Scott Nonhof - Sr. Vice President, White Oak Energy

EDUCATION:  Spring High School - 1990 Texas A&M University, BS in Petroleum Engineering

The best times in college were found before and after class in the SPE Student Lounge located in the Richardson Building on campus at TAMU.  Here you could always find a cut throat game of "42" or a rowdy game of “Hearts” to join.  But the lounge was also a place where we first started to learn how to work with others on projects and homework assignments, be that by design, assignment, or by necessity.  Whether we were supposed to be honing our team skills or not has yet to be discussed.  This early collaboration of minds was my first entre into team work based projects and, though I didn’t know it at the time, it gave me an appreciation of working in multi-disciplinary settings that would aid me throughout my career. 

 I have had the pleasure of working with some of the best and brightest entrepreneurs in our industry over the past +20 years.  Starting my career with one of the largest mineral owners in the US (International Paper), gave me broad multi basin experience to build on.   For ten years, I had the fortune of working with, and being outnumbered by, teams of geoscientists and landmen.  Spring boarding that base to working with a small independent in the A&D sector (White Oak Energy) has afforded me both career satisfaction and professional growth.   

 Before receiving the SPE-GCS scholarship I knew nothing about the petroleum industry.  Although I lived in Houston Texas, I had no personal knowledge base only having moved here in middle school.  Receiving the SPE-GCS scholarship was my first exposure to the industry.  Had I not received it, I probably wouldn't have entered the industry.  As our industry prepares to graduate a new group of leaders during a time that feel upside down and backwards, my advice for students is to prepare for the worst and expect the best!  It may be cliché but this business is cyclical and preparation is the key.  Our industry rewards entrepreneurs and risk takers but know that many times our future is in the hands of product price.  Plan for it.