Rey “RT” Treviño III shares how his family built Pecos Operating from the ground up starting with software and evolving into hands-on drilling operations in Texas. He discusses leadership, navigating regulations as a small operator, and why he believes oil and gas still power the future. From family values to the real story behind media portrayals of the industry, Rey offers a grounded, behind-the-scenes look at what it really takes to succeed in oil and gas today.
Highlights of the Podcast
00:00 – Origins & Texas Pride
03:13 – Family in the Industry
05:44 – How Rey’s Father Entered Oil & Gas
09:01 – Founding of Pecos Operating
12:28 – The Meaning Behind “Pecos”
13:50 – Becoming Operators
15:22 – Leadership Principles
16:45 – Challenges of Small Operators
18:21 – Investment Philosophy
20:03 – The Role of Technology & Media
22:32 – Media Portrayal of Oil & Gas
24:59 – Advice for the Next Generation
26:46 – Lessons from 15 Years in Oil & Gas
28:25 – Federal vs. State Regulations
31:04 – Community Investment in the Permian
33:32 – What Sets Pecos Apart
35:30 – Family Business Dynamics
37:22 – Heritage and Faith
39:13 – Marketing & Final Thoughts
Rey Treviño on Energy, Pecos Operating, Family + the Future of Oil & Gas
Video Transcription edited for grammar. We disavow any errors unless they make us look better or smarter.
Vasili Borissov [00:00:00] Mr. Rey Treviño, welcome to the Cutting Edge Podcast here with Vasily Borisov, glad to have you. Thank you for being in our town, which recently you told me you love so much.
Rey "RT" Treviño III [00:00:10] I love Houston. Houston is the mecca of the oil and gas industry. I mean, you know, West Texas is where we produce and North Texas, Fort Worth, Dallas is where the large families are from for the most part. And then Houston is where all the oil comes to or comes out of for the part. And of course they are building that larger port down there in Corpus, but hey, it's all here in Houston.
Vasili Borissov [00:00:38] Yeah, I think we're kind of like the, um, there's like a little Bermuda triangle between like the one of the greatest onshore drilling regions, which is Midland, right? Permian. And then you've got one of biggest offshore drilling regions which is the Gulf of America. You fill in the spot. And then, and then you got Houston in the middle. So, um no, man, glad to have you. I think you, you have a really interesting story. I've been definitely, you know, keeping up with some of your podcasts and we have a very good mutual network of Friends that that's in this space. So, um, man, I just like to know more about you I think we we always see you doing a great job interviewing others and getting those stories out But like let's fit you know, you're not a mystery, but we definitely want to get to know More about mr Rey, so man tell me like, you know where you come from where you were born maybe You know how what inspired you to to get into oil gas space? I know you have much respect for your father and you talk about him. So let let let me know man
Rey "RT" Treviño III [00:01:34] Well, Vasili, first of all, it's great to meet you here as the day that we record. It's been real fun. We had a chance to go to the gun range a little bit earlier, had a good talk with some other big people in the industry today. And so to be sitting here right now, and for you to tell me right before we start recording, he goes, hey, we're just gonna talk about you.
Vasili Borissov [00:01:56] I know you love that.
Rey "RT" Treviño III [00:01:56] And I go, oh my gosh, like, I don't like doing that. And now I know how, to all my listeners of The Crude Truth, which that's the name of my podcast, The Crue Truth, I know you all feel now. And I wanna say thank you all so much for that feeling and actually just opening it up because wow, what a, I feel like Ricky Bobby right now with like, I don't know what to do with my hands. Vasili, I fell like, you know, after we've been talking today, we've got a little bit of a, somewhat of a similar like story. I'm only I'm not from Russia
Vasili Borissov [00:02:29] Okay.
Rey "RT" Treviño III [00:02:30] And, um, uh, and yeah.
Vasili Borissov [00:02:31] Eastern Bloc.
Rey "RT" Treviño III [00:02:31] Yeah, I know I know and and you hide that accent real well sometimes
Vasili Borissov [00:02:36] Well, I mean, I think they say like, if you come, well, let's say to the States or another country and you're not in your teens yet, you usually tend to not have an accent and it's kind of true because I have friends that like moved here and they're like, they were like 14 or they're going to high school. It's very, almost not noticeable, but something's there, but you know, I I'm a Texan before anything. Amen. I don't last podcast I was having with Colin McClellan. Shout out to these are wildcatters. Um, he was telling me, cause he's from Midland. They say Midland over Moscow, but anyway, so yeah, no, um, well, don't put it back on me, man, let me know where you're coming.
Rey "RT" Treviño III [00:03:13] You caught, you caught that. Yeah, let me know where you're from. Um, well, the silly, I'm from Texas, uh, born and raised in Fort Worth. I was born in a downtown Fort Worth, uh grew up there and, um, what's now known as the mid cities and, uh back, back in the late eighties, early nineties, you just said Fort Worth cause you knew Fort Worth and you knew Dallas, you didn't know South Lake, West Lake, you know, Keller, North Richland Hills. You didn't about that. You just knew the two cities in between and hence the name mid cities. I'm very, very blessed. You know, I have two great brothers that are both younger than me. Both are smarter than me, probably, I won't say it, but they're almost as athletic as me. Uh-oh. They might be.
