As the head of exploration for Pitts Oil Co. LLC for 40 years, David Martineau has overseen the drilling of hundreds of wells, most of them in the Fort Worth Basin. He was there, along with the late Frank L. Pitts, at the dawning of the Barnett shale in the 1980s, and has witnessed the production revolution that has ensued.

“I have seen 52 years in this business and wish I could watch 52 more,” Martineau says.

He might be called a soldier in the “shale revolution,” because early on Dallas-based Pitts Oil partnered with George Mitchell’s Mitchell Energy & Development Corp., which pioneered the first Bar-nett shale wells in the 1980s. Today, there are close to 18,000 wells in the play and about 40 rigs running. Latest production was about 4.6 billion cubic feet a day.

Martineau grew up in Corpus Christi, Texas, and saw drilling rigs and production all around. He worked summers as a roughneck. One time when the rig was coming out of the hole to change bits, he was getting splashed with drilling mud and looked down and saw two men drinking coffee, not getting dirty. When asked what they were doing, he was told they were an engineer and a geologist. That’s what settled it for him. Soon, he was on his way to Austin, where he graduated from The University of Texas with a geology degree in 1960.

This summer, Martineau became chairman of the Texas Independent Producers & Royalty Owners Association (Tipro), which serves over 2,500 members. This association promotes policies backed by sound science and works to educate the public, elected officials and regulators on the oil and gas industry.

image- DAVID F. MARTINEAU

Investor Your first job out of college was with the legendary Oscar Wyatt at a predecessor of Coastal Corp. (now part of El Paso).

Martineau Back then Mr. Wyatt called natural gas “10-cent trash gas” and most people flared it. It was a pipeline and exploration company, and I worked there until 1969 when Coastal had become one of the major intrastate pipelines in Texas. Next, I worked for Prudential Drilling Funds in Dallas, which raised exploration capital for majors and independents like Coastal, Mesa Petroleum and Pitts Oil. Three years later, in 1972 I joined Pitts and have been there ever since.

Investor What is Pitts Oil up to now?

Martineau We’ve drilled for gas in the Fort Worth Basin and East Texas for years, but we’re now looking at shifting our emphasis to oil again. But the price of poker has really gone up on all these plays.

Since Mr. Pitts passed away in 2009, we have been reevaluating which direction is best suited for our company in light of the new shale revolution that has developed. Recently, Pitts’ grandson, Allen Custard, has rejoined the company as our new president.

Investor In your new role as chairman, what do you plan for the association?

Martineau Over the last couple of years, Tipro’s membership has grown more than 13%. I think this is in large part due to the fact more people realize the benefits of joining Tipro. In the next two years, while I am leader of the organization, I’d like to double the membership.

Investor What are some of the issues facing your members?

Martineau Recently, I met with a Dallas City Council member to discuss the fact that they granted leases in the western part of the city, and received more than $30 million in lease bonuses, but they are withholding a permit to drill while they review new proposed ordinances. Some of the proposed rules could limit drilling, and we want to work with the city so drilling will be permitted and they can benefit financially.

There are road capacity issues in the Eagle Ford shale, and we are going to be active on that. The state has said there could already be billions of dollars in road damage, so we need to find a solution that allows the state to give money from ad valorem taxes (imposed on new production) to the counties so they can address this problem. In addition to roads, issues associated with air and water are among those that Tipro is working to address.

This January, the 83rd Legislature will meet, and there could potentially be 50 new house members out of 150, and more than six new state senators. So we have our work cut out for us; we must inform all of these new officials about oil and gas activity and challenges.

Investor Tell us more about your role in the Barnett shale.

Martineau With the price of gas in the 1990s, you couldn’t justify what we are doing now horizontally. We didn’t know how to drill horizontally in the Bar-nett, and then Mitchell drilled his first horizontal Bar-nett well in 1991 with the Gas Research Institute (GRI). Because of the gas price and drilling cost, GRI and Mitchell considered vertical wells more economical. In 1991, Pitts also had a partnership with GRI and drilled a horizontal well with air in the so-called “Pregnant shale” in Parker County, the offset county to Mitchell’s Wise County well in the Barnett.

The Barnett gained steam in 1997 when water fracs were introduced. Pitts Oil then drilled multiple vertical Barnett wells. Horizontal drilling really took off and was perfected in 2003 by Devon Energy, after they bought Mitchell. It has been so interesting to watch the shale revolution take off across the country, but it all started with the Barnett.