Leslie’s Notebook

Former Newfield Exploration founder and chairman Joe Foster is one of the most well-respected men in the business. He took Newfield from a small start-up in 1989–whose first three offshore wells were dry holes–to a $6-billion E&P company today that has diversified into several onshore plays as well.

In January, Foster joined Houston-based Tudor Pickering Holt Securities to be chair of TPH Partners, the company’s new $300-million private equity group that will invest in other E&P start-ups.

Foster speaks often to industry gatherings about his most-valued principals, those that he thinks will enable a company to succeed. He will be looking for these ingredients as he evaluates new companies for TPH to back.

One key ingredient for him is teamwork, but that includes more than just collaborating.

Teamwork is not like a relay race where one guy runs a little and then passes the baton on to the next guy in sequence. Rather, it must be crazy like a basketball game, Foster told the Houston Energy Finance Group recently.

“It has to be like a basketball game, where all the team members are running at once and passing the ball back and forth, and there is a lot of action. You are never quite sure who will take the shot, but you know somebody always does.”

Foster looks for commitment as well. When he started Newfield with mostly a group of fellow ex-Tenneco Oil Co. people, he required every employee to invest at least $10,000 in the new company. “When everyone has something like that invested, they pay attention and they don’t hesitate to say to the CEO, ‘Now wait a minute, why are you doing that?’”

To tap into more of Joe Foster’s wisdom, see the June 2008 issue of Oil and Gas Investor at OilandGasInvestor.com, or call 713-260-6491 to subscribe.

–Leslie Haines, Editor in chief,     lhaines@hartenergy.com

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