1. When Paul Loveless realized he didn’t have the knowl-
edge necessary to move up within his organization, he
went out and got it. Loveless is president and CEO of
CL&F Resources, a privately held upstream oil and gas
exploration and production company based in Houston,
Texas. CL&F, which has been in business for eighty-five years, operates
primarily in the southern United States with operated assets in east
and south Texas and non-operated assets in west Texas, Louisiana,
Kansas, Permian Basin, and the Gulf of Mexico.
Although Loveless’s business card may read “president and CEO,”
he considers himself chief risk officer as well. A lot of what CL&F does
is accessing and managing risk associated with actions such as drilling
oil and gas wells, acquiring oil and gas pro-
ducing properties, and operating producing
assets.
“My current responsibilities are no differ-
ent than any other president of a small oil and
gas company would have, but I tend to view
all decisions from a risk-management per-
spective because everything we do is in fact
accessing and managing risk,” Loveless says.
“I’m a petroleum engineer by background, so
I’ve got a fairly firm handle on the technical
aspects of the business that underlay every-
Head of the Class
Paul Loveless’s quest to become more educated in all things “upstream oil
and gas” is one of the main reasons he’s in the position he is today
By JO E DY TO N
Paul Loveless
President, CEO
CL&F Resources
Houston, TX
GittingsPhotography
Q2/16

2. CL&F is an affiliated group of
privately held entities that own and
operate oil and gas properties and
actively engage in the acquisition,
exploration and production of oil
and gas along the Gulf Coast/Gulf
of Mexico and within the interior
basins of the United States.
• Founded in 1930
• Headquartered in Houston, TX,
with offices in Midland, TX and
Metairie, LA
• 39 Years O&G Working Interest
• Interest in 500+ Producing Wells,
50+ Platforms & 86,000
Acres/Leasehold
• 2014 Production of 8,650 NET
BOEPD (6:1)
• No Existing Debt
• Operates 100+ wells – Onshore, TX
Seeking
• Acquisitions of long-lived onshore
producing properties ranging in
value from $10-$250 million
(operated or non-operated) with
upside drilling opportunities.
• Joint Venture opportunities
both operated and non-operated
that meet internal economic
guidelines.
• Conventional and unconventional
prospects within the onshore
regions.
• Drilling prospects along the Gulf
Coast (operated or non-operated)
and Gulf of Mexico (non-operated).
thing we do, and that, along with the financial
acumen, allows me to translate decisions into
risk-adjusted financial terms.”
One of the risks Loveless and his team
recently considered was deepwater drilling
in the Gulf of Mexico. There was hesitation
after the Macondo oil spill in the Gulf of Mex-
ico back in 2010. After the incident, Loveless
admitted that the company second-guessed
reentering the deepwater arena.
“We got a little nervous after Macondo,”
he says. “[We weren’t sure if] we should ex-
pose our corporate assets to a potential cat-
astrophic event like that; unless you’re BP,
Chevron, or Exxon, an event like that can be
catastrophic.”
That is the kind of risk Loveless looks at
often. Since 2010, however, the industry has
responded appropriately by developing new
capping-stack technology that is able to react
to a blowout faster and can gather the leak-
ing fluids and gas, put them on a ship, and
burn or sell them. This technology, along with
increased capacity in the insurance market,
has helped put companies interested in deep-
water prospects, like CL&F, at ease, and they
have recently reentered the deepwater arena.
“We have three rigs running now,” Love-
less says. “We’re really excited about that; it’s
something we’ve done in the past, we under-
stand it, and we have made a lot of money at
it. We’re now back in it and looking for new
opportunities.”
CL&F also has its sights set on increasing
its presence in the Permian Basin. Loveless’s
team is doing everything they can to gain ac-
cess to properties there, whether it’s through
acquisitions, lease sales, or joint ventures.
“We’ve joint ventured with some of the
best independents out there for many years,
and we understand that model as we don’t
have to operate,” Loveless says. “We can, but
we don’t have to, and we’re really trying to
beef up the effort to acquire some quality as-
sets in the Permian Basin.”
If it seems like Loveless is well versed in a
number of categories like risk management,
drilling, and property acquisitions, it’s
because he is. Loveless entered the oil
industry with an industrial engineering
degree in 1981, working for a large service
company. But he quickly realized that
he wanted to be on the exploration and
production side of the business.
To overcome this obstacle, he attended
graduate school at night to earn a master’s
degree in petroleum engineering that led him
to a thirty-year petroleum engineering career.
After earning an engineering under-
graduate degree, a master’s in petroleum
engineering, and a professional engineer’s
license, most people would have had their
fill of education, but Paul Loveless isn’t most
people. As his duties took to the management
side, he felt he was lacking the financial and
business knowledge necessary to take on a
leadership role.
“So in 2009, at the age of fifty-one, I went
back to school at Tulane and got an MBA,
again at nights and on weekends, and contin-
ued right into a master’s degree in finance at
the ripe old age of fifty-two,” Loveless says.
“Then, subsequent to that, I got my energy
risk professional certification from the Glob-
al Association of Risk Professionals and am
currently pursuing a Charter Alternative In-
vestment Analyst certification.”
Loveless’s continued education has paid
off in a big way. He not only made himself a
viable leadership candidate, but he also can
manage every facet of CL&F’s business, in-
cluding its finances and investments.
“I don’t think there is any doubt that I
would never have been seriously considered
for my current position had I not had some
of the formal education that led to a greater
understanding of management philosophy
and how to manage and invest money,” Love-
less says. “I had the opportunity to move into
this position when my predecessor retired.
The board reviewed my past performance and
education and gave me a chance. I’m confi-
dent that, if commodity prices help out a bit,
things will work out well for all involved.”
“In 2009, at the age
of fifty-one, I went
back to school at
Tulane and got an
MBA and continued
right into a master’s
degree in finance at
the ripe old age of
fifty-two.”
PAUL LOVELESS