Fort Worth makes good exploiting natural resources and human conflict |
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Since World War II, Fort Worth has supplied vital parts of America’s defense, and contributed to the aerospace and defense needs of countries and corporations alike, throughout the globe. With the building of Air Force Plant 4 in the early 1940s, the city’s aerospace profile sharpened considerably. No sooner was this 602 acre facility situated on the former Tarrant Field, than the Japanese attacked Pearl Harbor and the field became the Fort Worth Army Air Field in January 1942. The government-owned plant was first operated by Consolidated Vultee, then Convair (1943), later General Dynamics (1954), and now the seven million square feet of manufacturing space, with its mile-long production line, is operated by Lockheed Martin Aeronautics. For more than half a century, the products have been big planes and fighter jets alike, with recognizable nameplates such as the F-16 Fighting Falcon, the C-130J Super Hercules, the F-117 Nighthawk, F-22 Raptor, B-36 bomber, B-58 supersonic bomber, F-111 swept-wing fighter/bomber, and the current multi-service, multi-mission F-35 Joint Strike Fighter for the Navy, Marines and Air Force. The east side of the airfield, known since 1948 as Carswell Air Force base, is now the Naval Air Station Joint Reserve base Fort Worth- Carswell Field, established by Congress in 1992 as the nation’s first joint reserve base. If you could name one company whose vertical lift aircraft, commercial and military, are known in more than 124 countries, it would be a Fort Worth area company: Bell Helicopter Textron. Whether incorporated into transportation, public service, or military operations, Bell Helicopter’s product innovations since the 1940s still drive the latest advances in avionics, systems integration, aerodynamics and new material applications. Their facility employs more than 7,000 aerospace professionals, working on many commercial and military models, including the V-22, the most flexible and capable combat troop transport aircraft in the world. Cawley, Gillespie & Associates Sid Richardson Carbon and Gasoline Companies Burlington Resources Oil & Gas Co. (div. Conoco Phillips, Houston) Barnett Shale Play, Fort Worth Basin Texas-New Mexico Power Company
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Fort Worth also hosts companies which service the big defense contractors, such as EFW’s Airborne Systems, which began by manufacturing F-16 avionics, and now has a ground systems group, and supplies electronics for fixed and rotary wing aircraft and trainers, simulators, command, control and communications systems. They service and supply many aircraft including the V-22, C-130, OH-58D and Joint Strike Fighter.
Fort Worth’s air history did
not begin with World War II. The entire U.S. Army Air Corps visited Fort
Worth in 1915. The Canadian Royal Flying Corps was commissioned here in
1916 to train flying squadrons for the U.S. Signal Corps. Among the
Canadians stationed in Fort Worth were Captain Vernon Castle, known for
his “Castle Walk” with his dancing partner Irene. He brought celebrity
flair and also became the 51st casualty of the local training
program during a crash landing in 1918. There was Camp Bowie, an infantry training facility finished Dec. 2, 1917, to house 27,000 officers and men of the 36th (Panther) Division. This unit was created from combined National Guard units of Texas and Oklahoma. Many, including quite a few native Americans, lost their lives in the bloody march across Europe. Perhaps for the same reasons Fort Worth has thrived in the nation’s defense, it has also successfully urbanized the intrepid oil and gas wildcatters of decades gone by, who explored the geological basins of East and West Texas and beyond, often with Fort Worth as their “base camp” or headquarters office. Billions of cubic feet of natural gas, millions of barrels of Texas oil, have long been financed in Fort Worth, by local lights such as Sid Richardson, Clint Murchison, Captain Samuel Burk Burnett, Bob Windfohr, Monty Moncrief and others, ever since oil was discovered in 1917 one hundred miles to the west near Ranger, Texas. Selling supplies to the oil wells, being banker to the oil millionaires, doing transactions and promoting the oilpatch seemed the manifest destiny of legions of Fort Worth residents for much of the 20th century. Fort Worth's rail hub inspired more than 300 oil companies to set up shop here, supported by 50 oilfield supply outfits. This gateway to West Texas grew up and out with petroleum prosperity. The tradition continues today with oilpatch success stories such