Vasili Borissov [00:03:58] So it's three of y'all. Yeah, three boys. Are they in the oil and gas phase?
Rey "RT" Treviño III [00:04:03] Uh, they've all, uh, one of them is currently in it. And the other one is actually, he got an opportunity to be a partner in Alaska for a giant hunting and fishing lodge and he went up there. And, um, next thing, you know, I kind of figured he'd be up there just to help put it together. Okay. A buddy of mine goes, oh, he's not coming back and sure enough, he moved the whole family up there, so they're, they're up there and, um, I know a lot of the companies are always up there going, Hey, you want to come work for us? They're like, no, I'm, I, I I'm good. And then my youngest brother actually, he's part of our company, but right now he actually got a great opportunity with a Champion X there in West Texas. He's a chemical engineer major actually. He did go to school at University of Houston.
Vasili Borissov [00:04:46] Where did, oh, okay, my dad was a, that's how we moved here was my dad was a professor at U of H. And so, but, so where did you go to school?
Rey "RT" Treviño III [00:04:54] Um, I got my undergrad at North Texas, uh, the mean green, the mean green baby, and I always tell people I, I shoved a four year degree into six, but no, so I got them under degree there. Uh, and then, uh I actually went into the, uh finance industry for a few years, um, but our backstory and oil and gas actually starts in the mid eighties. Okay. Um, my father is a software engineer by trade. And what he did was actually ended up partnering up with several of the, of the big families in Fort Worth and started writing their custom software for their accounting departments. I see. So you figure the PC was invented in somewhere or became mass product and all that somewhere between 78 and 79. Okay. And oil and gas as we've talked about today is always trying to find the latest and greatest technologies.
Vasili Borissov [00:05:44] But to implement it, it's sometimes not as quick as some other.
Rey "RT" Treviño III [00:05:49] Right. Well, it's also, as we discussed, you know, it is old. It's old school.
Vasili Borissov [00:05:53] Right, right, right.
Rey "RT" Treviño III [00:05:53] You know, and we get that a lot, you know, well, my dad did it this way, my grandpa did it that way, so we're going to do it that.
Vasili Borissov [00:05:59] Which is understandable.
Rey "RT" Treviño III [00:06:00] It's totally understandable. Well, the PC changed the way a lot of oil and gas companies just brought their work in-house, right? You got rid of paperwork. So he wrote custom software there, uh, basically from 19 or from late, late 1984, 85, all the way through almost 2015 of all, um, and, and he was definitely slowing down on that, um by 2015, but basically he wrote this custom software and it's all the accounting software. As he's writing this accounting software, he begins to kind of pick up a little bits and pieces about why they had so many people in accounting and why they paid them so much and why. They wanted it in house and how much money the only gas company and those families saved every year just by drilling oil and gas wells. And you know, this is 1989 by now. And basically he was able to go out to the oil field. And this one family like stereotypical at that time is like, well, this is our land. This is our ranch. These are our wells that we drilled in our minerals. And so he's like, Well, I guess it's not for everybody. And right, right. Cause I don't, I don't have a ranch. I don't have minerals and yeah, but they, they had really gotten a good relationship and they're like, Oh no, Reagan, my dad's name is Rey. Also he goes, no, I actually, you know, a lot of people drill oil wells with other people. And so they pointed them in the right direction. And so he started investing in oil and gas, just as a investor, nothing more, nothing less, pick up a little bit here, a little bit there. And he really did it for the tax deductions. That is the only reason why. You figure you're a 1990 custom software. You're, you're making a good check yourself. And when you can write that off against your capital gains, your W2 income, any ancillary income that you made, it's a no brainer.
Vasili Borissov [00:07:50] Well, and did they appreciate the software that he created that he then potentially helped them use to better keep track of their books and accounting and data because, you know, now especially, but I'm sure even back then keeping track of numbers and data and analytics and then how those numbers work and where there's margins and how you can save money that that's how he kind of
Rey "RT" Treviño III [00:08:11] Oh, he approaches it with a fine tooth comb. I bet. And that's what made it so cool, especially with the custom software back in the day, that they might have the headache of counting, but hey, can we get this? Because we want to find out what this number is going to be. So he'd go back in behind the code and do the code, do the math, and then put that button out there, right? And then hit the button so that, for them, it's just easy, easy peasy. Just like Excel spreadsheets with all that kind of stuff.
Vasili Borissov [00:08:38] Right. Um, so what brings you from him doing his thing? Um, and then you finishing college, I'm guessing it was somewhere in the early two thousands. Um, And then you did, you also, I guess, followed somewhat in his footsteps with the finance things, but what brings you then, um, or I guess what's, give us like maybe a brief history of Pecos and how you got to that place.
