Remembering

Scott Laurent

J. Scott Laurent was the founder of OEI.  It was and remains a vibrant and exclusive organization for independent energy-sector professionals who buy and sell interests in oil and gas ventures.  Jim Grubb resurrected OEI as OEI 2.0 to reunite members and fill an important void.  

Please enjoy the tributes to Scott below.

Mike Barnes-

Scott Laurent was a man of action, he got things done. He formed the Onshore Exploration Independents (OEI) in 1990 as an organization of geologist that generated and bought prospects in the onshore portion of the Gulf of Mexico. He had earlier attended meetings where this was not the focus and he was disappointed with the networking opportunities. This lack of focus motivated him to form the OEI. The meetings were held at the Petroleum Club of Houston on the second Thursday of each month. As Chairman Scott selected the menu and was moderator of the meetings. The meetings lasted until July 11, 2020 when Scott resigned as Chairman. His legacy however lives on in the continuation of the organization’s mission with the newly formed Onshore Exploration Independents 2.0 (OEI 2.0) named in his memory.

Vic Abadie-

I always appreciated that Scott was direct and concise.  He went right to the point with short comments and answers.  I never heard him speculate.  If he didn't have a factual answer, he would simply say he didn't know. He did not care for long responses from others.  Back in the time of telephone answer machines, his limited the caller to a 60-second message. He made the best bloody mary I ever had.  He used Clamato juice instead of tomato or bloody mary mix and added a teaspoon of a special, obscure dill sauce.  I found it endearing how he would lighten up after a drink or two.

He was a pillar of our Houston oil and gas community. I miss him.

Duncan Dubroff-

Back in the days of showing deals with hand drawn and hand colored maps, Scott became my go-to guy for the first show. Inevitably, after me working on my maps for six months or so and reaching the point of not seeing any errors, Scott would always almost immediately spot some error that I had made.  It was way easier to make the correction at that point before I had printed and colored six or eight sets of maps!

Over the years I sold a prospect before I left someone's office only three times.  As tough as it was to show Scott a prospect, two of those three times were to Scott.

When Scott first formed Onshore Exploration Independents, I was honored to receive a phone call from him asking me to be a charter member.  Of course I immediately accepted.  I knew Scott for over fifty years, first meeting him when we were both in Lafayette.  He was a great geologist, a great person and a great friend.  I will miss him.

Barry Acomb-

I could tell during the last year of OEI 1.0 that Scott was not feeling 100%.  That was several years ago.  I know he was a Louisville Cardinal.  I think he worked on some North Sea projects.  Not sure if he was located in the UK for that assignment or not.  And, pretty sure he worked in New Orleans a while but don't know who he worked for.  I do remember a good story he told me about an episode in New Orleans.  He said he went to dinner at Brennan's one evening and drove his brand new Cadillac.  After dinner he came out of the restaurant and was informed a valet had stolen his car.  He reported the case to police and his insurance company.  About a week later he received a telephone call from his insurance agent who said he had great news for Scott.  He said the car had been recovered, would Scott like to come pick it up?  Scott replied, "no, I don't want to pick it up. Do you know where it's been and what it was used for? No, I don't want that car.  You keep the car and send me a check."     No nonsense, Scott.  RIP.

If you gather any more information please forward.  Thanks for including me in the communication.  Sorry for the tardy response.  When I received your email I was caught up in some ugly airport delays and cancellations at IAH.  After 15 hours of trying, I was never able to get out on a flight to Cincinnati to visit my mother and had to delay until next Thursday.  It has taken me 48 hours to locate my luggage.  Which included 8 hours, 45 minutes on call waiting to get through to United agents for assistance.  Hope you and your family are well.

Frank Lovett-

He and I worked together for a few Years, and I really enjoyed that time.   
Scott’s mind was always looking forward to come up with new ideas, like OEI as an example.  
I have missed coming to your OEI meetings, but I live over 400 miles north of Houston.

