Growing up in a small town in Mississippi, Lane McCarty never thought he would move abroad. But that hasn’t stopped him from being part of H&P’s expansion to Australia.
“When I was in college, I was deciding between some different career options,” he said. “I was playing baseball and taking courses to go to pharmacy school then I decided for a while that I wanted to become an optometrist.”
He worked in construction for a couple of years then returned to the University of Louisiana at Lafayette to enroll in petroleum engineering. After graduating in 2017, he worked in construction and married his wife, Ilissa, that summer. He found his way to H&P despite there not being any engineering opportunities at the time.
He started as a floorhand in West Texas. McCarty began on the Oxy rig move crew and worked periodically on all the Oxy rigs in the Permian Basin. McCarty ended up working all positions on a rig from floorhand to driller, dipping his toes in all aspects of drilling a well.
“I have always been a hands-on learner, so I wanted to get out in the field,” he said. “I really didn’t want to leave the field after taking the engineer position.”
McCarty has been with H&P for more than five years. He has been a performance engineer and drilling superintendent before taking the position as an operation’s senior manager for Australia.
“I wanted to continue to grow here at H&P,” he said. “It was also a unique opportunity to help grow our international footprint. This was the first time we have done a new office startup in another country in about 10 to 12 years.”
It has also been a new adventure for his young family. Lane and Ilissa have two children under the age of five. They will soon be making the 17-hour flight from Houston to set up a new home halfway around the world. H&P has always been an extended family for McCarty.
“West Texas is already far away from everyone’s families,” he said. “Grandma isn’t right up the road, she’s 900 miles and an airplane ticket away. It is a lot easier to rely on people out here because they aren’t just people you work with, they are your family. You learn to rely on each other because you know they will be here for you.”
The new office is going to be very remote in a new country for H&P.
“We have the potential to bring our H&P culture to Australia,” he said. “That was one of the reasons Tamboran hired us so we can bring our legacy of core values and safety to help their drilling initiatives.”
When asked about his experience at H&P so far McCarty said the personal growth opportunities have helped him.
“There is so much opportunity for growth,” he said. “You’re not set in one route. You can start anywhere and go anywhere… really create your own path.”