners that are involved, not to mention the trickle down, the true trickle down of money to the people that work on the drilling rigs and that work for the service companies that provide the various equipment and services that are needed to drill a well, that provide the various equipment and services that are needed to drill a well.
Speaker 2:Then, of course, production revenues are taxed by the state to the tune of $0.046 per dollar on oil and $0.075 per dollar on natural gas, and so the state receives a lot of revenue from oil and gas, not to mention the various school entities and county entities, hospital entities. We pay a lot in taxes from oil and gas production that really feed a lot of people. It is the true trickle down job creation, tax generation. So true abundance, it is true abundance from that aspect. Abundance, it is true abundance from that aspect. But there is, in my opinion, a lot of oil and gas yet to be found in the lower 48. And my focus, my primary focus, what I wake up in the morning thinking about and what I go to sleep at night thinking about, is my Pearl prospect.
Speaker 1:Oh my gosh. Well, okay, I want to get into that because I feel like that's really important and that's where you're at right now and what you're really focusing on. You have two projects going on right now. Tell us a little bit about those two projects and what does it look like to be involved in that?
Speaker 2:These two prospects are really just stepstones into the Pearl, because the capital requirement for the Pearl is pretty large, about a $52.5 million project in the way I have it planned, which is a very comprehensive project approach to it almost very strategic very strategic, very strategic it has to be, because you don't find, you don't uncover something that large and then allow the competition to jump in on you.
Speaker 2:So you have to be strategic in your approach to land control and um, and also maintaining the technological edge on the project, which is what you know. This is what our approach is. But I recognized pretty early on well, after having my head beat against the table many, many times that I probably wasn't going to get the $50 million that I wanted to do the project. So I needed to deconstruct it and break it down into more digestible pieces from a financial standpoint. So I picked two of the lower hanging fruit targets out of the Pearl portfolio, which is a huge complex of prospects, and am offering them as as stepstone or gateway type prospects. The Trinity prospect is an 11,000-foot vertical well that targets about 11 million barrels of oil.
Speaker 1:Wow, that's a lot.
Speaker 2:It's a nice-sized project and that's your smaller project. That's a medium project. The smaller project is called the Marietta. The Trinity is a $7.7 million project. The Marietta is about a $4 million project and that is the shallowest and least expensive. It also has the smallest reserve outlook of about a million barrels of oil, but still, based on the cost to drill it, it looks like about a 15 to 1 return on investment potentially.
Speaker 1:Wow, what does an investment look like for somebody that's interested in getting a part of this?
Speaker 2:Well, it's a joint venture structure and the reason that we do them that way, as opposed to a lot of people have heard about private placement or not private placements, but limited partnerships rather. But MPG offers joint venture participation to put the investor in the category of active status rather than passive in terms of the view of the IRS, and by doing so then we are able to pass through the great, tremendous tax advantages that are associated with drilling of oil and gas. Did you know that as much as 80% to 85% of the cost of investment in an oil and gas drilling project is categorized as intangible, and the intangible drilling costs are entirely deductible in the year incurred Entirely, entirely deductible in the year incurred. Wow. So what we do through the joint venture participation with our investors is allow them to capture that tax write-off for themselves. Wow.
Speaker 2:And so that definitely cushions the risk. Yes, you know, and there's just no question, but oil and gas is a high risk area of investment. It is a commitment and it is a technical decision and a financial decision, and it's not for it's not everyone's cup of tea, but for those that have the capital to do it and have the tax liability to do it, it's really perfect for them, because we structure it so that they receive the tax benefit and then, in addition to that, then we invite them to come right along with us.
Speaker 1:Well, I feel like that's a no-brainer. That's definitely a no-brainer when you are able to have that tax deduction as well. Who are your typical prospects as far as people that want to be involved and get into this joint venture?
Speaker 2:We have partners that come from all walks of life and they can be ranchers, they can be oil men in and of their own right, maybe more towards the retirement side, and want somebody else to do the work and let them just sit back and enjoy the fun part of it. But we have lawyers that are partners in the project and we have electrical engineers that are part of the project and an IT guy out of New.
Speaker 1:York.
Speaker 2:And so we have really a wide range, but usually the thing that does distinguish them is they're all very smart.
Speaker 1:Yeah, no definitely.
Speaker 2:They're smart, they're able to understand the opportunity and they're also financially capable of taking the risk, and they probably also need the tax write-off.
