Oilman Magazine Sept/Oct 2018

THE MAGAZINE FOR LEADERS IN AMERICAN ENERGY

September / October 2018

OilmanMagazine.com

OIL & GAS

SOFTWARE

Interview: Tom Williams, President of

Research Partnership to Secure Energy

for America (RPSEA)

p. 36

Small Energy Businesses

Need Smart Technology

to Compete

p. 4

Interview: Shoshi Kaganovsky, CEO

and Richard Haun, Vice President

Engineering, SensoLeak

p. 20

RPA Creating the Oil

and Gas Workforce of

the Future

p. 24

AFE On Demand

Production On Demand

Land On Demand

WellEz On Demand

Fund projects

faster.

Buy, sell, and

manage leases.

Analyze well site

operations.

Capture, allocate, and

report on production.

Drilling & Completion

Accounting

Land Management

Production

Run with the power of one.

Unify your operations with a complete

upstream solution deployed in just 60 days.

www.quorumsoftware.com

Run your E&P business with the speed and

savings of software in the cloud.

Upstream Software On Demand

IN THIS ISSUE

Feature

The Evolution of Efciency

in Oil and Gas Software

By Sarah Skinner - pages 18 & 19

In Every Issue

Letter from the Publisher – page 2

OILMAN Contributors – page 2

OILMAN Online // Retweets // Social Stream – page 3

Downhole Data – page 3

Texas Oil & Gas Industry Overview – page 9

Product Showcase: Fox Thermal – page 10

OILMAN Columns

Jason Spiess: Oil and Gas Industry Energizes Multimedia Kidtrepreneur’s View on Capitalism – page 6 & 8

Josh Robbins: Early Winter – page 12

Mark A. Stansberry: American Natural Gas and NATO – page 15

Tonae’ Hamilton: Interview: Shoshi Kaganovsky, CEO and Richard Haun, Vice President Engineering, SensoLeak – page 20 & 22

Tonae’ Hamilton: Revamping the Oil Industry with Technology and the Millennials – page 25

Eric R. Eissler: Permian Basin Outgrows Pipeline Infrastructure, Construction Boom Underway but has Growing Pains – page 28

Tonae’ Hamilton: Interview with Phillip Bird, Collector, Oklahoma Oil and Gas Memorabilia – page 30 & 31

Eric R. Eissler: Natural Disasters Strike, but the Oil and Gas Community is Ready to Repair and Pull Through – page 32 & 33

Tonae’ Hamilton: Innovating the Industry with an Energy Start-up – page 34 & 35

Thomas G. Ciarlone, Jr.: The Neverending Story: “Fixed” vs. “Floating” Royalties in Texas – page 35

Eric R. Eissler: Interview: Tom Williams, President of Research Partnership to Secure Energy for America (RPSEA) – page 36 & 37

Gifford Briggs: Elections: What’s at Stake – page 37

Jason Spiess: Meridian Energy Group Meeting Timeline Objectives for Davis Renery

While Expanding Engineering Operations in Houston – page 38

Guest Columns

Matthew Mott: Small Energy Businesses Need Smart Technology to Compete – page 4

Susan Synder: Earthquakes, Wind, Fire & Storms: Onshore Oil & Gas Production Operations Disaster Preparedness – page 5

Nick Spanos: With Blockchain, the Energy Industry will Soon Become Unrecognizable – page 11

Corrosionpedia: Four Reasons Oil and Gas Pipelines Fail – page 14 & 15

Rich Radi: Are Fleet Accident Costs Hiding in Your Blind Spot? – page 16

Allen Yoho: RPA Creating the Oil and Gas Workforce of the Future – page 24

Brian Schrader, Esq., BIA: Why Oil and Gas Companies Should Consider eDiscovery as a Standard Business Process – page 26

Oilman Magazine / September-October 2018 / OilmanMagazine.com

AFE On Demand

Production On Demand

Land On Demand

WellEz On Demand

Fund projects

faster.

Buy, sell, and

manage leases.

Analyze well site

operations.

Capture, allocate, and

report on production.

Drilling & Completion

Accounting

Land Management

Production

Run with the power of one.

Unify your operations with a complete

upstream solution deployed in just 60 days.

www.quorumsoftware.com

Run your E&P business with the speed and

savings of software in the cloud.

Upstream Software On Demand

Gifford Briggs

Gifford Briggs joined LOGA in 2007 working

closely with the Louisiana Legislature. After

nearly a decade serving as LOGA’s Vice-

President, Gifford was named President in

2018. Briggs rst joined LOGA (formerly

LIOGA) in 1994 while attending college at

LSU. He served as the Membership Coordinator and helped

organize many rsts for LOGA, including the rst annual

meeting, Gulf Coast Prospect & Shale Expo, and board

meetings. He later moved to Atlanta to pursue a career in

restaurant management. He returned to LOGA in 2007.

Mark A. Stansberry

Mark A. Stansberry, Chairman of The GTD

Group, is an award-winning author, columnist,

lm producer, radio talk show host and 2009

Western Oklahoma Hall of Fame inductee.

