Oil Patch

About the Book

OIL PATCH is set in that exciting and robust business arena where a unique breed of men routinely risk all they own to compete in the search for black gold. These are the Wildcatters, men living for that next gamble, praying for that next discovery, and eager to bet all their winnings on the next roll of the dice.

This highly entertaining and intriguing look into the inner workings of a little-understood industry that dramatically impacts us all, chronicles the life and loves of Jack Manning, who rises from the poverty of his youth to become one of the most successful of these men. The reader travels from the rough and tumble oilfields of the blue-collar roughnecks, to the boardrooms and bedrooms of the power brokers who control the world’s most precious commodity. Oil.

As the book opens, the reader meets Manning, who at 69 years of age is the multibillionaire founder and Chairman of Manning Oil & Gas, the largest independent oil and gas company in the world. In the first few pages, Jack is advised by Dr. Hans Kasser in Zurich that he is terminally ill. To Kasser’s astonishment, Jack declines to begin the treatments which could prolong his life, but which would be disabling in the near term. What Kasser does not know is that the continued existence of Manning Oil & Gas is in jeopardy, and it is Jack alone who can direct Operation Sharkfin in a last desperate effort to save the company.

Through an alternating sequence of flashbacks from TODAY to YESTERDAY, the novel follows both Jack’s past and his present until at last the two converge.

As to Jack’s past, YESTERDAY chronicles his life from August of 1947, when he seeks to break the chains of poverty that have bound his family for generations, and leaves Mississippi as an eighteen year old graduate of Greenwood high school. He hitchhikes to Lubbock, Texas, where he becomes Texas Tech’s first pay-by-the-month student, and gets a job working nights and weekends to support his studies. After graduation from Tech, Jack opens an office as a consultant petroleum engineer in Midland, Texas, the flagship community of the West Texas Oil Patch. In this segment of the book, the reader first begins to understand the exciting extremes of potential risk to possible reward that the career journeymen of the Oil Patch find addictively compelling.

The reader follows Jack to Dallas, as that city becomes his home and the location of the corporate offices of Manning Oil & Gas. Big D! Was there ever another city whose sobriquet so perfectly described its personality? It is from Dallas that Jack travels to Indonesia, which ultimately becomes the springboard by which Manning Oil & Gas’ feet are firmly set upon the path to destiny’s door.

The reader meets GAIL STERLING, a lovably hedonistic and emotionally unfettered individual who is young Jack’s lover and close friend for that one special summer.

CATLINE GALLAGHER evolves from his role as Jack’s first Oil Patch boss and mentor, to being Jack’s partner and closest friend. The reader will not easily forget him.

And then there is MEG O’BRIEN. The star-crossed love that Meg and Jack share transformed what had been intended to be simply a business mystery into a poignant love story as well.

Two other key players in the saga of Jack Manning are Jack’s beautiful and talented daughter, TARA, and the formidable young Oil Patch entrepreneur, MIKE COLLINS. However, the one character who, after Jack, is most integral to the theme of the book is OSCAR CLANTON, the novel’s antagonist and Jack’s lifetime rival and bitter enemy.

As to TODAY, Manning Oil & Gas is in dire trouble. Jack has belatedly discovered that powerful forces have long been at work, seeking to destroy everything it has taken him a lifetime to build. The successful conclusion of Operation Sharkfin is vital to the continued existence of Manning Oil & Gas. Slowly, piece-by-piece as the novel unfolds, the reader learns

About the Author

Buz Buzarde worked for ARCO, Chevron and Gulf Oil from 1956 to 1973. He was District Drilling Engineer for Gulf in New Orleans in 1971, when he transferred to Nigeria as Supervisor of Drilling Engineering. From 1973 to 1976 he was successively appointed Drilling Manager, Vice President, and President of Natomas Company’s Indonesian operations, based in Jakarta. In 1979 he was named President of Natomas International Corporation, overseeing operations in Indonesia, the North Sea, the Peoples Republic of China, Australia and New Guinea. In 1986, Buzarde transferred to Dallas as Senior Vice President of Worldwide Operations for Diamond Shamrock. In 1987 he left Diamond to found his own company, Star Oil & Gas.