Rey "RT" Treviño III [00:09:01] Lunch. Lunch, okay. You know, I think earlier I told you that I like Dallas and Fort Worth. Like, Fort Worth will always be my soft spot, but you either love Fort Worth, hate Dallas, love Dallas, hate Fort Worth you know, it's just a fun rivalry. Really? I didn't realize that. Yeah, yeah, it just a funny rivalry. You know we're both Dallas Cowboys. Every American should be a Dallas Cowboy fan.
Vasili Borissov [00:09:19] This by the way I am I'm the only one in my family I'll tell you quickly why yeah when we first moved him from Russia in like early mid 90s oh yeah Astros love Rockets winning championships love the Oilers booked town you went to Tennessee so all I saw on TV was 49ers Cowboys 49ers and I'm like oh I'm rooting for the Texas So I became a diehard Cowboys fan. My favorite player was Deon Sanders. And when he came from San Francisco to Dallas, I was like, game over, baby, that was my favorite. So I'm with the Houston folks, don't love me for that, but I'm a die hard Cowboys.
Rey "RT" Treviño III [00:09:49] Oh yeah, no, no. Well, every American should be. It is Americans. Yeah. True team. But, um, but anyway, so, uh, I had just moved to Dallas and, uh. Um, for a change and next thing you know, he goes, Hey, I want you to come to lunch and, um your brother, this was one that's on Alaska. He goes, uh I want y'all to come. To lunch with me and we're like, okay. And, uh he had just graduated himself and so we're there and he goes. Hey, um basically opened up his portfolio of oil and gas.
Vasili Borissov [00:10:13] This is your dad?
Rey "RT" Treviño III [00:10:15] At lunch and he still had an old school leather bound book. And for all the, all the people out there that remember it was like this big. I don't know, two or three feet wide, um, you know, a foot long and it's leather bound and then you open it up and then when you open up the pages and then when you go to the top, it actually started at the top of that page.
Vasili Borissov [00:10:34] Ah, it rolls out. It rolled out, yeah.
Rey "RT" Treviño III [00:10:37] He goes, this is all I've been doing on gas. This is where I'm at. He goes we can make a, we can make a run at this. And he goes, and he goes we can be very successful.
Vasili Borissov [00:10:48] Both brothers, or you and one of-
Rey "RT" Treviño III [00:10:50] William, me and my, I've got two brothers, one's two years younger. The other one was still at, I actually hear in a huge van.
Vasili Borissov [00:10:57] Okay, so just one of your brothers. Okay, okay.
Rey "RT" Treviño III [00:11:00] So he was like, we could, we can do this. So what we ended up starting to do is pick up a working interest over like large portions of working interest in oil and gas wells. Uh, and that's actually the part that pays for the drilling of the well. So if you own the royalties underground, you're sitting pretty, all you pay is a tax and that it, but the working interest is, is what comes out, does all the work and pays for it. So we started taking 50% or more in any wells that we were doing. And next thing I know, I'm out in West Texas. Um, again, I've already, you know, have already graduated. So I'm 25, 26, I crammed a four year degree into six and I'm out there with an 18 and 19 year olds just working, you know, obviously being from Fort Worth, you, you know, people that are in the industry. So we, we were able to get some jobs, but we got grunt jobs and it was amazing. So we worked on the drilling rig for a couple of years. That's awesome. The night shifts, you know, and, um, the, and uh, And then we did completions with EOG for a while also. Okay. And so we really got a, that good old fashioned hard knock. You know, it's like, we were talking earlier about degrees with our conversation. Yes. Well, mine's in organization development behavior. So good luck about, you know, you know, there's a lot in there, but, but when you're slinging chain and, and, you know, slinging a hedge, a sledgehammer, it's a little different.
Vasili Borissov [00:12:18] Hard Knock Universe.
Rey "RT" Treviño III [00:12:19] There you go. Um, so anyway, so we did that and then in 2017, I was able to finally like get back to the footwork.
Vasili Borissov [00:12:28] So at this point, are you kind of already, or you guys have established, so did Pecos, kind of like our company, did you guys start as like a family business?
Rey "RT" Treviño III [00:12:38] Oh yeah, absolutely. Everything, everything, everything that we've done, we, every now and up until a couple of years ago was all our back. What inspired the name Payco? That actually comes from New Mexico of all places. Um, we all did Boy Scouts and there was a great place out there called the Payco's wilderness. Okay. And there's a mountain out there called Truchus, Mount Truches. Okay. And it was, it's like 14 and a half thousand feet, 14, five, give or take. And you are literally You are borderline needing repelling or rock climbing gear to get up to the peak. Uh, and my dad was 57, maybe don't quote me late fifties. And we all got up this mountain hiking, hiking, but we're talking backpacking a week out in the mountains backpacking all that stuff, because I asked him that I go, why are we doing Paycos? And he goes, because that was the hardest thing we ever did. And we got it done and it was completed.
Vasili Borissov [00:13:33] That's awesome.
Rey "RT" Treviño III [00:13:33] And so that's actually where it comes from.
Vasili Borissov [00:13:35] So did you start like, so your position of, let's see, you know, VP operations, like, I mean, in most cases, when I hear that, I'm like, that guy's doing a lot of the work here when I heard that title, is that how you, that was originally your title, like.