He has been involved in the oil and gas

industry for over 39 years. He is currently

serving as Chairman of the Board of the Gaylord-Pickens

Museum/Oklahoma Hall of Fame, Vice Chairman of the

Board of Regents of the Regional University System of

Oklahoma, Board of Directors of OKC Port Authority,

Board of Governors of the Recording Academy/Grammys

Texas Chapter, Lifetime Trustee of Oklahoma Christian

University and Board Emeritus of the Oklahoma Governor’s

International Team. He has served on several private and

public corporate boards.

Jason Spiess

Jason Spiess is an award winning journalist,

talk show host, publisher and executive

producer. Spiess has worked in both the radio

and print industry for over 20 years. All but

three years of his professional experience,

Spiess was involved in the overall operations

of the business as a principal partner. Spiess is a North

Dakota native, Fargo North Alumni and graduate of North

Dakota State University. Spiess moved to the oil patch in 2012

living and operating a food truck in the parking lot of Macís

Hardware. In addition to running a food truck, Spiess hosted

a daily energy lifestyle radio show from the Rolling Stove food

truck. The show was one-of-a-kind in the Bakken oil elds

with diverse guest ranging from U.S. Senator Mike Enzi (WY)

to the traveling roadside merchant selling ags to the local

high school football coach talking about this week’s big game.

Joshua Robbins

Josh Robbins is currently the Chief Executive

Ofcer of Beachwood Marketing. He has

consulted and provided solutions for several

industries, however the majority of his consulting

solutions have been in manufacturing, energy

and oil and gas. Mr. Robbins has over 15 years

of excellent project leadership in business development and

is experienced in all aspects of oil and gas acquisitions and

divestitures. He has extensive business relationships with a

demonstrated ability to conduct executive level negotiations. He

has developed sustainable solutions, successfully marketing oil

and natural gas properties cost effectively and efciently.

Thomas G. Ciarlone, Jr.

Tom is a litigation partner in the Houston ofce

of Kane Russell Coleman Logan PC, where he

serves as the head of the rm’s energy practice

group. Tom is also the host of a weekly podcast

on legal news and developments in the oil-and-gas

industry, available at www.energylawroundup.com,

and a video series on effective legal writing, available at www.

theartofthebrief.com.

Steve Burnett

Steve Burnett has been working in the oil

industry since the age of 16. He started out

working construction on a pipeline crew and

after retirement, nishes his career as a Pipeline

Safety Compliance Inspector. He has a degree in

art and watched oil and art collide in his career

to form the “Crude Oil Calendars.” He also taught in the same

two elds and believes that while technology has advanced, the

valuable people at the core of the industry and the attributes they

encompass, remain the same.

Phil Graves

Phil Graves has spent nearly a decade working in

the oil and gas industry. He has served as Director

of Sales and Director of Digital Development for

a large national industry publication and has held

various management positions with a completions

company and was in charge of operations in the

Permian Basin and Eagle Ford shale. Phil now runs a marketing

and photography company focused on providing vivid images of

the industry at work in multifaceted disciplines and projects.

There has been a huge leap in the oil and gas space to embrace

software to improve productivity on the corporate side, in

eld locations and at production sites. Over the last few years

the industry has been introduced to technology terms such

as big data, machine learning, articial intelligence and IoT or

Internet of Things. Blockchain and bitcoin has also entered

the oil and gas arena. Data visualization is another popular

tool used today to quickly interpret and process data as it is

created and displayed. At the same time, there has been a push

to transfer all productivity data to remote servers or to a cloud

storage. However, the industry has been slow to fully adopt this measure. Maintaining

control of critical data is still a priority for many oil and gas companies. There are now

several companies in the oil and gas industry creating software tools that improve the

way employees complete work assignments in various departments from accounting and

procurement to design and production. In this issue of OILMAN we dive into how the

oil and gas industry deploys software that allow personnel to do more tasks in less time

and how the industry is using technology to pull and review information in the eld that

was once a manual process. The race is on to connect human capital to technology that

will position the oil and gas industry for growth.

MAGAZINE

SEPTEMBER — OCTOBER 2018

PUBLISHER

Emmanuel Sullivan

MANAGING EDITOR

Sarah Skinner

ASSOCIATE EDITOR

Tonae’ Hamilton

FEATURES EDITOR

Eric Eissler

GRAPHIC DESIGNER

Kim Fischer

CONTRIBUTING EDITORS

Gifford Briggs

Steve Burnett

Thomas Ciarlone, Jr.

