Interviewer: Laura Ek

Affiliation: University of Arizona

Referred to Paul Hilliard as a “Good authority” on the history of Lafayette by many previous interviewees, I met with Mr. Hilliard at his office at Badger Oil. An employee of his, Steve Maley, (petroleum engineer) joined our conversation.

Paul Hilliard is from Wisconsin. He began pursuing studies at the University of Wisconsin, but joined the military soon after. He went into the service from 1943-1946. Upon returning from the war, he finished his university studies at the University of Texas with a degree in law in 1951. He was hired on by Chevron and began work in New Orleans. In 1954 he went to work for H.L. Hunt. Around April of 1955, he was let go from Hunt and went to work for a small independent company as a landman from 1955-1958. He then made the decision to begin his own independent company, and in 1959 he opened his business. He discusses the move of Hunt Oil to Lafayette during the 1950s and the reasons for this impetus, as well as the business strategies and federal regulations and how they have changed over time.

Steve Maley calls himself “Second generation oil patch.” His father moved here from Kansas. His parents both worked in the oil business; his mother worked as a bookkeeper for a drilling company, and his father was a draftsman for Skelly Oil Company in Tulsa, Oklahoma. Mr. Maley did not see himself going into the industry himself until he took a geology class in Oklahoma. While pursuing his university studies, he worked for Skelly and ended up graduating in 1978 with a degree in petroleum engineering. After graduation, he took a job in technology advancement with Shell and moved to New Orleans. He discusses differences in working for major and smaller independent companies, life in Lafayette currently, and the TEFRA bill of 1986.

Both Mr. Hilliard and Mr. Maley discuss the transition from on paper to 3-D seismic and computers, how the oil embargo of 1973 was felt by those in Lafayette, changes in drilling policies throughout the 1980s, and the business of oil in Lafayette. They also speak in-depth on the wealth of the 1980s and the consequential decline in the 1980s in relation to culture, the climate of the real estate market, and the future of the oil business in Lafayette.