Mr. Jenner. And you the field work?
Mr. De Mohrenschildt. Yes. Sometimes—we opened an office in New York, a small office. He was in New York most of the time. I was in Denver.
Our first well was a dry hole, a disastrous dry hole. But our second well was a producer. We made some production. But never anything big.
Mr. Jenner. Now——
Mr. De Mohrenschildt. Eventually I returned to Texas from Denver, because I had always retained some good friends in Texas, and they suggested, one of them who participated in our well, first venture—suggested that, "George, you will do better in Texas, because Wyoming is too expensive"—a well costs $200,000 or $300,000 in Wyoming, you know—in Wyoming or Colorado.
Mr. Jenner. Now, when you were in partnership with Mr. Hooker, your field work and discovery work was in Wyoming and Colorado, is that correct?
Mr. De Mohrenschildt. No. We started by drilling our first well in Wyoming, operating from Denver. And we had—we were snowbound there, we paid the rig time for a hell of a long time. To make the story short, our first venture was quite a failure. One of the reasons we finally split partnership with Eddie Hooker is that he is a very wealthy boy. He comes from a very wealthy family. And he wanted the oil business to make millions.
My reason to be in the oil business is to make a reasonable living, and eventually build up some production.
On our first venture in Wyoming, on the very first one, after we bought the leases, and before starting drilling, we got an offer from another company to sell out for a very substantial profit, without drilling a well—they would do it. Naturally, I told Ed we should do that instead of running a tremendous risk of drilling our own well. Well, he said if they want to buy it it means that we have something there, the usual story.
I was a little more conservative—I said better sell out and try to find something less risky.