Our Founder

William Devine has 30 years of experience at all levels of the oil and gas industry. He has expertise in the divestiture of major oil and gas companies and owns and operates his own domestic and international properties. Currently, he is President of United Hydrocarbon Corp. that has a large heavy oil field in California. He is the third generation of his family to be in the oil business and was raised in the oil fields working as a roughneck on oil rigs. At a very young age he founded his first oil company in New Mexico and later in California with assets primarily in California and in a dozen other states. In the early 80’s he took his company international acquiring oil concessions worldwide. Working with government ministries and state oil companies he has compiled an extensive database of undeveloped oil and gas fields worldwide.

25 years ago Mr. Devine formed Discovery International, Inc. for the purpose of consulting for oil companies to assist them in securing concessions opportunities that are available on an exclusive non-competitive basis. He assists in conducting studies to determine the commercial potential of the upstream opportunities and negotiates the concession contract agreements to secure the rights to develop these opportunities. He also forms consortiums for bidding on concessions and assisting companies in finding farm-in partners for their prospects worldwide. He also assists in helping companies merge and secure private equity and I.P.O. funds via the capital markets. Mr. Devine has consulted for hundreds of oil companies including INA-Naftaplin, Sinopec, Encana, El Paso, Conoco and Santos.

Mr. Devine is the founder and C.E.O. of a non-profit charity, Petroleum Foundation of America, Inc. The purpose of this organization is to provide energy and fertilizers to the poor, specifically in developing countries. The organization is primarily involved in making use of wasted flare gas and gas from undeveloped gas fields worldwide to provide fuel for cooking and heating for the rural poor. In addition the organization is using these gas resources to generate electricity and to produce fertilizers to help increase crop yields in countries where periodic famine is a major problem. It should be noted that Discovery International’s income from consulting services has been used to support PFA and its charitable activities.