Vision Exploration
145 St. Ives Drive, Madison, Mississippi, United States

Vision Exploration, LLC is managed by Steve Walkinshaw, who utilizes 36 years of experience in 2D & 3D seismic interpretation, petrophysical analysis, and subsurface exploration to provide exploration, redevelopment and consulting services to a wide range of industry clients.  Whether youre planning to expand your exploration efforts into our core areas, or are needing technical assistance on a critical project in your area, Vision Exploration can quickly and efficiently get the job done.  Our core areas include the U.S. Gulf Coast and the Black Warrior Basin, but we can efficiently explore anywhere in the world.

Vision Exploration is the only Mississippi-based independent that has served as geological and land consultant to a major Tuscaloosa Marine Shale ("TMS") operator.  To learn more about the TMS Trend, click here.  The TMS and Lower Smackover Brown Dense Lime ("BDL") Trends are two examples of unconventional oil (and gas) resource plays that have been recently been targeted in our core area.  Vision has been very active in both Trends, a unique distinction among Mississippi independents,  and has identified other unexploited unconventional resource plays, including a new geopressured Lower Cotton Valley gas play in North Louisiana that represents, in Visions opinion, the eastern extension of the prolific Terryville Trend.  Vision is also the only Mississippi-based independent experienced in Geopressured Geothermal ("GPGT") exploration, and has recently identified a rare GPGT resource in its core area, one that is geographically close to regional electrical utilities, distribution networks, and multiple end users.  Interested in the Brown Dense Lime Trend?  Curious as to why the first efforts to establish the BDL as a significant unconventional resource play failed?  Steve Walkinshaw has been lecturing on the potential (and the pitfalls) of BDL exploration since 2011.  The BDL is best viewed as a "hybrid" unconventional oil & gas trend, similar to the geopressured Lower Cotton Valley (Terryville) Trend of North Louisiana.  

Vision takes great pride in its work.  We only claim credit for finding the oil and gas discovered as a direct result of our mapping efforts.  We never take leases opportunistically where another company is actively leasing (also known as "busting someones block").  Because we are a complete business unit, able to carry a prospect forward from conception to the drilling stage, we are able to compete effectively with the largest public and private companies in the industry.

Vision manages its exploration efforts very efficiently. It already owns licenses to over 1,200 square miles of 3D data and over 500 linear miles of 2D seismic data, and adds approximately 100 square miles of 3D data and 50 miles of 2D data to its inventory each year. Our Program Participants can choose whether to simply participate in the assembly and marketing of each prospect, or in its drilling as well. The Program has a clearly defined exit strategy. Management overhead is fixed and reasonable, and certain tax benefits pass through to Program investors. The prospects that are currently inventoried have significant reserve potential and represent a very balanced and exciting portfolio.

ITS IMPORTANT FOR LESSORS TO UNDERSTAND SOME BASIC FACTS ABOUT LEASING 

Many private mineral owners have told us that they would like to learn more about the leasing process and how they can encourage prudent exploration for oil and gas on their mineral holdings with minimal environmental impact and maximum financial gain. In addition, some mineral owners who have been contacted by one or more of our lease brokers might be naturally curious about Vision Exploration, our background, and our reasons for offering to lease their minerals at the terms that weve proposed. We have taken this opportunity to address some of these topics in a brief, informal manner. If you have further questions, you are always welcome to contact us and discuss any issue in more detail. We would also ask that you please take a brief moment to read our Disclaimer. Thanks for your interest.

SUBSURFACE GEOLOGY

• The drilling of many thousands of wells throughout the United States Gulf Coast has yielded an incredible body of knowledge about those stratigraphic units that do not outcrop in the greater Gulf Coast area. This information is derived principally from sample cuttings, electric and radioactive logging devices lowered into the wellbore, and mudlog and sample log descriptions.
• The interpretation of this large subsurface database has yielded vital and intriguing clues about the formation of the Gulf of Mexico, the uplifting and subsequent erosion of entire mountain ranges, and the tremendous impact of the Mississippi River and other similar ancestral streams that reshaped the land and deposited the immense layers of sand, silt and shale that filled the Gulf Coast Basin and later became hosts for large deposits of oil, gas, and coal.
• The subsurface record also chronicles the advance and retreat of the sea across the land, the precipitation of incredible volumes of salt in a once-arid climate, and the distribution of thick lava and beds of volcanic ash from numerous volcanoes. There might even be pervasive evidence of the catastrophic events that heralded the end of the Permian and the Cretaceous, recorded in the thin sediment layers attributed to those unconformities and penetrated by thousands of wellbores - drilled not only for oil and gas, but also water and other natural resources.
• When one considers the sobering reality that most of the exploration for new oil and gas reserves in the Lower 48 is conducted by small independents like Vision Exploration - and not the large major oil companies or recently formed "super-independents" - the preservation of all subsurface data should be immediately recognized as a very important individual, corporate and governmental objective. 
• Whether you happen to be a student, a colleague, or just a curious observer, we hope that you will find some value in Visions brief Formation Summaries (links to which are shown at above left) that focus on important subsurface reservoirs in the eastern United States Gulf Coast and regions. Visions Formation Summaries will first concentrate upon those reservoirs that we are most familiar with
• We plan to add other reservoir summaries and items of interest (type logs, etc.) as time and experience allows.