Corporate Data

William H. Foster, Jr. ("Bill"), President of Foster Oil and Gas, was born in 1931 in Tulsa, Oklahoma, son of a pioneer oil geologist. Mr. Foster, Sr. co-founded the Baruch-Foster Oil Corporation that operated throughout the western United States and was listed on the American Stock Exchange for over forty years. As a student, Bill worked for his father in the oil fields in the summers in many capacities. Bill Foster then attained his B.S. degree in geology from Washington and Lee University, Lexington, Virginia, and attended graduate school in petroleum geology at Southern Methodist University, Dallas, Texas, and the University of Oklahoma at Norman, as well as the University of Oklahoma's summer field camp at Florence, Colorado.

After college, Foster joined the Navy, graduating from Naval Officers' Candidate School, Newport, Rhode Island. He served in a Tactical Air Control Squadron in the Pacific theater of operations for four years. After the service, Foster was employed by the firm Speller and Key, Inc., Petroleum Engineers, located in Tyler, Texas. During this time his duties included evaluation of hydrocarbon reservoirs and well completions, as well as secondary recovery projects. He was the area geologist for Alco Oil & Gas, Chicago, Illinois. In Shreveport, Louisiana, he originated and evaluated various oil and gas drilling prospects. In this capacity he also was in charge of the drilling, completion and operation of all of the company's wells in the Louisiana, Mississippi and the East Texas region.

In 1962, Foster formed Foster Oil & Gas, with offices in Shreveport, Louisiana, and Fort Worth, Texas. During this period, many prospects were initiated and successfully developed in the Wilcox Trend of eastern Louisiana and north-central Texas. Most notable was the discovery of the Foster (Marble Falls) Field in 1975. This discovery resulted in the drilling and completion of more than 90 oil and gas wells.

By the 1980s, Bill Foster was semi-retired and moved with his family to Princeton, New Jersey. In the late 1980s he became interested in the development of coal-bed methane gas from coal seams in the Black Warrior Basin of Alabama. After evaluating the viability of the various coal basins he decided that the Cherokee Basin in southeastern Kansas was the most attractive. He started his coal seam gas development in 1991 with the completion of several wells in the coal formation. In August, 1993, Foster Oil & Gas was mentioned by the Gas Research Institute as one of the foremost coal seam gas developers and operators in the area. In that same year, Foster moved to the region and since that time Foster Oil & Gas has been involved with the development of more than 120 coalbed methane gas wells, including drilling, completions, re-completions, pipelining, metering and operation of the wells and related gathering systems.

Also during this time, Foster became interested in re-activating old shallow oil wells, mostly drilled in the oil boom of the early 1980's, but not producing since then because of lower oil prices. Many of these wells were acquired and put back into production since today's high oil prices make them economically attractive. There is the added dimension of water flooding some of these oil-producing leases that enhances the profitability of these projects even more. These projects are ongoing.

Foster Oil & Gas operates under Kansas Operator’s License #30755, and maintains offices in Independence, Kansas, and Dallas, Texas.

Foster Oil & Gas Independence, Kansas