The University of Tulsa's Petroleum Engineering Department

Joe Magoto has been working in the energy business for over 30 years. Prior to joining Parkman Whaling at formation he worked as an engineer at Exxon and Ryder Scott Company, a leading provider of reservoir engineering services. During the course of his career as an engineer and consulting engineer he had extensive experience providing technical services, including evaluation and assessment of acquisition and divestiture alternatives, to a wide range of domestic and international oil and gas companies.

Mr. Magoto began his career as a reservoir engineer with Exxon USA and was promoted to training school coordinator as well as supervising reservoir engineer. In that leadership role he supervised the initiation of a program achieving a record level of workovers, oil production and profitability for his district within Exxon.

After his tenure with Exxon, Joe joined Ryder Scott Company, L.P. in 1978. During his career at Ryder Scott, he performed reservoir and economic evaluation studies for oil and gas property appraisals, analyses of waterflood and pressure maintenance operations, property acquisitions, field optimizations and evaluations of development potential. As an engineer and a senior manager he led the Ryder Scott acquisition/divestiture teams in evaluating the reserves in more than 46 transactions, several of which were in the multibillion-dollar range. Clients included U.S. and international E&P companies of all sizes, financial institutions and government agencies. Mr. Magoto a advanced through seven positions at Ryder Scott to become a Managing Senior Vice President and Board Director.

Between 1997 and 2002, Mr. Magoto founded and developed Ryder Scott Management Advisory Services involving an expansion of Ryder Scott services oriented toward management, systems and processes. He served as adviser to top management of companies and their banking firms while traveling to their various international business units. Joe initiated Ryder Scott involvement in the design of a totally integrated reserve management system for numerous oil companies, both U.S. and international with emphasis on regulatory compliance. As part of his service to clients and the oil and gas industry, Joe interacted extensively with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, including formal testimony and presentations on the subject of reserve booking practices and technical determination of oil and reserve estimates. His testimony and research contributed to revisions in reserve accounting and determination worldwide.

In connection with providing advisory services to his clients, Joe has formally supported several corporate management committees reporting to senior management with responsibility for reserve determination and reserve accounting practices. Several of these management committees provided technical reports directly to corporate boards of directors. He participated as a member of the internal Unocal reserve management committee for over ten years. Joe was also a member of the Phillips audit team and performed onsite evaluations at their international business units. He also continued to expand major Ryder Scott client audits by obtaining Phillips Petroleum Co., Marathon Oil Co., OXY, ConocoPhillips, BHPBilliton, Santos, Anadarko, Shell Oil and Chevron Corp. as clients.

He graduated (magna cum laude) from The University Of Tulsa in 1973 with a degree in Chemical Engineering. Joe Magoto resides in Houston, Texas and is married with two grown children.

How did you choose TU?

The location in Tulsa was a positive factor due to greater potential of obtaining part-time employment while attending school (vs. OSU or OU), the small class size, and the scholarship treatment from the Professors was much more personal (Frank Manning handed each student a scholarship certificate).

Did TU prepare you well for your career?

The education I received at TU much better prepared me for my career. I attended OSU for my freshman year and know that I did not really obtain a complete understanding of the underlying Principals even though I had 3.35 and 4.0 GPA semester grades there. I began my career at Exxon, which was a very technically focused company and the great education at TU really help advance my career there. I was a coordinator of the Exxon Reservoir Engineering school within 2.5 years of graduating from TU and at 3.2 years became the youngest 1st line Reservoir supervisor.

Any fond memories you would like to share?

The personal attention I received from all departments: CHE: Drs' Frank Manning, Paul Buthod, Rich Thompson, Wally Philoon / Chemistry Profs: Marwin Kemp and Dr. Thomossi and Head of Physics dept. was not only very educational, but also very enjoyable and made me want to study harder. The result was a high GPA. I credit the Professors and their personal attention.