Joshua Robbins

Story Sloane III

Jason Spiess

Mark Stansberry

SALES

Eric Freer

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Oilman Magazine

P.O. Box 771872

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(800) 562-2340

Cover images courtesy of Elnur Amikishiyev

and Juan Pablo Gonzalez – www.123RF.com

LETTER FROM THE PUBLISHER

CONTRIBUTORS — Biographies

Oilman Magazine / September-October 2018 / OilmanMagazine.com

Emmanuel Sullivan, Publisher, OILMAN Magazine

Oilman Magazine / September-October 2018 / OilmanMagazine.com

For The Week Ending August 31, 2018

DIGITAL DOWNHOLE DATA

Colorado: 30

Last month: 32

Last year: 37

North Dakota: 52

Last month: 57

Last year: 52

Texas: 528

Last month: 524

Last year: 456

Louisiana: 55

Last month: 52

Last year: 66

Oklahoma: 139

Last month: 137

Last year: 130

U.S. Total: 1,048

Last month: 1,048

Last year: 940

OIL RIG COUNTS

*Source: Baker Hughes

Brent Crude: $74.41

Last month: $74.16

Last year: $52.69

WTI: $69.97

Last month: $69.88

Last year: $47.26

CRUDE OIL PRICES

*Source: U.S. Energy Information Association (EIA)

Per Barrel

Colorado: 12,680,000

Last month: 13,849,000

Last year: 9,846,000

North Dakota: 36,610,000

Last month: 38,326,000

Last year: 30,697,000

Texas: 132,308,000

Last month: 131,583,000

Last year: 102,440,000

Louisiana: 3,861,000

Last month: 4,030,000

Last year: 4,215,000

Oklahoma: 15,775,000

Last month: 16,409,000

Last year: 13,246,000

U.S. Total: 320,230,000

Last month: 323,739,000

Last year: 272,214,000

CRUDE OIL PRODUCTION

*Source: U.S. Energy Information Association (EIA) – June 2018

Barrels Per Month

Colorado: 144,811

Last month: 154,834

Last year: 134,382

North Dakota: 57,573

Last month: 60,314

Last year: 46,449

Texas: 620,079

Last month: 631,041

Last year: 560,639

Louisiana: 232,818

Last month: 239,568

Last year: 169,788

Oklahoma: 241,846

Last month: 243,891

Last year: 203,690

U.S. Total: 2,618,170

Last month: 2,683,080

Last year: 2,340,784

NATURAL GAS

MARKETED PRODUCTION

*Source: U.S. Energy Information Association (EIA) – June 2018

Million Cubic Feet

Per Month

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Oilman Magazine / September-October 2018 / OilmanMagazine.com

Small Energy Businesses Need Smart

Technology to Compete

By Matthew Mott

As we emerge from a challenging economic

environment, the oil and gas industry is facing

short-term volatility, growing demand, and

less potential supply available. In fact, the

IEA (International Energy Agency), has been

projecting that a supply crunch could be on the

horizon since 2016.

As such, oil and gas companies are faced with

the challenge of developing a resilient strategy

to mitigate these risks, boost their production,

and future-proof their business. For startups

and small businesses in the upstream oil and

gas industry, now is the time to transform

operations by leveraging advanced digital

solutions to accelerate growth and meet

demand.

Small upstream businesses

can better manage,

operate, and optimize

assets through adopting

modernized software that

will scale and adapt in the

long term. Beyond the

back ofce, cloud-based

applications can increase

productivity and efciency

in the eld with enhanced

capabilities that support the modern energy

workplace.

For example, Fleur de Lis Energy, LLC, a private

E&P operator headquartered in Dallas, Texas,

was looking to generate attractive, risk-adjusted

returns and stable cash distributions to its

investors through the acquisition, exploitation,

and operation of a diverse portfolio of oil and

gas properties in North America. The company

had quickly acquired new acreage and needed to

collect accurate, timely, and robust production

data while minimizing their IT footprint and

overhead.

“We wanted to stay in the cloud with as many

applications as possible,” said Terry Farmer,

director of IT at Fleur de Lis Energy. “Our

tools needed to be lean, agile and implemented

quickly.”

After researching the technology available in

the market, Fleur de Lis decided to turn to

Houston-based company Quorum Software.

For Fleur de Lis, myQuorum Production

On Demand proved to be the most mobile,

cost-effective, and user-friendly easy to use

solution for those working in the eld. As Fleur

de Lis continued to grow through operational

excellence and asset acquisition, their Quorum

software tools performed and scaled to meet the

demand.

“With the most recent acquisition, we had 90

days to make the transition to our systems and

Quorum deployed their solution and trained

our eld guys with no problem,” said Farmer.

By utilizing an integrated solution built on

Microsoft Azure, Fleur de Lis and Quorum

formed a partnership that drives innovation

and operational efciency on both sides. “The

amount saved in overhead

by using cloud applications

is enormous, probably

$4 million per year,” said

Farmer. “I would have to

hire 20 more people to

maintain and support on-

premise installations.”

The company plans to

continue integrating other

cloud-based Quorum

software to complete its

end-to-end production management suite,

including AFE and a data hub for reporting.

“We will be using Quorum’s production data

as the gold standard in our organization and

link all other data in a reporting database,” said

Farmer. “We’ll then place our BI tools on top of

it and use this data to make important business

decisions at Fleur de Lis. That shows you how

much value we place on our data being collected

and reported by Production On Demand and

SCADA.”

Small businesses need technology that is

affordable, quick, easy to implement, and

built purposely for a growing business. That’s

why Quorum recently introduced a full suite

of integrated upstream solutions specically

tailored to high-growth businesses like Fleur de

Lis. Cloud solutions provide businesses with

seamless upgrades and the latest features and

functionality, plus users can access data from

anywhere without the need for expensive IT

overhead.

