Employees

Founders

Lee Prout, W.D. Sanchez, Kenneth J. Huffman

W. D. Sanchez
Founder, Partner, Attorney
email: bsanchez@labayexploration.com

Mr. Sanchez graduated with a JD degree from Louisiana State University in 1973, and was employed by Texaco Inc. in New Orleans in the Contract Section of the Land Department.  Responsibilities at Texaco involved negotiating and drafting exploration and production contracts for Texaco’s gulf coast division.  Mr. Sanchez also was responsible for title approvals and in the joint interest operations while working for Texaco.  In 1981, Mr. Sanchez went to work for McMoRan Exploration Company as Land Manager.  While at McMoRan, Mr. Sanchez worked on several major mergers and acquisitions including the acquisitions of Voyager Exploration of Calgary, Midlands Energy of Lakewood, Colorado, and Petro Lewis Corporation of Denver.  Subsequently, Mr. Sanchez negotiated and drafted the Purchase Agreements for several sales of producing properties of over $100,000,000, to such companies as Samedan Oil Corporation, Graham Resources, and Hunt Petroleum Company. In 1992, Mr. Sanchez negotiated a Concession with the Department of Natural Resources of Thailand, was responsible for establishing an office in Bangkok and for compliance with the concession terms which included the acquisition of a seismic survey and drilling a test well. Mr. Sanchez negotiated and worked on the drafting of the first 3D Seismic Survey entered into by the Louisiana State Mineral Board, as part of a deep drilling project on the Bay Junop salt dome.  Subsequent to retiring from McMoRan, Mr. Sanchez founded LaBay Properties L.L.C..

Mr. Sanchez is a member of the Louisiana State Bar Association, and the American Association of Professional Landmen.  He is a member and former member of the Board of Directors of the New Orleans Professional Landmen’s Association.  He has participated in numerous industry educational seminars and has presented educational papers to various organizations.

Lee Prout
Founder, Partner
email: lprout@labayexploration.com



After graduating with a Bachelor of Science degree from the Ohio State University in 1970, Mr. Prout was employed by Texaco in New Orleans.  His early responsibilities involved development geology and regional studies in south Louisiana.  Exploration duties in the MAFLA area were followed by time spent as a unitization geologist testifying as an expert witness at state hearings.  He spent three years as an Assistant District Geologist, supervising the development and drilling at areas in Southwest Louisiana such as West Cote Blanch Bay and Cote Blanche Island.  Mr. Prout joined McMoRan Exploration in 1977.  There, he generated prospects, reviewed deals and handled the geological aspects of drilling operations.  As McMoRan grew so did his responsibilities.  Various positions were held in the companies under Freeport McMoRan’s umbrella, including Exploration Manager for onshore Louisiana, Senior Staff Geologist for the Louisiana and Texas OCS, Exploration Manager of the Central and OCS Divisions, and Vice President of the Eastern Region.  The diversity of the geological experience, from Baltimore Canyon, to the Michigan Basin, offshore California to the Anadarko basin convinced him that the best place to find big domestic reserves was in the Gulf Coast.  In late 2002, he helped found LaBay as a vehicle to take advantage of the unique opportunity available in the Shallow Water Deep Gas Trend.

Mr. Prout is a member of the New Orleans Geological Society and the American Association of Petroleum Geologists.  Non-professional affiliations include the Aurora United Methodist Church where Mr. Prout has served on the Administrative Board, the Finance Committee and the Board of Trustees where he was chairman during major renovations of both the sanctuary and the parsonage.  He has also served the Boy Scouts of America as an adult leader since 1988 and has been Scoutmaster of Troop 199 since 1995.

Kenneth J. Huffman
Founder, Partner
email: khuffman@labayexploration.com



Mr. Huffman began his career in the oil and gas industry in 1977 as a production geologist for Texaco in New Orleans where he evaluated numerous fields, reviewed farmouts, and handled unitization projects. In 1980 he took a job as exploration geologist with the McMoRan Exploration Company. His duties included prospect generation and screening of third party deals. He then joined McCormick Oil and Gas in 1982 as the district geologist in their Lafayette office, where he handled well activity screening, and generating. McMoRan rehired Mr. Huffman in 1983 as their chief exploration geologist. In 1986 they promoted him to Vice President of Exploration for the onshore which required the oversight of the activity from in numerous programs from Louisiana to California. Other responsibilities were budgets, seismic acquisition and the development of the onshore properties. He served in this capacity until McMoRan outsourced him to the CLK Company in 1992. At CLK, Mr. Huffman screened, generated prospects and oversaw 3D acquisition, purchases, and bidding. He worked onshore, offshore, and deep-water prospects in the Gulf of Mexico. Mr. Huffman left the CLK Company in 2002 and did consulting work for Lewis Gilbert and Associates until later in the year when he became one of the founders of LaBay.

