Daniel A. Woods is Southport Exploration, Inc.’s president and owner. He has 46 years experience in oil and gas exploration, ranging through the central United States, East Coast, and Gulf Coast. Mr. Woods graduated in 1969 with a double major in physics and math from Stephen F. Austin State University and joined Texaco as a geophysicist. His initial assignment was in the computer operations programming group involved in the processing of geophysical data. During 1969 through 1971, he was involved with processing geophysical data in the central United States and west coast, with a special emphasis on the young "VIBROSEIS" data acquisition system.
Mr. Woods’ seismic interpretation training, which includes graduate geologic course work at the University of Houston and Texaco geologic seminars, began early in 1972 with assignments in the Michigan, Appalachian and Black Warrior basins and the Atlantic offshore. Through his tenure with Texaco, his assignments included supervision of seismic interpretative teams in the Illinois and Delaware basins and the Lower Gulf Coast of Texas.
Mr. Woods joined Southport Exploration, Inc. in 1977 as Staff Geophysicist, handling all the company’s geophysical projects in Texas, Louisiana, and Oklahoma. During his tenure, he served as Chief Geophysicist, Assistant Exploration Manager, Vice President of Exploration for the Southern Division, and Senior Vice President of Exploration and Land. He joined with Mr. Ben Groenewold in March 1986 to form Southport Exploration Associates, Inc. ("SEA").
SEA was reorganized in April 1992 into SEA and SEI (Southport Exploration, Inc.), and Mr. Woods became president and principal shareholder of SEI. SEI retained the U.S. holdings of SEA, with U.S. production and extensive U.S. prospect data bases, including over 10,000+ miles of seismic data. SEI develops and explores for high risk, high return energy projects, using "state of the art" remote sensing technology for exploration risk reduction. Most notable SEA/SEI successes have been the State Line Field in Colorado, 15 MMBO+ ultimate, the #16-20 "Reef" oil pool in Canada, 3 MMBO+ ultimate, and the Second Wind oil pool in Colorado, 2 MMBO+ ultimate. SEA/SEI maintained a working interest in each of these pools.
Mr. Woods is also co-inventor of the Z-SCAN and DIGILOG high resolution magnetotelluric remote sensing exploration systems. In 1994, SEI formed a subsidiary, Digital Magnetotelluric Technologies ("DMT" Technologies). Mr. Woods has designed and/or conducted high resolution MT surveys for oil and gas pre-drill risk reduction. Mr. Woods is well versed in all types of remote sensing oil and gas risk reduction technologies, both standard, including 2-D and 3-D seismic surveying, and non-standard such as soil gas sampling, "windowed" gamma radiation, micro-magnetics, and others.
Mr. Woods is a member of the Society of Exploration Geophysicists, Tulsa Geophysical Society, American Association of Petroleum Geologists. He is a past member of The Energy Advocates, Association of Petroleum Geochemical Explorationists, and Tulsa Landman Association. Mr. Woods has been an active partner in the startup capitalization of, and has served as a director of, numerous energy related corporations, both in the U.S. and Canada. He also served on numerous civic and corporate boards.