The Cumming Company, Inc. (“CCI”) was originally incorporated in 1982 as a subchapter “S” corporation by Dwight H. Cumming, the company’s President and Founder (“Mr. Cumming”) as a marketing firm specializing in investor databases. From 1983 to 1986, the Company lay dormant while Mr. Cumming served as Vice President of GrahamSource Corporation in Graham, Texas. In such capacity, Mr. Cumming gained primary experience in the development and marketing of oil and gas prospects to investor groups for a small, financially focused exploration and production company.
In 1986, due to the downturn in the energy industry, GrahamSource was dissolved, and the principals returned to their respective family-owned businesses. At this time, Mr. Cumming activated CCI and, with virtually no capital, began acquiring oil and gas prospects, financing these acquisitions through an investor-base personally familiar with Mr. Cumming.
CCI‘s efforts from 1986 to 1992 were focused on developing oil and natural gas reserves in Railroad Commission Districts 7B and 9 of North Texas (the Fort Worth Basin and Bend Arch). During this period, CCI actively pursued uphole potential in existing wells and acquisition of abandoned wells. These wells were drilled in the “oil boom” of the late 1970’s and early 1980’s and were either abandoned because of lack of production or produced until they were uneconomical in their primary reservoirs. By combing through completion information and electric logs readily available in local oil and gas libraries, CCI found zones of interest overlooked or unexploited by the original operators of these wells. Mr. Cumming developed these wells into prospects and purchased them for re-entry and recompletion. By 1991, the Company had attempted over 65 recompletion or re-entry projects with a success rate of over 70% and an Internal Rate of Return (“IRR”) of 30%. During this period, CCI gained extensive experience in re-entry, re-completion, cement squeezing, tie-backs to casing as well as perforating and fracking geometry.
As natural gas pricing gradually improved in late 1992 and early 1993, CCI branched out into drilling new wells and in January of 1993 launched a drilling program that discovered a conglomerate field in Palo Pinto County, Texas on the Stuart Ranch seven miles northwest of Strawn, Texas. According to a reserve report performed contemporaneously with a Coopers & Lybrand audit, the field was projected to produce 7 Bcf of gas as an Estimated Ultimate Recovery (EUR). The field has yielded over 10 Bcf of gas and 500,000 barrels of oil since the first well was drilled in 1993 and 11 of the 35 wells originally completed in the field are still producing.
CCI’s operations through this period continued to be financed on a project-by-project basis by Mr. Cumming’s core investor group, to which over the years he added certain corporate and high net worth investors from New York, Texas, California and Canada, among others.
From the late 1990’s through 2008, CCI put together drilling prospects primarily for natural gas in the Fort Worth Basin including joint venture projects with other independent producers. In 2008, the company drilled a successful Barnett Shale project in Erath County, Texas which yielded experience in drilling, fracking and producing tight shales.
During this same period, CCI began acquiring equipment and services to more vertically integrate the company’s ability to execute its drilling venture. These services included:
- Double/triple workover unit and crew
- Roustabout crew and truck with tools
- Backhoes and dozers
- Mack haul trucks
- Motor grader for roadwork
In 2014, the oil and gas industry experienced a severe downturn, particularly in natural gas which impacted independents negatively. CCI put its drilling ventures on hold and retrenched to weather the downturn. In 2018, the company re-entered the service sector of the oil and gas business establishing a well service arm for plugging wells.
Let us know if you’re interested in learning more about our historical projects.
