Morgan receives Distinguished Young Alumni Award

Morgan will be honored during Chadron State College’s Homecoming Oct. 19. Alyssa Sanders is the other DYA recipient.   

Morgan graduated in 2005 with a comprehensive bachelor’s in science. He was honored with the Platinum Eagle award for student leadership prior to graduation, and was elected as Student Senate Vice President in 2003-04 and President in 2004-05. He was president of the Blue Key National Honor Society in 2004 and completed an internship with NASA’s Lunar and Planetary Institute in 2005.

He earned a master’s in geophysics from the University of Wyoming, and while there received a NASA Space Grant and completed a geophysical internship in the Gulf of Mexico.

Morgan is a Vice President and Senior Director of Exploration in the Deepwater Gulf of Mexico with Occidental Petroleum Corporation (OXY). Morgan guided a reorganization to modernize the exploration team’s structure and function to align with corporate objectives, increasing leases by more than 70 percent since 2021.

As an exploration manager in the Gulf of Mexico from 2019 to 2021, Morgan led a team of geologists, geophysicists, and engineers of all experience levels to mature drilling opportunities. He also guided his team through the transition following OXY’s acquisition of Anadarko Petroleum Corporation (APC).

In 2019, Morgan was an asset manager of the Marlin Hub in the Gulf. He led a multi-disciplinary team while balancing the need to optimize mature assets and explore new opportunities.

Under his leadership as an asset manager with APC from 2017 to 2019, the Holstein Spar in the Gulf achieved an eight-year production high. Previously, he was a planning manager in APC’s division of International and Deepwater Exploration from 2015 to 2017. In that role, he evaluated portfolio submissions and trends, presented portfolio strengths, risks, and opportunities to company leaders.

Morgan contributed to more than $600 million in exploration opportunities during his work with APC from 2008 to 2015.

The DYA award is presented to recipients 40 years of age or younger or who graduated at most 20 years earlier from Chadron State. Recipients must have shown exceptional service to the college through volunteer efforts, distinguished themselves in their chosen career, or active involvement in their community.