Dave Laramie

Vice President of Land Development

Dave Laramie is a professional registered Landman with more than forty years of experience in the contracts, due diligence, acquisition/divestiture, lease acquisition and title curative areas with both in-house and independent consulting positions. He also works with companies to acquire minerals and ready to drill prospects and consults with management of mineral assets.

He served as the primary contact for Coastal Oil & Gas Corporation’s two major producing fields in Utah for the acquisition title and curative responsibilities for Bluebell Drilling Program and Natural Buttes Field with a $123,000,000 annual expenditure. Dave was the project Lead Landman for Due Diligence projects for Bill Barrett Corporation, Concho Resources, Inc. Patera Oil & Gas, LLC, and others for multi-billion-dollar acquisitions.

Dave has a BA & BS in Economics from the University of Montana, and undergraduate studies in Petroleum Engineering from the Montana School of Mines. He is also a registered member of the American Association of Petroleum Landman (AAPL), Denver Association of Petroleum Landman (DAPL) and the International Right of Way Association.

M. Burke McHugh

Vice President of Sales & Marketing

M. Burke McHugh began his career in 1990 working in the San Juan Basin for Nassau Resources, an E&P business founded by his father. Burke learned the business from the ‘ground up’ focusing on gas measurement from Nassau’s coal-bed methane lease into Williams Field Services mainline. He also monitored sales from Nassau’s conventional Natural Gas and liquids leases into El Paso Natural Gas mainline in the lower Basin. He soon became VP of Gas Marketing for Nassau, which coincided with the FERC 636 Ruling which federally mandated ‘unbundled’ services for interstate pipelines. Burke helped establish new end-user markets with utility companies on the West Coast.

As Nassau began to wind down in the late-nineties, Burke started to focus on the real estate sector.

He found a niche market with bidding, developing and managing build-to-suit projects for the USDA/Forest Service throughout the Rocky Mountain region. Over the years, he also added small commercial and residential holdings to his portfolio through various 1031 exchanges.

Burke earned his B.A. in English Communications from Fort Lewis College in 1988. In 2018 he completed the Energy Land Management Certification Program through University of Denver’s Daniel College Business/Burns School of Real Estate.

James Huck

Vice President of Exploration

James Huck has 40 years of industry experience working as a Geophysicist interpreting seismic for prospect generation and field development. He started his career in Texaco’s Denver offices and spent 15 years in various assignments with Texaco. Since 1995 James has worked as a consultant and as an employee for several Denver independents with operations in the Rockies and the Permian Basin.

The last several years have been focused on integrating 3D seismic with geologic and engineering data to plan and monitor drilling of 200+ horizontal wells in the Niobrara play in the DJ Basin.

James earned a Bachelor of Science degree in Geology from the University of Wyoming (1980) and is a Professional Geologist in the state of Wyoming. He is a member of the Rocky Mountain Association of Geologists and the American Association of Petroleum Geologists.

Thomas B. Smith P.E.

Chief Operating Officer

Tom is a registered petroleum engineer who has over 39 years of upstream operations, reservoir, and M&A experience. He joined Marathon Oil in 1981 and spent the next 29 years in various engineering roles with Marathon and Whiting Oil and Gas in Wyoming, Utah, Texas, North Dakota, and Colorado.

In 2010, he assumed a position as Business Development Manager for Whiting, focusing on drilling JV’s and producing property Acquisitions and Divestitures. Tom’s efforts in this role led to over $1 Billion in business transactions in the Bakken, DJ, Green River, and Uinta Basins.

Tom has a Bachelor of Science degree in Petroleum Engineering from Montana Tech (1981) and has been a registered Petroleum Engineer in Wyoming since 1986. He has been a member of SPE since 1978 and is active in several professional organizations and industry associations. Throughout his career, his passion for challenging the status quo with inventiveness and problem solving has been a key element in his quest to excel.

James S. Jones

President and Founder

Jim graduated from California State University, Sacramento, California (1971) with a BA in Biological Science with a minor in Chemistry. He began his career in the oil and gas industry working as a field technical representative and then founded several successful oil field service and exploration companies which were successful throughout Utah, Wyoming and Colorado.
Jim is also an inventor. He developed a line of chemicals for acid stimulation and down-hole remedial treatment and holds two issued patents titled “System and method for identifying and Producing Unconventional Minerals from Geologic Formations”, Patent No.: US9,617,831 B2”, Date of Patent issued: April.11,2017. the second patent: US 10,378,315 B2 issued on August 13, 2019, Additionally, a third patent (status – provisional) intitled “METHODS FOR PROCESSING LIQUID ORE BRINE” which Jim co-authored was filed May the 27, 2020. Additionally, JIm caused the filing on behalf of the company two trademarks, LIQUIDORE™ Brine and The Green Mile™ Road base.