[Video] Q&A: Understanding the Role and Value of the Landman

After announcing Cinco Energy’s newly-formed Board of Advisors’ introduction, the team is excited to launch a new webcast series featuring the individual members. In its first edition, Cinco Energy’s President Camille Nichols sits down with J. Kelley Burch, CPL, to discuss the unique value landmen provide to companies and how their deep, rooted experience impacts the practice of land.

Read More: Meet Cinco Energy's Board of Advisors

Burch is no stranger to experience himself. He’s enjoyed a successful 35-year long career in Exploration & Production, Acquisitions & Divestitures, and every facet of Land and Business Development. After graduating from the University of Oklahoma, he started his career with Tenneco Oil Company. Since then, he’s worked in both the private and public sectors, most recently helping bring Newfield Exploration Company onshore in several basins.

When asked about the value a landman brings to a company, Burch focused on both field and in-house landman advantages. A field landman will essentially become the “face of a company” by not only negotiating leases, right-of-ways, and mineral rights but working in hand with landowners, bankers, lawyers, and the public. An in-house, or commercial landman, takes the data and information gleaned from his field counterpart and brings it to a company’s management to make well-informed decisions. The more experience either has, the larger an organization’s business development network will be, crucial to growth-oriented companies looking to operate in a competitive, volatile industry.

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Throughout the Q&A with Nichols, Burch stressed the many hats a landman wears and the importance of each task they perform. Most importantly, landmen come into projects “knowing what the exit strategy is, always looking down the road, and looking at a company’s goals.” Burch also emphasized how having a land professional on your team is pivotal to understanding the multiple nuances of land and business development work.

Watch the entire Q&A video to hear more from Burch and Nichols below. Be sure to check back for the next installment featuring another member of Cinco’s Board of Advisors.