Speaker 1:Absolutely.
Speaker 2:So it's a combination of all of it and plus it's a fun investment because it's like going treasure hunting you know You're drilling a well and plus it's a fun investment because it's like going treasure hunting you know you're drilling a well, you're seeing the results in real time as you're drilling and you get to your pay zones and that's the, you know the do or die moment. The pay zones are there and what you expected them to be, or they're not, and so that's the very stressful time of the project and, with all good success, I mean it is the most fun and rewarding kind of investment experience you can have because you can be there yourself. If you're an investor, you can be at the well site or visit the well site as you please and be part of it, and if you don't want to be there, you can't be there. Then you're getting daily reports almost in in real time, and so you're completely aware of what's going on, so you get to watch your investment.
Speaker 2:Oh my gosh, I love that to brag about it on the golf course.
Speaker 1:Yes, we need those bragging rights, right? Okay, tell me this then, because I was so shocked to hear about this. When I think about getting involved or investing into an oil project, I think, okay, you're talking about millions and millions of dollars, but when you really unpacked the whole deal and what you guys are doing and the opportunity that's there for people that are interested, what is that? Initial buy-in or investment? I should say that initial investment on the smaller project, the Marietta.
Speaker 2:About $40,000 for 1.1% of the Marietta.
Speaker 1:Wow, and that's incredible. So what does that mean for somebody, for an investor?
Speaker 2:Well based on our projections and expectations, and not a guaranteed. So don't let the audience get that wrong.
Speaker 2:Well, you can quote me, but I'm telling you these are our best estimates of what to expect, and the reasoning behind it is thoroughly explained. We think that a full return on investment will occur in about six months' time. That's a very short turnaround. Yes, it is a short turnaround, and we think that the by the time the approximate million barrels are recovered, you are then looking at about 13 times your money Wow, whereas you know most people that invest in stocks, if they can get 13% on their on their stock trades, they're very, very happy. We're talking about 13 times.
Speaker 1:Wow, okay, that was going to be my next question. What is the difference between people that are like heavily involved in like stock and trading to what you're doing and investing in oil petroleum?
Speaker 2:well, when you buy a stock, you can buy it and sell it anytime you want to, uh and uh. So the liquid you know the, the ability to move in and out, and the liquidity is there the difference in oil and gas. It's a longer term commitment because you put your money into the project, the project, it gets completely funded, it gets drilled and then we start producing the well and then you're receiving your revenues on a monthly basis for as long as the well produces. So it's a longer-term commitment and it's not as liquid because all of those things have to happen before you could, if you wanted, to, liquefy your interest by selling it to somebody who might be interested in buying your interest. But by far and large, we encourage our partners not to do that. We encourage them to enjoy their revenue and put it on the side and then put it into the next project, of course, yes, the bigger project.
Speaker 1:So then you have that midsize project, which is the Trinity, the Trinity.
Speaker 2:That's an 11,000-foot vertical well and that project, drilled and completed, is about $7.7 million and we are looking at we think about it a little more than two months' time turnaround for payout. Wow, that's quick Because the flow rate volume is very robust in terms of our expectation. We're expecting 2,100 barrels of oil equivalent per day to be produced out of that well. Wow, and on the high end of the reserve estimates, we're looking at about 11 million barrels of oil, which is almost a billion dollars in revenue at $85 oil.
Speaker 1:And what is the investment for that?
Speaker 2:Well, the upfront cost is the drilling cost is $5.7 million, so about $57,000. And then we drill the well, log it, evaluate it for its potential to produce and everything looks good. Then we complete the well and that is another $1.9 million. So that would be the $19,700 approximately on the completion side. So the total ticket would be about $77,000 drilled and completed. But the upfront is about $57,000 for 1% of the project.
Speaker 1:That's not bad. That's a very good investment, though, I feel like, especially when you talk about the tax deductions as well Well, if you're going to, write a check to Uncle Sam.
Speaker 2:You're never going to see that money again. It's going to get wasted in all these crazy, you know, grossly bloated governmental programs, and a lot of that money gets wasted. You'll never see any benefit from it, me. If you're choosing, then you then have the opportunity to make a tremendous return on your investment and you get the tax deduction.
Speaker 1:I love that. So we talked about the Marietta, which is a smaller project. The Trinity is your midsize project. That definitely leads you down the path towards the Pearl. So tell us a little bit about the Pearl.