Dianne Padgett-

We called him Scott. I'm glad that "we" included my husband Carl and me, as well as so many others in Houston's oil and gas community. Scott understood the importance of networking with other geologists and geophysicists. You have to know who has a deal available or who will take your deal, and you have to know who they are and how they think. Scott was a natural networking geologist. He and a small group of like-minded friends started Onshore Exploration Independents to build networking opportunities. Monthly luncheons and periodic evening receptions brought deal buyers and sellers together in a comfortable environment for sharing information. The evening receptions were also a great place to display Scott's culinary talents. His remoulade was the best I've ever had.

OEI is still going strong, with monthly luncheons. I think Scott would be pleased to see that OEI continues to provide a place to interact casually and regularly with fellow explorationists. I still find it hard to believe that Scott is not somewhere in Houston, enjoying a conversation with someone. I think a few candid photos from one of our OEI luncheons would be nice to include - showing many tables full of people enjoying good food and talking about their latest or next well. OEI is definitely an important part of Scott's legacy.

Sam Peppiatt-

Scott asked me to join him and Frank as a founder of Onshore Exploration Independents.

Scott was a strong-willed person and a man of few words. That, plus his “oil patch” knowledge, gave him an air of authority that few questioned. This made him the ideal person for leading the establishment of OEI, an oil & gas deal-generating/deal purchasing organization made up of independent geologists.

This organization was highly successful in bringing geologists together professionally and connecting prospect generators with buyers.

Many of us have long since retired, and many have passed, but the memories remain.

Patrick A. Kelleher-

There are many memories of Scott – but one of  my favorite was the Spring OEI social he often had at his nice home. He served what he called heavy hors de oeuvres. He would have the cold boiled shrimp with his remoulade sauce. It was fantastic and I asked him if I could have the recipe.

He started telling me it verbally, and I asked a question and he said ‘ well I am not going to make it for you’.--- Never got that recipe.

Another fun story, we went to Colinas Restaurant on I-10 and Scott was having a birthday party with the family -large table lots of people. They were having lots of fun. At the next table was Ben Bonjourno & B.K. Bonjourno with an equally large table at Ben’s birthday party. More fun there. ---

Janell and I enjoyed watching the special time for both over dinner.

We loved Scott and Carlita.

Bud Wilson-

Scott was not only a colleague at Union Texas Petroleum but also a good friend. I recall the first time I met Scott it was at a Managers Meeting that the VP of Exploration (Stoneburner) had called to discuss Budgets in the District Offices . I was new to UTP having only been there about 2 months. I was working Offshore Geophysics with Chevron (Standard of Texas) and they wanted to transfer me to New Orleans to do the same work. I decided that wasn't a move I was going to make so through a friend at UTP I got hired to work the Offshore for them. The presentation at meeting was showing examples of Prospects developed along listric faults the way Chevron did it. After the Meeting Scott came up and introduced himself and told me " nice to see someone at UTP now who has some new ideas ". That was awful generous of him and he said it in front of my Boss at the time Wayne Jones. Mike , the Industry lost a good one when Scott passed away. Don't know if any of this has any value to your effort but thought it might . One last thing - Did you ever see Scott get wound up about something good or bad - his temperament was always calm and even.

In addition, for a number of years there were two Special Tables called the "Round Tables” set aside at the Petroleum Club every Friday one for Engineers and another for Geologists. They were set side by side with appropriate snide remarks (in humor) about each profession coming from both tables. Regulars at the Geologist's table were myself , Scott, Howard Kiatta, John Amoruso, Jim Richards, Gene Van Dyke, Tom Collins and Roger Simmons. Although I dropped out of the Club when I moved to College Station, that "Table" still exists today.

William Neville-

I met Scott in 1960 in a peculiar, but a fortunate circumstance for me.  I was logging shot holes along a seismic line that was layerd out from the edge of the Green River Basin and into the sub-crop of the Overthrust Belt.  The holes were open prior to the shooting crew coming.  I had a Dodge Powerwagon with a portable wire line SP device.  It was winter and about 10 degrees.  I was running the engine while I logged the holes and the truck battery died.  I was miles from any road or town and it was late afternoon and getting colder.  A truck then came along the line and it was the company birddog for the crew.  It happened to be Scott Laurent, who was checking along the line.  I became his friend from then on.

