Chuck Yates Needs A Job

0:43 AAPL really didn't have any reserves when this started. I mean, they

0:50 had ideas like this all the time, but they couldn't lose money. They didn't have it to lose. It had to be all hands-on deck

1:03 to make this work, and they had come up with a break-even, overtake one or two, a break-even of selling 73 Bruce to do that first Weston event, and it would break even, and they sold 75. Holy

1:23 cow, holy cow, I love that story. It's all about prospecting and oil and gas, and people like Grant and me who have mostly worked with partners and

1:39 were just small independence for the most

1:43 part, generate and operate an old-fashioned, conventional oil and gas business.

1:49 And

1:51 we were there to talk to the people that were doing the same thing. And there are quite a bit of oil and gas investor and some banking-type facilities. But if it hadn't have been for some of them

2:06 being a part of that 75, it would have been a bust. So if you go back to the old timers like me that were involved in the earlier stages, we are beholden to them to have been a part and stayed a

2:21 part of it throughout.

2:24 I

2:44 Well, cool, dude. You guys are great

2:47 to jump on here. I've been going to NAPES since it was in the West and back at the gallery. You

2:55 had geologists with boxes full of maps and stuff. They'd pin up on the wall and all that. How'd you guys get started with NAPES? Grant, did you go first? You know, I

3:15 had left George Alcorn. I'd worked for him for a number of years and he was involved with IPAA and he told me that hey there's going to be this thing over at the George R. Brown you ought to go and

3:27 so I just went over there to see. I'd heard all the rumors about this thing and I thought well I got to just see it and and we were I was just starting to kind of Get the Lone Star! uh, company

3:40 started. So I was kind of partnering very loosely with different geologists trying to put deals together. And so it was, you know, it was quite a, quite an event. And I'm, you know, I'll never

3:52 forget. And I'm sure you remember this too, Chuck. You know, remember they had all these little side rooms. So like you might have like four or five guys in this room. And then in this big room,

4:02 there might be 30 or 40. And then in this one over here, there might be two. And so you're just kind of walking in and out. Nobody had big fancy booths or anything. In those days, there were

4:13 just tables and stuff laying out on it. And anyway, it was, it's crazy that it started like that and where it is today. Well, you know what? I learned early on in my career because, you know,

4:29 let's say that was 25 years ago or whenever. How old is Nate these days? 30. 30. So everyone. You know, so I may have gone to, you know, 28 years ago, something like that. I learned early on

4:43 in my career that the nicer the tie that the geologist is wearing, the

4:49 crappier the props.

4:55 So Brooks, are we related? Have we figured that out? Yeah, there's no question.

5:02 Sorry about that

5:07 All of my family is from Mississippi and the hunt family moved me here. Back to the question you asked Grant. So I was part of the leadership at the Dallas Lambin Association and I was their

5:22 director, APO director. And in '91, I was telling Grant and I were talking about this over the last day or two.

5:33 I was at a board meeting I believe it was at the Broadmoor in Colorado Springs. We're a huge horseshoe table I was young and green didn't know what the hell was going on and jack eater or who is the

5:44 VP of a PL got up and started talking about this one I have and I Gotta take you back so morale and the oil business was in the tanks and nobody was excited about much and we were there and he got up

6:02 and started talking about this under one roof we're going to have a prospect expo and we listen and talk for hours and finally came to a vote to proceed ahead and and a PR really didn't have money to

6:17 risk starting a big show in a big place and anyway we all agreed let's give it a whirl course what I was thinking about when I was listening to everything go around the room was me coming back at work

6:32 for the hunt family that moved me to Texas from where I'm from Mississippi how AM I going to go back to her hut and say hey We're going to they want to start this show everyone is going to be allowed

6:43 under one roof all disciplines everybody connected to the oil business and we're going to put up on the wall our prospects it'll be a land map with all supporting data seismic logs anything on this

6:58 land map they'll be yellow for your anchorages and more importantly why where your acreage is not that harvard is Gonna Cut My Throat and Throw Me off the Thirty ninth floor of that Tower So I was

