Oil & Gas - It Flows Through Our Veins
Whenever something grows – as with our expected launch of several new Darsey and Associates offices around Texas – it is natural to look ahead; to anticipate the future. It is also a good opportunity to step back and reflect on where you have been.
Darsey and Associates is rapidly becoming one of the premier Oil & Gas lease brokerage firms in Texas. However, it is not the Darsey family’s first venture into the energy industry – just the latest.
Oil & Gas are an essential lifeblood of the Lone Star State. They fuel our cars, light our homes and drive the economic engine of Texas. Just like Oil & Gas are a lifeblood to our state, they have proven just as vital to my family. Each has flowed through our veins over the decades. Each has become a vital part of our livelihoods and our lives.
Let me share with you how that came to pass. You will soon understand why Darsey and Associates is so important to me. You will also appreciate why I want to contribute my share to the family tradition and pass it along to the next generation, just as it was handed down to me.
The Darsey family jumped into the Oil & Gas business in the heady days of the East Texas oil boom. Oil was discovered in the region in 1930. Soon after, tiny East Texas hamlets like Kilgore, Tyler and others turned into overnight boomtowns.
The smell of oil … and money … hung thick in the air.
In this raucous and exciting atmosphere, the son of a Grapeland, Texas family rolled the dice and cast his lot after graduation from the University of Texas business school.
Rather than work on a rig pushing tools, my grandfather, W.G. Darsey, Jr., launched his prolific career in the office. It is there he made his lasting mark in leasing and other Oil & Gas land and legal activities.
W.G. and a partner soon started a company to chase their dreams and fortunes. This company, the Oil Lease Brokerage Co., operated out of Tyler. Tyler, an important industry hub, provided easy access to many Oil & Gas company field offices.
The partners offered their services to Oil & Gas companies as landmen, patiently and fairly negotiating and securing valuable mineral rights from local landowners, enabling companies to drill on private land in exchange for royalties to the owner. This agreement is called a lease. Without a landman’s services in obtaining a lease, drilling and production might bog down.
Four generations of Darsey men, W.G. III is the baby in the picture.
This was taken 83 years ago.
Eventually, the Oil Lease Brokerage Co. spread across 15 East Texas counties as the Oil & Gas business discovered more and more oil under the piney woods. W.G. worked this prosperous territory for 15 years. However, new Oil & Gas fields beckoned elsewhere in the state. Soon W.G. saw his opportunity to expand into a greenfield market as the East Texas oil patch began to mature.
W.G. opened a new office in Austin. From the state’s capital, he could work the South Texas fields in Refugio, Nueces and San Patricio counties. W.G.’s far-sighted lease negotiations helped secure the land on which the Big Foot Field was discovered in Frio County, southwest of San Antonio.
While nurturing a business, W.G. found time to raise a family. His son and my dad, Bill Darsey, soon discovered that he too had Oil & Gas running through his veins. After graduating with a degree in geology, Bill helped locate new Oil & Gas fields along the Gulf Coast and as far away as Egypt and the Middle East. Bill steadily worked his way up the ladder as an independent geologist as well as a corporate exploration executive.
It was no surprise that when I entered the world, my heart pumped Oil & Gas, just like it did with my father and grandfather before me. It is so much in my blood, people just call me “Rig.”
I have worked as a contract broker and now, like my grandfather and father before me, I am ready to strike out on my own. In the proud Darsey family tradition, I have opened my own independent lease acquisition and brokerage company, just as my grandfather did nearly 90 years ago.
W.G. Darsey III
W.G. Darsey, Jr.
My Grandfather, W.G., Jr., was driven by a deep desire to not only expand the frontiers of drilling and exploration, but to ensure that lease owners were treated equitably and fairly in return for the rights to their land. The best business is when all parties profit. Honesty, trust and integrity in all dealings. That is my philosophy today at the new Darsey and Associates.
first row: Bill Darsey (center), Dan A. Hughes
second row: Earl Melton, Ray Welder and Clark Sutley
Right now, Darsey and Associates is in full operation in Houston. We are planning future offices for San Antonio, the Dallas/Fort Worth Metroplex and Midland. Stay tuned for more information on those as we grow.
When you are looking to negotiate an oil and gas lease, consider a firm where Oil & Gas flows through the veins. Consider a firm where you will be represented with honesty, trust and integrity. After all, those are our lifeblood . . . and our family traditions.
Looking forward to working with you,
William G. “Rig” Darsey IV