I had the opportunity to visit with an in1dustry pioneer some years ago, not long before he passed away, and he recalled his first day on the job with good humor. He was hired on with an outfit in Bartlesville, Oklahoma, in the early 1920s to work in the booming Burbank field.

The newly graduated engineer checked in at the office before dawn. The boss explained what he would do, then found him a place on a company Model T truck, otherwise loaded down with mail, tires and supplies for the 50-mile trip. The creaking truck left at daybreak but didn’t arrive at the company’s Burbank camp until well after dark. In between were ruts, mud and washouts—poor roads filled with loaded wagons pulled by mules and other trucks full of gear and men—then a traffic jam in the boomtown of Pawhuska.

Burbank was in chaos from men and machines. The bunkhouse “crumb boss” had to hunt to find an open mattress and it looked for a time the new hire would have to sleep outside in the dark, listening to the clank and rumble of cable-tool rigs and the POP! POP! POP! of powerhouses pumping Burbank crude. The bunkhouse crew was pretty rowdy, and he slept little that night. He told me he was lying there thinking, “What have I done?” But things worked out for Paul Endacott, who went on to serve as president and vice chairman of Phillips Petroleum, including a role in the discovery of the supergiant Ekofisk field that opened the North Sea to oil and gas production.

And Burbank? Osage County, Oklahoma, is quiet now. The derricks, powerhouses and bunkhouses are long gone. The pristine prairie has returned, as confirmed in the opening credits of cooking diva Ree Drummond’s TV show, “The Pioneer Woman.” Downtown Pawhuska, which in the 1920s resembled a miniature Times Square, is equally silent. Even the local Wal- Mart is gone.

But things may be changing here in the Midcontinent, and out in West Texas, as two once-booming chunks of the oil patch come back to life, thanks to unconventional plays. The Mississippi Lime lies below what’s left of Burbank. The Permian basin, in decline for years, is now experiencing a brisk drilling resurgence.

Associate Editor Michelle Thompson visits with several midstream players in this issue as they discuss the Mississippi Lime, perhaps the next big unconventional play. The Permian—another mature producing area discovered in the 1920s—has new wells tapping unconventional zones. Our cover story on the gusher of crudes facing the midstream includes a review of pipeline projects serving the Permian.

Hart Energy has two conferences this month that focus on these two producing regions that look to boom again. The DUG Permian and More conference will be in Fort Worth, Texas, April 2 to 4 and the DUG Midcontinent will meet in Tulsa, Oklahoma, April 22 and 23. Both feature an excellent lineup of speakers and exhibitors.

We supplement this publication and conferences with information on our website, www.MidstreamBusiness. com, and our Twitter page, @MidStreamBiz. I hope you have the opportunity to visit both often.

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