HOUSTON — For more than half a century, Apache Corp. founder and chairman Raymond Plank expertly steered his fiercely independent company through the highest highs and lowest lows of oil and natural gas.
Now he’s hanging it up.
“This will give me an opportunity to finish my memoir,” the plainspoken oilman said in an interview Thursday within hours of announcing his retirement at age 86. “I’ve only been working on it for 15 years.” His best decision in 54 years of running Apache? “My best decision was to start it,” he said.
Apache moved its headquarters to Denver from Minneapolis in 1986 after the company put together several multimillion-dollar oil and gas deals with Marvin Davis, who then lived in Denver. In 1992, Apache decided to move its headquarters to Houston.
G. Steven Farris, Apache’s president, chief executive and chief operating officer since 2002, will succeed Plank as company chairman while continuing his other duties. He said in a statement that Plank “is Apache.”
“His commitment and drive are embedded in the fabric of Apache’s culture. He has been a mentor, a friend and a confidant over 20 years together,” Farris said. “That won’t change as we maintain close contact and continue to build on what he has accomplished.”
Plank shepherded the Houston independent oil and gas producer from initial seed capital of $250,000 in 1954 to today’s international company with a market capitalization of $25 billion.
Along the way, he focused on no-frills growth through partnerships, acquisitions and drilling that built the bottom line. He eschewed the easy-money allure of financial structures that helped bring down Enron . Plank also avoided complicated hedging strategies that forced many of Apache’s competitors to post losses when oil prices hit unprecedented highs last year.