With the launch of Upstream On Demand,

Quorum is delivering one integrated software

solution that will give small businesses the

power to build out their suite of tools as their

business grows. E&P operators can streamline

operations from land management, through

drilling and completion, production, and

accounting.

Applications include:

• Land O

n Demand – enables businesses to

buy, sell, and manage leases and agreements

with integrated GIS mapping.

• AFE On Demand – assists businesses with

preparing cost estimates, reducing approval

cycles, and monitoring project budgets.

• WellEz On Demand – reports drilling and

completion operations, tracks eld costs, and

analyzes performance.

• Production On Demand – manages S

CADA,

optimizes production, and visualizes

allocations.

Now more than ever, oil and gas businesses

need proven solutions that are affordable and

can be deployed quickly in an ever-changing

market. Companies that choose cloud-based

applications are more likely to see an increase

in overall business agility, operational efciency,

and a quicker transition of their personnel into

the modern energy workforce.

Regardless of where the market and technology

go, an investment in a exible, adaptable

software infrastructure can help provide a

foundation for growth now and into the future.

Matthew Mott is Senior

Product Marketing

Manager, Drilling &

Production at Quorum

Software. He has spent

the last six years helping

independent oil and gas companies make

the digital transformation to cloud-based

upstream applications through support,

customer success, and marketing roles. In

his current role, Matthew works to connect

customers, support teams, and product teams

to help Quorum deliver the modern energy

workplace.

OILMAN COLUMN

Quorum’s Upstream

on Demand Software

is Built with the Latest

Cloud Capabilities for

Land Management,

Drilling and Completion,

Budgeting, and Production

Management

Oilman Magazine / September-October 2018 / OilmanMagazine.com

Earthquakes, Wind, Fire & Storms:

Onshore Oil & Gas Production

Operations Disaster Preparedness

By Susan Synder

The scope of this article is to assist onshore oil

and gas production businesses in understanding

what a “Recoverable Disaster” posture is;

meaning an onshore oil and gas production site

that can resume production as quickly, safely and

economically as possible after a disaster.

Proper “Disaster Preparedness,” as dened by

FEMA (United States Department of Homeland

Security/ Federal Emergency Management

Agency), is achieved by “a continuous cycle

of planning, organizing, training, equipping,

exercising, evaluating, and taking corrective action

to ensure effective coordination during incident

response.” This sounds great and it would work to

reduce risk and save money if you had a renery

or large industrial facility that typically comes with

many qualied workers that can participate and

contribute to the disaster planning process, but in

the oil patch Larry the Pumper and Bob, Eddie

and Juan the Roustabouts are about the only

personnel you have at your disposal.

In this article for the sake of expediency and

editorial space, we will focus on few to no

workers, a small upfront investment that will

save countless dollars in repairs, replacement,

environmental challenges and possibly some bad

PR on the evening television news. Even more

narrowly, let’s limit the discussion to onshore

drilling operations, completions or production

operations and the one cyclic event that challenges

even the most robust of oil and gas installations;

Mother Earth’s sky-borne re and fury, the

thunderstorm. Storm related disasters such as

oods, hail and wind have a devastating impact to

high prole surface constructed infrastructure, but

nothing can compare to the losses and elevated

risks created by the lightning generated by an

approaching thunderstorm. Lightning’s impact

to unprotected infrastructure is destructive,

expensive and extremely dangerous to a worker

in or near an unprotected site. Cloud to ground

lightning discharges can release large amounts of

short circuit current exceeding 100,000 amps and

voltages up to and over 1,000,000 volts, not to

mention the release of large amounts of thermal

radiation, full spectrum light up to 50,000K and

a sound intensity that’s near immeasurable. That’s

only the rst strike and depending on the region

in which your installation is operating, there

is a higher probability of the reoccurrence of

another lightning strike or what is also known

as a “re-strike.” Just add a combustible liquid

hydrocarbon within an enclosed tank or two and

the mixture for a multi-tasked disaster is borne.

Goodbye to that brand new million-dollar

installation you nished last month and hello to

the insurance adjuster’s questions about what

your lightning risk mitigation tactics were. Pray

there were no workers in or near the site when

the lightning strike happened. You could only

imagine the discharge of environmental noise,

inhalants, and sound waves generated by the

lightning and the resulting explosions.

The lightning generated by a thunderstorm and

its impact to unprotected infrastructure is no

doubt highly destructive, but it also impacts

other infrastructure and installations near to

and even far away from the original site of the

lightning’s impact. Electrical transients and

surges create long lasting problems to electrical

equipment grounding systems, solid state

devices such as electronic controllers, LCD &

LED monitors, micro-processor based devices,

computers, UPS systems and even non-oil and gas

related infrastructure like the rancher’s water well

equipment and even the electric utility’s protection

and control equipment. Lightning related disasters

are likely the costliest event to recover from at any

onshore industrial oil and gas site. It’s not a matter

of if you take a lightning strike, it’s a matter of

when it occurs, its overall impact to the site and

at what point during your production process. To

be frank, most unprotected sites usually require

complete demolition with full environmental

remediation of contaminated soils and an

expedited reconstruction of all onshore industrial

oil and gas infrastructure that will come at a much,

much higher cost than in its earlier greeneld days.

