For more than 34 years, institutional investors looked to Robert W. Baird & Co.’s award-winning analyst, George Gaspar, and The Gaspar Report, his analysis of the various factors driving oil and gas equity performance. And he did it from Milwaukee, Wisconsin, about as far away from Manhattan’s financial district and the oil patch as one can get.

Still, he became friends with executives such as Apache Corp. founder Raymond Plank and service and supply leaders such as Bob Palmer of Rowan Cos.; early on, they taught him the business.

Even though he formally ended the report in 2009 when he retired, Gaspar remains fully engaged, monitoring the energy industry daily and following emerging plays such as the Buda, found below the Eagle Ford shale.

And, he is still very busy with a number of longstanding civic endeavors, such as chairing the Milwaukee County War Memorial board of trustees. For years he’s been involved in leadership roles in the city’s performing arts center and many Jesuit educational facilities.

He and his wife, Anna Clair, were honored in 2012 by George’s alma mater, Marquette University, for service to Marquette, where he obtained a degree in finance and economics in 1958. Following commissioning, he was an officer in the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers until 1960, when he joined Frederick & Co. in Milwaukee as an investment broker and analyst, staying to 1975. Lured to Baird in 1975, he continued his focus on the service and supply and E&P sectors, rising to managing director and senior energy analyst.

Four times, The Wall Street Journal named him to its All-Star Analyst list. We caught up with Gaspar to get his most recent views on the industry, and find out how a guy in the Upper Midwest covers the oil patch.

Investor How did you end up covering the oil patch?

Gaspar While I was at Marquette studying finance, I became very enamored with the stock market, watching its gyrations. After I came out of the Corps of Engineers in 1960 and joined Frederick, they asked me to organize the research effort. It was challenging. I started following energy in the mid-1960s…and one thing progressed to another. I was primarily a service and supply analyst but added E&P later on.

The real initiation to it was meeting Raymond Plank in the early 1970s, when Apache was based in Minneapolis. I remember being in his office with two analysts from New York, and Ray was talking about their Powder River Basin activity. Soon after, I called Winston Eason, chairman of Eason Oil Co., and asked him about their interest in the Powder River. He said, Get your butt on a plane and come to Oklahoma City; we’ll teach you the oil business—so I did.

Investor What intrigued you about the industry?

Gaspar I was very impressed with the entrepreneurism , the strong desire to achieve, the whole mystery of the drilling process and whether the oil and gas would be there or not. It is amazing what has transpired in current drilling. Many E&P companies stumbled in the early days of shale, hence, the oil service industry really has had to upscale its technology, for offshore use and then onshore, especially with horizontal drilling and completion techniques.

Investor Was it difficult to earn credibility?

Gaspar Yes it was; I was young and in Milwaukee…But I had developed many unique data graphics to go with my analysis, and that’s when Baird lured me away from Frederick. Relatively soon, Baird sent me to Boston, New York and Philly to meet institutional investors. They were skeptical, so I knew I had to improve and expand what I was doing…I would consume everything I could get my hands on to learn more and get an in-depth energy perspective. Later I expanded my travel to London, Aberdeen, Zurich and other investor hubs to meet with our European clients; soon there was no question we were competent. I liked being up against the best analysts in New York and Texas.

Investor You are following the Buda formation in Texas?

Gaspar This huge entourage of small and midsized independents has created a whole new dimension with the Bakken, Marcellus, the Eagle Ford.

The Buda is showing improving results; it’s directly below the Eagle Ford...horizontal activity is gaining momentum. The open-hole completion techniques that Dan A. Hughes Oil Co. and Crimson Exploration are using…they can complete for $3.5 million whereas the Eagle Ford is still in the $6- or $7-million range. The difference is, Buda production history is in the early stage. Below that is the Georgetown—I suspect oil is leaking down from the Eagle Ford or up from the Georgetown, into the Buda.

Investor What concerns do you see?

Gaspar One of the greatest concerns I have is the production decline curve in shale plays. There’s a lack of sufficient data...if you track the wells an individual company drills, track their production, and see how many wells they’re drilling, production is cycling up pretty fast, but the decline curve is worrisome. There is something significant going on here: I’m beginning to see a pullback by smaller companies who don’t want to drill $9- or $11-million wells in the Bakken.

Another concern is the environmental impacts. We’ve got to improve the completion side of this, because we’ve become so dependent on the shales’ success. Finally, I think the Keystone XL is essential for security and diversity of supply.

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