Through a career that has spanned more than 60 years, Denver independent Harry Trueblood has led eight public oil and gas companies, including five he founded by spin-off of assets acquired or created by his primary company, Consolidated Oil & Gas Inc. He served as CEO of three of the spin-offs for a while, to advise new management until it got on its feet. So the current downturn is not his first.

In the lean times, he resorted to what he terms “creative financing” as sources of funds for oil and gas companies were limited. And during the 1980s, he fended off takeover attempts of three of his created public companies, including Consolidated, but lost a second battle for control of it in 1988.

Today Trueblood, who turns 90 this summer, comes into the office a few times a week, but son John operates Trueblood Resources Inc. as its president and principal shareholder.

Born and raised in Texas, he became his county’s second Eagle Scout in June 1940. Four days later, the Germans marched into Paris, and the following year, Japan attacked Pearl Harbor—which determined his future. After two years of petroleum engineering, he served in the Pacific on a mine sweeper, then returned to UT Austin and graduated with a BS in petroleum engineering in August 1948. He went to work for what is now Chevron as an engineer in Mississippi and offshore Louisiana, and then moved to Colorado for two Houston independents.

The hardest, but best, sales job he says he ever made was persuading his wife Lucile to marry him and move from New Orleans to remote Sterling, Colorado, in 1953 where his consulting business was thriving. It apparently worked out very well—they are still married after 62 years. Trueblood also was an original developer of Colorado’s Vail Resort and later, Princeville on Kauai.

He’s grateful for many honors, including two from his alma mater, plus induction into the inaugural class of IPAMS’ Rocky Mountain Hall of Fame. He also received its Wildcatter Award. He’s particularly proud of being a Distinguished Eagle Scout, as there are fewer than 3,000 in the world.

Investor: What kind of financial advice would you give during this downturn?

Trueblood: In my day we didn’t have this great source of equity and you had to be public to deal with Wall Street or you didn’t have access to significant money. We were always leveraged so when downturns came, we had to come up with something creative. I emphasize you don’t solve the problem by selling properties just to get your ratios in shape—sell very many and you merely reduce current cash flow and future revenues available to pay long-term debt. In 1986, we lost 65% of our cash flow in four months, so we had to do something. We were in terrible shape but did not panic.

Investor: What did you do?

Trueblood: We created 8-year, 6% senior secured notes with warrants attached, indexed to the oil price. If oil price increased, the exercise price of the warrants also increased. We sold this primarily to existing holders of our debentures, which could be swapped as partial payment to acquire these notes. The notes could be used to exercise the warrants and a sizeable number were exercised as we came under yet a second takeover attack, which was successful. A similar type of financing might be ideal for some companies now. CEOs have to think outside the box and you must not depend entirely on Wall Street’s advice.

Investor: What’s your best advice for independents?

Trueblood: You’d better be really dedicated and you’ve got to have the ambition to create and innovate or you’re not going to be successful. And if at first it doesn’t work, I’d say, back off and try it in a different way. During my career, if I saw that what I did wasn’t working, I’d amend it and just try again. I can’t tell you all the errors I’ve made along the way.

But one thing I’ve learned for sure is I can’t change the world, although I tried (laughs).

Investor: Should we export crude oil?

Trueblood: Absolutely. We should’ve been able to export crude long ago as money is to be made by industry to support drilling activities, and the same for natural gas. Why not let the industry make the extra $10/bbl or $4/Mcf by exporting our high-gravity oil that our refineries don’t need, or excess gas, to generate cash from outside sources? It’s common sense.

You know, I fracked my first well outside Midland in 1951. It was not horizontal though. I hate to think of how well we could’ve done if we’d had horizontal drilling back then! We discovered a natural gas field near Laredo that had many small fault blocks (some were less than 20 acres, it was so busted up). If we’d had horizontal drilling then, there’s no telling…

This could turn around overnight, in my humble opinion…but you know what they say: If you use a crystal ball to predict oil prices, you’ll end up eating glass!

If I were operating now though, I’d cut back my wells at these low prices and wait it out. I was told once never to buy gold, but to buy oil and gas in the ground—it’s always usable and relatively priced no matter what inflation might exist.