Ryan Lance

Ryan Michael Lance
Born	21 5, 1962
Birthplace	Blytheville, Arkansas, United States
Nationality	American
Occupation	Corporate executive, engineer
Title	Chairman and Chief Executive Officer
Employer	ConocoPhillips
Known for	Chairman and CEO of ConocoPhillips
Education	Montana Technological University (BS)
Awards	Energy Executive of the Year (2025)
Website	[http://www.conocophillips.com Official site]

Ryan Michael Lance (born May 21, 1962) is an American engineer and corporate executive who has served as chairman and chief executive officer of ConocoPhillips, one of the world's largest independent exploration and production companies, since May 2012. Born in Blytheville, Arkansas, Lance built a career spanning more than three decades in the oil and gas industry, rising through technical and management positions before taking the helm of ConocoPhillips following its separation from its downstream refining operations. Under his leadership, the company has pursued a strategy focused on low-cost-of-supply resource development, disciplined capital allocation, and shareholder returns. Lance has overseen significant corporate transactions, including major acquisitions and substantial workforce restructuring, while navigating volatile commodity price environments. In October 2025, he was named Energy Executive of the Year by Energy Intelligence. He has been a prominent voice in the global energy industry, speaking frequently on topics such as oil market dynamics, United States shale production, and the geopolitics of energy supply.

Early Life

Ryan Michael Lance was born on May 21, 1962, in Blytheville, Arkansas, a small city in the northeastern corner of the state in the Mississippi Delta region. Details regarding his family background and upbringing in Blytheville are limited in publicly available sources. He grew up during a period of significant transformation in the American energy industry, including the oil crises of the 1970s, which shaped public discourse around energy security and domestic production — themes that would later define much of his professional career.

Lance eventually left Arkansas to pursue higher education in engineering, moving to the western United States, where he would begin his career in the petroleum industry.

Education

Lance earned a Bachelor of Science degree from Montana Technological University (commonly known as Montana Tech), located in Butte, Montana. Montana Tech is a public university known for its programs in engineering, geological sciences, and mining, and it has historically produced graduates who have gone on to leadership roles in the natural resources and energy sectors. Lance's engineering education provided the technical foundation for his entry into the oil and gas industry, where he began his career in operational and technical roles before transitioning into management and executive positions.

Career

Early Career and Rise at ConocoPhillips

Lance joined the oil and gas industry after completing his education at Montana Tech, beginning a career that would span more than three decades. He accumulated extensive experience across multiple facets of the exploration and production business, working in both domestic and international operations. Over the years, he held a series of positions of increasing responsibility within the organization that would become ConocoPhillips.

Prior to assuming the role of chief executive officer, Lance served in senior leadership positions that gave him oversight of major segments of the company's global portfolio. His experience encompassed upstream exploration and production operations in various geographic regions, and he developed a reputation within the company for operational discipline and strategic thinking.

Chairman and CEO of ConocoPhillips

In May 2012, Lance was appointed chairman and chief executive officer of ConocoPhillips, assuming leadership of the company following its strategic decision to separate its upstream exploration and production operations from its downstream refining and marketing business, which became Phillips 66. This separation, completed in 2012, was one of the most significant corporate restructurings in the history of the American oil and gas industry, and Lance was tasked with leading the newly independent pure-play exploration and production company.

As CEO, Lance articulated a corporate strategy centered on disciplined capital allocation, maintaining a low cost of supply across the company's global asset portfolio, and delivering strong returns to shareholders through dividends and share buybacks. Under his leadership, ConocoPhillips positioned itself as the world's largest independent pure-play exploration and production company, with operations spanning North America, Europe, the Asia-Pacific region, and the Middle East.

Navigating Commodity Price Volatility

Lance's tenure as CEO has coincided with periods of extreme volatility in global oil markets. The collapse of crude oil prices beginning in mid-2014, when benchmark prices fell from over $100 per barrel to below $30 per barrel by early 2016, forced major strategic adjustments across the industry. Under Lance's leadership, ConocoPhillips responded with cost reduction programs, capital expenditure cuts, and asset dispositions aimed at strengthening the company's balance sheet and preserving financial flexibility.

In public remarks, Lance has consistently emphasized the importance of maintaining fiscal discipline regardless of the commodity price environment. In May 2025, speaking with Bloomberg, Lance discussed the outlook for American shale production, stating that U.S. shale could continue to grow with oil prices in the high $60 to $70 per barrel range. This assessment reflected his broader view that the American shale sector had matured sufficiently to remain competitive even in moderate price environments.

At the Energy Intelligence Forum in London in October 2025, Lance challenged prevailing bearish sentiment about global oil markets. He stated that talk of oversupply in oil markets was not showing up in physical trade or in actual market fundamentals, suggesting that pessimistic forecasts did not match the reality on the ground. His remarks drew attention within the industry, as they stood in contrast to the views of some analysts who had predicted a supply glut driven by increased production from OPEC+ nations and slowing global demand growth.

