John,
I've been following the Oilex thread with some interest; and it does seem to be a promising company. You're right, Oilex's operations are similar to NuTek's, especially since both companies are looking to acquire "stripper" wells. Their geographical interests also tend to overlap. The one important difference between Oilex and NuTek, however, is in the equipment they employ. Oilex uses the so-called swabbing technique to extract oil from the wells. What this entails is, to periodically, apply a tractor with a swabbing truck (which cost around $125,000 each) to the oil well. This method can yield several hundred barrels of oil at one time. Oilex does not install pumps on their wells. NuTek, on the other hand, while also practicing swabbing, also installs their proprietary Bailer pumps. This way they can pump oil 24 hours a day, in addition to collecting large amounts periodically (via swabbing) Basically,whereas NuTek is using a completely new technology to obtain oil from the wells (their Bailer pumps are the only pumps in production that make extraction of oil from stripper wells cost-effective); Oilex still uses standard equipment. (this, of course, does not imply that Oilex's operations are not profitable)
Just an update, as of today, NuTek owns 122 wells in Texas and Oklahoma.
Hope this helps. |
