Pat Allison has over thirty-five years’ experience as an international and domestic E&P attorney and has been Board Certified in Oil, Gas and Mineral Law by the Texas Board of Legal Specialization since 1988. She started her legal career at Fulbright & Jaworski and worked as a Senior Attorney in the law departments of Union Texas Petroleum Corporation and Roy M. Huffington, Inc. and served as Vice President and General Counsel of Greenhill Petroleum Corporation (Western Mining of Australia) and Assistant General Counsel-International at Santa Fe Energy Resources. Now in private practice, Pat has been active in professional organizations, serving as Regional Chapter Director – U.S., Vice President of Model Contracts, Vice President of Education, and President of the Association of International Petroleum Negotiators and received the AIPN Member of the Year Award twice. She has served on the Board of Directors of the 100,000+ member State Bar of Texas and was the first oil and gas attorney to become a Director of the Texas Board of Legal Specialization. She chaired the Houston Bar Association Oil, Gas and Mineral Law Section and the Corporate Counsel Section of the State Bar of Texas. Pat received the Texas Trailblazer Award from the Women and the Law Section of the State Bar of Texas for her active involvement in domestic and international oil and gas work when women were under-represented. She and husband Bill have three daughters, two sons-in-law and two grandchildren, all of whom live in Houston.
Victor Obadiah is the retired President and CEO of TOTAL E&P (International) New Ventures, a Houston based affiliate of the TOTAL s.a., the world 4th largest E&P Company headquartered in Paris, France. in coordination with Paris, Mr. Obadiah's U.S. affiliate company focused solely on "international" new ventures and business development transactions, with the other U.S. based E&P companies (major & independent).
Mr. Obadiah's career in the energy industry encompassed both domestic and international, operational and executive, managerial responsibilities. Upon joining TOTAL's U.S. E&P operating affiliate (aka TOTAL Minatome) in 1995 he served as Vice President - Business Development responsible for its U.S. E&P activities. In 1999 upon completing the divestment of TOTAL's U.S. E&P affiliate company he was promoted and relocated to Paris HQ joining TOTAL s.a. Worldwide New Ventures & Assets Management group where he negotiated multiple international transactions. He actively participated in the acquisitions of FINA (Belgian) and ELF Aquitaine (French) companies upstream business units.
He began his career with Conoco (pre ConocoPhillips) in 1968 serving in various domestic engineering, operational and management assignments. He later joined MCO Resources Inc.; an independent oil, gas and geothermal publically traded company as its Executive Vice President. He continued in the same capacity post-merger of MCO with UMC Petroleum Corp. Along with other executives, Mr. Obadiah later formed VECTOR ENERGY CO., a private-equity funded independent oil & gas acquisition and producing company and served as its Managing Director and Chief Operating Officer.
Mr. Obadiah is a member of the Society of Petroleum Engineers; Association of International Petroleum Negotiators where he served as a Board Director and its Treasurer for several years; the American Petroleum Institute; the Houston Producers Forum and the Committee on Foreign Relations. He also served as a Member of the Board of Trustees at AWTY International School and on the Advisory Board at the University of St. Thomas, Center for International Studies.
Mr. Obadiah holds a B.S. degree in Petroleum Engineering from Louisiana State University. He was a recipient of the Fulbright Fellowship at LSU undergraduate program. Sponsored by Conoco, he completed the Executive Management program at the Graduate Business School of the University of Texas in Austin. Mr. Obadiah is a (Retired) Registered Professional Engineer in Texas.
Joey Wesley has over 37 years experience in US and International Oil and Gas Commercial Negotiations. Joey was the Commercial Director – Offshore for Hess Corporation in Houston, Texas with primary responsibilities for the management and oversight of all of Hess’ Development and Production Leases and Licenses in its Offshore Americas/West Africa and Europe Business Units until his retirement in December 2016. He is currently engaged in part-time consulting.
Joey worked for Hess for over 29 years in its US and International Commercial and Land groups. Prior to joining Hess in November 1987, Joey worked for Texaco in its Gulf of Mexico Land Department in New Orleans for over 7.5 years. He has extensive experience in lease/license acquisitions, joint venture agreements, operating agreements and government and regulatory relations.
Joey is a graduate of the University of Southern Mississippi. He served on AIPN’s Board of Directors from April 2012-April 2018. Joey enjoys spending time with his family and is a golf and college sports enthusiast. He and his wife of 38 years, Becky, have three children and three grandchildren, with whom they spend as much time as possible.