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.