Rey "RT" Treviño III [00:13:50] Originally, that was my title from day one, but it was more of a glory title because I was out in West Texas working, learning. And so I was basically doing third party work while all of our revenue was still going back into projects. We're just doing that over and over again. Anything that came in went right back out into the project. So that's why I said everything we've done is from our back pockets. And then in 2017, we got back up in North Texas and we had one of our operators belly up on us. And we had no really plan to be an operator. Um, and next thing you know, uh, they bellied up, but it took about six to eight months and we were still working with them. And then we had another one and I felt bad for the second operator because, uh dad cut them. No slack. It was like, you're out like all this stuff. And so by 2019, we're our own operator. Okay. Basically, you know as an operator, we maintain, develop the production for an exploration and production company. Right. And so that's what we have. We have our exploration and production company and an operating company that then does all the work.
Vasili Borissov [00:14:52] So you and I heard you mentioned that about 50 or more percent of the operators out are private operators.
Rey "RT" Treviño III [00:15:00] Yes, over 50, actually it's over 50% of operators in the oil and gas space in Texas are what are considered small operators. Now Pioneer, which obviously has just been bought by Exxon, but Pioneer is still considered a small independent. Independence also produced 50% percent of the oil in Texas, while the majors then produce that other 50 percent.
Vasili Borissov [00:15:22] What would you say like, obviously here and you go through the grind and now, you know, sounds like you're in a position where you guys, there's always challenges and trouble. I get it. Trust me. But sounds like, you know you're on up and up. What, what kind of, um, like leadership principles would you say guide your decision making in such like a high stakes industry where, I mean, one wrong move here or there could send you your family business as you started going in the wrong direction.
Rey "RT" Treviño III [00:15:50] Knowledge and confidence, but also, you know, I wish I could sit here and say that we have a family code, but we really follow, I would say again, all three of us being, you, know, Eagle scouts, we, we follow that, you know, trustworthy, you got to be loyal, um, you know, friendly. I mean, and I know I'm not always the friendliest, but you got to be friendly and kind, uh, and treat people with respect. And if you do that, You build relationships and it's not about if you mess up a hole, it's like, hey, you know, you know you did the best job that you can do, because not every hole is a winner and not every whole is a home run.
Vasili Borissov [00:16:27] How would you say, um, like operational efficiency, how do you balance that with, you know, regulatory environmental compliance? I know there's, there's a lot of that and maybe more in the last four years than, you know in the next four, but, um. How do you do balance that whole scale?
Rey "RT" Treviño III [00:16:45] Do your best to make a lot of good friends. No, uh, no, it is such a, it is so hard, especially as a small independent, because for an example, a good friend of mine, David Blackman, about two or three years ago, uh started helping out the oil and gas industry by talking about a lizard that the EPA was saying was endangered in West Texas, it was threatened to shut down West Texas oil just because this lizard was there. So David Blackman, who if anybody out there, definitely follow him. He's one of the energy experts out.
Vasili Borissov [00:17:16] Oh, we're naming names, though, hey?
Rey "RT" Treviño III [00:17:18] Yeah, he's somebody that's very good. Okay. And he started writing articles and being pro-oil like hey This isn't it But the other side of that coin too is if Pecos is out there in West Texas drilling a well and they say hey the Lizards there I Can't do anything. I can't fight the EPA Exxon on the other hand is gonna go out there. They're gonna go hire six biologists Spend three to six months proving why it's safe and then we get back to work
Vasili Borissov [00:17:43] Okay. So in that, cause usually one of my good friends, Taylor, who runs key ball oil and gas was like, man, cause you know, getting into this game a couple of years ago, I'm just learning. I'm trying to be like a sponge. And he said, man a lot of times it's, it's the smaller operators like in the Eagle Ford that go out and, and drill these wells and figure out what's going on. And then the big dogs see, okay, there's some success there. Now we'll, we'll come in. But what you just said almost was the opposite way.
Rey "RT" Treviño III [00:18:09] No, no, what I just said was talking about in that scenario of the fact that Exxon has the capital
Vasili Borissov [00:18:15] to go and solve that problem first.
Rey "RT" Treviño III [00:18:18] While Pecos would be like, well, I guess we're not going to drill them.
Vasili Borissov [00:18:21] All right, that is you don't have the capital to go.
Rey "RT" Treviño III [00:18:23] But yes, that's you know, and that's not our model like like your friends. Our model is if it's making money, we don't want to sell it. And but, you know the days of the official wildcatters are gone. You know, first of all, technology is just so there nowadays that even if you're wild is almost like it's a fun. No, it's all great work because you know what, if I go drill two miles away from where I'm at, I'm going to feel like I'm wildcatting. Okay, but we like to hold on to what we got and what the Exxon's and Chevron's of the world will do Just like Exxons did with Pioneer is a way let somebody Prove in it an area and then come in over pay and buy it and then people make a lot of money, right? I'd rather make a lotta money a lot Of times, you know at one time we were out at the lake and somebody goes Oh, you're an oil and gas. I go. Yeah, and they go. Well, why are we on your big? 250 or 500,000 our million dollar boat that are over there said, because I'll take that million dollars, put it in the oil in a well, and I'll get that money back in 12 to 18 months and I'll do that again.
