Thurmon M. Andress is one of those people who just may know everyone in the oil patch, at least in Texas. And no wonder. For decades, he’s been a deal-maker for both public and private E&P companies and partnerships.


“I would say my No. 1 job is to be a rainmaker—to make things happen,” he says. That’s his job description at publicly held BreitBurn Energy Co. LP. He’s been a managing director in the master limited partnership’s (MLP) Houston office, and board member of the parent company, since 1998, when the parent merged with Andress Oil and Gas Co., the private Houston E&P he founded in 1990. He was president and CEO.


BreitBurn’s operations are primarily in California, Texas, Wyoming, Florida and Michigan.


Other E&P companies have also benefited from his expertise. He’s been on the board of Edge Petroleum Corp. since 2002. The latter agreed in July 2008 to be sold to Chaparral Energy Inc. And since 2006, he has been a director of EPE Holdings LLC, the general partner of Enterprise GP Holdings LP, a midstream MLP.


Andress obtained a B.S. in geology from Texas Tech University but also attended Texas Christian University (TCU) for a time. A self-professed jock, he heads the annual World Oilman’s Tennis Tournament held in Houston, the industry’s largest tennis event. He was inducted into the All-American Wildcatters in 1996.


Oil and Gas Investor caught up with him recently to learn more about his background and what’s next.


Investor How did you get into the oil and gas business?


Andress I was a total jock in high school and ended up going to TCU on a partial baseball scholarship after hurting my knee in football.?I didn’t know what I wanted to do, but took a geology course as an elective. I knew immediately this was for me.
Also, I grew up in Breckenridge, Texas, which sits directly on top of the old Breckenridge Caddo Field, so it was a natural for me to like the oil business.
On graduation, I spent seven years with Sun Oil Co. in Texas. But my friend, Jake (Jakie) Sandefer, and I always wanted to have our own company someday. His dad was a successful independent, and when Jakie hit a nice field, he said, “I will grubstake us; quit your job and let’s open an office.” I never regretted it.


Investor What did that first company do?


Andress We would put drilling deals together in west-central Texas, sell interests and get a carry (carried interest). Oil was $3 a barrel and if you could sell the gas, you were paid 6 cents (an Mcf). We were fortunate to get the Tom O’Conner family in Victoria, Texas, to become our partner. We enjoyed this relationship for 17 years.
We formed Sandefer & Andress Inc., which operated in West Texas, Alabama and Florida, and Mellon Energy Co., operating in South Texas and the Gulf Coast.


Investor What happened to those companies?


Andress We sold them both in 1979 to Howell Petroleum Corp. (acquired by Anadarko Petroleum Corp. in 2006). Jakie and I are still great friends to this day. You know, in 17 years as partners, we never had one thing in writing between us and never had a disagreement. A handshake was all we ever needed.


Investor You were a serial entrepreneur, right?


Andress When we sold in 1979, the industry was peaking, and people said oil was going to $100 a barrel. I wanted to start another prospect-generating shop and persuaded some top generators to come with me. I formed Andress Oil & Gas Co., and we sold our prospects to industry partners.


Investor And you had a public company too.


Andress During the sale to Howell, I met Darby Sere and was impressed. In 1982, just before the downturn, we rolled up 25 private partnerships and traded the partnership for public stock for their production and were taken public. I contributed some properties too.
It was a difficult time to go public. Oil was $28 a barrel. We went public as Bayou Resources Inc. on Nasdaq for $3 a share. We drilled 17 straight successes at Mestena Grande Field and had a nice Louisiana property. We sold the company in 1987, in a down market, to Patrick Petroleum Co. for $8 per share, when oil was $12 and gas was $1.61.


Investor How was financing during that time?


Andress The young bucks today would not understand how hard it was to raise capital back then. There were no EnCaps or NGPs (private-equity sponsors EnCap Investments or Natural Gas Partners). When we went public in 1982, it was almost impossible to obtain public money.
Before Jakie and I were backed by the O’Conners, we raised money almost any way we could. We tried Hollywood with little success. We got a small amount from Rock Hudson.?We sold interests to business people. We had Ben Hogan in a few wells, with some other golfers.


Investor How did you hook up with BreitBurn?


Andress During the 1990s, I did several exploration joint ventures, primarily offshore on the shelf. After King Ranch Oil & Gas sold, the CEO, Roger Jarvis, and I agreed to continue our offshore JV. I then visited with EnCap about it…They introduced me to BreitBurn.
I ended up opening a Houston office for BreitBurn to look for acquisitions, and sold Andress Oil & Gas to them in 1998. It was a great choice…I’ve watched it grow from three to more than 50 people in Houston.


Investor What do you think of this shale mania?


Andress When Jakie and I were wildcatters, we probably drilled 40 wells in Palo Pinto, Jack and Throckmorton counties in North Texas, and we cussed the Barnett shale every time we drilled through it, because it gave us a kick and messed up our mud system.