About Hanna Oil & Gas
Hanna Oil & Gas Today
“A family of entrepreneurs and innovators” is more than a lofty vision. The phrase is felt with our supportive working relationships, our friendly and fun outings and of course, the Friday morning breakfasts! Our patriarch and founder, Jim Hanna started his family enterprise in Crawford County, Arkansas in the early 1970’s. What followed were more drilling, employees and added generations of Hanna’s.
Today the company is led by Bill Hanna (2nd generation) and 3rd generation of Hanna’s now working for the company. With operations in the mid-continent, Hanna Oil and Gas is preparing for the next chapter. The company operates 350 wells in the Arkoma basin and has working interest in another 2000 wells in the midcontinent area. The company has also diversified in commercial real estate. Hanna Oil and Gas has approximately 40 employees with several being with the company for 10, 20 and over 30 years. It is family owned, family operated and family strong.
Meet the Hanna Team
Our entrepreneur team loves to add value to sleepy, misunderstood resources with cross discipline application of technology. Our employees are the backbone of Hanna Oil & Gas and not only contribute to our success, but invest in the company with the owners. Through our Hanna Employees Company (our #1 partner) we engage others in our mission. Learn more about our top executives, board of directors and other key members of our team. [More…]
The History of Hanna Oil & Gas
Our patriarch and founder, Jim Hanna, grew up in Wichita Falls, Texas, the son of hard-working parents who were strong providers. His entrepreneurial journey began in the oil and gas fields of the Arkoma Basin in the early 1960s, when Joseph Bridwell sent Jim to Arkansas to help expand Bridwell’s business — with Jim as his only employee.
Throughout the 1960s, Jim bought and sold leases while learning the geology, the risks, and the opportunities of the basin. Those early years were lean, but they built the foundation of the disciplined, opportunity-driven approach that would define the company.
Everything changed in 1970 when Jim purchased a prospect from JM Huber Company. The deal included acreage with potential in the risky, downdip Hale Zone. While others might have hesitated, Jim believed in the geology. He raised outside capital, invested his own money, and drilled the well.
The result was historic.
The Lincoln #2 well had a calculated open flow of 165 MMCF per day, making it one of the largest wells ever drilled in Arkansas at the time. To date, the well has produced approximately 15 BCF of natural gas and, remarkably, continues to produce more than four decades later.
From that breakthrough forward, Hanna Oil & Gas maintained a steady drilling program. In the 1980s, the company expanded vertically, founding a completion company, a wastewater trucking company, and a compression company. Each business supported Hanna’s core exploration and production operations. While some of these service companies have since been sold or dissolved, the heart of the enterprise has always remained oil and gas exploration and production.
In 1987, Hanna Oil & Gas expanded internationally, opening an office in Calgary, Alberta. At the time, Canada offered attractive incentives for U.S. energy investment. Over the next decade, Hanna Canada became an active leasing company and later acquired producing assets in the Peace River area of northern Alberta, primarily natural gas. In the early 2000s, those operated assets were divested, and the company continues today with royalty interests in Canada.
From its modest beginnings in the 1970s, Hanna Oil & Gas has grown into a third-generation, multi-generational business. What started as a one-man operation has become a respected and enduring company, now diversified into real estate and related businesses alongside its energy operations.
Today, Hanna Oil & Gas operates approximately 450 producing gas wells and holds non-operated interests in more than 2,500 additional wells across Arkansas, Oklahoma, Kansas, Nebraska, and Montana.
One of the company’s greatest points of pride is its people. Hanna Oil & Gas has employees who have been with the company for more than 40 years, and several more with over a decade and multiple decades, a testament to the culture, stability, and long-term vision established by Jim Hanna and carried forward by the generations that followed.”