Vasili Borissov [00:19:24] And put in keep. Yeah, and do that.
Rey "RT" Treviño III [00:19:25] Yeah, and do that again. I'm like, you know, I love boats and I probably need to get another one. But they're really fun, but it's like, where do you want to put your money? You know, and I love it when you see people also, they'll like say, Hey, I just bought a truck for the tax ride off for a hundred, you know, And I'm like, go, go put it in an oil well. If you get that money back and you can do it again, you know, but I need the tax deduction for a truck.
Vasili Borissov [00:19:46] I think to me, like the future is, in my opinion, it's like media, AI, data, you know, analytics. Like what would you say, what type of new innovation or technology are you using or software in your business, in PECOS, to help push your company forward?
Rey "RT" Treviño III [00:20:03] Well, we're definitely looking at, you know, what, what software is going to help us be more streamlined, obviously from a, from a software paperwork standpoint, right? Also, you're looking out for this AI. What, what's going to happen with it? We're, uh, it's, you it's basically AI right now is something that's using a lot of energy. Um, I don't know how many people out there know this, but if you do a Google search and, um, and then you do the same exact search on chat gbt You actually use 10 times the amount of energy for the AI chat GPT. Then you do the Google search.
Vasili Borissov [00:20:38] Oh, so on my Siri asked me, would you like me to use a chat GPT or use the web? I should tell her to save energy. Right. Use the.
Rey "RT" Treviño III [00:20:46] Yeah, exactly. So we got these data centers that are going to be being built. How are we going to power them? And that's where the liquid natural gas is really going to come pay.
Vasili Borissov [00:20:56] That's the future right there.
Rey "RT" Treviño III [00:20:57] So you talk about, you said media, AI technologies, media data and media has to be better. We have to do a better job of putting out the word. Oiling gas is great for the environment, that we're not doing anything wrong, because, you know, what we're doing is we're saving the rainforest. Uh, and what I mean by that in a great example is the island of the Dominican Republic in Haiti, uh, in the 1950s, the Dominican Republic national, I'm not for nationalizing anything, but they nationalized natural gas for their heating stoves and, or for their stoves in their heaters. Um, Haiti did not, Haiti continued to burn wood as their number one energy source. Today Dominican Republic is still a lush rainforest why last time I checked everybody is leaving Haiti Oh, hey, and if you look it out on a map topical topographical map Mm-hmm, the maker public is green and beautiful while Haiti on the same island And that's because they stopped using the trees to provide energy. Yeah, so we have to do a better job because In places like Russia Venezuela, there are no rules There is no EPA are these regulations that we have follow that are so strenuous to make sure that we're drilling safely, that when we're going through a water table, that we are double concreting that hole to make sure that nothing gets into it. That we're doing all these tests. And so, you know, so media has got to make, to take a, we have to do a better job of getting our story out there. I think media is a great spot. And I heard you use a midnight marketing for some of those. Yeah.
Vasili Borissov [00:22:32] Yeah, shout out, I like to shout them out, Tim and the crew there, always, they do such a great job and working with myself and our team and creating content and getting it out there to the public and that's been something that's helped put us out in front of potential customers, clients, operators that are interested or have the opportunity or the interest to use new technology as our drill bits at CoolHBits and no, it's been great, I think it's super. Super important, and I guess that's what we're doing here, is we're shouting out the EMP operators in the oil and gas space, especially out in West Texas, but really everywhere in North America. Like the show, I like the show Land Man, my wife and I watch quite a bit, and I think it was the first or second episode where he's like, well, the energy sector or the oil gas industry is somewhere about, I think like he said, sixth or something, out of all the rank-wise cap table, or whatever market cap, he said. the five that are in front of it would never exist if it wasn't for oil and gas. So I love when he said that, man. That was pretty cool. By the way, that show, if you've ever watched it, how real or similar is it to actual, because you're out there all day, every day. It's not.
Rey "RT" Treviño III [00:23:48] It makes for great TV.
Vasili Borissov [00:23:51] But love that got Taylor Sheridan amazing. He does not miss Yellowstone Tulsa
Rey "RT" Treviño III [00:23:59] Yeah, that was weird.
Vasili Borissov [00:24:00] In Bingstown.
Rey "RT" Treviño III [00:24:01] I haven't gotten into that one, but there's the reason I got into yeah He has great writers now being part of a nape North American Prospect Expo in the American Association for William Landman a PL They actually sent people in to talk and understand So the writing I think is very good kind of like you just said about that one scene where he said You know we may be number six, but the other five wouldn't exist without us. That's true. Mm-hmm the action in that movie is totally false. Oil and gas, our number one thing every day is safety. Safety is the number one things. And so to make a good TV show, you gotta have action, right? So that's why I say 90% of it is false. We don't do those things. Hell, we're not even, alcohol on the sites anymore. I mean, we can't do that. We definitely don't have... Weapons on site and I don't know how many landmen actually have to deal with the cartel on a day.