Speaker 2:The Pearl has the potential to be a game changer in onshore exploration. It truly is revolutionary. I have found something, and I'm not going to say that I was just so brilliant to find it. The truth is I was at the right place at the right time and observed it and then did something about it. I then have had a tremendous collaboration with the University of Texas. The Bureau of Economic Geology recognized the work, the significance of the work that I was doing, and offered to help me on the science part of it. And so they have been tremendous partner with me, and I don't mean a financial partner, I mean a partner from the research and development end of it. And so the Pearl Prospect has the potential to be the next big oil and gas play in North America.
Speaker 1:And I kid you not. And what are they thinking?
Speaker 2:that it's estimated to be Well on the high end in the initial area of drilling and development. We're expecting somewhere in the area of 850 million barrels of oil.
Speaker 2:Wow, that's impressive, that would put it solidly into one of the larger fields in the world. It is, in fact, a lookalike to a field that is in the deep water offshore Louisiana called the Mars field. The Mars field started off with a reserve estimate of 700 million barrels of oil. It was a discovery in the mid-80s by Shell Oil Company and British Petroleum as their junior partner or minority partner in the project, and they were drilling in 3,000 feet of water off of a lead that they saw on 3D seismic. They rated the prospect as a high-risk prospect, but they drilled it and you have to take some risk.
Speaker 2:If you're going to find big new discoveries, you must take some risk. So they drilled the prospect, thinking they had a 1 in 10 chance of success. And had they stopped at the originally targeted zones that they mapped on their 3D seismic, they would have never found the field. There they found some hydrocarbons, but the reservoirs were thin and not capable of producing the volume that would pay for the drilling cost of the well. But because they had engineered, over-engineered the prospect, it allowed them to continue drilling, drilling, and since they were having shows of oil and gas, they decided to continue drilling, and they did, and that is where they found around 19,000 feet, their big, thick, blocky oil field called the pink horizon of all things, the pink horizon and where the average well flowed 25,000 barrels of oil equivalent per day.
Speaker 1:Oh my gosh, that is amazing. So if I showed you, if that doesn't make you excited.
Speaker 2:Now, those wells cost $250 million per well to drill. Now, if I showed you a line of seismic data over the Pearl Prospect versus a line of seismic data over the Mars, and if I didn't label them, you would not be able to know. Nor would a trained geophysicist know which seismic line went to which prospect. Oh my gosh. And it's not because they're next-door neighbors, and it's not because they're in the same formation. It's because the same geological processes responsible for forming the entrapment and the structures at the Mars field are the same geological processes responsible for forming the entrapment and the structures at the Mars field are the same geological processes responsible for the prospect at the Pearl.
Speaker 1:Wow, I have to ask you this next question and we'll wrap it up from here. But Netflix, they just came out with a series called Landman and it really gives exposure and brings you know, brings awareness to gas and oil and drilling. So tell us a little bit about how that awareness has affected your industry.
Speaker 2:Well, even I am entertained by Landman, even though it's a little Hollywood you know, it's a little overly dramatized in some ways, but in other ways there's a lot of realism associated with it. So it's great entertainment and it allows the people that are not ever been exposed to oil and gas to have a little insight into it, and I think it's created excitement. I've received phone calls just based on the presence of that movie and people wanting to become a landman and things of that nature.
Speaker 1:And so the resumes are flowing in.
Speaker 2:Yeah, a realtor friend of mine he's a very successful realtor in Houston contacted me a few weeks ago and he said Margaret, I want to be a landman. And I said well, honey, you've got to walk before you run. I said if you want to? So when Dean called me a few weeks ago and said that he was so excited about oil and gas, having watched Landman, and he wanted to become a landman, and would I give him an opportunity to learn the business? I said absolutely, I will do that. I said but you've got to walk before you run, and the way you walk in the door is by bringing some capital with you.
Speaker 2:Show me the money door is by bringing some capital with you. Show me the money. So he is busy introducing prospects.
Speaker 1:Qualified people that he knows through business.
Speaker 2:But namely on Monday we have a big meeting 11am with a gentleman who is peripherally associated with oil and gas. He owns tow boats that guide in, that pilot in the LNG tankers in and out, and so he's around the business from that aspect of it but he's not really in the business and so Dean is trying to introduce him to my projects to see if he wants to participate directly. So I said, well, you know what, dean, if you do that and he does that, then you will have earned your wings.
