In the oil and gas industry, many of the largest and most successful E&P companies prefer to fly under the radar and stick to their knitting, but their influence is still felt. Privately held Mewbourne Oil Co., based in Tyler, Texas, is one such company. It had 14 rigs drilling horizontally at press time, with about 300 employees and operations throughout the Permian and Anadarko basins. It has exploration offices in Midland, Amarillo and Oklahoma City, as well as several district offices. The well-respected company partners with, and has operated for, a who’s who of public and private E&Ps.

Shreveport native Curtis W. Mewbourne founded the company in 1965 and is still chief executive officer, but the firm is now operated on a daily basis by a COO and a CFO, while ownership will be controlled by his three daughters and son-in-law. It is organized to last well through the third generation now coming up, he says. One grandson is studying engineering, and two more have similar plans.

The affable and enthusiastic Mewbourne could sell snow to an Eskimo. His great loves include family, the petroleum industry, bird dogs and quail hunting, and the University of Oklahoma. But it is his alma mater, OU, which reflects his involvement most drama tically. For years he has promoted the school’s petroleum engineering department and sought to build a world-class facility, vowing to continue these efforts to make OU’s geology and engineering schools the number one programs.

After all, the Mewbourne School of Petroleum and Geological Engineering awarded its first geological engineering degree in 1919 and its first petroleum engineering degree in 1927. The program has since graduated more petroleum engineers than any school in the world, about 5,000. The ConocoPhillips School of Geology and Geophysics granted its first petroleum geology degree in 1904 and also has over 5,000 graduates, more than any other program.

Today, both schools are included in the Mewbourne College of Earth & Energy, which is housed in a state-of-the-art, 15-story building—his name went on the building in May 2000. A statue of him, with one of his prized hunting dogs, greets visitors at the entrance.

In October, the Texas Oil & Gas Association presented Mewbourne with its 76th annual Distinguished Service Award, the Texas petroleum industry’s highest honor, each year given to one independent and one major company executive, in this case to John Watson of Chevron.

We recently chatted with Mewbourne about trends in the oil and gas industry, advanced technology and the need for more petroleum research and education.

Investor: Curtis, what prompted you to enter the oil and gas industry in the first place?

Mewbourne: It wasn’t money; I was looking for adventure and excitement. I ended up finding all three.

Investor: Is Mewbourne Oil pursuing more oily or liquids plays today than ever before? How have technology breakthroughs affected your company?

Mewbourne: Our revenues have gone from 80% gas to 70% oil in the past few years. This business is in the midst of a technological revolution. It is American technology. Horizontal drilling has made this a new industry. It will never go back to where it was five years ago.

Investor: Your company has weathered all the ups and downs we see in this business. What is your secret to staying the course for so many years? How do you prepare for the future?

Mewbourne: One benefit has been that we’re a private, family-owned company. I was able to make hard decisions that would be difficult for a public company. While a public company is worried about the next quarter, we are concerned about the next quarter of a century. You have to be very careful about using leverage. Most of the successful private companies, like Mewbourne Oil, have little or no debt. I always focused on the long-term instead of short-term gain. You must have the courage and the cash to invest when times are bad and the prices of oil and gas are low. To drill when drilling costs are the lowest is the holy grail of our business.

Investor: You’ve attracted many prominent oil companies to do shale research alongside OU faculty and students at the Mewbourne School. How do you see the interplay between industry and academia unfolding?

Mewbourne: It is imperative that we have cooperation between the industry and the universities, because the federal government is no help at all. The Mewbourne School at OU can protect a company’s intellectual property while our faculty and grad students are still working with groups of operators and consortiums to advance technology for the industry. It seems to be going well, and the research is growing and the companies seem very pleased with the results.

Investor: What is the future for young people in this industry?

Mewbourne: I think there is opportunity beyond the imagination of today’s young students. There are so many different ways to be a success in this business. They can look forward to a career that will be the envy of their peers. This is a great industry. If they work hard and learn, then good things will happen to them.

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