7:14 scared to death but we weren't going to move forward and that's that was My first involvement and I was at that first show at a western gallery that that's Awesome cause you know the young people in

7:27 the business today bitch about just how secretive we all are with our data and stuff and it you know It's why I was just telling this story to a guy where where I was talking to this morning you know

7:40 kids today are so collaborative mice daughter she's a Freshman at Vandy now but when she was seven she was playing soccer and her team got up eight to nothing and she went out and she grabbed the ball

7:54 and one of the other dads was revenue said Sarah it's their kickoff give me the ball and Sarah looked at him and said no and she called all the girls over together and she let the other team line up

8:05 and kick goals and they were kicking goals and everytime they scored all the girls were hugging and you know one of the dads got mad and somebody said dude it's seven year old soccer come on but the

8:17 whole point was Sarah was like well daddy I thought they should get some goals after we had goals so that's how kids are today and so it's just crazy how how still to this day we're we're really

8:29 secretive grant Gimme a good nape story from days Gone past and Allah All Altia Bruce Springsteen's

8:38 glory days in the back while we're talking it.

8:43 Okay, you know, my favorite one, and Brooks has probably heard this before, but we just moved into the George R. Brown, and I was working with the geophysicists that had given me work maps at

9:03 all, but he hadn't shown up yet. So the way it worked, the nape opens the doors at like seven for the exhibitors to get in and get all set up, and then at eight o'clock, they would open the doors,

9:16 and all the attendees would come, and you'd look out, it looks different than it does now. They redid all that for you, but you would look out, and you'd see them all stacked there, and the

9:26 police officers are holding them till eight o'clock Well, in comes this guy, this guy, this guy. Promoter that I'd known forever often Asha Hoosier has company magnum producing and I'm not comes

9:40 by my Booth because he's an exhibitor and he says hey what are you doing like well I'm waiting on my geophysicist to show up see the you know and and and help me sell this I Dunno where he is he goes

9:51 well what you got anything on it and I go out into try these work maps at All and so I showed it to him as a man and he goes Hey I like that Grant I've known you've seen it all these shows for the

10:02 years at the time we do some business I'll take it and I Go well I'm looking at the crowd out there and I Go I don't know this Guy what if he doesn't follow through and he goes it down at Mine and I

10:17 Go well have a notch we you know I ImgUr go get your geologist at work with him come look at it when My Guy gets and he has no I'm bi it It's My Deal bullet down we got a day off Shaking hands and we

10:28 got a deal and that was the hardest thing I ever did I pulled it down and told every district and the rest of the night and I'm just hoping that our notch is going to come through and sure enough he

10:40 did it kicked off a great friendship and today were extremely close friends ISa mentor but that would have never happened had there not been a nape and part of it what did you get comfortable seeing

10:52 these other guys at nape over the years so when they finally did come by you now have you feel like you know him better than you probably do that anyway that's that's my favorite thing Oh I love that

11:04 one brooks she got a cool nape story from days Gone Past I

11:13 will I'm going to tag onto that first I I I think that's

11:21 something that maybe a lot of folks don't know about and you go there to see people you know the companies you know the companies that are putting together a play in an area you're interested in if

11:32 you've always got that focus but what you don't realize is the relationships and that you start there that become I know grant and Avinash have become extremely close trusted friends and that was

11:48 twenty eight thirty years ago and and we all have some of those same stories and and then the ideas that we get that send us off on a different rabbit trail that have become very lucrative I know I've

12:03 had one just like that where I came away drilling twenty two mile lateral wells and I would call it a huge success and I found it in conversation there which led me to a booth I didn't know the people

12:16 and the next thing you know that's what we're doing and

12:21 the funniest moment of back to your funniest question I so Grand I didn't know each other in those early years got to know each other I'm going to say okay so names started in ninety three we got to

12:36 know each other somewhere around two thousand and ten and we were at night and and I was very involved with a peel and nate and and he was

12:49 slightly Grumble Grumble about what the carpet cost and a chair cost and where his booth for placement was and I used to be over here the last three years how did I get bombed over here and so I did a