Speaker 2:You're a landman, and I will teach you how to be a landman.
Speaker 1:I love it. I love it. Okay, well, that's exciting about landman, and I'm sure everybody that's seen landman is like how do I get my cut? So tell us, margaret, I get my cut. So tell us, margaret, if somebody wanted to get invested and really diversify their portfolio? I know a lot of people, a lot of our own friends and even including myself. We're invested in stock and other things, you know. But if somebody wanted to really diversify that portfolio, what would they do if they wanted to get connected with you?
Speaker 2:Well, I would love them to come visit my website mpgpetroleumcom. So mpg like miles per gallon, but it's really for Margaret P Graham.
Speaker 1:I love miles per gallon guys, so it makes it easy to remember mpgpetroleumcom.
Speaker 2:Remember mpgpetroleumcom and where they will then be able to see our current gateway projects of the Trinity and the Marietta Prospects and also get an insight and glimpse into the bigger picture which we call the Pearl. Additionally, they can learn a lot about oil and gas from our glossary of oil and gas technical terms and our tutorial of drilling and completing oil and gas wells.
Speaker 1:Now on your website, you have that executive summary, Is that?
Speaker 2:correct. Yes, they are there under the current projects page.
Speaker 1:Okay, got it. So, executive summary, you would definitely have somebody look at that first, and then also, you have a great, incredible video that really describes everything that you guys are doing and the whole process as well yeah, I mean um.
Speaker 2:If you go to the bottom of the home page you will see a? Um podcast of of me on the jackie daily show and you will also see drone footage of an aerial um uh filming of a uh rig which we're considering using for the charity prospects.
Speaker 1:I love seeing you on the drilling rig.
Speaker 2:Oh my gosh, You're such a boss and you know, on that video on the drone footage you will hear my explanation of oil and gas and the importance of it to the economy in today's environment and the economy worldwide. So there is a lot of information there on the MPG Petroleum website and I would invite anybody viewing this to go there and to absorb any of that, all that information, and then contact me.
Speaker 1:I'm very accessible by phone or by email and would be happy to have a conversation, absolutely have a conversation, because I feel like that's where it starts a conversation. At least, that's how our relationship started. I went, I saw you on a panel and I was like, oh my gosh, tell me more. Relationship started I went, I saw you on a panel and I was like, oh my gosh, tell me more. But the one thing that I observed about you on the panel was like you were the most brilliant person. I wanted to learn more and hear more about what you had to say, because you were, you had a full understanding of everything. So I got a lot of information and a very much, a lot of knowledge out of what you're doing. So you're doing incredible work, margaret. Anybody that partners in this project is going to definitely benefit and reap the benefits of what you're doing. So I love it.
Speaker 2:Well, thank you so much. There were other very qualified and capable people on that panel and capable people on that panel, so for you to identify me as being the highest value person there is a huge compliment, and thank you so much. It is always my intention to deliver information in a way that is understandable to an audience that may not be oil and gas professional people, so I like to educate the audience by giving them plenty of information and then leading them forward if they choose to come forward.
Speaker 1:Well, hey, if you're listening to this podcast today, you invested in Dogecoin. You invested in what was the other one. It was GameStop. Definitely, this is an investment opportunity piece that you don't want to miss out on, especially partnered with somebody as knowledgeable in this industry as Margaret P Graham over here.
Speaker 2:I would only say, with the exception of this that they're coming in directly from the ground floor. If they come into an oil and gas project with MPG, whether it be the Trinity or the Marietta, and then catapulting into the Pearl, they're coming in absolutely in on the ground floor. So it is that kind of opportunity. It's a game changer. Yeah, and we think it will be a game changer. The oil and gas exploration production business in the United States.
Speaker 1:Well, we have one thing left to say. As Donald Trump says drill, baby drill.
Speaker 2:I am the face of drill baby drill. I love it, if anybody ever was. I am the face of Drill Baby Drill. I love it If anybody ever was. I am.
Speaker 1:Okay, you guys. Thank you so much for listening. Entrepreneurial Empire right here. You heard it live from Margaret P Graham. Look at her website. Take a look at what she's doing. If you are somebody that is interested in diversifying your portfolio, this is the woman you want to be partnered with. Thank you for joining us today and we'll see you next time. Mpgpetroleumcom Yay.