Phil Martin-

Scott played a very large role in my early career.  Scott was Exploration Manager at Union Texas Petroleum in Lafayette, Louisiana when he gave me my very first job as a geologist after graduating with a BS from LSU. I had done some intern work previously at Cabot Oil Corporation where I first met Duncan DuBroff, another esteemed OEI alum that has been a good friend for many years.   Thanks to Scott’s mentoring and generosity I was able to receive a MS degree in geology from University of Louisiana while working full time at UTP.  I remember that I only had half of one day free in my entire last 6 months while working full time, school full time, and writing a Masters Thesis. That was actually a good thing and weaned me from less productive college activities. 

Scott was very respected in the Lafayette oil community and was a good friend of my dad, Jack Martin, who was an independent geologist there after working for Shell, Texas Gulf and Cypress.  I was still at UTP when Scott shipped off to London for another important stage of his impressive career, but he left behind a large group of admirers in Lafayette.

When I formed my first independent company in Lafayette, Aspen Exploration, Scott was always my first stop in Houston. Scott was scrupulously straight forward and honest in his prospect evaluation and would always tell me exactly what he thought, good or bad. We drilled some good wells over the years.  When I moved to Houston I joined Scott’s OEI which was an incredible collection of the best independent oil men and women in Houston.  The combination of Scott and B.K. Buongiorno was the absolute best team in any organization I have ever belonged to.

Although Scott had a somewhat gruff personality, he also had a surprisingly tender side. I’m not sure how many people know but Scott was an incredibly good artist, mainly in watercolor paintings. That and his culinary skills say a lot about the incredible depth and range of this great man. I consider him up there with Michael Halbouty, George Mitchell, and other luminaries in our profession.  I will always miss Scott and cherish the wonderful memories.  They don’t make them like that anymore and we were all so lucky to know Scott and share his friendship.  And now Jim Grubb has created a great testament to Scott’s memory with OEI 2.0.

Jim Grubb-

When I received the email from Scott that he was going to terminate the OEI Group, I was sad and very concerned.  I knew Scott had not been getting around well and had stopped attending our meetings for the last several months. I have been honored to be a member of OEI since April of 2007.  I met some great geologist and have taken and sold deals to our members.  I felt that Scott had created a professional group that functioned unlike any other in Houston.  I always looked forward to the luncheons.   Scott and his ‘iron fist’ made sure everything was well planned and scripted, and NO deviations!  Also, you did not dare miss more than 3 meetings or you would be “Red Lined” and could be expelled from the organization.

To be a member you must be an active generator or buyer of oil and gas deals.  NO exceptions!  That professionalism, and the comradery of everyone involved is what made it a great group to meet with each month.  Those meetings were always fun and exciting to find out who had discovered what, where, and when. It was just as much fun when you could report a discovery. When I read his email about closing up OEI, I called

B. K. right away for a list of  the current members.  We set up a meeting of 10 active members to decide if we should keep it going and use the same format. This was during the pandemic and we were not sure who would be brave enough to come out for lunch.  It was a unanimous vote that we keep the group going and we selected the name for our new group to honor Scott. It was decided to call the new group OEI 2.0. We had 23 members at our first luncheon and we are now averaging in the high 40s.  Our total membership is now 78, up from 44 when we started.

Scott’s legacy is still carrying on and I hope we have another 30+ years. 

I also want to recognize B.K. Buongiorno.  B.K. was Scott’s “Right Hand Woman”. B.K. helped Scott in many ways to keep OEI organized and going.  We want to thank her for all her help.

We have relaxed some of his more stringent rules, but I am now realizing why he ran it as tight as he did. Knowing Scott, He already has a lunch group meeting “Up There” with the same tough requirements.