Oliver Anthony rejects the political figures claiming his song. After defending the singer over his song's second verse, he plays a clip of Anthony saying it aggravates him to see conservative news, musicians and politicians act like his allies to ride the song's attention. Anthony says the song is bigger than Joe Biden and was written about the people on the presidential debate stage where it was played.
Operators give away marginal wells to shed plugging liability. Large companies hold thousands of low- or non-producing wells and are liable for plugging every one, so assigning a well relieves them of that cost; he says nine times out of ten they will hand one over if you call the land department and ask. He describes his own Houston oil company, where he is a partner and vice president, as picking up the "breadcrumbs" the big companies leave.
You need a company and bonding before taking assignments. He lists an LLC, insurance, and bonding: a P5 in Texas and, he believes, a Form 1006 in Oklahoma, where he also cites a surety bond. Bonds are blanket, covering many wells rather than one each. Candidate wells can be found through well-data services and state regulators' sites such as the Texas Railroad Commission and Oklahoma Corporation Commission, then checked on Google Earth or, more often, in person.
Plug-and-salvage pays when equipment value clears plugging cost. Plugging costs $30,000–40,000, against a pump jack worth around $30,000, tanks around $10,000 each, tubulars $10,000–15,000 and casing $50,000–70,000. His firm looks for wells with at least $100,000 of salvageable material, and he says selling everything can net $50,000–60,000 per free well.
Some free wells can be recompleted back into production. His team of geologists reviews geological maps and field production to identify recompletion candidates, and he says the firm has returned several donated wells to good production with very little invested, as part of how it is building the company.