13:06 little talking around and the next year he became chairman of the Knife Operators committed that but

13:18 his history I said well if you don't like the way it's working you need to get in there and make it work the right way and the rest is history best thing that ever happened to me Yeah, we got a job

13:30 for you. Yeah, exactly. So my favorite nape story is I go to nape one year and this is call it 25 years ago. There's a guy who had, this is Advent of 3D seismic. And so anyway, this guy shot a

13:45 3D seismic shoot. He found a structure that nobody had seen before and he had his drilling location up there and he was showing you the seismic lines and all that sort of stuff And anyway, he sold

13:60 his prospect that year. And anyway, the next year I go to nape. I see that same guy. He has moved the high over on the map just to the right 'cause he got that drilled and he said, You know,

14:15 that confirmed my seismic. I had a down dip show. We're going up dip now. We're gonna do this. He sold the prospect again. I swear to you, this is a true story. The third year I show up, he

14:29 has now moved on the map, the structural high up to the north a little bit 'cause he now has two down dip shows on this and he sold it three times. So yeah, that was, that was my hero. I, you

14:42 know, he probably made250, 000 on fees or something that

14:47 never found any oil. Right. The other great story I've got is my ex-wife, was an oil and gas too. She was with torch energy. She was with Wells Fargo in their lending group. And then she was

15:03 with Enron. And one time we were running around nape and we met up that night, you know, for dinner afterwards. I was going, how was, how was nape? And she goes, well, I don't know what to

15:17 feel about this. And I go what? And she goes, someone came up and asked me if I was a booth babe.

15:25 Yeah I Go I would take that as a compliment sweetie so that Yeah that was fun so so what does a first timer need to know going to nape

15:42 you know I'd have to say Yeah I

15:47 have to go in there with

15:51 maybe not aggressive intentions just to go in to walk the floor get a good general view of what's going on I mean I do think looking at the Directory and Who's doing what where kind of gives you an

16:05 idea of what you would focus when you get by that booth but to me seeing the entire area talking along the way renew old friendships and building starting new ones and but to be relaxed about it

16:23 because it's a it's a long day your feet are Gonna Hurt

16:29 and a day and a half really and and I just wouldn't go in with too aggressive of of an attitude unless you unless there's something you know somebody or some area that you know you need to go drill

16:45 down on well you know and I and what I'll say kind of along the same lines but maybe a little different twist on it as I have found at nape that literally everybody there is actually approachable I

16:60 mean i remember being a twenty nine year old young investment banker and Aubrey McClendon chatted with Me and I Remember chatting with Floyd Wilson there just tick on down the list I think that's kind

17:13 of a cool part about nape if you're a young first timer is don't be aggressive to your point but people talk to you there people are pretty inviting Yeah, I mean, Herbert Hunt went every year until

17:29 he passed away. He was there the year before he passed away. I mean, he had missed one. Grant was talking about a couple recently too. Duke Rudman and whoever. Yeah, I told this to Brooks, you

17:47 know, it's many years ago, but right in front of my booth, I see this guy coming down the aisle with a, you know, beaver hat, but I don't know what you call that kind of style with a big feather

18:02 coming out of it. And he had a fancy cane and a couple women a third his age on either side and then coming the other way is this, you know, West Texas hard rancher looking type with big yoke on

18:19 the back of his tweed jacket with the elbow patches. and these come in the other direction and you could never in your wildest dreams imagined that these two knew each other and they greeted each

18:32 other right in front of our booth and gave each other a hug and you know it was Clayton Williams in and Duke Rudman who brooks worked far which is so cool to see these legends walking the floor so

18:45 anyway Great Great Great Great Memories So I did a podcast with Ken Hirsch of Natural gas Partners and you Guys both know no can and we were talking about him hiring Chris Carter who now runs in GP

19:04 and they actually talked for the first time at Nape and Chris relates that it was the coolest thing cause literally they were walking through nape and and ken was sitting there going to see that guy

