Interviewer: Jason Theriot

Affiliation: University of Houston

Lawrence B. “Buck” Curtis graduated from the Colorado School of Mines in 1949 and promptly went to work for Conoco in its Wyoming oil fields. Curtis soon wound up leading a burgeoning engineering group for the company in its New York City office, overseeing international efforts. At the Fetah area in Dubai, Curtis helped to pioneer the use of underwater oil storage domes in the 1960s. In 1972, Curtis was transferred to Houston, Texas, to head up Conoco’s Production Engineering Services (PES) group. Curtis, widely heralded as the “father” of the tension-leg platform, or TLP, recounts his efforts to pioneer the system at the North Sea Hutton field as well as at the Gulf of Mexico’s Jolliet development.