On the record with Patrick Taylor, named to Forbes list of the 400

New Orleans CityBusiness, Dec 1, 2003 by Amber Bethel

There is no such thing as a self-made man.

This mantra comes from a person who was kicked out of his home at age 16 with only a suitcase and 35 cents to his name. Patrick F. Taylor has since worked his way to being one of the wealthiest oilmen in the country.

In my career, I've had a few individuals that really helped me, Taylor said. I've lost all of them. But they made me what I am today.

This fall Taylor, 66, was named to the Forbes magazine ranking of the 400 richest people in America with a listed worth of $700 million.

His exploration and production company, Taylor Energy Co. of New Orleans, is building a $100 million platform to service a new deepwater discovery, which holds a known reserve of 50 million barrels of oil and gas. This is most likely the company's biggest discovery, Taylor said, but it represents only half of the company's reserves. Taylor Energy has at least 20 additional locations yet to drill on the continental shelf, not to mention another 10 or more deepwater wells. He estimates his company will create more than a thousand jobs in the next two years to build the deepwater infrastructure.

But Taylor isn't finished yet. He says he won't slow down until he's given all American prep students a shot at attending college.

Fear of failure

Taylor is one of the last genuine wildcatters, an oilman unafraid to drill exploratory wells. The only thing Taylor fears is failure. The oil business is full of peaks and valleys, he said.

I don't like to be described as a businessman, he said. I'm not a businessman. I'm an oilman.

His failures, when the company hits dry holes, cost him an average of about $3.25 million. Taylor Energy now has a 93% success rate, he said.

An oilman can never be confident until the drill bit is in the ground, he said.

You've got to steel yourself to withstand the disasters. You can't let yourself be destroyed by them, he said, adding that as a company head, he can't show his disappointment to 110 employees who look to him to keep morale up.

Some people have told me over the years that I can handle disappointment better than victory, he said.

Taylor doesn't get emotional about the company's highs and lows. But he grows emotional over just about everything else.

He spent eight years riding bulls, fractured his neck doing gymnastics, has been in several boat crashes, has jumped out of planes more than 500 times, has earned a collection of leopard and lion trophies from African safaris and has scoured the Gulf of Mexico in search of treasure. He's found it many times over and not just in the oil patch.

He is the owner of Taylor Energy Co., a private company unique because Taylor is the chief executive officer, sole owner and the only investor. Taylor Energy is the only privately owned company in the Gulf of Mexico without investors.

John Pope, Taylor Energy chief operating officer, said the company has had a 90% or above success rate on drilling successful wells since 1995.

We're a shelf player with one venture into deepwater, which looks to be very successful, said Pope, an eight-year company veteran. We concentrate on exploitation prospects rather than pure exploration.

The company has significant reserves from its deepwater venture in the Eastern Gulf. Taylor Energy is coordinating the eight companies designing the platform, which should go online in late summer 2004, Pope said.

We're expanding our efforts in the Gulf both in deepwater and on the shelf and looking at additional properties to purchase, Pope said.

But if you ask about his biggest successes, Taylor won't talk about oil. He talks about his kids.

He works daily to promote the Taylor Plan, the state-funded program he helped create which provides free college tuition at a state school for four years.

The Taylor Plan, now known as Tuition Opportunity Plan for Students here, began in New Orleans in March 1988 when Taylor told 183 students at Livingston Middle School in eastern New Orleans he would make sure they attended college if they maintained a B average.

The next year, Taylor influenced state legislators to adopt the Taylor Plan and guarantee a state-funded college education for students who took college prep classes and did well in school.

Taylor wants the Taylor Plan to spread to every state in the nation. It is now in at least 20 states in some form.

Humble beginnings

If you look at me and understand where I came from, then look over my shoulder, Taylor said. Taylor doesn't like to talk about his childhood in Beaumont, Texas, except to say he had a wonderful mother. He changes the topic when asked about his siblings, and looks away when his stepfather is mentioned. There's obviously pain in his past.

You don't choose your family. You choose your friends, he said.

Taylor tells his autobiography as though life began at 16 when he was kicked out of the house and had to make it on his own.

He was the first scholarship student at The Kinkaid School, a prestigious prep school in Houston, and worked as a watchsmith apprentice to make ends meet.