Mark Murphy
President
Mr. Murphy is President of Strata Production Company and has over 40 years of oil and gas company operational, geological, engineering, and management experience. In addition to his business activities Mr. Murphy is a Director and former President of the Independent Petroleum Association of New Mexico, former Treasurer of the New Mexico Oil and Gas Association, former Chairman of Independent Petroleum Association of America’s Land and Royalty Committee, and currently is a member of the National Petroleum Council. He has served on the United States Secretary of Energy Advisory Board (SEAB), as Chairman of the National Public Lands Advisory Council on behalf of the United States Secretary of Interior and currently serves as an industry advisor to New Mexico Tech’s Petroleum Recovery Research Center. Mr. Murphy holds a bachelor’s degree from the New Mexico Institute of Mining and Technology.
Mitch Krakauskas
Vice President
Mr. Krakauskas is Vice President of Strata Production Company. He began his career in 2006 as an independent landman working across New Mexico, Texas, Arizona, and Colorado. This work led him to taking a position as in-house landman at Strata in 2009, where he now serves as Vice President. Mr. Krakauskas has taken leadership roles in many trade organizations, including his current position as Treasurer and former President of the Independent Petroleum Association of New Mexico, Director and former President of the New Mexico Landmen’s Association, former Director of American Association of Professional Landmen, as well as being a Certified Professional Landman. He is a graduate of New Mexico Military Institute as well as New Mexico State University where he earned his bachelor’s degree in 2005.
Jerry Elgin
Vice President
Operations
Mr. Elgin joined Strata Production Company in August 2021 as Vice President of Operations. He brings over 40 years of industry experience in engineering and operations to his role at Strata and has responsibility for all oil and gas operations for the company.
Mr. Elgin started his career as an engineer for Crow Interests in Shreveport, Louisiana where he advanced from field engineer to operations manager over 15 years. He served as district manager for Mewbourne Oil Company, Vice President Operations for Palmer Petroleum, Operations Manager for Midroc Operating Company, and owned his own consulting firm. Prior to joining Strata, he was district manager for Southland Royalty Company in Wyoming. In all of those roles, Mr. Elgin handled multiple rig drilling and completion programs with responsibility for up to 1,000 producing wells and supervision of over 100 employees. He combines a strong work ethic with a keen understanding of operating efficiency.
Mr. Elgin earned a bachelor’s degree in petroleum engineering from Mississippi State University, did graduate work in petroleum engineering at Louisiana Tech University, and holds a master’s degree from New Orleans Baptist Theological Seminary. He is a registered professional engineer in Alabama, Louisiana, Texas, and New Mexico.
Scott Kelley
Geologist
Mr. Kelley has been the geologist for Strata Production Company since 2019. Prior to working at Strata, Mr. Kelley held positions at Pioneer Natural Resources in Dallas, Texas as their field development geologist for Reagan County, the team lead for their Midland County assets and as an operations geologist. Mr. Kelley began his career in oil and gas working for Panther Energy Company out of Tulsa, Oklahoma in 2009 originally contracting as a wellsite geologist before joining the company full time as an operations geologist in 2011. Through these positions, Mr. Kelley has gained extensive geological knowledge relating to oil extraction in the Delaware and Midland basins of the Permian, the Eagle Ford basin, and the Anadarko basin. Mr. Kelley has a Master’s degree in geology from the University of Texas at Arlington and a Bachelor’s degree in geology from the University of Oklahoma.