Today we go offshore to talk to Tim Duncan, the President and CEO of Talos Energy.  We start in 2018 with their takeover of Stone, fly back in time to the beginning of Private Equity, to learning as part of a group before leading a team, and end in 2020 with a talk on the opportunities for Talos, Mexico, North America, the Gulf, and what advice he’d give himself in 2003.

#hottakeoftheday podcast #57 w/Tim Duncan, Talos Energy

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About Tim Duncan

Timothy S. Duncan
Talos Energy Inc.
President and CEO

Talos Energy Inc Corporate offices in downtown Houston, TX. Photos by David Duncan Photography

Tim Duncan is the President and CEO and a founder of Talos Energy Inc. Headquartered in Houston, Texas, Talos is engaged in the acquisition, exploration, development and production of oil and natural gas in the Gulf of Mexico, including the US Gulf of Mexico deepwater and shelf as well as shallow water offshore Mexico. Talos became a public company in May 2018 following its merger with Stone Energy, transitioning from a private company formed in March 2012 with initial funding commitments of up to $600 million of private equity from Apollo Global Management, LLC and Riverstone Holdings LLC. Talos is the third company built with private equity capital with his partners over the last twenty years. Since inception, Talos has grown from 5 original employees to over 425 employees with approximately 150 MMBOE of Proved reserves and 70 MBOEPD of net production by the end of the 1Q 2019. In 2013, Talos was named by the Houston Chronicle as the #1 Top Workplace in the Houston area for companies under 150 employees and has maintained a position on the list of Top Workplaces for the last seven years. In June 2016, Mr. Duncan was named as the EY Entrepreneur of the Year for the Energy & Energy Services sector in the Gulf Coast area.

Mr. Duncan earned a BS in Petroleum Engineering from Mississippi State University, where he was honored in 2012 as a Distinguished Fellow of the College of Engineering. He subsequently earned an MBA from the Bauer Executive Program at the University of Houston. He is an active member of the SPE, IPAA, NOIA, YPO, and the Houston Chapter of CEO’s Against Cancer. Mr. Duncan also serves on various academically focused boards including the College of Engineering Dean’s Advisory Council and the Foundation Board at Mississippi State University.

Tim’s Top 10 Book List

Or, “10 Books in addition to The Moral Case for Fossil Fuels by Alex Epstein“, because that is a must read ~

1. The Prize – Daniel Yergin
2. The Black Swan – Nassim Nicholas Tabib
3. The Rational Optimist – Matt Ridley
4. Enlightenment Now – Steve Pinker
5. Boomerang– Michael Lewis
6. David & Goliath – Malcom Gladwell
7. Free to Choose – Milton Friedman
8. Atlas Shrugged – Ayn Rynd
9. Oil! – Upton Sinclair
10. All the King’s Men – Robert Penn Warren

Dialogue

00:00 – 09:00:  Intro, reading material, books and music

09:00 – 31:00:  Stone and Talos background and history, Gulf of Mexico, relationships and opportunities, early days, growth and learning, understanding financing and capital, private equity

31:00 – 58:00:  Moving into the Gulf of Mexico, onshore vs. offshore, and on listening more and exceeding expectations

Related Mentions

Ayn Rand, Atlas Shrugged, The Fountainhead

Upton Sinclair, Oil!, There Will be Blood

Robert Penn Warren, All the King’s Men

Barenaked Ladies

Guns N’ Roses

Nirvana

Pearl Jam

Lallapalooza

Stone Energy Corporation