James Robert ‘Jim Bob’ Moffett
Editor's note: This profile is part of Hart Energy's 50th anniversary Hall of Fame series honoring industry pioneers of the past 50 years and the Agents of Change (ACEs) who are leading the energy sector into the future.
In the business world, Jim Bob Moffett (1938-2021) was known as a never-say-die oilman and a fearless risk-taker. In civic life, he was a force to be reckoned with, reimagining the way things could be done.
One who needed little sleep, he contributed body, soul and finances to the New Orleans community where he was born and where he became a force for progress. He served on nonprofit boards and directed millions of company dollars to parks, libraries, children’s programs, endangered species habitat restoration and a host of other causes. He also contributed millions to his alma mater, the University of Texas at Austin.
Fellow New Orleans philanthropist, Bill Goldring, said about Moffett, “He was forceful with a can-do attitude and never said something couldn’t be done. He pushed the limits on everything he touched. He was in your face when he knew something was right and had to be done. He would keep pushing to make it happen.”
Those who knew him called Moffett “larger than life,” “respected and well known,” “forceful with a can-do attitude,” “a good, good person,” and “a giant of a man for the city of New Orleans and the state of Louisiana.”
And, to friends and associates, a gleeful Elvis impersonator. In fact, Elvis died on Moffett’s birthday, Aug. 16, and Moffett died on Elvis’s birthday, Jan. 8, 2021.
Moffett was born into a poor family in Houma, La. His father, an oilfield worker left home when Moffett was 5, so his mother took him and his sister to Houston. Moffett attended UT on a football scholarship, graduated in 1961 with a degree in geology and started his career in the oil field as a roustabout. He became known as a wildcatter, drilling a series of wells in Louisiana.
In 1969, he joined with W.K. McWilliams Jr. and B.M. Rankin Jr. to form an exploration company with its name based on the first two letters of each man’s last name: McMoRan Exploration (later changed to McMoRan Oil and Gas Co.)
Moffett engineered the 1981 merger of McMoRan with Freeport Minerals, a major New York City-based company, convincing the much larger firm to move to the New Orleans suburb of Metairie, closer to the minerals they were working. Three years later, he moved the headquarters to a 23-story tower in downtown New Orleans, near the Louisiana Superdome. The company grew to be one of the largest independent oil and gas producers, with operations in Louisiana and the Gulf of Mexico. It also was a global mining powerhouse, operating in gold, silver, copper and uranium. In 2007, it bought mining giant Phelps Dodge Corp. for $26 billion.
FCX purchased the company in 2013 and later shifted its focus to copper mining. Freeport-McMoRan is now one of the world’s top copper producers.
Moffett enthusiastically espoused his philosophy in a 1995 interview.
“When I walk into a conference room with lawyers and accountants, they’ll say to me, ‘You know, no one has done this before,’” he said. “That’s not a showstopper for me. It shouldn’t be a showstopper.
“As long as you’re convinced that you’re right about things, you ought to feel comfortable enough even when you’re talking about some pretty big numbers and some pretty big things.... If you believe in what you’re doing and if you know that you can do things that other people can’t do, and if you’re confident enough to take out on a new road, that’s what really creates assets that are different.”
—Paul Wiseman, Contributing Editor