Alumnus of the Month - August 2008
Mike Weatherl
Mike Weatherl presently works as a Project Drilling Advisor for Hess Corporation’s Global Drilling Group in Houston, TX. Current responsibilities include formulating a deepwater field development for the Pony Project in the Gulf of Mexico Green Canyon Block 468.
Mike graduated with honors from The University of Tulsa in May 1982 with a Bachelor of Science degree in Petroleum Engineering. He worked in a variety of Production and Drilling assignments for Chevron Corporation in New Orleans, Houston, and Lafayette thru October of 2000. At that time he left Chevron and worked as an independent Drilling Consultant in Houston for 4 years before re-hiring with Chevron’s Houston based Deepwater E&P group in July 2004. He has functioned in his current assignment with Hess since moving over from Chevron in November, 2007.
Mike currently lives with his wife, Renay, in the Memorial area of Houston. They have 5 children, who range in age from 16 to 22, and enjoy time with extended family and many friends in Louisiana, Texas, and Oklahoma. As the oldest of four siblings Mike has done his part advocating the benefits of the engineering profession. His younger brothers Brian (BSPE ’84) and Chris (BSPE ’01) both graduated from TU with degrees in Petroleum Engineering. Additionally Mike’s eldest son, Mike Jr., is currently a senior Petroleum Engineering student at the University of Texas.
Mike in his own words:
Why did you choose TU?
I was born and raised in Tulsa and aware of the reputation of TU for academic excellence. Also, most of my high school friends ended up at OU or Oklahoma State. After comparing campuses I decided a smaller campus environment would be a better learning environment.
Did TU prepare you well for your career?
Yes - There were (and still are!) many excellent PE professors at TU back in the '78-'82 time frame. Dr. Kermit Brown was my favorite professor. His down-to-earth style and professional guidance were instrumental in my education and my decision on where to start my career.
Any fond memories you would like to share with us?
In addition to many fond memories as a student, I have particularly enjoyed being a part of Dr. Kelkar's freshman PE 'Introduction to Petroleum Engineering' class for the last several years. It is refreshing to have seen so many young talented engineers coming up through the ranks. This is critically important to our industry as a large percentage of petroleum engineers I work with will be retiring in the next few years!