These costs don’t even include the loss of access,

loss of use and the loss revenue. At this point in

the discussion a “Recoverable Disaster” posture

is out the window. The current posture in play is a

very expensive lesson in risk mitigation on which

you are on the losing end.

Lightning protection is a cheap security blanket

that helps minimize the impact of the destructive

nature of lightning. A well-engineered, properly

documented and properly installed lightning

protection system on the front end followed by

a proper maintenance program during its service

life, will minimize the destructive nature of the

high amounts of electrical current and voltage that

will more than likely travel the lightning protection

system to a well bonded path to ground. After the

storm, you will be making repairs to a few produc-

tion related pieces of equipment and possibly

installing a new lightning protection system. These

costs are pennies on the dollar to the aforemen-

tioned situation. Value adding out or trying to

save a few bucks on the installation of a lightning

protection system on your onshore industrial oil

and gas site should be a non-starter. As stated

previously, a properly installed lightning protection

system will offer a lifetime of protection. Its ROI

(Return on Investment) is recognized very quickly

and its should be valued as jobs saved, not jobs

lost. Additionally, it’s an ecosystem and environ-

ment that’s saved not damaged.

One last note; qualifying the company that installs

your lightning protection is a must. Ed’s Drywall,

Taxidermy and Lightning Protection Service

may not be who you want to install the zones

of protection on your onshore industrial oil and

gas infrastructure. Investigate and interview the

various companies that professionally install and

maintain the various methodologies of lightning

protection.

OILMAN COLUMN

Photo courtesy of Abshier Energy

Oilman Magazine / September-October 2018 / OilmanMagazine.com

Oil and Gas Industry Energizes Multimedia

Kidtrepreneur’s View on Capitalism

By Jason Spiess, Photos courtesy of The Crude Life

Otis began an entrepreneur’s journey at the age

of 30 days old. Video Arts Studio was working

on a new program for Discovery Channel and it

just so happened they needed a one-month-old

baby for the cover art and pilot program “Sheri

Daniel’s Baby 101.” Although the pilot was not

picked up, this opportunity became the catalyst

for Otis to begin building his multimedia

resume.

Right around the same time, during his rst

month of life, Rock and Roll icon Alice Cooper

held baby Otis on a Springtime visit to Fargo,

ND and proclaimed, “Otis! He will do amazing

things in life!”

At the age of two, Otis landed an opportunity

to do voice work for the highly-rated “Tom

Wynn and Friends” morning show on 790

KFGO-AM in Fargo. From Christmas radio

imaging, to station liners, to ad copy, Otis’

voiceover talent grew with the demand. He

continued voice work for a variety of AM and

FM radio stations and programs in the Dakotas

and neighboring states. It was around that time,

when Otis was ve-years-old, that his family

temporarily moved to the Bakken oil elds.

Otis continued honing his craft in the oil patch

by reading the “Daily Lunch Room Report”

for iHeartMedia North Dakota, formerly Clear

Channel. This daily feature, on three Dickinson

radio stations, had Otis reading lunch menus

for all the local and surrounding schools. People

called into the station to nd out when the

Daily Lunch Room Report was scheduled to

air so they could build their morning commute

around it. Kids and adults enjoyed hearing Otis

tell them what they could expect for lunch later

that day. Otis took an active role in writing and

producing the daily program for the Bakken

region, as well as for online streaming listeners.

During this time in Otis’ life, he also worked as

a host and cashier for the family-owned, multi-

media food truck. His innate curiosity about

people and their stories made him a natural at

engaging customers during their visits to “The

Rolling Stove” at Mac’s in Dickinson.

After a year, Otis returned to Fargo and began

looking for his next professional endeavor. After

having lunch with entrepreneur Marty Riske,

Otis found his next job, restocking shelves for

a video game store after they remodeled. Otis

began working for VidCycle in Fargo, learning

the value of hard work, the meaning of time

cards, and how to work with managers to learn

new skills. He did such a good job stocking

shelves, they added the duty of customer service

on the oor. Otis was living the dream, talking

to people about one of his biggest passions—

video games.

OILMAN COLUMN

Otis and Dad

Otis interviewing U.S. Senator John Hoeven and Amy Klobuchar

Continued on page 8...

Otis interviewing Mike Henderson, Vice President, Marathon Oil

Otis interviewing Harold Hamm,

Chairman and CEO, Continental Resources

Otis interviewing Jack Stark, President,

Continental Resources

Otis and Brian Sullivan, Anchor

and Journalist, CNBC

Oilman Magazine / September-October 2018 / OilmanMagazine.com

When the video store was sold, Otis found

himself out of a job at age nine. So, he

decided to branch out into a new area

of entrepreneurism and began walking

neighborhood dogs after school. This turned

into a ve-day-a-week, after school job.

Otis decided to take his passion for making

money and giving back to the next level. This

time, it was a podcast. The Kids and Capitalism

KidCast was created, a mentor in the media

was secured and now some radio stations

even air his program. Kids and Capitalism has

also hosted fundraising and sporting events,

supporting the mission to work hard, create

business plans, give back, learn etiquette and

have fun.