Mr. Huffman was born in Burlington, Iowa in 1953 and raised in western Illinois.  He graduated from Northern Illinois University in 1975 with a BS in Geology and in 1977 received an MS in Geology from Northern Illinois University.

Mr. Huffman is a member of the New Orleans Geological Society, the Houston Geological Society, the American Association of Petroleum Geologists, The Society of Independent Professional Earth Scientists (Certification #2936), and the Southeastern Geophysical Society.

W.S. "Bill" Pierce
Management
email: wpierce@labayexploration.com



Mr. Peirce was employed by Texaco for 36 years, retiring as a senior geoscientist in April 2003.  Mr. Peirce’s primary responsibilities were as a development geologist working numerous South Louisiana fields including Bayou Sale/Horseshoe Bayou, East Lake Sand, Bay Ste. Elaine, Lake Pelto, Caillou Island, Grand Bayou, Valentine, Golden Meadow, and Cote Blanche Island.  In 1988 he was assigned to the first onshore development team of engineers and geologists to evaluate and develop the West Cote Blanche Bay Field.  His responsibilities included identifying drillable locations, and workover candidates.  Under this program, fifty-five wells were drilled, 49 successful, with a finding cost of $2.50 per barrel.  In 1994 Texaco and the State of Louisiana entered into the Global Settlement Agreement, which subdivided the non-productive  portion of West Cote Blanche Bay into 5 Designated Areas which Texaco was obligated to drill or reassign to the successors of William T. Burton.  Mr. Peirce developed prospects and recommended drilling in all five Designated Areas.  This drilling program established production in four of the five areas.  In 1997, finding costs for establishing this production and a development well in the productive area, was $0.52 per barrel.   Ultimately, Texaco reassigned to the Burton Successors, most of the non-productive acreage and 5,985.75 acres of the acreage formerly held as productive.  This reassigned acreage is now subject to the LaBay Sublease.  In 1999, Mr. Peirce was transferred to work another field, Bay Ste. Elaine, where he identified and drilled successfully a 100 BCFG discovery on the NW flank. After the merger with Chevron, Mr. Peirce retired from ChevronTexaco.  He joined LaBay in 2005 in order to develop drillable prospects on the LaBay Sublease in the West Cote Blanche Bay field.  Mr. Peirce’s unique knowledge of the West Cote Blanche Bay field, resulting from his eleven years of working the geology of the dome, has been instrumental in developing the LaBay prospect inventory at West Cote Blanche Bay Field.

Mr. Peirce is a member of the New Orleans Geological Society and the American Association of Petroleum Geologists.

Mike Lieser
Explorationist
email: mlieser@labayexploration.com



Mike obtained his Masters Degree in Geology/Geophysics from Indiana University in 1976. He started his working career with Chevron in 1976, and since then he has held positions with various oil and gas exploration companies. Throughout his career, he has specialized in seismic mapping and prospect generation. Although he has worked in various basins scattered around the world, his most extensive area of experience and expertise is the Miocene trend of South Louisiana. Mike has been an active member of the SEG, AAPG, and DGS (Dallas Geophysical Society)throughout his career. For several years he was an officer in the Dallas Geophysical Society (DGS), including  its president in 2005-2006.

Sheri Richardson
Geo-Tech, Office Manager
email: srichardson@labayexploration.com



Sheri Richardson graduated from the University of New Orleans in 1996 with a Bachelor of Science degree in Geology and a Bachelor of Arts degree in Anthropology.  After graduation, she began working as a Geophysical Technician at Forcenergy in Metairie, where she became proficient in loading seismic and well data into Landmark.  In 2001, Sheri accepted a position with Murphy Exploration and Production Company in New Orleans.  As Exploration System Specialist, she was responsible for managing 2D and 3D seismic projects and providing Landmark, UNIX and PC support to the exploration staff.  Sheri joined LaBay Exploration in 2007 as a Geologic Technician, where her primary tasks are the loading of seismic and well data for onshore Louisiana into Kingdom. 

Sheri is a member of the Southeastern Geophysical Society and the American Association of Petroleum Geologists.