Ask the Scholar
Document scope · 1 page
Scholar
Ask about this object, its catalog metadata, its source description, or the page inventory.
For page-specific OCR and visual context, open one of the page chats.
Scholar Source Context
Document identity
localId
446394684
label
Farish, Will [1965]
core
doc
dtoType
document
citationUrl
pageCount
1
Source metadata
id
446394684
contentType
document
title
Farish, Will [1965]
citationUrl
identifierLocal
25846-013
collections
George H. W. Bush Papers
Zapata Oil Files
imageCount
1
hasImages
yes
source
import
hasTranscription
no
Source extras
naId
446394684
coverageEndDate
logicalDate
1965-12-31
year
1965
coverageStartDate
logicalDate
1965-01-01
year
1965
levelOfDescription
fileUnit
recordType
description
ocrSource
nara-archive
Single page context
seq
1
pageIndex
0
type
document
mediaId
76d9972cfd0ecea4
ocrText
Originally Processed With FOIA(s):
FOIA Number:
S
S
FOIA
MARKER
This is not a textual record. This is used as an
administrative marker by the George Bush Presidential
Library Staff.
Record Group/Collection: Donated Historical Materials
Collection/Office of Origin: Bush, George H.W., Collection
Series:
Personal Papers
Subseries:
Zapata Oil File, Business Alphabetical File
OA/ID Number:
25846
Folder ID Number:
25846-013
Folder Title:
Farish, Will [1965]
Stack:
Row:
Section:
Shelf:
Position:
G
5
1
3
1
Farish
November 18, 1965
Dear Will,
You asked how Zapata might be used as a vehicle for building
substantial offshore reserves.
In my opinion, this is an easily-obtainable goal. The obvious
example of how this can be done is ODECO. ODECO is a subsidiary
of the Murphy Corporation. Through association with the Murphy
Corporation, ODECO is in a position to take many offshore farm-
out deals. They can participate in lease purchases and, gener-
ally speaking, through their "rich parent", they can act more
like an oil company.
Zapata has taken an important initial step to build up addition-
al reserves by forming a drilling syndicate. We have joined
with six smaller oil companies to take offshore farmouts. We
have committed our drilling rig Scorpion to this project for
six months a year for three years. We have already taken our
first farmout with the group and are actively looking for more.
This syndicate vehicle could be vastly expanded if we had a "rich
parent.'
We have expanded rapidly in the drilling equipment field and
therefore we have certain understandable restrictions on the
amount of wildcat drilling we can do. Our policy has long been
to reduce debt and reduce it quickly and so we have not had sub-
stantial sums of excess cash to spend on drilling deals. Also,
we have become very carnings-conscious and for that reason, we
are not free to do as much wildcat drilling as we would like to
do. There has been pressure on all offshore drilling companies
to show earnings and SO we have kept our drilling budget to
$300,000 a year.
If a group interested in oil exploration owned control of Zapata,
it seems to me they could expand our oil exploration activities
in various ways. 1) They could step up the participation in
the syndicate. 2) They could participate in the exploration of
foreign deals. From time to time, we see opportunities to drill
abroad and take a quarter interest but this quarter interest is
usually a stumbling block to us becathe reasons mentioned above.
Bush Library Photocopy
Preservation
2 - Mr. Will Farish, III
November 18, 1965
Will, it is my firm belief that there will be more and more op-
portunities for participations in the Gulf of Mexico. As the
Gulf becomes more leased up, companies will be looking around
for others to participate on a farmout basis. This has been the
history on land and it is going to be the history offshore.
In my opinion, the surface has just barely been scratched for
offshore oil exploration. Also, the economics are going to get
better because as more production goes onstream, andemore Epipe-
lines are put in, more and more production will find a market.
One of the problems in some areas is that the product is
fairly far removed from market.
I also expect to see a change in the gas market offshore. Soon
the major gas companies will start to buy again and when this
happens, there will be a lot more opportunities to drill stepouts
to existing gas fields and to participate in one way or another
in gas production.
Let me know if this letter brings to mind any further questions.
Yours very truly,
George H. W. Bush
Mr. Will Farish, III
Underwood, Neuhaus & Co.
724 Travis Street
Houston, Texas
GB:as
Bush Library Photocopy
Preservation,