Our Team

PJ “Jay” Thrash is executive vice president of reserves and planning. He has 44 years of experience in all phases of domestic and international onshore and offshore oil and gas exploration and production. 

Since joining CPX, Jay has performed evaluations for all prospective deals and acquisitions that the company has considered. He has also developed an intimate knowledge of the southern Delaware Basin that led to the capture of over 100 million barrels of oil and 945 billion cubic feet of gas reserves in less than 2.5 years from the company’s inception. 

Prior to CPX, Jay spent more than six years as a consultant with Haas Petroleum Engineering Services, where he provided third party evaluations on properties throughout virtually every commercial unconventional play in North America. 

Previously, Jay worked for Canadian Oxy (now Nexen Petroleum) where he ultimately became the company’s first Director of Deepwater Development. In this role, Jay recruited and managed the technical and project management team responsible for deepwater development, of multiple fields totaling over 215 million bbls in reserves. Jay also led all of the company’s evaluation efforts for all onshore, offshore and deepwater acquisitions and exploration.

Jay started his career at Kerr McGee where he worked in operational and technical roles throughout the US, the North Sea and Southeast Asia. While at Kerr McGee he held several leadership assignments before becoming Offshore Engineering Manager where he directed engineering related to the company’s Gulf of Mexico operations. 

Jay earned his B.Sc. in petroleum engineering from Texas A&M University and his Master of Theology (ThM) from Dallas Theological Seminary. He is a licensed Professional Engineer in the State of Texas and an active member of both the Society of Petroleum Engineers and the Society of Petroleum Evaluation Engineers.