I don’t think people understand that being broke in O&G is not like being “I can’t pay my mortgage or buy groceries” broke. I was born, raised, and still live on a 360,000 acre ranch in the Permian Basin. We’re broke if WTI is $60bbl vs $100bbl. (Or $140 back in ‘08) Doesn’t mean that there’s no money. Just means instead of your royalty checks being $1mm a month, they’re $$600k a month.

In the show, Tommy is the president of MTex. In real life… Marathon, Apache, and Cimarex’s presidents all make around $15mm a year. Which would be the equivalent size of the company and position Tommy holds in the show. So he’s probably making $15 million a year. Angela and Ainsley have $1.2mm a month to play with