Obscurity to Fame in the Oil Business, is Michael S. Johnson’s 2012 autobiography with, as one might expect, special attention paid to his discovery of the Parshall Oil Field in North Dakota. A consulting petroleum geologist, Johnson is internationally recognized for his singular discovery which has resulted in the systematic development of the Bakken Formation, a reserve estimated at 18 billion barrels of oil. A major oil discovery, to say the least, Johnson’s findings have done nothing less that change the nation’s outlook on energy. Given the overall significance of Johnson’s work his concise 150 page account serves to introduce us to this man’s youth, family, career highlights and how he came–after 61 years in the petroleum industry–to make this unique contribution.
In 1882, Efstathios Giannakopoulos, Michael Johnson’s father, was born in the small village of Kandela twenty-eight miles northeast of Tripoli in the Peloponnese. In 1896, at the age of 14 young Giannakopoulos left Kandela for Council Bluffs, IA. By 1910, more than a thousand Greeks lived in the Council Bluffs-Omaha area employed generally by the railroads, meat-packing industry and as laborers. By 1916, Giannakopoulos became an American citizen. Sometime before 1920, Giannakopoulos moved to Maryville, MO, a town in the northwestern region of the state where he owned a confectionary with his nephew as a partner.
In 1921, Giannakopoulos returned to Kandela and married Vasiliki Pappathanasopoulou (b 1897). At some point Giannakopoulos had changed his name to Sam Johnson and when he brought his new bride to Maryville she became known as Eva. Not long after the couple’s return to Maryville, two daughters were born to Johnson’s Helen and Panayiota (Nota) and then their last child Michael in June 1926. Johnson offers his memories of this period in his life and something of the kind of traditional Greek home, friends and community-life at large he experienced.
In 1931, Michael Johnson’s his family moved to Tulsa, OK, then called the oil capital of the United States, and young Michael was immediately impressed with the oil business. Johnson graduated from Ohio State University with a BS degree (1947) and a MS (1949), both in geology. While technically Johnson began his professional career upon graduation, other events soon changed his life. In August 1950, the Korean War broke out and Johnson spent the next two years in the army. Details of this time are found in his fourth chapter, “The Army: A Career Detour at a Historic Moment” where Johnson outlines his involvement in early military nuclear testing on American soil. However one choses to date the beginning of Johnson’s professional life by at least 1949 he was to begin his 61 year career in the Rocky Mountain Region.
In the course of his autobiography, Johnson outlines in considerable detail his direct involvement in some 15 oil field discoveries in North Dakota, Montana, Colorado, Wyoming, and Kansas. Johnson spent his first nine years with The Amerada Petroleum Corporation attaining the position of district geologist for the Wyoming District in Casper, Wyoming. In 1958, he left Amerada to become Rocky Mountain Exploration Manager for Apache Oil Corporation in Denver, Colorado. In 1963, he left Apache to begin his career as an independent petroleum geologist and for the past 47 years, he has lived with his family in Denver focusing on his exploration efforts in the Williston Basin.
A seemingly endless stream of articles can be found on Michael Johnson given the magnitude of the Parshall Oil Field. Reading, Obscurity to Fame in the Oil Business closely one finds out not only about Johnson’s personal life but his views about the oil industry. In terms of his personal life we learn of his courtship and marriage to his wife Kay and their subsequent family life together. In point of fact Johnson’s autobiography cannot be read without simultaneously learning about his family at the exact moment he is discussing his professional career. At all times Johnson’s prose is uncluttered. So his thoughts about the future of energy resources is also crystal clear: “What is needed is an oil and gas policy that will address energy security for the transition period from fossil fuels to renewables. More federal offshore oil and gas leases need to be made available in the Gulf of Mexico, in order to develop new oil fields. The oil and gas reserves in this area account for 25% of total domestic production. Forty percent of the U.S. petroleum refining capacity is also located there. The Gulf of Mexico has become an experimental area and a proving ground for development of new offshore technology that is spreading to other parts of the U.S. and to the world. Shell’s Perdido Project, being developed in 6,600 feet of water 100 miles off shore from Texas, demonstrates the advance in drilling technology being used to develop the oil and gas fields of the future. The potential is huge. In addition, we need to expand federal offshore leasing along the eastern U.S. coast, as well as into the Artic and Alaska. New oil and gas discoveries in these areas could fill existing pipelines not currently transporting hydrocarbons at full capacity.” Whether you agree with this assessment or not we can safely assume Johnson’s views mirror those of his colleagues within the petroleum industry. Having said that we should also consider the fact that Johnson, given his career accomplishments and so standing within the petroleum industry may well be a voice others listen to very closely.
Let us go to heart of Johnson’s career and so why he has every reason to believe from personal experience what he is advocating. Without exaggeration, Johnson rocked the American oil industry with the discovery of the Parshall Oil Field in North Dakota. The Parshall Field is located in Mountrail County of North Dakota, which essentially is the northwest corner of the state. Discovered in 2006, “it is an unusual and complex, stratigraphic-type trap. It has developed into a huge resource play covering some 40 townships, over 950,000 acres, and still expanding. The North Dakota Department of Mineral Resources estimates recoverable Bakken oil reserves…at 2.1 billion barrels, less than 1.5% of oil in place. It owes its existence to the development of horizontal drilling and modern frack techniques…Parshall gives credence to the belief that large, commercial oil and gas reserves in similar-type traps and reservoirs exist in the United States (www.searchanddiscover.com).” Consequently, Parshall is the largest oil field, in size, in North America, and extends over 2.5 million acres with producible reserves of some three billion barrels.
When you discover something of this magnitude, people tend to listen to you. Johnson is a sought-after speaker where he shares his recollections and experiences always noting that “together with financial success he has enjoyed the hunt and challenge of prospecting for oil and gas. This meant reviewing well logs, analyzing well histories, cores, drill stem tests and mapping oil and gas prospects and then selling these prospects to industry and enjoying the thrill of success and the disappointment of the failure of many dry holes. He has willingly competed in the ups and downs inherent in the oil industry. His message to college students, whether in academia or applied geology is that perseverance and tenacity are a needed quality and never believe that you cannot succeed in your endeavors regardless of the circumstances (aapg.org).”
In 2009, for his contributions to the Parshall discovery, Michael S. Johnson received the Explorer of the Year Award from the American Association of Petroleum Geologists (AAPG) and also from The Rocky Mountain Association of Geologists. In like measure the Michael S. Johnson Named Grant is awarded annually to a graduate student at the Ohio State University. It is awarded through the AAPG Foundation Grants in Aid program.
More of Michael Johnson’s family life and daily career experiences fill the pages of his autobiography than I have allowed in this review. While Johnson’s account can certainly be read as a stand-alone tale there is much in it in terms of experiences, attitudes, uncertainties and subsequent actions that can be found in other Greek-American autobiographies. We are at a time when Greek America is writing its life story. It is a chorus. A chorus that we must stop and listen to one voice at a time.
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