Money in the Ground-Insider's Guide to Oil and Gas Deals (4th Ed.) [Paperback]

John Orban (Author)

Book Description

ISBN-10: 0961577665 | ISBN-13: 978-0961577667 | Publication Date: March 2001 | Edition: 4.5

This is your highest-yielding oil and gas investment. Period. Do you have money ... or time ... in an upstream oil and gas deal? ... as investor?, landowner?, or professional? in (or associated with) the upstream oil business? If you do, get this book. MONEY IN THE GROUND has been coninuously in print for 19 years. It has become THE standard reference on the subject of oil and gas deals. The industry-standard reference on oil & gas investment by a world-class geologist. He starts at square one to give you the background. Then you get inside information on specific details...with examples. Vital down-to-earth tips on taxes & securities. Plus real-world practical know-how (not theory!) on how the money side of the oil game is played! Required reading for: Land Owners, Investors, Lawyers, Bankers, Accountants, Mineral & Royalty Owners! LET'S TALK AN OIL DEAL--Your Key To Oil Patch Lingo. 1991. 120 pp. $13.50. 4x7" paper. ISBN 0-9615776-2-2. You'll never again be at the mercy of the oil companies, with this key to their oil jargon! Every term you need to know is here: mineral rights & overriding royalties; farm-outs & turnkeys; back-ins & payout; blue-sky laws, behind-pipe, bottoms up, & more. Pocket-handy!

Editorial Reviews

From the Author

From Acknowledgements: If not for an article by Toni Mack in Forbes Magazine, instead of this revised 4th Edition, you might be standing there, holding a dated re-print of an earlier edition! She mentioned MONEY IN THE GROUND in her article, which triggered a flood of calls from around the country. Readers and callers alike, made a convincing argument that it was time for a new, up-to-date 4th Edition.

About the Author

John Orban is a world-class International geological engineer. In MONEY IN THE GROUND, he starts at square one to give you the background. Then you get inside information on specific details...with examples. Vital down-to-earth tips on taxes & securities. Plus real-world practical know-how (not theory!) on how the money side of the oil game is played!

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Paperback: 416 pages
• Publisher: Meridian Press; 4.5 edition (March 2001)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0961577665
• ISBN-13: 978-0961577667
• Product Dimensions: 8.4 x 5.4 x 1.1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.3 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.4 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (10 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #55,814 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

John Orban is an experienced oil & gas consultant. He lives with his wife in Oklahoma City. Following graduation from Princeton University (BSE in Geological Engineering), he spent three years in the Naval Civil Engineer Corps as division officer with the Seabees in Vietnam (for which he was awarded the Navy Achievement Medal),and as Officer In Charge of Construction in Yokohama, Japan. He has worked as roustabout at Sun Oil, mud-logger at Baroid, and explorationist at: Mobil, Aramco, a four-man start-up oil company in Oklahoma City and Callon Petroleum.

Established in 1983, J. Orban & Company specializes in upstream oil and gas opportunities, providing services to the U.S. and international petroleum industry and to investors. Corporate clients include multi-national corporations from both the U.S. and overseas including the Pacific Rim (where Mr. Orban spent several years studying Japanese at Keio University in Tokyo, and Mandarin Chinese at Nanyang University in Singapore and Taiwan Normal University in Taipei). Individual clients include private investors from the U.S. and from overseas.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

26 of 27 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Good book for the novice investor, October 13, 2005

By 

Holden Knight - See all my reviews

This review is from: Money in the Ground-Insider's Guide to Oil and Gas Deals (4th Ed.) (Paperback)

Being a newly acquired employee of the oil and gas industry this has really helped me out in a number of ways. It puts things in very basic terms on what goes on in an oil deal and how all the components of downstream and upstream work together. It has a great section in the book about the tax benefits related to the oil and gas industry. It really should be called "The oil business for dummies" book. I would suggest this book to any one that is a mineral owner or just some one that is interested in investing in an O&G Fund or O&G company.

15 of 15 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Great Book For Investors, February 24, 2006

By 

Thoughful Consumer (San Francisco, CA USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Money in the Ground-Insider's Guide to Oil and Gas Deals (4th Ed.) (Paperback)

I bought this book to evaluate an oil investment opportunity. Prior to reading this book, I knew nothing about the oil business. After reading the book, I felt comfortable enough to invest. The book gave me the knowledge I needed to ask the right questions and to evaluate the fundamental assumptions upon which the investment was based. I'd recommend this book to anyone who knows little about the industry, but wants a good overview to evaluate a potential investment opportunity.

10 of 10 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Excellent Primer for Newbies, December 17, 2007

By 

Craig Clotfelter (Fort Worth, TX) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Money in the Ground-Insider's Guide to Oil and Gas Deals (4th Ed.) (Paperback)

This book serves as an excellent all around introduction to the ground level basics of the oil and gas industry - particularly for novice investors. I would highly recommend this book to anyone considering investing in private or small oil and gas projects before investing. Note, that this book is geared around what I would call the production side of the business. It is also implicitly about smaller, private investments. If you are looking for a broader overview of the whole global industry and the dynamics therein and how the big boys operate, this may not be the book for you.

Although the book seems pricey, given the typical minimum investment dollars required for such deals, this book is a bargain. Having said that, anyone seriously considering investing considerable sums of money should start with this book - but look into others that may be more specific given your needs. This book covers a lot of ground with many jewels of information. But only enough to get you started on any particular topic. If you are more familiar with O&G investing, much of the information presented may seem trite. I would bet however you would still learn a few tidbits you didn't know. This book is chock full of illustrations, charts and footnotes. It has plenty of resources - websites, recommended readings, bookstores, periodicals and most importantly, a good glossary. What I like about this book that is very easy to overlook it has numerous bits of wisdom tucked in. Anyone who is reading this for investing should read it more than once and read it closely, highlight, dog-ear and mark it up. There are too many excellent recommendations that, if overlooked, you will be kicking yourself later (like hiring an independent geologist to review the prospect before investing). My only beef with this book is that each chapter got me interested in a specific aspect I wanted more information on that it didn't get into - which quite frankly couldn't be done without bogging the book down. It does provide a balanced view overall of the process, but like I said before, there are sage hints of brutal wisdom very easily overlooked if not read closely and reflected upon.