Vasili Borissov [00:24:59] Well, one of my what's crazy? Yeah. No, you're right. One of my sales guys out in Midland was like, yeah No, he's like he was going, you know land going from rig to rig field sales. He's like, oh, yeah I just I just got drug tested. They just pulled us in and whoever was out there just drug tested it like random I'm like, what the hell?
Rey "RT" Treviño III [00:25:17] Can I do that?
Vasili Borissov [00:25:17] I don't know, I never heard of that, but they rounded everyone up and...
Rey "RT" Treviño III [00:25:22] I think so. I mean, because you're if you're on the pad site, right? I mean again, it's safety first, right and so if you want to pass I especially for for somebody else customers that y'all have You don't want to mess up. You know, so, you know, we do I know I know that we do do random drug tests And I'm trying to think back in the day I think I think we I saw that happen one time too where like there have to be a salesperson out there like Let's go and they're like really
Vasili Borissov [00:25:47] You gotta comply, yeah. So, okay, so you being, it sounds like, you know, obviously lots of experience so far in the industry. Like, what is some advice that you would give to like someone, someone that's young, that's coming into the game? You know, I know we talked earlier about like, if you wanna own a, run a business, you know try to do every, try to every job in the business and learn everything. Like what leadership advice would you give from your position if someone is starting out young and trying to accomplish and get to where you are, let's say.
Rey "RT" Treviño III [00:26:16] Be patient, especially in oil and gas. Work hard, be patient. Do everything and understand all that you can because the more you can learn in oil and gas, it helps out everybody. Again, it goes back to that message. It just helps everybody out. And in the days of being more quiet, like my dad's generation, where it's like, oh, I'm not gonna tell this oil and guess company what we're doing and those days are not gone, but we try to work together a little bit more days. Hold it now.
Vasili Borissov [00:26:46] Hold the I.P. Tight to the...
Rey "RT" Treviño III [00:26:48] Oh, no, we'll still do that. No, we're going to keep those IP numbers still tied to the rights. There's, we, that's a whole, that a whole other thing on why we all keep them IP. But, uh, but no, um, you know, we want to, we wanna just share our knowledge also. And, you, I definitely know, I don't know near half of what my father knows. And I know there's other gentlemen out there that my dad would say the same thing that are the same exact age, the same amount of time. That there's always going to be people out there and sit down and ask. And you've been asking great questions today. Like when we were doing things, you're like, Hey, what's the most efficient way to hold a gun or something? Like you asked something like, what can I do for this? And I was like, man, you were just asking good questions. So that's something else I always want to tell the young. It's like no question, the bad question. And so it's like, just always be asking questions.
Vasili Borissov [00:27:33] So what would you say some of the most valuable, and I've got another question to follow, which is maybe more interesting, but first, what are some of the most value lessons that you've learned? Let's say, okay, so when did you, can we say safely, okay this is the year that I started my career in oil and gas. So almost 15 years. So what are the most valuable lessons that you've learned in your career in 15 years, let's say.
Rey "RT" Treviño III [00:27:58] Work hard, show up on time, and in a way, say yes to the job, because you'll learn it. And don't be afraid to say I don't know, because that'll cost a life also in the oil and gas space. So be on time. Show up. And if you can have a smile on your face, it'll throw everybody off. And I say, have a smiling on your faced, because you know what, you're up, you're working hard, and you're making money, so why not have a smiles.
Vasili Borissov [00:28:25] I listened to this guy called Patrick, but David, who's a successful fella. He's got this, um, uh, media platform called value tainment out of Florida and really successful sold his billet business for like half a bill and then started this and, you know, he's interviewed Trump, everybody, but he's got this some of this, uh gear hats, shirts, whatever, one of them just says USA and it says, uh has got American flag and I hear it just says the future looks bright and he started selling it last year. And I would wear it in front of people and they'd be looking at me crazy like
Rey "RT" Treviño III [00:28:56] Why not be glass half full? I mean plus the way I always talk about it is I have a little confidence I have little swag and it's like yeah, I'm literally putting my money in the dirt I better have confidence that I'm gonna get it back right but also hey just be a glass half-full guy You know years ago. I heard somebody knows an old old snake oil salesman He was like, oh man, this this well might come on a thousand barrels a day, you know, like we're like, bro He goes well, we don't know and it was like no you really don't like yeah we kind of have a good idea of what it's going to do right right but it's like
Vasili Borissov [00:29:31] Speaking into existence and I feel like if you pray every morning and every night and you put those good vibes and those good kind of thoughts and feelings and even words out like into the universe that the good Lord has a way of hearing you and kind of guiding you and placing you in there. If you work hard, you got a little talent, you've got a lot of luck, right? And then you just kind of try to follow his will for your life. I think he can put you in some good places. So the follow-up question to that was, Shout out, you know who. But the follow up question was maybe a more fun question. Are there any stories that you can share, like crazy, insane, whether something crazy happened out in the field, or you know, that you could share to be fair.