as the $16 billion, Fort Worth-based company XTO Energy. After increasing its stock price more than 3700 percent since 1993, XTO is now one of the nation’s largest independent oil and gas producers. XTO is also a dominant producer of natural gas in the U.S. Assets fuel their predicted double digit annual production growth, and in honor of the company’s founder and chairman, XTO re-dedicated the former Baker Building in downtown Fort Worth as the Bob R. Simpson Building. XTO also renovated the W.T. Waggoner Building and owns two other downtown buildings as well. In 1998, Fort Worth’s Jon and Jon S.Brumley founded Encore Acquisition Co., a NYSE firm which owns reserves estimated to outlast those of ExxonMobil. Encore made #18 on the 200 Best Small Companies list of Forbes Magazine in 2005, appropriate recognition for a leader in North American oil and gas reserves.Brumley has long known his way around the oilpatch and took the lead in building Encore’s core reserves which now include the Cedar Creek Anticline of Montana and North Dakota; the Permian Basin of West Texas and Southeastern New Mexico; the Mid Continent area, which includes the Arkoma and Anadarko Basins of Oklahoma, the North Louisiana Salt Basin, the East Texas Basin and the Barnett Shale; and the Rocky Mountains. Another big oil and gas producer in the Barnett Shale is Quicksilver Resources, Inc., also of Fort Worth. A natural gas and crude oil producer, Quicksilver owns and develops long-lived producing properties, including unconventional natural gas reserves such as coal bed methane, shale gas, and tight sand gas. Their producing regions include Alberta, Indiana/Kentucky, Michigan, the northern Rockies, and Texas. Among the largest domestic natural gas producers in the U.S. is Sid Richardson Company, founded by Sid R. Richardson in 1947, in partnership with his only nephew, Perry R. Bass. The Sid Richardson Company is also affiliated with another major Fort Worth company, Bass Enterprises Production Company. The family investments of these producers have included the world-famous Sundance Square development in downtown Fort Worth, a model for urban regeneration since its inception in the 1980s. One of Texas’ largest gas fields has resulted from drilling and stimulation at the Barnett Shale, in the northern portion of the Fort Worth basin, which is north of the city itself. Learning the thermal history of these shale reservoirs has provided new insight for gas explorers, and water fracturing has proven to be the stimulant necessary for this new century’s drilling and leasing operations. Betting on the recovery potential of marginal producing wells has been a big winner for Fort Worth based companies such as Cano Petroleum, Inc. a young energy producer with properties focusing on the mid-Continent. Their focus is on increasing domestic production from proven onshore fields, using secondary and enhanced recovery methods. Another Fort Worth independent is NYSE-listed Range Resources, with its development, acquisition and exploration expertise centered in the Appalachian, Southwestern, and Gulf Coast regions. A recent acquisition in the Permian Basin is being drilled in 2006 with a goal of doubling the proven field’s production by year end. These are just a few examples of Fort Worth’s hardy oil and gas industry, which reinvents itself from generation to generation, affording new opportunities to help keep America less dependent on foreign oil. Because of its energy tradition, Fort Worth has often been home to other aspects of the oil and gas industry, such as equipment and services suppliers, and manufacturers of petroleum-based products. Cawley, Gillespie & Associates provide independent engineering services to the oil and gas industry. Harbison-Fischer Manufacturing Co. has long been known by its slogan for “the best pumps in the oil patch.” SPM manufactures flow control products for the oil and gas industry in Fort Worth. Lasser, Inc. provides well and production data, based in Fort Worth and Oklahoma. Southwestern Petroleum Corporation has long fielded independent businessmen from its Fort Worth headquarters who market building maintenance products and industrial lubricants. Lastly, the local distributors of retail power are an important part of any city’s business vitality. In Texas, transmission and distribution are regulated utilities, but retail sales and billing are unregulated. Thus, roles for traditional utilities have changed, but some familiar names remain in the Fort Worth market such as TXU Energy for electricity and Atmos Energy Corp. for natural gas. EFW Inc. an Elbit Systems of America Company
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