(May 28, 1933 ~ December 25, 2016)
Louis Dean Jones, 83, of Plano, departed on Christmas morning.
Funeral Services will be held at 1:30 Thursday, December 29, 2016 at the First United Methodist Church of Stephenville with Rev. Howard Martin officiating. Interment will be held Monday, January 2, 2017 at Riviera Cemetery in Riviera, Texas.
L. Dean Jones was a native Texan born in a small town seven miles south of Claude, Texas on the edge of Palo Duro Canyon to Emmet and Erma Jones on May 28, 1933. He attended Tarleton State from 1950 to 1952 before obtaining a Bachelor of Science degree in petroleum engineering from the University of Texas at Austin in 1955. After service in the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, he joined Amerada Hess Corporation as a petroleum engineer. His initial assignments with Amerada were in the Mid-Continent area of the United States, where he gained valuable experience in well and reservoir performance, production facility operations, and secondary recovery. He was transferred frequently, which exposed him to a wide variety of engineering problems in different geographical and geological settings, and he was fortunate to serve on the API Reserves Committee for 2 years, from which he developed a good understanding of the significance of and difficulties associated with the preparation of good reserve estimates.
In 1964 Jones was assigned to the International Department of Amerada, where he served as chief engineer and as operations manager. These positions afforded him the opportunity to develop a wide range of knowledge relating to the international oil industry, as he was intimately associated with extensive operations in Libya and the North Sea. He served as the representative of Amerada on the Operations Advisory Group of Oasis Oil Company of Libya. In this capacity he participated in numerous reservoir, reserve, and economic optimization studies as well as evaluations of production, communication, terminal, automation, pipeline, and power facilities. His North Sea experience evolved principally from the interest of Amerada in the Leman and Indefatigable gas fields, where he served as the operations representative of Amerada and was charged with responsibilities relating to the exploitation of these fields. This required him to conduct or participate in investigations relating to reserve estimates, optimum development patterns, platform installation, and pipeline and terminal design. While with
Amerada, he also conducted studies and investigations relating to activities in Australia, Argentina, Tunisia, and Venezuela. He remained with that organization until 1970, when he resigned to join DeGolyer and MacNaughton. At D & M, Jones, continued to devote his attention to studies and activities outside the continental United States. He conducted numerous reservoir, reserve, and gas deliverability studies and participated in a number of detailed studies employing two- and three-dimensional reservoir simulators. He devoted a large portion of his time to petroleum activities in North Africa, the Middle East, Southeast Asia, and the North Sea. For 15 years he coordinated D & M’s consultancy to SONATRACH, the Algerian
national oil company. His work encompassed a wide range of activities, including reservoir simulation of the principal oil and gas reservoirs in Algeria, countrywide reserve estimates, production forecasts, economic studies, exploration and basin studies, water-injection source studies, and secondary and enhanced recovery studies. Jones made numerous presentations to heads of state, financial institutions, and company executives. For many years he served as technical advisor to the Kingdom of Denmark, providing the Ministry of lndustry, the Ministry of Energy, the Danish Energy Agency, and Danish Oil and Natural Gas Company with technical advice relating to energy policy, field development, installation of oil and gas pipelines, reserve determinations, and new concessions. For his dedicated service to Denmark, Queen
Margrethe II decorated Jones with the Order of the Dannebrog, Knight of the Danish Flag.
While working for DeGolyer and MacNaughton he was elected vice president in 1972, senior
vice president in 1975, director in 1986, assistant manager of the firm’s International Division in 1987, and manager of the division in 1988. Six years later he became Chief Executive Officer and served in that capacity until he retired in 1999. Jones was honored by Tarleton State as a Distinguished Alumnus for 2000. He was a registered professional engineer in the state of Texas and was a member of the Society of Petroleum Engineers of AIME. He was also a member of the Dallas Wildcat Committee and the Dallas Safari Club. When he wasn’t working Jones enjoyed spending time with his family, golfing and hunting.
He is survived by his wife, Sally Jones; stepchildren, Russell Byrnes, Blake Byrnes, Meredith
Pfluger and her husband Carson; cousins, Kerry Roach, Gene Byrd, Bobby Kennedy and his wife Janet and their son Ryan, Judy Sanders and her husband Cliff.
Memorials may be made to the First United Methodist Church in Stephenville, Texas
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