As Otis approached middle school, he became

more focused on using his broadcasting

talents in the area of competitive gaming. To

that end, he submitted an application to be

a gamer commentator for the Grand Forks,

ND, DakNo Gaming Tournament’s live

Twitch broadcast. Not only was Otis selected

to work the tournament, he was the youngest

contributor by over a decade. He also had the

most media experience of any broadcaster at

the tournament.

Otis was used as a

color commentator

and roving sideline

reporter for the

E-Sports event.

After years of

participating in

capitalism role

playing, Otis

decided to learn

how capitalism

truly works. He

knows from personal

experience, living and working in the Bakken,

that there is no better industry to learn from

than the oil and gas industry. In May 2018,

Otis attended the Williston Basin Petroleum

Conference (WBPC) in the Bakken region of

North Dakota. During the conference Otis

was able to interview everyone from executives

to interns to business owners. While at the

WBPC, Otis also took advantage of a media

networking opportunity and met the staff from

CNBC, including Brian Sullivan, Anchor &

Senior National Correspondent of “Worldwide

Exchange.”

Otis is currently in discussion with several

energy companies for a future tour of

technology centers and possibly a well site.

Currently, Otis is host and producer of the Kids

and Capitalism KidCast, gives presentations to

young kidtrepreneurs, contracts voice work for

agencies, media organization, and sponsors. He

is also in the infant stages of starting his own

Twitch Channel to monetize his passion for

playing video games with his friends across the

United States.

OILMAN COLUMN

Otis interviewing U.S. Senator Heidi Heitkamp Otis broadcasting at the DakNo

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Texas Oil & Gas

INDUSTRY OVERVIEW

TOP 5 PRODUCERS:

XTO Energy INC. 9.98%

Devon Energy Production Co, LP 7.58%

Lewis Petro Properties, INC 5.13%

TEP Barnett USA, LLC 4.32%

Enervest Operating, LLC 3.87%

TOP 5 OIL & GAS SCHOOLS:

Texas A&M – College Station

University of Texas – Austin

Texas Tech University

University of Houston

Texas A&M – Kingsville

TOP 5 CITIES FOR

ENERGY JOBS:

Houston

Austin

Dallas

San Antonio

Midland

Figures represent percentage

of state production.

Source:

RRC of Texas - 2017

Source: US World News Based on population growth.

TOTAL EMPLOYEES

Oil & Gas Industry

325,439

According to the Houston Chronicle

March 31, 2018

TOP 5 LARGEST OIL FIELDS:

by estimated production

Eagleville*

Sparaberry Trend Area

Briscoe Ranch*

Wasson

Sugarcane

*Eagle Ford Shale

Source: EIA

Oilman Magazine / September-October 2018 / OilmanMagazine.com

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Oilman Magazine / September-October 2018 / OilmanMagazine.com

With Blockchain, The Energy Industry

Will Soon Become Unrecognizable

By Nick Spanos

Who could have ever guessed, that when Satoshi

released the white paper for the technology behind

Bitcoin, known as blockchain, that it would also

herald a revolution in the oil and gas industry?

Writing as an early innovator at the conuence

of blockchain and oil and gas — and as someone

who regularly travels to the furthest reaches of the

world’s leading producers, from Iraq to Venezuela,

to Saudi Arabia, this marks the biggest leap since

the beginning of oil production.

Currently, there are three overarching applications

for blockchain in the oil and gas sector. First, the

blockchain insulates sensitive data and systems

from cyber terrorism. Second, it is used to

streamline production, supply chain, and shipping,

with seamless auditing. Third, a number of

countries see blockchain in the production and

shipping process as the basis for an asset-backed

digital currency — a revolution in developing-

world economics.

But rst, what is blockchain? Blockchain is the

distributed ledger platform known best for the

cryptocurrencies which operate on it, such as

bitcoin. In a basic sense, think of a spreadsheet

that everyone has access to, where all users have

consensus on who has what assets at any given

time. The revolutionary development here is

that there is no middleman or clearing house: all

exchange on the network are directly peer-to-

peer within this trust protocol. Since the ledger

is decentralized, it cannot be hacked. In order to

force a single change, you’d have to compromise at

least 51 percent of the devices running the ledger.

That’s millions of computers.

Now think back to how many leading companies

suffer catastrophic hacks — like Aramco, whose

2012 hack of 30,000 workstations was the most

devastating cyber-attack in history at the time.

Blockchain’s ability to encrypt and distribute

information across devices, instead of keeping

data in a centralized database, means that data

and automated operations can no longer be so

easily compromised by even the most powerful

adversaries. A New York Times report in March

reveals these attacks still happen behind the

scenes, and authorities are scared to admit even

where they occurred and what infrastructure was

impacted. Imagine if the industry could nally

nd relief from the lingering shadow of always

wondering not if, but when the next cataclysmic

attack will succeed.

