Sanford P. Fagadau, Ph.D, Geology, has been active in the oil business as an operator and investor since 1952. Thomas Fagadau, M.B.A., joined his father's company, Fagadau Energy Corporation ("FEC") in 1982 and has worked in various capacities, principally in oil and gas property acquisition and corporate finance.

The corporate focus has shifted from time to time throughout its history, depending upon the health of the industry, but always remained steadfast in its commitment to  expanding an oil and natural gas asset base. Initially the company grew by developing significant oil and gas reserves in the Fort Worth Basin in North Central Texas.  From the mid-1960's to the mid-1980's most of the activity involved the development of gas production and the facilities to gather, compress and transport that gas to market (pipelines then owned by Lone Star Gas Company and now Texas Utilities). Three gathering systems and associated gas processing plants were built to service the gas collected from wells operated by FEC and other independent producers. Many of these gas wells are still producing commercially, and while the processing plants have been taken out of service, the affiliated limited partnership and corporation owning these gathering systems are still quite profitable today.

In 1986 oil and gas prices fell precipitously, tax laws were dramatically rewritten, and the economics deteriorated for companies whose growth strategy had been based on increasing reserves through drilling. As a result, the Fagadau group focused on increasing reserves through acquisitions in geographical areas where Fagadau Energy Corporation's operations were already in place. It became apparent the North Central Texas area did not hold sufficient promise to increase production, so Fagadau ventured into two new geographic regions: the Permian Basin area of West Texas and Oklahoma.