James C. Flores

James C. Flores is Chairman & Chief Executive Officer of Sable Offshore Corp. Sable Offshore Corp. is a Houston-based independent upstream company focused on responsibly developing the prolific Santa Ynez Unit in federal waters offshore California. 

Since 1982, Mr. Flores has had an extensive career in the oil and gas industry in the roles of Chairman, Chief Executive Officer, and President of one private and four public oil & gas exploration and production companies listed on the New York Stock Exchange. Initially, in 1994, he led Flores & Rucks, Inc. (NYSE:FNR) and then Ocean Energy Inc. (NYSE:OEI) in 1997. In 2001, he became the Chairman and CEO of Plains Resources Inc. (NYSE:PLX) where under his leadership the exploration and production assets of PLX were spun off into Plains Exploration & Production Company (NYSE:PXP). Mr. Flores served in the capacity of PXP’s Chairman, CEO, and President where, after 10 plus years of substantial growth, PXP was acquired by Freeport-McMoRan Copper & Gold Inc. (NYSE:FCX) in May of 2013 where Mr. Flores served as Vice Chairman of FCX until November 2015. Mr. Flores recently served as Chairman and CEO of Freeport-McMoRan Oil & Gas, a wholly owned subsidiary of Freeport-McMoRan Inc., the world’s largest publicly traded copper producer. 

Mr. Flores graduated from Louisiana State University with Bachelor of Science degrees in corporate finance and petroleum land management. 

He is a member of the National Petroleum Council and a board member of the American Natural Gas Alliance, the American Exploration and Production Council and serves as Trustee for the Baylor College of Medicine. He was inducted into the All-American Wildcatters in 1999 and is a member of the World Presidents’ Organization. He was recognized as the Executive of the Year in 2004 in Oil and Gas Investor magazine. In addition, Mr. Flores and his wife, Cherie, have endowed the LSU Flores MBA program.