Mark Spears
Mark Spears is the Asset Manager – Appalachia for Stone Energy Corporation, where he is in charge of coordinating the development activities for Stone Energy’s Marcellus and Utica Shale properties. He also manages the Business Development, Geology and Reservoir Engineering activities within Stone’s Appalachian assets.
Mark earned a B.S in Petroleum and Natural Gas Engineering from WVU in 1981. His first job out of college was in Oklahoma City as a Drilling and Completions Engineer with Cities Service Oil and Gas (now Occidental Petroleum). In 1987, he returned to West Virginia to build up the Petroleum Engineering Technology program at Glenville State College. While there, he completely restructured the program to meet the needs of the local oil and gas industry.
In 1990, Mark left GSC to pursue an MBA at the University of Texas at Austin. He then took a position as a financial analyst with a Houston-based independent power producer, evaluating the profitability of natural gas cogen projects. When that company was sold in the late 1990’s, Mark helped found Fleet Energy, an independent oil and gas company focusing on emerging coalbed methane plays. The company developed an extension of the Drunkards Wash coalbed methane field in Utah and then sold the properties to Marathon Oil after proving up the reserves.
Mark then accepted the opportunity to return to West Virginia with Energy Corporation of America in 2001. After supervising drilling and completions on numerous wells in West Virginia, Kentucky, Ohio and Pennsylvania, he held the dual roles of Reservoir Engineering Manager and Manager of Asset Development.
In January 2011, Mark accepted his current position as Asset Manager for Stone Energy’s emerging Marcellus and Utica Shale properties. Since then, Stone has been actively developing horizontal Marcellus Shale wells, focusing mainly on the liquids rich area in Wetzel County, West Virginia. Stone’s first Utica Shale well started producing in December 2014.
Mark lives in Morgantown, WV with Lisa, his wife of 18 years, and their 15-year old daughter, Sarah Beth.