Wes Franklin
Wes Franklin has 47 years of industry experience. He began his career as an offshore production geologist for Gulf Oil Company in 1969, in Morgan City, Louisiana. In 1973, Mr. Franklin joined Tenneco Oil Company in Bakersfield, California and was involved with three oil discoveries in California’s San Joaquin Basin, with ultimate reserves of over 150 million barrels. In 1982, Mr. Franklin became Exploration Manager for Tenneco’s West Texas and New Mexico division, where he directed exploration programs resulting in discoveries of several hundred billion cubic feet of gas. In 1987, he became the Division Manager for the Tenneco unit. In the 8 years Mr. Franklin served as a Manager for the Southwestern Division, the Division discovered more reserves than it produced. Following the sale of Tenneco Oil Company in 1988, Mr. Franklin became Division Manager of the South Texas Division for Fina Oil and Chemical Company. That group discovered several hundred billion cubic feet of gas while redeveloping the Slick Ranch, McAllen Ranch and McAllen-Pharr fields. Daily production of the South Texas Division increased from approximately 40 million cubic feet per day to 200 million cubic feet of gas per day. Following Fina’s reorganization to a functional design, Mr. Franklin became General Manager of Exploration for North America. In this capacity, he directed activity and projects in most of the domestic U.S. basins, including the Alaskan North Slope, as well as the Canadian Foothills/Alberta Basin. Fina was an active explorer of the shelf and deep-water regions of the Gulf of Mexico. Mr. Franklin retired from Fina in early 1997, and late in that year, became an active oil and gas consultant. Domestically, he has been involved in exploration efforts from the onshore and offshore regions of the Gulf Coast, Mid-Continent, Eastern U.S. basins, the Rocky Mountain basins, California, and the Williston Basin. Mr. Franklin has been involved in international projects in Kazakhstan, Thailand, New Zealand, Australia, Canada, the Caribbean, South America, North, West and East Africa. Mr. Franklin and Chris Barden purchased production and operated fields in South Texas and South Louisiana under Mantle Oil and Gas. Mr. Franklin has also extensively been involved in the unconventional geological evaluation of “shale” plays, including the Barnett, Fayetteville, Caney-Woodford Shale, Bakken, Mississippian Lime, Heath Shale (Montana), Phosphoria, Atoka (Permian and Palo Duro Basin), Wolfcamp (Wolfberry, Wolfbone, Palo Duro Basin), and Eagle Ford. Shale (and related Buda, Austin Chalk) plays. In 2010, Mr. Franklin participated in purchasing over 15,000 successful acres in the Eagle Ford shale play. Mr. Franklin is a registered geologist with both the American Association of Petroleum Geologists and the state of Washington, and he is a member of GSA, SEG, and SPE. Mr. Franklin has a B.S. in Geology from Washington State University and an M.S. in Geology from Oregon State University.