Just as blockchain is an immutable, permission-

less, and secure basis for transactions, rms can

even write ‘smart contracts’ and decentralized

applications — which are self-executing digital

contracts that enjoy the same properties of the

blockchain. Yet up until recently, the blockchain

was limited to its own ecosystem for information:

the big caveat was that the blockchain could not

respond to dynamic real-world data and events

happening on the outside. With the arrival of

vendors for blockchain smart contracts, rms

can now set abstract conditions within smart

contract code that allow trusted outside data

sources to trigger nancial and other events on the

blockchain.

So, what does this mean for oil and gas?

The story of oil production in the age of

blockchain begins from the moment oil leaves the

ground, when a digital ow meter measures each

barrel. The ow meter sensor reports the event to

the blockchain smart contract, which automatically

generates a corresponding token for each barrel.

Before these barrels can be moved or accepted

by another party, the tokens must be held or

transferred at each step of the process. This brings

unprecedented transparency, as each point down

the line, sensors and RFIDs embedded in valves

and barrels, pipelines and trucks, are continuously

reporting the status and location of the oil, from

upstream to downstream.

The trucker, the environmental auditor, the

tax assessor, the water hauler — any vendor or

contractor you can name — everyone will be paid

automatically only at the precise moment that the

sensors have recorded a movement of the crude,

and only for the exact amount that is physically

veried to have transferred. Thanks to this chain-

of-custody process, accounting is on-the-spot

and settlements are simultaneous. Human error,

manipulation, and disputes suddenly become of

least concern, while overhead is slashed as back

ofce nance professionals and traders become

obsolete.

This leapfrog from the archaic past, from a still-

paper-based system, to blockchain, is already in

full swing. In Dubai, terminal operators can now

simply upload the bills of lading to the blockchain,

which is then encrypted and transferred within

moments to the recipient. In a similar manner,

crude tankers can be traded, with transactions

veried on the blockchain within minutes, instead

of hours or days — and without error.

All of these benets suggest that the S&P Platts

estimate of ve percent cost savings is probably

quite coy — especially when they possibly didn’t

consider the benets of blockchain for the

industry’s data security.

For those who seek the security and seamlessness

of blockchain, but who hesitate at the level of

raw transparency blockchain’s distributed ledger

can offer, there too is a solution. The data can be

encrypted, with access permissioned within the

system in such a way that only the “need-to-know”

senior company ofcers and regulators are privy

to the data.

During a visit to campuses in Venezuela last

year, my team witnessed the lead-up to the birth

of the world’s rst national cryptocurrency, the

Petro. Concocted as an answer to the paper

Bolivar’s inationary meltdown, the Petro was to

be “backed” by the nation’s oil reserves. While

the Petro’s creators were gravely wrong to think

they could create a token “secured” by crude deep

within the earth — lacking any redeemability for

the underlying asset — they were onto something.

What this demonstrates, in principle, is that the

marriage of nite natural resources and digital

scarcity is a recipe for greater monetary sovereignty

and economic stability. This phenomenon will feed

itself back into a more positive climate for energy

production, lowering prices over the long term,

and other natural resource-rich economies are

taking note.

Following Venezuela, we then traveled back

some half-dozen times to the Middle East. On

one of these trips, we were invited by the Saudi

Arabian chamber of commerce for the rst-

ever blockchain conference, and by the end of

a whistle-stop tour of leading campuses, tech

hubs, and social organizations, had signed MOUs

for academic partnerships — and are already

welcoming Saudi students to Manhattan for

intensive blockchain courses.

The surge of interest seen rsthand, ranging from

Saudi Aramco’s headquarters, to little-known

operators in Texas, is overwhelming.

Nick Spanos is founder of

Zap.org’s EnergyLedger,

which tailors Zap’s next-

generation blockchain

smart contract solutions

for the energy sector.

EnergyLedger is currently

adding to a roster of industry advisors ahead

of approval for the rst patent for blockchain

in the industry — making it one of the earliest

leaders in blockchain innovation for oil and gas.

In 2013, he founded Bitcoin Center NYC, the

world’s rst-ever live cryptocurrency trading

oor, directly across from the NYSE. He is

also known for his role in Netix’s Banking on

Bitcoin, and within the industry for his awarded

patents on the multi-branch blockchain and

blockchain-secure voting platforms.

OILMAN COLUMN

Oilman Magazine / September-October 2018 / OilmanMagazine.com

Early Winter

By Josh Robbins

After attending this year’s summer NAPE

(North American Prospect Expo) event, the

common theme was “2019.” Everyone was

preparing, planning and ineld developing for

exits in early 2019. The amount of marketed

operated deals at the event (and as a collective

total across all platforms) was minimal through

Quarter three. Unless you have a target

acquisition in mind (on or off-market) and are

willing to pay higher than PV-10, the amount

of transactions by the end of the year should

be in single digits. It’s the start of an early

winter. With that being said, 2019 looks to

be a great year. With ineld developments

propping up higher BOPD numbers, the exits

(both private equity backed and not) will be

publicized in December and January.

On the off-market side, we are nding nearly

half a dozen deals a week and closing about

four deals a month. The transactions are

only happening because of on-the-ground

communication and not interpreted data. It’s

actual conversations between the people that

own and operate the wells today, and the

people that want to own and operate the wells

tomorrow. It’s that communication (especially

in today’s tech driven world) that has caused

the marketed stall of deals.

