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Protégé of Witt Stephens who became president of Arkla at thirty-two, broke with the Stephens family in 1975, sold gas leases to Jerry Jones that the utility bought back at a large markup, and lost to Bill Clinton in 1990. | 1941 | Little Rock, Arkansas | 2026-09-21 | 2026-09-21 |
Sheffield Nelson was hired by Witt Stephens as his executive assistant at Arkla, rose as a salesman and executive while attending law school at night, and in 1973, on Stephens's retirement and at his choice, became president of the utility at thirty-two.1
"A major split occurred between Nelson and his predecessor when, in 1975, Nelson refused to renegotiate old gas contracts with Stephens Production." He also lobbied against a bill that would have made Arkla carry gas from Stephens wells for a rival utility. "Witt Stephens never got over his resentment."1
In the early 1980s Arkla sold a half interest in its leases in the Arkoma Basin to Jerry Jones, whose Arkoma Production Company was to supply the utility's industrial customers. The property "was bought back by Arkla for far more than it was sold to Jones." Arkansas Business put the sale to Jones at 15 million dollars and the repurchase in 1986 at 175 million, under a contract that obliged Arkla to take three quarters of Arkoma's gas. It reported that the old contracts on the Stephens family's own Cecil and Aetna fields, at 16 and 55 cents per thousand cubic feet, were broken on April 28, 1983, and that Arkoma and Stephens then shared in gas sold to Arkla at three dollars. Nelson retired on December 31, 1984, and named Mack McLarty as his successor.12
Nelson joined the Republican Party in 1989 and ran for governor of Arkansas in 1990. He won the primary with 54 percent against Representative Tommy Robinson, whom the Stephens family supported. "Arkoma continued to dominate the fall campaign, and Bill Clinton won his fifth term with fifty-seven percent of the vote." McLarty became Clinton's first White House Chief of Staff.1
Footnotes
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"Sheffield Nelson (1941-)," Encyclopedia of Arkansas. https://encyclopediaofarkansas.net/entries/edward-sheffield-nelson-2479/ ↩︎
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"Oily Deals: Pattern Emerging in Questionable Arkoma Gas Transactions," Arkansas Business, April 9, 1990. ↩︎