West Star Operating Company
1141 NW 36th Ave, Ste 200 , Norman, Oklahoma, United States

Corporate Stance

"Conservation means development as much as it does protection. I recognize the right and duty of this generation to develop and use the natural resources of our land; but I do not recognize the right to waste them, or to rob, by wasteful use, the generations that come after us."

Theodore Roosevelt – US President, "The New Nationalism" speech, Osawatomie, Kansas, August 31, 1910 

Mission

  Weststar Operating Company is committed to serving the nation and the community by exploring for and producing oil and gas in an efficient and environmentally responsible manner. We strive to protect the interests of the mineral owners and our investors through diligent management of resources. 

Management

West Star Operating Company is managed by a team of highly skilled professionals.  Each member of the management team is dedicated to the profitability of each oil/gas property.

Coy H. Squyres-Chairman

  Mr. Squyres joined West Star Operating Co, in 2009 as Chairman.  During his career he has been credited with the discovery of more than 38 billions of barrels of oil and multiple trillions of  cubic feet of gas.  His career path is exceptional. Mr. Squyres expertise is in recognizing very sound and profitable petroleum projects. Mr. Squyres purchased a significant part of West Star and is actively personally engaged in West Star projects.  Armed with a Petroleum Geology degree from the University of Oklahoma, in 1954 Squyres left for Tripoli to play an important role in the discovery of Libyas enormous oil reserves. It was during these years that Squyres began to observe and catalogue some of the first modern records of African Geology. Although his study will never be complete, in 2007 Squyres submitted for print the most comprehensive mapping of African geology to date. Discovery of the giant oil fields in Egypt, Libya, Equatorial Guinea and Côte dIvoire serve as evidence of the practical side of his knowledge and work.  While only thirty-three years old, Squyres was chosen to head Libyan exploration for Oasis Oil, a joint venture with Amerada Hess, Conoco, and Marathon Oil. Squyres today is still recognized for leading the discovery of over 28 billion barrels of oil which produced an unparalleled, one million barrels of oil per day. In Libya, Squyres served as the liaison with the Libyan government.  Recognizing Squyres penchant for finding oil while managing people, still in his 40s, Squyres was appointed President of Conoco/Middle East and President of Conoco/Egypt and subsequently relocated to Cairo. During that period, Squyres and his team located a one trillion cubic foot natural gas, 1.2 billion barrel oil reserve.  Because of his ability to effectively work with the heads of governments, Conoco appointed Squyres as their liaison with the Anwar Sadat government just as he had been with the Ghadaffi government in Libya.  Two Egyptian oil companies joined with Conoco to form the Conoco/Ghesium/Khalada joint venture and were led by Squyres in additional exploration until 1986 when appointed by Conoco to serve in Saudi Arabia to negotiate for and develop the 30 billion barrel Saudi West Kerna field. In these years, Squyres became acquainted with the royal families and governments of Qatar, Yemen, and Jordan to promote the Conoco hydrocarbon exploration in these respective states. In 1991, at the outset of Desert Storm, Squyres permanently ended his remarkable relationship with Conoco and partners to reside back in America for the first time in forty years.  With too much energy in him to cease oil exploration, Squyres accepted the invitation to form the first International Oil Exploration Division for United Meridian (later Ocean Energy and now Devon Energy). Acquiring certain concessions, tracking geological leads, and negotiating successful West African government agreements, Squyres led UMC to grow from its 1991 revenues of $200 million to a 1997 level of $2 billion. The discoveries contributing to this phenomenal expansion occurred in West Africas Côte dIvoire with its recognized Panther Gas Field reserves of 400 billion cubic feet of gas and corresponding Lion Oil Field reserves of 40 million barrels of oil. Equally substantial were the Zafiro Field discovery in Equatorial Guinea which currently produces 290,000 barrels of oil per day out of its 1.3 billion barrels of oil recoverable.  Equatorial Guineas President Obiang in 1996, expressing his countrys gratitude, formally knighted Squyres with the Commander of National Order, First Class and during the following year, 1997, Côte dIvoires President Kopnana Bedie also formally knighted Squyres with that countrys Commander of the Legion of Honor for the role Squyres played in converting an oil-importing country into a petroleum-exporting nation. Squyres continues to serve as an economic advisor to President Obiang.  In a 1998 venture, British Petroleum (BP), Mobil Oil, Arco, and Bechtel Corporation formed a joint subsidiary named Xpronet. Xpronet was intended to establish and explore an international portfolio of projects in Pakistan, Bangladesh, Mongolia, Hungary, Madagascar, and Kuwait. It was Squyres who assembled and directed this company as its CEO/President. Xpronets mission was to establish a presence in these various countries where, in the name of the founding companies, they could not go. With the mergers of Mobil to Exxon and Arco with BP, Xpronet, in 2001 ceased its existence.  The perpetual student, Squyres has both edited and written books on the geology of Libya, Egypt, Tunisia, Turkey and Italy.  Born in 1926 in Kansas and married since 1955 in Cairo, he is the father of five grown children. Serving in the US Navy as a flight navigator from 1944 to 1946, Squyres postponed his university studies for the service of his country.  Still healthy, working out at the gym regularly, Squyres has no travel restrictions and in 2002 in Cairo was awarded the Life Time Achievement Award from the American Association of Petroleum Geologists. Squyres leadership and geological work has contributed to the worlds wealth by locating, negotiating for, and putting into production billions of barrels of oil. He can contribute equally in the days ahead, especially significant considering todays oil prices.

