Leigh Whittington - Subsurface Manager, Trinity Operating
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EDUCATION:
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I often meet people in the oil and gas industry who say my name sounds familiar. I’ve become used to this, so I usually start listing my family members to see if they know one of them: dad, mom, three brothers, one sister-in-law. Not only are we all in the oil and gas industry, but we all graduated from Texas A&M – and my three brothers and I all received the SPE Gulf Coast Scholarship.
After considering various career options in high school, I eventually settled on petroleum engineering. I graduated high school in 2004 and received the SPE Gulf Coast Scholarship. The scholarship enabled me to get an internship with Kinder Morgan before my freshman year of college, which was really important for giving me a glimpse into the industry I’d chosen.
I attended Texas A&M and graduated with a BS in petroleum engineering in 2008. I had internships every summer, first with Kinder Morgan and then with Anadarko. After graduating, I went to work for Anadarko full time, where I started as a production engineer in East Texas then moved into reservoir engineering. In reservoir, I also worked deepwater in the Gulf of Mexico before moving back onshore. In 2016, I left Anadarko and moved to NextEra Energy Resources. We started an operating company called Trinity Operating, where I’m now a subsurface manager.
Two years after I received the SPE Gulf Coast Scholarship, my brother Forrest received it as well. He also attended Texas A&M and graduated with a petroleum engineering degree in 2011. -Forrest started at Encana as a completions engineer before joining Comstock Resources.
Three years after Forrest, my brother Garrett also received the SPE Gulf Coast Scholarship and headed to Texas A&M. Garrett originally planned to major in chemical engineering but decided to switch to petroleum. He graduated in 2013 and started working for Anadarko as a production engineer. Garrett moved to Memorial Resource Development before settling at Laredo Energy.
My youngest brother, Mason, received the SPE Gulf Coast Scholarship four years after Garrett. He considered career paths other than oil and gas, such as becoming a doctor. However, after working in a hospital and at an oil and gas company, he decided to move forward in petroleum. Mason also attended Texas A&M, where he met his wife, Heidi. They both graduated with a degree in petroleum engineering in 2017. Mason went to work for Noble and Heidi is at Hess.
With so many family members, there are a lot of different routes we could have chosen. Our paths haven’t all been the same, so it’s unique that we’ve all had similar accomplishments. The SPE-GCS Scholarship helped open doors through financial support, networking and opportunities for internships before college, which really helped me see what the industry was like.