Herman L. Loeb LLC is an oil and gas exploration and production (E&P) company that has been in business for over 75 years.
Our story begins with our founder Herman Loeb acquiring and operating a few “stripper well” leases in the Illinois basin in the mid-1940’s. The company’s operations continued with a small staff and footprint for close to 40 years before Mr. Loeb decided to get into larger operations. In the early 1980’s he bought out one of his partners from which he not only acquired his oil interests but also his shop, office buildings, and equipment located in Lawrenceville, Illinois. To this day, those same office and shop buildings continue to house our business headquarters and Illinois Basin field staff. That decision in 1984 also led to expanded growth and larger plans as Mr. Loeb started acquiring large existing legacy oil and gas production blocks in Kansas, Colorado and Texas, that predominately exhibited stable long-term production trends with minimal decline. It was also at this time that Mr. Loeb’s son Edward (Ed) moved back to their hometown of Lawrenceville to help run the operations. Over the next 20 years, the company continued to slowly grow its oil and gas portfolio through the efforts of Herman, Ed, and their small but dedicated office and field staff.
In 2007 the company merged its operations into a Limited Liability Company and brought in Herman’s two daughters, Diane and Laura, as partners. In 2009 and 2010, the company would face an unfortunate crisis with the passing of both Herman and Ed. At this trying time the new ownership of Diane, Laura, and Jan (Ed’s wife) did not buckle, but rather made the decision to continue to run and grow the business in honor of their father, brother, and husband. New executive management was brought in to run the day to day business operations resulting in an overall facelift for the company. An office and shop expansion took place, growth in staffing occurred, more reliance was put into technology, both in the office and field, well & field service equipment was purchased to increase efficiencies, added emphasis and supervision to daily operations, and more importantly a disciplined focus was applied to more drilling, acquisition and growth opportunities.
The company, now in its 8th decade of existence, is as strong as ever with the nimbleness to act on opportunities or tackle new challenges. We have grown from a handful of company employees to a staff of 50, in addition to a larger number of full and part-time contractors. Our daily management portfolio contains over 1,000 operated wells in over 50 counties, with production of over 2,500 net Boepd (70% liquids). We now operate properties in six states, including Illinois, Indiana, Kansas, Colorado, Texas and Oklahoma. The company has also greatly expanded its non-operated working and royalty interests to include more than 700 wells in North Dakota (Bakken, Three Forks), Colorado (Niobrara), Louisiana, Mississippi, Kentucky, Michigan and California, in addition to similar interests in the operated states through a number of trusted partners. The company continues to seek opportunities for growth via infill development, enhanced oil recovery projects, acquisitions, and new exploration projects. In recent years we have added several yards and service shops across the operated areas including a field office in Great Bend, Kansas and an operations office in Plainfield, Illinois. Despite all of our growth and changes throughout the years, Herman L. Loeb LLC strives to maintain its family views, loyalty to its employees, being a good steward of the lands under its care, compliance with state and federal regulations, and our ties to both our local community of Lawrenceville and the other areas we work.