Rey "RT" Treviño III [00:30:18] You know, I would like to sit here and say that we've done a pretty good job and that we learned a lot throughout this time that the oil and gas industry from, you know, 2004, eight, when the shell boom started, it was definitely a different place, you safety has always been number one, but in the last 20 years, safety has really become more and more and, you know, that's just something that we need to, you know, just make sure that really that we focus on. Okay. Make sure that's real safe.
Vasili Borissov [00:30:51] Well, I just there's a good question here that I'm going over that I prepared for you
Rey "RT" Treviño III [00:30:56] I have no idea, by the way, like, I have no idea how we're doing this. Like, I love it. All right, what's up?
Vasili Borissov [00:31:00] So what are your thoughts on carbon capture?
Rey "RT" Treviño III [00:31:04] It's a great way to make money. If you can figure it out and you can sell them. I mean, that's the best answer I can give you right now. Do I have a team that may or may not be looking into it?
Vasili Borissov [00:31:19] How do you see federal and state regulations affecting oil and gas operations in Texas, especially with the new incoming administration? I don't, you know, obviously there's a big change there, but
Rey "RT" Treviño III [00:31:31] In Texas, Vassili, specific, we're going to be okay. That's why we focus here in Texas. Obviously it's a pro-oil, pro-drilling state.
Vasili Borissov [00:31:38] We're like our own little country, huh?
Rey "RT" Treviño III [00:31:40] We really are, and we're all blessed there. So we really aren't as worried. We do know that we, as a company, work with the railroad commission the best we can to say, hey guys, we're the smaller guys. How do we work with y'all? And things like that to continue to produce. But on a national level, that's what we're really more concerned about because as we wanna expand into Colorado, Wyoming, New Mexico, where it's all federal land that we're drilling on. We need to make sure that the power of the pen, no matter who the president is, doesn't derail a project. That we can sit there, plan and develop and execute a 10-year plan, making sure that whoever is president is fine. So it's really gonna be about key legislation. And one of the ones that we had get done was the methane. We got rid of that ridiculous methane tax. So regulations are big. And also the fact that we don't have groups like the EPA going against us anymore. Because that was weaponized against us. That's where the lizard came from. The EPA is the one that put that out there. So we're very excited to see where we go with this.
Vasili Borissov [00:32:48] What's the difference between, um, let's say, have you ever drilled on Indian territory or federal like, what's the difference there?
Rey "RT" Treviño III [00:32:55] Um, we have not, I do know families that have and what a difference that is in the sense that like in Texas, if you own the mineral rights, it might be one family when it comes to an Indian, uh, reservation, right? Everybody gets a piece. So instead of mailing one check, it could be thousands.
Vasili Borissov [00:33:11] So so yeah, how would you say? How would you? Say the Permian Basin has changed. Let's say I can't maybe it's not too fair to ask you like from You know 90s or whatever, but let's say from when you started to now at what I by the way I love that place since I've been going there. It's a great region in town of Midland But how was it changed in your opinion?
Rey "RT" Treviño III [00:33:32] Um, the best thing I can say is seeing the big, uh, some of the majors and also, uh some of other big independents investing back into the town, uh in the eighties, uh well down the eighties. That's when we, well, after the eightie, you know, when, when golf and everybody got out of there after that big crash, it left the town. They just suck it dry. The majors have always sucked that town dry. Nobody wants to live there. Uh, I always compare it to Bittenville, Arkansas. Have you ever been to Bittonville? Yeah. Walmart. Bentonville, Arkansas is like the best schools in the state. They want to make sure that they get the best employees, so they want to be sure that that city is the best. And I think slowly you're seeing people like, I know Diamondback just got bought, but you know, Diamondback, Endeavor used to do it, Double Eagle, it's like all these guys are putting back into the community now.
Vasili Borissov [00:34:23] Diamondback bought Double Eagle. There it is. Right, right, right. Yeah. All right. So, okay, so back to PECO So how would you what would you say separates? PECOs operating PECOS country operating Apart from let's say the next similar size operator
Rey "RT" Treviño III [00:34:43] We do our best that we do a project and we put our money where our mouth is. So one thing that we noticed in the industry, and I meant to kind of talk about this earlier, is when we ask people to come be part of a project, we're only selling maybe 30% now, because we want 50%, okay? I believe in where we're gonna drill. Individuals out there that might go, hey, I've got a great drilling project, I'm selling 80% and the operators are gonna keep 20. It's like, so do you not believe in what you're doing? So you're gonna make everybody else pay for it. And it's like, that's not what we wanna do. It's like we believe in where we're at. Oil and gas has been around for 100 years. It's gonna be around for another 100 years, at least. It truly is, even on that whole what if scenario, we still need it for 100 year for the transition.
Vasili Borissov [00:35:30] Then we might start drilling on the moon and Mars.
Rey "RT" Treviño III [00:35:32] You know, my brother Ron always jokes like we go drill on the moon.
Vasili Borissov [00:35:36] Hey, man
Rey "RT" Treviño III [00:35:37] And, um.
