The University of Tulsa's Petroleum Engineering Department

Kevin D. Lacy is, Principal Advisor, Well Engineering and Operations for ChevronTexaco Corporation. He has global responsibility for the drilling function regarding staffing, employee development, best practices and common processes, and safety performance.

A native of Claremore, Okla., he attended The University of Tulsa, where he graduated with honors in 1980, with a Bachelor’s of Science degree in petroleum engineering. He went on to earn a Master’s degree in business administration from the University of California at Berkeley in 1989. In 2002 he was named to the University of Tulsa Engineering Hall of Fame.

Lacy joined Chevron in 1980 as a Drilling Engineer with Chevron U.S.A. in Louisiana. Following a series of positions with increasing responsibility in the United States, he was assigned to Chevron Overseas Petroleum Inc. (COPI), based in Shanghai, China, in 1984.

In 1985, he was returned to San Francisco as a Senior Business Analyst. During the Chevron and Gulf merger, he worked on integrating the producing assets of the two companies, and was integral in developing economic analysis models and procedures which are still widely used within the company.

In 1988, Lacy became the Operations Advisor to Angola for COPI. In 1990, he was named Staff Petroleum Engineer for Cabinda Gulf Oil Company based in Malongo, Angola, and after a series of assignments of increasing responsibility, he was named Manager, Production Operations in 1993. In mid-1995, he return to the U.S. and was assigned to COPI Operations, where he worked with other functional teams within that company to develop a new staffing and personnel development program for international employees. In November 1996, he was named General Manager, Operations, for Chevron U.K. Ltd., based in Aberdeen. While there he had responsibilities for offshore operations, asset management, and all technical functions based in Aberdeen.

In August 1999, he was named Business Line Manager for Reservoir Performance Optimization in Chevron Petroleum Technology Company, based in San Ramon, Calif., responsible for research, development and technology deployment in reservoir management and well completions.

In October 2000 he was selected to be the Manager for Strategic Planning for Chevron Corporation. He had oversight responsibilities for long term strategy formulation, business plans, and the management
and planning committees.

He assumed his present position in October 2001

Kevin in His Own Words

Why did you choose TU?

During a class in my senior year at Claremore, Ron Hinn and Shari Dunn gave a talk about TU and Petroleum Engineering which I found very interesting. I followed up with Dr. Day, the TU PE Dept Head, and he made me an offer that if I attended and did well in my classes he would find a scholarship to help me with the costs. I did, he did, and by my junior year I had a full tuition scholarship - without the class visit, Dr. Day's personal effort, and the scholarship I would have never attended TU or Petroleum Engineering.

How did TU prepare you for your future challenges?

I think the emphasis on both the fundamentals and on key PE concepts has served me very well technically. The TU emphasis on the whole student and classes outside of the Engineering College were very valuable as well. Finally the exceptional diversity and global culture at TU gave me a great appreciation of other counties and cultures and having traveled to some 30 countries it gave me a real head start.

Any fond memories?

Two actually - my first week of class and meeting so many bright people from so many places and being elected Student Association President - prior to that I had never had a real meaningful leadership position - it really helped me mature and develop. At the time that was really a rare opportunity for an engineering student from North Campus to be SA President.