Major Acquisitions and Corporate Strategy

Under Lance's leadership, ConocoPhillips pursued a strategy of portfolio high-grading — acquiring high-quality, low-cost-of-supply assets while divesting higher-cost or non-core holdings. The company made several significant acquisitions during his tenure aimed at bolstering its position in key North American resource plays, including the Permian Basin, the Eagle Ford Shale, and the Bakken formation.

These transactions were consistent with Lance's stated strategy of concentrating the company's portfolio on assets that could generate attractive returns across a wide range of commodity price scenarios. The acquisitions expanded ConocoPhillips' resource base and production capacity while the company simultaneously returned substantial capital to shareholders through dividends and share repurchase programs.

Workforce Restructuring (2025)

In September 2025, Lance addressed ConocoPhillips employees regarding significant planned workforce reductions. According to reporting by Reuters, the company announced cuts of up to 25 percent of its workforce. In a communication to employees, Lance acknowledged his own responsibility for the situation, stating, "I fault myself for not paying more attention," and explaining that part of the reason for the cuts was that the company had not adequately managed organizational efficiency during a period of growth through acquisitions.

The workforce reduction was among the largest in the company's recent history and reflected the challenges of integrating large-scale acquisitions while maintaining cost discipline. Lance's candid acknowledgment of leadership responsibility was noted in industry coverage as an unusual degree of personal accountability from a chief executive during a layoff announcement.

Venezuela Dispute

ConocoPhillips has maintained a long-running effort to recoup financial compensation from Venezuela related to the expropriation of its assets in the country, which occurred in the late 2000s under the government of Hugo Chávez. As of early 2026, the dispute remained unresolved. According to Bloomberg reporting in February 2026, Lance indicated that the company's priority in Venezuela was recovering the billions of dollars it was owed before considering any new drilling operations in the country.

The Venezuela situation has been a significant legal and financial matter for ConocoPhillips for nearly two decades. Lance's public position on the issue underscored the company's stance that it would prioritize financial recovery over new investment in the country, a position that carried implications for broader discussions about foreign energy investment in Venezuela.

Engagement with Government and Policy

Lance has been involved in discussions with the United States government on energy policy matters. In January 2026, ConocoPhillips confirmed that Lance would attend a meeting at the White House, reflecting the company's role as one of the largest American energy producers and the significance of federal policy decisions to the oil and gas industry.

Such engagements reflect the intersection of corporate leadership and energy policy in the United States, where decisions regarding federal lands leasing, environmental regulations, trade policy, and geopolitical matters such as sanctions on oil-producing nations directly affect the operations and strategy of companies like ConocoPhillips. Lance has been a participant in these conversations throughout his tenure as CEO.

Recognition

In October 2025, Energy Intelligence named Lance as its Energy Executive of the Year for 2025. The award, one of the energy industry's most prominent individual recognitions, is given to executives who have demonstrated significant leadership and impact within the global energy sector. Lance's selection reflected his role in guiding ConocoPhillips through a period of major corporate transformation, including significant acquisitions, portfolio restructuring, and his influence on industry discourse regarding oil market fundamentals and the future of American energy production.

Lance has been featured in Forbes' profiles of prominent business executives, reflecting his position as the leader of one of America's largest energy companies.

Throughout his career, Lance has been a frequent speaker at major energy industry conferences and forums, including the Energy Intelligence Forum, CERAWeek, and various investor conferences. His public commentary on topics such as oil price dynamics, shale production economics, capital discipline, and the energy transition has made him one of the more visible chief executives in the global oil and gas industry.

Legacy

As of early 2026, Lance has served as chairman and CEO of ConocoPhillips for nearly fourteen years, making his one of the longer tenures among chief executives of major American energy companies. His leadership has been defined by several key themes: the strategic positioning of ConocoPhillips as a pure-play exploration and production company following its separation from Phillips 66; a focus on disciplined capital allocation and shareholder returns; the execution of major acquisitions to build the company's resource base in key North American plays; and a willingness to engage publicly on industry issues, including challenging prevailing market narratives when he believed the data warranted it.

The 2025 workforce reductions represented one of the more difficult chapters of his leadership, and his public acknowledgment of personal responsibility for organizational inefficiencies was a notable moment in his career. The long-running Venezuela compensation dispute has also been a defining issue, reflecting the complex geopolitical risks that major energy companies navigate in their international operations.

Lance's career trajectory — from an engineering graduate of Montana Tech to the leader of one of the world's largest independent oil and gas companies — reflects a path through the American energy industry that encompassed decades of operational experience before reaching the highest level of corporate leadership. His tenure at ConocoPhillips has spanned multiple commodity price cycles, technological shifts in shale production, and evolving global debates about the future role of fossil fuels in the world's energy mix.