G E O L O G Y
G E O L O G I C A L J U D G E M E N T
Geological Judgement
Charley B. Whipp
For more than five decades, Charley Whipp has been engaged in the upstream oil and gas business, in those successive labors by which geological possibility is examined, capital is committed, and a prospect is carried, if judgment and fortune permit, into development and production. His experience extends through exploration, prospect generation and evaluation, seismic interpretation, reservoir development, acquisitions and the management of exploration programs.
During a career conducted principally along the Louisiana and Texas Gulf Coast, he has served in both geological and executive capacities, including as Exploration Manager and General Manager. His work has encompassed the evaluation and development of numerous drilling prospects and producing properties, together with the less visible but equally necessary work of managing risk, assembling capital and directing the affairs of an operating enterprise.
He is a Certified Petroleum Geologist and holds a Bachelor of Science in Geology from the University of Louisiana at Lafayette.
Joe Phillips
For more than four decades, Joe Phillips has pursued the patient and exacting work of the petroleum geologist in the oil and gas provinces of the Gulf Coast. His experience includes the generation and examination of drilling prospects, the interpretation of seismic and subsurface evidence, the planning of wells, and the geological, reservoir and economic judgments upon which the commitment of capital must ultimately depend.
The greater part of his professional life has been devoted to South Louisiana, where geology and experience have guided his participation in the identification and development of numerous prospects and discoveries. He has served both established exploration companies and private clients as a consulting geologist, bringing to each undertaking the practical judgment acquired through a long acquaintance with the uncertainties, as well as the possibilities, of the business.
He is a Certified Petroleum Geologist and holds a Bachelor of Science in Geology from the University of Louisiana at Lafayette.
A Common Record
Together, Joe Phillips and Charley Whipp bring more than ninety-two years of experience to the geological examination and development of oil and gas prospects, the greater part of that experience having been acquired in South Louisiana. Though their careers were conducted through separate companies and enterprises, they have long pursued parallel paths: the search for productive prospects, the patient assembly and interpretation of evidence, and the judgment of those ventures upon which capital might reasonably be committed.
When considering a prospect together, each conducts his own examination and reaches his own judgment. They proceed only when both have independently concluded that the prospect possesses sufficient merit to warrant their shared commitment.
Over the course of those years, their work has contributed to discoveries and producing fields across South Louisiana. The accompanying map records a portion of that work, identifying the locations of discoveries and prospects in which they have participated during their respective careers.
In an industry where every prospect is attended by uncertainty, and where the dry hole remains an inseparable companion of the successful well, their combined record has nevertheless reflected a prospect success ratio of approximately sixty to sixty-five percent. It is a record formed not by the avoidance of uncertainty—which the business does not permit—but by its careful examination before capital is committed.
South Louisiana Geological Record
Selected discoveries and prospects associated with the geological work of Joe Phillips and Charley Whipp.
