The Girl With Oil in Her Veins

As a new member of the Geoforce team, I am thrilled to be back in my element.  Not many people can say that the smell of oil reminds them of their childhood, but that is exactly what it does for me.  Growing up in Southeastern New Mexico, the oilfield is as much a part of my childhood as playgrounds and sleepovers.

Artesia, NM is a small town about forty-five miles south of Roswell, (…yes, where the aliens landed).  Artesia is home to a refinery and countless oil companies, including the one owned by my grandparents, Hanson Energy.  Granddad made it his mission in life to toughen me and my sister up by having us accompany him on most of his daily rounds to check pumps. My grandmother would pack us a lunch – and off we would go.  Our time spent in the oilfield was always eventful. We were either hunting rattlesnake, learning how to drive, or thinking it would be fun to crawl up on a pump jack (luckily the one we chose was not operating!).

I remember that most days my granddad would become frustrated over more than one well.  Either the pumper had not done his job or the equipment he was expecting had not arrived.  He would have to waste a trip and get back in his truck and do his best to track down the pumper or the equipment.  Or he would waste even more time waiting for something without a clue as to when it might arrive. At times, it felt like a wild goose chase. Back then, in the pre-cell phone era, it always proved to be a difficult and tedious task.

During my first few weeks at Geoforce my granddad’s frustrations have come to mind more than once.  I keep thinking how much more efficient he could have been at running his company if he would have had Geoforce’s Track and Trace technology available to him.  The ability to verify service by seeing which wells the pumpers had been to, and when, would have saved him lots of stress, time and money. Knowing where all of his equipment was at all times would have allowed him to efficiently retrieve and dispatch equipment and greatly improved the quality of his company’s operations. I can only imagine how many more rattlesnakes we might have slayed. I would never trade my years spent growing up in the oilfield, and I am proud to be working for a company like Geoforce that helps oil patch operators like my granddad do their jobs better.