When Abilene, Texas, author Cole Thompson wrote his debut novel, Chocolate Lizards (a reference to the dark brown lizard skinned boots his protagonist, Merle Luskey, a down on his luck oil and gas operator, eventually bestows upon his protégé, Erwin Vandeveer, a Harvard educated actor turned newly minted roughneck (landman…
Rebecca Ponton has been a journalist for 30+ years and is also a petroleum landman. She is the author of Breaking the GAS Ceiling: Women in the Offshore Oil and Gas Industry (Modern History Press; May 2019). She is also the publisher of Books & Recovery.
Oil and gas operations are commonly found in remote locations far from company headquarters. Now, it's possible to monitor pump operations, collate and analyze seismic data, and track employees around the world from almost anywhere. Whether employees are in the office or in the field, the internet and related applications enable a greater multidirectional flow of information – and control – than ever before.