Keener Oil & Gas Company has its roots in the early 1900s, with the arrival of Dewey F. Bartlett, Jr.’s grandfather, D.A. Bartlett, in Tulsa, Oklahoma.

D.A. Bartlett and his Keener Oil and Gas Company (an Ohio corporation registered to do business in Oklahoma) originally conducted oil and gas operations in Titusville, Pennsylvania, but, upon arriving in Oklahoma, the company immediately became involved in oil and gas operations in Creek, Tulsa, and Washington Counties. After D.A. Bartlett’s death in 1922, the company continued to grow, and ultimately was owned and managed by D.A. Bartlett’s two sons, David A. Bartlett and Dewey F. Bartlett.

In 1951, the corporate structure of Keener Oil and Gas Company was changed to that of a general partnership, and the name was changed to Keener Oil Company. Following the deaths of David A. Bartlett in 1975 and Dewey F. Bartlett in 1979, the partnership continued its growth with principal ownership by Dewey’s three children, Dewey F. Bartlett, Jr., Joan B. Atkinson, and Michael H. Bartlett. Dewey F. Bartlett, Jr. became the Managing Partner in 1987.

Keener Oil Company had a varied history in the energy industry, including the ownership of coal reserves, oil tank cars, and an oilfield supply business. Operations included numerous waterfloods, and Keener Oil Company’s involvement with the Department of Energy’s predecessor, the Bureau of Mines, led to several successful documented waterfloods in the post World War II period to 1965.

Keener Oil Company’s very successful discovery of 2nd Wilcox production in Seminole County, Oklahoma during the 1960s and 1970s set off a mini-boom of exploration activity in that area. A very significant play was discovered and developed in southern central Kansas near the Spivey-Grab Field in Kingman County during the 1970s and 1980s. That same exploration led to Wilcox and Dutcher discoveries in Creek County after 1985.

After a series of minority interest purchases, in 1994 the partnership was dissolved and the three children divided up ownership of its assets. Keener Oil & Gas Company (“Keener”) was formed by Dewey F. Bartlett, Jr. as an Oklahoma corporation in May of 1994. Keener is currently owned by Dewey F. Bartlett, Jr., who serves as President of the corporation, and his son, Dewey F. Bartlett, III.

For the past fifteen years Keener has enjoyed a successful and synergistic business relationship with Thomas N. Berry & Company, another family-owned and operated Oklahoma-based oil and gas company. In 1995, Keener assumed operational responsibility from the Berry family and acquired a minority interest in those operations. The Berry family’s wish to remain in the oil and gas business without continued operational responsibility and expense dovetailed well with Keener’s experience, business approach, and integrity.

Throughout the Bartlett family’s involvement in the oil and gas history, their exploration philosophy has remained consistent—make use of good and reliable technologies for the maximum extraction of crude oil and natural gas, develop prospects with multi-well and multi-pay potential, and accept reasonable capital exposure and risk when the result can be substantial recoverable reserves.