19:18 he's found more oil and gas in the Gulf of Mexico than anyone else on the planet and you know it was a geologist that had a scruffy jacket on and they were walking around and there's Clayton Williams

19:30 and there's that Knit and AG Chris Carter kind of felt like that was him going to the rock and Roll hall of fame or the Major League Baseball hall of Fame it was a it was really cool so what are you

19:45 two guys tell me about nape charities and and what goes on with that cause I like Josh Abbott band So I'm Looking forward to that

19:57 well might need Drew's help on this but night charity started many years ago not in ninety three when nights started but shortly thereafter and and it's always been tied to charities that were veteran

20:12 type organizations and it's there's a night operators Committee that is extremely I stood at what I do and I drill down everything really deep I'd bet many organizations and come up with the ones that

20:28 the majority of their money goes to the vets and I do all the right things for the right reasons but it's drew helped me out what I mean three million plus has been given away to these veteran

20:41 organizations in the last twenty years that sound about right I think it's six Brooks I Dunno juries it's six now it's giant giant amount of money that it just got started as a quick lunch and that

20:56 April and his partners paid for the food come show up and and any money raised by sponsorships was given away all of it and it's been a good thing that that's been really cool I remember George Bush

21:16 key noted that one year saying that That That was a cool deal. And I think what they've done now is they've morphed it into a concert. And so Wednesday the 5th at five o'clock at the George R.

21:31 Brown, the Josh Abbott bands, actually gonna play in their kind of Texas country, Red Dirt music. And so I'm pretty excited by that. So separate form to fill out, to buy your tickets But like

21:47 you said, all the proceeds go to the veterans. Well, last year was the first year to change it to that type of an event from the charity's luncheon. And it was extremely well received, well

22:03 attended. And the charity's still good donations. And it's a band rather than George Bush or many others equivalent They've had phenomenal Um, Speakers it became where so many were political I

22:23 dunno that was used in an effort to try something different and this seems to have worked well go with de Gea our call to to to come on the podcast and talk about this the brooks it's nice to finally

22:42 meet another Yates and Gran I don't think I've seen you in one hundred years but we won't tell people how long it's been out sorry to say it but Gimme Gimme a final thought about nape take it anywhere

22:55 you want to go

22:59 go ahead Brooks oh well I this is just another funny and so my oldest son who's now in the business out Midland he's thirty four but so he was born in Ninety which would be three he was three when the

23:17 first night came and then my second one at ninety two and my third one in ninety four so I haven't missed a night and back in the day and for most of name's thirty one years everybody had a lot of

23:31 trinkets at their booth you know orange this and a bright green that it could be a frisbee or flashlight or a pocket knife or a ruler or whatever and in those earlier years I would loaded my briefcase

23:45 with that job cause I'm talking to different people that all these boos and so really I would say that NYFA saved me money because that was most of their Christmas presents

23:56 and joking about the Christmas presents but I would come home from nape and I have not I kid you not they all three hit me at the door looking for my Briefcase I love that that's Awesome what about

24:09 you grant you know How I would just say that I mean it is changed my career Path I may be in there it exposes you to all the obvious ones that we worked the Permian so you know there's all the ones

24:24 that I know out there but it's also opened the door to so many different friendships and new partner relationships that I would have never met I would have never known to call them they come walking

24:36 by the booth and tell you a little about themselves and over the weeks or months to follow you build a relationship and you do a project with them in it schist it's been invaluable for Us and so I'm

24:48 just so thankful that brooks and those guys back in Nineteen ninety one had the foresight to think of developing something like this so guys like Us can can you know have new partners and get deals

25:03 done so Diana Y'all Remember John Linker John was a at first reserve says a long time energy investor and he ran an oil and gas company at one point and John's John has the amazing ability to sum up a

25:22 big huge complicated problem in like a sentence he's that guy and he's really funny and one year and I forget what year it is but natural gas was blowing and go and this was fourteen dollars an M type

25:35 you know stuff or whatever and anyway John Walked out of nape and I was walking up and I Get John what's going on in there he goes man it's so great the broke companies have two booths Yeah