Vasili Borissov [00:35:37] So, okay, that's interesting. So how would you say like, because we started as a family business at Cool Edge Bits with my father and my uncle and, you know, my dad's the greatest person. He's the smartest guy in the room a lot of times, but, you know, we butt heads a lot and we're both very ambitious and try to be successful. But like, how have you found it working with dad, brother's family?
Rey "RT" Treviño III [00:35:59] I thought you were describing my office just now. No, same thing. Same exact thing. You can't work for a better group because at the end of the day, I, you know, I do believe the only people you can trust is your family. I'm old school when it comes to that. And so if you're going to be in, in, and the foxhole, you might as well be in there with them. Yeah. And so his dad is still with, oh yeah. Yeah. I mean, he still signs the checks. Oh no. Yeah. No, he is. He's still there. He's the big boss. He's, he's still the big box and. But, you know, but again, it's so different than anything else. We're able to also put it away, which is something that's it's like, you know, come five o'clock it's some different.
Vasili Borissov [00:36:37] Okay, so dad, dad is still the guy, and are any of the women involved?
Rey "RT" Treviño III [00:36:43] Oh, um, always, I mean, you know, you can't, if you've got the good support, but my mom is amazing. She's supported by dad and anything and everything. And so she still comes, uh, she'll do paperwork here and there and things like that. And so.
Vasili Borissov [00:36:56] So you have two brothers married, you have nieces, nephews, big family or kind of average
Rey "RT" Treviño III [00:37:04] You know, technically, I guess, um, from the stereotypical thing, I guess, small, um I've got one son and then one of my brothers has two daughters. And then, uh, technically my youngest brother has just one, um. I step daughter step or, or, you know,
Vasili Borissov [00:37:22] So about, so you guys are originally, like you were born here, dad was born here. San Antonio, yeah. Here, and then you go back to where?
Rey "RT" Treviño III [00:37:29] Um, on my mom's side, actually ran a question, uh, on my mom side, my dad, my, on mom's side, by grandpa is from, from Mexico. Okay. And then on my dad's side. His grandparents are from Mexico
Vasili Borissov [00:37:44] Okay, so you go back to mix.
Rey "RT" Treviño III [00:37:46] Right, but, you know, this was all Mexico at one time, so, you know, but yeah. But you know. So, yeah, but I've been texting through and through. But yeah, it was random question. I know one of my great-grandfather was, and then great-Grandparents from my dad's side were from Mexico.
Vasili Borissov [00:38:03] Well, man, I think it's been a great, great time trying to get to know you and get to know more about you and your business. Is there anything that you want to plug or that you wanna add?
Rey "RT" Treviño III [00:38:16] Nah, Vasili, I just wanna say I really appreciate this. This is literally, I went into this blind, right? Great questions, way better than I can do. You set it up for me. You gotta come on my show.
Vasili Borissov [00:38:29] I think you're going to beat me.
Rey "RT" Treviño III [00:38:30] No, I promise. But, uh, but no, I mean, just, you know, anybody out there that has any questions about oil and gas, you don't hesitate to give, you in order to reach out. Um, or again, I mentioned people like David Blackman, Dr. Ed Ireland, um, uh. Another great one is actually Nikki Morris who's over at TCU. Uh, she said that she was with Total for years. She, I've been, there's just so many people that are really out there, that know the industry. Okay. And so, yeah.
Vasili Borissov [00:38:55] Where can we find your what's your website? Oh, yeah
Rey "RT" Treviño III [00:38:57] So I've got a Pecos Pecos operating calm for our oil and gas company And then I do do a podcast called the crude truth, which has been so much fun. So we have
Vasili Borissov [00:39:07] Yeah, we should-
Rey "RT" Treviño III [00:39:08] It's called TheCrudeTruth.com. I can't believe that was available two years ago, TheCrudeTruth .com.
Vasili Borissov [00:39:13] Seriously, got away with that one.
Rey "RT" Treviño III [00:39:15] Yeah, I can't believe it was available and you know, we do our best to put out one about once a week There's no set schedule on it
Vasili Borissov [00:39:24] Who do you for marketing? Do you use anyone in specific for marketing because we've talked about how crucial that is at least in our space in the upstream kind of down hole tool space or you guys kind of.
Rey "RT" Treviño III [00:39:37] At this time, I do a lot, um, on that space. Um, you know, if, if there's posts or anything, I definitely do them. Um, we don't do too many videos. Uh, I think we were able to do one for NAPE and I had somebody do that, but no, I mean, uh, but Midnac marketing is definitely doing some great things over there, uh with, with, With, with Tim. Oh yeah. Um, and I know he's been using a couple of other P or a couple of other people on top of you are using him.
Vasili Borissov [00:40:04] Oh yeah, no, they've got a couple of key clients in our space and I think one or two other in another sector, but Tim, his wife, Bella, there's such a good crew. Rosie, that's our account manager. They're there. I recommend that group. If you're, if you're interested in marketing for your business.
Rey "RT" Treviño III [00:40:24] Yes, no, I know. I'll tell you what, I like how, yeah, it's a good group.
Vasili Borissov [00:40:32] Well, thank you guys for tuning in and that'll be it for this episode.
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