
Our People

Jason Pugh
Founder & President
Jason founded Abundance Energy as a vehicle to acquire natural gas production assets from Arkoma Basin operators Blue Water Resources (August 2023) and Arkoma Operations (January 2024). As of late 2024, Abundance operates over 2,000 predominately coalbed methane gas wells in the Arkoma and San Juan basins with aggregate gross production exceeding 40,000 mcf/day. Prior to Abundance, Jason served as the CEO of Arkoma Operations and built from scratch a Tulsa-based management team to oversee the company’s rapidly growing operational presence in southeast Oklahoma and southwest Colorado. From 2013 to 2020, Jason served as Operations Manager at Protégé Energy III LLC, an EnCap-backed E&P focused in the Eagle Ford and Utica shale plays, where he was responsible for production and well completion operations. Protégé grew into a substantial Eagle Ford operator with daily production volumes reaching 7,500 bbls/day oil and 30,000 mcf/day gas by late 2019. Jason began his career at Samson Resources in Tulsa, holding various engineering and leadership positions throughout his 8 years there. He earned a B.S. in Petroleum Engineering from the University of Tulsa in 2006 and is a licensed professional engineer in the State of Oklahoma.

Andy Palmer
Co-Founder & VP of Accounting & Finance
Andy is Vice President and co-founder of Abundance Energy and heads the company’s finance and accounting functions. Andy was the CFO of predecessor Arkoma Operations and its several affiliates from January 2021 until the company sold to Abundance. During that time, Andy built out an in-house accounting team replacing the prior outsourced accounting solution. Before joining Arkoma, Andy was in a Senior Accountant role at Tecolote Energy, an NGP-backed E&P in the Anadarko Basin. There he played a key role in developing processes to streamline accounting and operational reporting. Andy began his career at Samson Resources in 2012 serving in various accounting roles. Andy earned a B.S. in Accounting from Missouri State University, a M.S. of Accounting and Financial Analysis from Northeastern State University, and is a licensed CPA in the state of Oklahoma.

Andrew Price
Co-Founder & VP of Engineering
Andrew is Vice President and co-founder of Abundance Energy and is responsible for Colorado Operations, Reservoir Engineering, and Corporate Reserves. Andrew joined Abundance’s predecessor Arkoma Operations in February 2021 and had a huge impact on the company’s success, particularly through streamlining production operations in the San Juan Basin and his leadership through many asset acquisition evaluations. Before coming to Arkoma, Andrew worked as a Reservoir Engineer at Protégé Energy III LLC, and was primarily responsible for the company’s Eagle Ford assets with 40 million BOE of proved reserves and $421 million PV10 as of year-end 2019. He worked extensively with partners to facilitate development as well as led Protégé’s technical evaluations of acquisition and divestiture opportunities. He began his career at Newfield Exploration Company in Tulsa where he worked on several different Mid-Continent teams in engineering focused roles during his 6 year tenure. Andrew earned a B.S. in Petroleum Engineering from the University of Oklahoma in 2009.
Patty Yelton
Senior Landman
Patty is Senior Landman at Abundance Energy, bringing with her over 30 years of industry experience. She served in a similar role at Abundance’s predecessor Arkoma Operations since February 2021. Prior to Arkoma, Patty served as Senior Landman at Protégé Energy III LLC working the Eagle Ford Shale, and at Brigadier focused on drilling the Marble Falls play in North Texas. Previously to Brigadier, Patty spent most of her career at Samson Resources Company where she worked her way up to Senior District Landman. She also served in various land roles at Cities Service Company and OXY. Patty has a diversified land background working numerous basins and geographical areas in North America. Patty received her BBA from Langston University. She is a Certified Professional Landman and an active member of the American Association of Petroleum Landmen, Tulsa Association of Petroleum Landmen and San Juan Basin Landman Association.