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West Texas Boy

The Photography of Mike Rasco

Mike Rasco; Talkin' Cows

I first got to know Mike Rasco on The Oilpro Network about six years ago. He has a degree in petroleum engineering from Tech but did not let that get to his head and was pretty smart about well economics; he was a West Texas boy with cows and lots of down hole savvy. I liked him from the get go. An old Anadarko hand, he got in a bad place in 2015 when he lost his job and his wife became very ill. CBS Morning News called me wanting to do a piece on the oilfield downturn in the Permian Basin and I hooked them up with Mike; they flew out from New York, interviewed him and the segment turned out great. A few months later, still out of work, I hired him for a week or so, put him up in a hotel, fed him, gave him an unlimited beer allowance and way overpaid him to help me set pumping units and lay flowlines and do electrical hookups on new wells I had drilled.


Mike Rasco is back to work now in the Permian Basin, fixing other people's problems, taking good care of his family and often good photographs of the work he loves.


You may click on any one of these images for higher resolution stuff, please.



Home

24/7

ESP Snake

The Reach

Saudi America

First Light

Last Light

No. 67; The Methane Maker

Blue Sky

Stinkin' Frac Plugs

Work String

Dusty Upton

Bottoms Up

It Figgers'

You Tell Him, I Ain't Gonna !

Friday Night Lights

Beer Time

Thank You For the Work !

A New Day

Most of Rasco's work is now fishing related; that and fixing complicated shit down hole in horizontal shale oil wells. He'll call me from time to time and try and explain what he's doing and even though I've got 30 more years of down hole experience than he does,I don't often even understand. He'll often remark the amount of money spent in West Texas the past six years has allowed him to earn three downhole masters degrees and two doctorates.


He'll sit a drilling rig from time to time but his expertise is completion and production problems. He's used the same rig, the same crew, for many years and they are like a very close family.


All of Mike's images are copyrighted and if you want to use one we'll need to ask him permission. He's an old West Texas hand, he'll share.




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