Interview by: Diane Austin and Laura Ek

Affiliation: University of Arizona

I was referred to Mr. Louis Datel by Dennis Sullivan. He counts him as one of the old timers in the service side of the oil and gas business, and had a successful company for many years providing drilling equipment. I met Mr. Datel, and he agreed to an interview at Lillian Miller’s home.

Louis Datel was born in 1934, and has lived in Lafayette since 1959. He graduated with a degree in petroleum engineering from Texas A&M in 1958. He worked 10 years for two different companies. From 1960-1965 he worked for PGAC (Which later became Atlas), then Eastman from roughly 1965-1970. He then went on to form his own tool company, supplying those in the oilfield with pipes of various thread sizes. He retired and currently works on his farm raising deer.

He discusses the generation gap he perceives, and shares his views on the history of the industry and what it looks like today. He also discusses the downturn of the 1980s, and the technological changes he’s seen over time that shaped his business, in particular Measurement While Drilling (MWD) and Logging While Drilling (LWD). He also talks about his personal life and his work offshore.