Industry Advisory Committee

Mr. Arnold is the Co-Chief Executive Officer of Troubadour Energy Partners, a Houston-based independent exploration and production company focused on developing oil and gas assets in Texas. He brings over twenty years of industry experience to the Industry Advisory Committee. Mr. Arnold earned a Bachelor of Science in Petroleum Engineering with a Minor in Geology from Louisiana State University and later completed a Master of Business Administration at Cornell University’s Johnson School of Management. He is married to Rachel (LSU’05, LSU-HSC'08), and they have three children. Chris has fond memories of his time at LSU and is passionate about supporting the mission of the Craft & Hawkins Department of Petroleum Engineering and its students.

Mr. Bourgeois has 24 years’ experience in the oil and gas industry.  Since joining Chevron in 2001, he has held numerous positions of increasing responsibility globally in the areas of asset development, operations, strategy, planning, business development, technology deployment, corporate affairs and people management.

Birlie holds a Bachelor’s Degree in Petroleum Engineering from LSU and is a licensed professional engineer in petroleum engineering in the state of Louisiana (Inactive - #32123).  He serves on the Industry Advisory Committee to the Department of Petroleum Engineering at LSU and on the advisory board of the Women’s Global Conference in Energy.  He is married with 4 daughters

Pam Brothen is a graduate of the LSU Craft and Hawking Department of Petroleum Engineering. She is the Head of Ethics and Compliance for bpx energy – bp’s onshore US upstream oil and gas producing region.

Ms. Carrillo graduated from LSU in 2018 with a degree in Petroleum Engineering and currently works for SLB (formerly known as Schlumberger). She has worked on land rigs all around the U.S. in places such as Wyoming, North Dakota, and Pennsylvania as a Measurements while drilling engineer. After working in the field, Ms. Carrillo transferred to Houston to work in the Remote Operations office where she continued to cover land jobs all over the U.S. and Canada. She now works in Tulsa, Oklahoma as a Measurements Well Drilling Instructor to teach new hires in the company about SLB's current MWD technology. 

Clyde Crouch has been a member of our Industry Advisory Committee since 1987 and is a retired employee of Hess Corporation.  Prior to his retirement in 2007, he served as the Senior VP of Technology, global drilling, tech hiring, and global procurement for 4 years at Hess and served as VP of Production in the Americas and West Africa from 1992-2003.  

Before joining Hess, Clyde worked as a Production Manager of the Pacific Coast Division with Tenneco E&P from 1987-89.  While at Tenneco, he served in a variety of roles as a Production Engineer from 1972 until his move to Hess in 1989. Clyde earned his Bachelor of Science degree in Petroleum Engineering from Marietta College in 1970 and his Master’s degree Petroleum Engineering from Louisiana State University in 1972.

Norman Duplantis retired from Texaco after 33 years where he worked in various managerial areas of responsibilities.  After his retirement, he worked as an industry consultant on production, completion, drilling and environmental issues since 2003.  

Mr. Durkee has extensive experience (37 years) in oil and gas operations, drilling in many international basins, primarily offshore. His career started with Kerr-McGee in 1988 where he rose through the management ranks working in the US Gulf of Mexico (GoM), North Sea (UK) and Alaska. Through the merger with Anadarko Petroleum Corporation in 2006, he was named General Manager of GoM / International Exploration drilling and completions. During his time at Anadarko, he was responsible for drilling projects around the world, including GoM, West Africa, East Africa, Indonesia, New Zealand, Colombia, Brazil and Alaska. Anadarko was one of the most active Operators in the Deepwater GoM, as it relates to the number of wells drilled and completed per year during 2006 to 2020. Anadarko consistently ranked in the top quartile of industry benchmarking studies around drilling and completion performance.

In 2017, Mr. Durkee was named as Vice President of Worldwide Deepwater Drilling and Completions. Following Occidental Petroleum acquiring Anadarko in August 2019, Mr. Durkee retired from the Company in March 2020. Mr. Durkee began working for CGX Energy Inc. (CGX) in May 2021 as Vice President of Development. All of CGX’s assets are located in Guyana, South America and include one oil and gas license and port project. Mr. Durkee holds a Bachelor of Science degree in Petroleum Engineering from Louisiana State University.

Sollie Graham is a founder and Managing Partner at Maven Royalty Partners (“MRP”), a mineral and royalty investment company based in Shreveport, LA. Prior to launching MRP, she was VP Engineering at Phillips Energy Partners (“PEP”) and a member of the Investment Committee. At Phillips, Mrs. Graham led the Engineering team and managed technical acquisition evaluations and portfolio reserves. Before joining Phillips, she worked as Senior Reservoir Engineer for SM Energy where she was responsible for Mid-Con and Haynesville assets. Prior to her position at SM Energy, she served a variety of roles at Devon Energy where she gained extensive completions, drilling, production, and reservoir engineering experience. 

Sollie earned a Bachelor of Science degree in Petroleum Engineering from Louisiana State University in 2004 and is a member of the Society of Petroleum Engineers. 

Dr. Guerra is the President of NSI Technologies LLC, specializing in hydraulic fracturing, completion design, numerical simulation, and experimental research.

Before joining NSI, he was a Corporate Reservoir Engineer at Pioneer Natural Resources, focusing on multi-zone development optimization and parent-child degradation mitigation in the Wolfcamp and Spraberry plays.

Dr. Guerra holds a Ph.D. in Petroleum Engineering from Texas A&M University, with expertise in hydraulic fracturing and oil-water relative permeability behavior. He has authored over a dozen technical papers, holds two U.S. patents, and has broad experience in unconventional resource development, including completions optimization and reservoir simulation.