Paul Winston Smith-President 

Mr. Smith is the President of West Star Operating Company and has more than 30 years of oil and gas industry experience.  He founded the company in 1997 to operate oil and gas properties.  Under his guidance, West Star is presently one of the leading exploration companies in central Oklahoma.   Mr. Smith has a proven track record of success, including the successful supervision and completion of oil & gas projects throughout the mid-continent region.   Mr. Smith is a native of Norman and earned his MSci and BSci of Geology from the University of Oklahoma.  His Masters thesis, “Factors Controlling Simpson Group Production in Central Oklahoma”, resolved issues for one of the most prolific oil producing reservoirs in the state.  His interest in geology and geophysics is not limited to petroleum exploration and development.  Early in his career, Mr. Smith was involved in mining exploration and was responsible for the discovery of a gold vein in the famous Comstock Mining District of Nevada.  After 13 years in the industry, Mr. Smith was recruited to manage the Reservoir Geology Division of IHS Energy Group.  He was actively involved in the geologic work that evaluated nearly every gas producing basin in the continental United States.  His efforts led to a contract with the Gas Research Institute (GRI) which resulted in the publication “Gas Well Recovery –vs- Depth in the Anadarko Basin of Western Oklahoma”.  This publication was one of only a few GRI publications that was oversubscribed and out of print within 30 days of publication.  Consequently, it has been reprinted.  While at IHS, he conducted basin-scale correlation and reservoir evaluation studies.   As a result of the projects, Mr. Smith helped clients identify opportunities, maximize value of existing properties, develop acquisition strategies, and optimize completion techniques for such clients as Chevron USA, Vastar Resources Inc (now BP), Halliburton Energy Services, and others.  Mr. Smith correctly identified and published papers on the relationships between the clastic and carbonate reservoirs of the Springer Group in the Anadarko Basin and on the “granite” wash plays in the Anadarko Basin.  He has authored or co-authored more than 30 papers on exploration topics. Mr. Smith was recruited away from his role with IHS and served as the exploration manager for an oil and gas company that aggressively developed oil and gas properties in western Oklahoma.  After several very successful years, he decided to pursue a path divergent from that of the company.  He had recognized that resource plays would become the dominant focus of exploration and development because of favorable risk profiles.   As a result, Mr. Smith put West Star into a very favorable position in one of the best plays in the continental U.S.  Mr. Smith is very active in the community and has served many years (and continues to serve) in leadership roles with the Boy Scouts of America, including four years as Scoutmaster of BSA Troop 242.  He has mentored students from the University of Oklahoma in geology in the business of oil and gas.

R. Thomas Jacky-CFO

  Jacky joined West Star in 2009 as CFO and Treasurer. He is responsible for all financial and related activities of the company.  Jacky has been working with Coy Squyres for over six years identifying, developing and consulting on oil and gas projects around the world. Currently, Jacky is spending full time with West Star Operating on the Oak Tree Project. Jacky served as Vice President and General Manager of Salt Grass Petroleum, Inc.  In this role, he was responsible for all of the financial, logistical, and legal affairs of the company. In addition to these duties, Jacky functioned as the coordinator for all of the companys activities.  Jacky has considerable experience in negotiating petroleum contracts with both oil companies and foreign governments.  Jacky has a strong background in finance, management and sales. Prior to Salt Grass Petroleum, he spent nine years in positions of increasing responsibility for The Gillette Company in Texas, Tennessee, Massachusetts, and Arkansas. He had a very successful career in sales and management with Gillette where he was responsible for $125 million dollars in sales with Gillettes largest global customer. Jacky attended the University of Colorado, and earned a Bachelor of Science degree in the areas of Finance, Marketing, and International Business.

Investments 

Investing in oil and gas exploration, development, or production has risk. Conversely, it can be the source of significant wealth.