Endeavoring to Make a Difference

We live in interesting times. What the world has taught us since Covid is that nothing that one might expect to happen, will happen. Rather, what happens is something altogether unexpected. WTI was supposed to climb above $100 before year’s end. As this sentence is being formed, it stands at $75. The price of crude was supposed to skyrocket “if there is unrest in the Middle East.” There was unrest in the Middle East, and the price of crude, which had already been in decline, fell even swifter.

But even before these latest developments, the rig count was supposed to climb. It has stayed low all year. E&Ps were supposed to thrive on crude prices in the $70s and $80s, and not just to thrive but to resume their growth paths once they got their free cash flow established. They got their cash flow, and chose to maintain fiscal restraint.

Mergers were supposed to happen when times were at their toughest—scant years ago—and when the playing field was full of straggling hangers-on. Instead, mergers exploded when players were in recovery, prices were rebounded, and things looked, if not rosy, at least stable and sufficient.

With the boisterous 2010s behind us, the 2020s seem less frenzied, but no less unpredictable. With 2024, we enter what would seem to be a world where perhaps new rules apply, and nothing can be taken for granted.

The Shale Revolution taught the Permian oilfield many lessons. Those lessons now seem to be the bywords of the survivors who face the uncertain remainder of an unpredictable decade.

If there is a picture-perfect example of what a survivor of the 2010s ought to look like, that company might be Endeavor Energy Resources. And if there is a leader of a large Permian operator whose practices fit what the 2020s call for, that leader might be Endeavor Energy’s CEO, Lance Robertson.

To listen to Robertson is to hear the echoes of lessons learned. He exhibits prudence. He talks teamwork. He recognizes risk when he sees it and takes steps to mitigate it. He empowers, delegates, listens, finds consensus, and gets buy-in. These are traits of other companies, and other leaders, that have survived and succeeded in the tough go that has been the Basin over the past dozen years.

But there’s more. Robertson exudes a quality that might be called “industry-mindedness.” Is this the hallmark of a 2020s, even a 2030s, Permian Basin? It’s not hard to picture, when listening to Robertson, a Permian Basin that is less a patchwork of competing interests and more a cooperative of mutual interests. Not that that is his stated aim. His aim, like that of any CEO, is to drive profits. But his methods seem to tend toward finding outcomes that benefit not just Endeavor but the community, the “competition,” the whole playing field.

And not that others don’t do so as well. We know that the Permian Basin pulls together better than do many industries in other places.

And Robertson affords a good example of that. Endeavor‘s personable, pragmatic chief exec, Panhandle raised, has Texas roots, an affable manner, and an oilfield ethos, having worked in the field himself and having “been all over” (his words) during his earlier working life.

“I’ve had three tours of duty in Houston, two in Dallas, and have worked in the Fort Worth area, in Calgary, in Anchorage, and I worked four years in Africa right out of college,” Robertson said. Those stints were worked in the employ of Exxon (drilling engineer), Hess (drilling engineer), Pioneer Natural Resources (senior drilling engineer to VP of Operations in the Eagle Ford), Marathon (VP of North American Operations), and finally to Endeavor (COO and SVP of development to President and CEO).

In his college days, he worked on drilling rigs in the summers to help pay his way through college. He learned, doing that work, that he liked oil people.

“There were all these colorful personalities—and I mean ‘colorful’ in the best sense possible—people that were interesting and diverse and just unique people,” Robertson said. “And these personalities, sometimes big, and mostly in good ways, I found fascinating. And I think that drew me to the energy business to a certain extent, where I could both be around the really interesting part of this business as well as be an engineer and put those two things together. I feel fortunate over the years to have had great mentors, leaders who would invest time and energy and constructive feedback for me that helped me grow and develop. And no one, at least in my experience, no one starts out to be a senior leader. They just want to have a career. And the rest of that turns out to be people willing to help you along the way, give you feedback, and good luck, good fortunes smile upon you.”

Raised in Perryton, Texas, Robertson grew up in a family that was “around the energy business off and on.” He said he arrived at the idea of being an engineer at a relatively early age.

“It was because I liked to build things,” Robertson said. “My mother would say, what I really I really like to do is take things apart. But eventually I learned to put things back together, or build things—and engineering appealed to me. That sense of design and construction, of making something durable.”

Robertson took his engineering degree at Texas A&M, and later picked up an MBA from SMU.

He met his wife at A&M “just a few months before we graduated.” They’ve been married 23 years and have three sons, aged18, 16, and 14.

“So they [their sons] have really kind of grown up, matured in Midland and, to be honest, I feel really fortunate to have such a great wife and kids. They’ve been such an integral part of my life, and they bring all these great joys. Boys have a bit of chaos with them. They’re busy with sports and activities and others, but it’s just the most wonderful sense of busy chaos. I love it. And they’re such a blessing. They’ve really helped me be a better person and a more patient person over time.”

Let’s sum up by hearing what PBPA Chairman Tommy Taylor thinks about the Endeavor CEO:

“Midland is fortunate to have a leader like Lance Robertson at the helm of Midland’s largest privately owned oil and gas company, Endeavor Energy,” said Taylor. “Lance is a natural leader and highly respected by his employees and business associates. He is an integral part of the Permian Basin Petroleum Association and serves on the Executive Committee which guides the organization through the many challenges that we face on a daily basis. He is all in for the betterment of Midland and the surrounding communities and leads the charge for the many employees of Endeavor Energy. Lance Robertson’s leadership has made a tremendous impact on our community and has made Midland a better place to live and raise a family.”

 

By Jesse Mullins