Bill Hood is originally from Gainesville, Georgia—famously known as the “Chicken Capital of the World.” After high school, he moved to Baton Rouge to attend Louisiana State University, where he earned a degree in Petroleum Engineering. While at LSU, Bill completed multiple internships focused on upstream oil and gas, with a particular interest in unconventional plays.

After graduating in 2020, Bill began his career at Ovintiv in Houston, Texas, where he gained broad experience across drilling, completions, production, and reservoir engineering. In 2023, he joined Shell as a Production Engineer, supporting their deepwater Gulf of Mexico assets—where he continues to work today.

Outside of work, Bill spends as much time as possible outdoors—hunting, fishing, or hiking. He met his wife, Maddy, during their freshman year at LSU in the honors dorms, and after eight years together, they were married in March 2025. Bill is a proud LSU Tiger through and through and credits the university for shaping both his career and his life.

Mr. Lasseigne is a petroleum engineer with over 50 years of varied oilfield experience.  He has worked in reservoir, drilling, and production engineering, and in prospect generation, acquisitions, and management.  Currently he is President and co-owner of TMR Exploration, Inc.

Mr. Lasseigne joined Pennzoil Producing Company in 1971 where his primary responsibility was the unitization and engineering supervision of one of the largest oil fields in Arkansas (Walker Creek) for pressure maintenance secondary recovery.  He also provided reservoir engineering management for several other large waterflood projects, including Tinsley Field in Mississippi.  In 1975 Mr. Lasseigne joined McGoldrick Oil Company in Shreveport, Louisiana as its Operations Manager.  In that capacity he was responsible for aggressively developing a large north Louisiana gas field and numerous other developments in Louisiana, Texas, Mississippi, and Arkansas.  He also coordinated the efforts of the exploration, land, drilling, and production departments and represented the company in gas marketing, contract negotiations, legal matters, and regulatory affairs.

In 1987, Mr. Lasseigne joined TMR Exploration, Inc. of Bossier City, Louisiana as its Operations Manager and now serves as its President and is a co-owner with Mr. John S. Turner, Jr.  TMR is one of the larger independents in the Shreveport area and currently operates approximately 200 wells in Louisiana, Texas, Arkansas, and Mississippi.  In his capacity of president, Mr. Lasseigne manages and coordinates the exploration, enhanced oil recovery operations, engineering, land, and acquisition activities.  In May, 2018, TMR purchased Denbury’s Lockhart Crossing CO2 Flood project in Livingston Parish, LA.  Mr. Lasseigne has been active in expanding that CO2 flood as well as investigating the EOR potential in other fields through CO2 flooding.

Mr. Lasseigne received a Bachelor of Science Degree in Petroleum Engineering from Louisiana State University in 1971.  He is a registered professional engineer in Texas and has served previously as Chairman of his local section of the Society of Petroleum Engineers, President of the Shreveport Petroleum Data Association, and Director of the Shreveport Petroleum Map Association.  

Mr. Lirette is currently an independent consultant with a focus on domestic gas exploration.  He was previously Vice President – Drilling and Completions for Quarter North Energy.  Prior to joining Quarter North Energy, Mr. Lirette served in various leadership roles at Noble Energy including Director of Global Supply Chain Management, U.S. Onshore Drilling Manager, Gulf of Mexico Asset Manager, Gulf of Mexico Drilling and Completions Manager, and Gulf of Mexico Engineering Manager.  He also held various engineering roles with BP before joining Noble Energy.  He brings over 23 years of oil and gas operations planning and execution experience to the committee spanning deepwater, shelf, and U.S. onshore. 

He is currently a member of American Association of Drilling Engineers, Society of Petroleum Engineers, and serves on the LSU Petroleum Engineering Industry Advisory Committee.   

Mr. Lirette holds a Bachelor of Science in Petroleum Engineering from Louisiana State University and a Master of Business Administration from University of Houston. 

Dr. Maidla holds a PhD in Petroleum Engineering from Louisiana State University and a Bachelors of Science in Mechanical Engineering from Escola de Engenharia Maua.  Prior to his work in the oil and gas industry with Noble Drilling, Anadarko, and Schlumberger, Dr. Maidla taught as a professor at the University of Campinas and the University of South Wales.  While he is retired, he actively holds posts as the Honorary Consul of the Republic of Estonia in Houston, the Board of the Institute for Global Engagement at the University of Houston, and is a committee member of the SPE Drilling Conference.

Tyler Shoultz is a Senior Staff Drilling Engineer at Chord Energy, where he leads initiatives to enhance drilling efficiency and operational excellence. Since graduating from Louisiana State University in 2014, Tyler has built a robust career focused on innovation and leadership in drilling operations in multiple basins that include the Bakken, Uinta, and Scoop/Stack.

Beyond his professional endeavors, Tyler is deeply engaged in community and industry events. He participates in industry and Houston volunteering events such as Kids Meals, Big Brothers and Big Sisters, and various Charity sporting clay tournaments.  His commitment to mentorship and community involvement underscores his dedication to the advancement of the petroleum engineering field

Jacob Thomas is the CEO of Alchemy Sciences Inc, an improved oil recovery company he founded in 2016. Prior to that he was at Halliburton Company from 1996 onward in a variety of executive and operational roles in technology and special projects related to production enhancement, unconventional resources & CCUS. Jacob started his career in 1991 with ARCO Oil & Gas Company as an Operational/Analytical Engineer working offshore and onshore fields.

Jacob has a Ph.D. in Petroleum Engineering (1990) and an M.S. in Chemical Engineering (1988) from Louisiana State University, Baton Rouge, and a B. Tech. in Chemical Engineering from the Indian Institute of Technology, Kanpur (1985).