Mid-East Oil Company - Company History, Mission, and Goals

COMPANY HISTORY

Mid-East Oil Company was formed in the 1950's by a group of Pittsburgh businessmen to explore for oil and gas in Western Pennsylvania. The company became a corporation under the name of B. G. Bartley, Inc. in 1961. The name change to Mid-East Oil Company was effective in 1964. The original incorporators were James G. Marks, Jr., Robert A. Brown, and Thomas J. Jackson.

In the first 30 years of operation the company drilled over 2,500 wells on leases in Pennsylvania, Ohio, Kentucky and West Virginia. Most of the wells were owned by friends of the principals, and were drilled on a joint venture basis. This exploration continued until 1985 when all new activity ceased.

Meanwhile, in 1981, B. G. Bartley died and Charles Griffith became the Chairman of the company. Before his death, Mr. Griffith offered Mark Thompson an opportunity to purchase the company. In 1992, that event took place.

At the time of the acquisition there were approximately 400 operating wells, mostly in Jefferson and Indiana Counties, Pennsylvania. Since that time, Mid-East has drilled over 700 wells and developed miles of pipeline systems.

MISSION STATEMENT

Mid-East's current philosophy is to develop new fields using information developed by the drilling activity of other companies from over 20 years ago. The company then pieces together relatively large acreage positions to assure control over development and pipeline operations. Wells are drilled to establish the parameters of the field. When a considerable amount of the field is drilled, and prices are relatively high, the company embarks on a campaign to sell the field at a profit.

COMPANY GOALS

Mid-East has sold oil and gas assets a number of times over the past six years. Over 550 wells have been sold in six transactions. The total of the asset sales was approximately $35 million. The largest of these was the sale in the summer of 2001 of the Olanta Field in Clearfield County. These 188 wells were sold to EnerVest Operating Company of Houston, TX for $26 million. All of the wells in the field were less than 4 years old.

Most of the investors in the wells have used their proceeds to continue drilling efforts in Centre County, Pennsylvania. Over 200 wells have been drilled in the Pine Glen field in the past two and one-half years. The company has leasehold acreage positions totaling more than 60,000 acres, or more than enough to drill for a number of years. There now exists a significant amount of geologic data to drill new wells effectively and strategically.

The continuing development of the Pine Glen Field parallels that of the adjacent Council Run Field originally developed by Eastern States Exploration in the 1980's. That field had over 1000 wells and was sold to StatOil, the national oil company of Norway. It was subsequently resold to Equitable Resources of Pittsburgh.

There still remains considerable unexplored areas in the general vicinity. Mid-East is attempting to consolidate their position by purchasing wells, pipelines and drilling rights in the area. After considerable development of the field, Mid-East will then entertain offers for the consolidated position.