I began my career in the oil patch as an engineer with Mobil oil after graduating from college with an electrical engineering degree. After several years, and several employers later, I decided I would go back to college in search of a new job career.
I chose petroleum geology as a profession because I heard that was where the big chips in the oil industry could be found, and the work was plentiful. I was told that it all started with the geologist that came up with an idea where oil and gas might be found. The geological idea gave a land man a job to get the minerals leased, then a lawyer a job to render a drill site title opinion, then a engineer to drill and complete the well, then a CPA to count the money, and on down stream to the rest of the world.
I went back to college a second time in 1982 at the age of twenty-seven, I graduated from college in 1984 with a bachelors degree and began my quest in my new geological profession. My first efforts started in Corpus Christi working for a number of independents. My dream of becoming independent myself didn’t take long because in 1986 I lost my job due to the drop in oil prices. That year I put my first geologic prospect together, and with the help of a free lease, sold the prospect for cash and an overriding royalty. We drilled my first discovery well, and I have been an independent geologist ever since.
After thirty years, I still believe petroleum geology, along with the thrill of the chase for oil and gas, to be a great profession.

Jeff Cobbs
Geologist