We have seen a shift in the type of assets

companies are looking for, as they are more

concerned that the price of oil will drop to

$40 than they are if the price remains at $70.

Each operator we talk to is looking for low

cost operations, a technically sound team

(both in the eld and in the ofce) and those

requirements are not in large supply. The labor

force and assets are both available, but the

companies that are buyers are only considering

decline curves and asset value based on

reserves. Which is a great start, but having

a 30-year veteran

in the eld running

the operations is an

asset that is highly

undervalued in 2018.

Low labor numbers

(or inexperienced

labor) will account for

a huge hurdle for the

remainder of 2018. I

heard three different

stories about frac jobs gone wrong because of

inexperience. Teams with knowledge will be in

the highest demand, and the acquisition market

won’t be any different.

Brace yourself for an early winter as the deals

come to a freezing point, or nd a team that

can help you target off-market deals to get

something bought before the marketed frenzy

of 2019.

OILMAN COLUMN

Josh Robbins

Conference

Oilman Magazine / September-October 2018 / OilmanMagazine.com

Four Reasons Oil and Gas Pipelines Fail

By Corrosionpedia

OILMAN COLUMN

Since their rst introduction in the late 19th

century, oil and gas pipelines have gone on to

become the primary transportation system for

extraordinary quantities of energy products

to various consumers in numerous industries.

The United States alone consists of 2.6 million

miles of oil and gas pipelines - all tasked with

supplying approximately 65 percent of the total

energy consumed. According to data from the

U.S. Energy Information Administration, of this,

oil accounts for 40 percent of consumed energy,

while natural gas provides the other 25 percent.

Although pipelines are generally considered

to be the safest way to transport fuel (over

70 times safer than tanker trucks and freight

trains), like any other engineering structure,

they are susceptible to several types of failure.

And when they do fail, the outcome is often

catastrophic. Fires, explosions and spills caused

by pipeline failures can lead to human casualties,

environmental pollution, and signicant

economic losses. According to statistics from

the Pipeline & Hazardous Materials Safety

Administration (PHMSA), between 1998 and

2017, there have been a total of over 11,700

oil and gas pipeline failure incidents resulting

in 1,293 injuries and 331 fatalities at an overall

cost of approximately $US 7.3 billion. These

incidents have brought pipeline safety to the

forefront of international attention and highlight

the importance of pipeline failure prevention

and mitigation measures.

The causes of pipeline failures are varied and

are dependent not only on their design and

operation but also their maintenance and

management. Statistical data compiled from

almost 700 oil and gas pipelines from 2004 to

2015 attribute the most common causes of

failure to corrosion, excavation damage, pipe/

weld material failure and equipment failure.

Pipeline Corrosion

Corrosion is, by far, the leading cause of pipeline

leaks and ruptures in the oil and gas industry

– accounting for 25 percent of failures in oil

pipelines and 18 percent of failures in natural

gas pipelines. According to studies conducted

by NACE (National Association of Corrosion

Engineers), the cost of corrosion damage

can range anywhere between $US 471 to $US

875 million per year. This gure is expected

to increase as pipelines continue to age. It is

estimated that over 60 percent of oil and gas

pipelines in the U.S. are over 40 years old.

Internal pipeline corrosion is typically caused

by the presence of carbon dioxide (CO2),

hydrogen sulde (H2S) and free water in oil and

gas products, whereas external corrosion occurs

due to the reaction between the surrounding

environment (soil, air or water) and the metal

pipe. These substances react with the pipe

material, causing the metal to deteriorate and

gradually reduce in thickness. The subsequent

weakening of the pipe’s walls can result in leaks

or ruptures due to the internal pressures and

stresses acting on the pipeline.

Corrosion is commonly characterized by pitting,

uniform corrosion or stress corrosion cracking

on the surface of the pipe.

Excavation Damage

Excavation damage presents one of the most

signicant challenges to pipeline safety. This type

of damage is usually accidental and is caused by

the impact of construction equipment on the

pipeline under consideration. Excavation may

be in the form of digging, trenching, grading

or boring during highway maintenance, home

or building construction, or farming activities.

According to PHMSA statistics, excavation

damage accounts for 15 percent of failures in oil

pipelines and 22 percent in natural gas pipelines.

Accidental damage due to excavation may be

observed as dents, scrapes, punctures, cuts or

protective coating removal. While direct contact

between the excavation equipment and the

pipeline can cause sudden and catastrophic

failure, scratches and dents can remove

protective coatings and eventually lead to failure

in the short to medium term. Coating damage

can promote accelerated corrosion, which in

combination with physical damage can increase

the potential for leaks.

Pipe or Weld Material Failures

Pipe welds and other types of joints are

usually weaker relative to the rest of the pipe

structure. Moreover, earlier methods of welded

longitudinal seams on some pipes are known

to have been inferior in quality and more

susceptible to failure. Although modern welding

techniques have dramatically improved, weld

failure continues to be a cause for concern.

No w Av A i l A b l e : T h e Cr u d e l i f e Cl o T h i N g

w w w .s h i r T s i C l e .C o m /T h e C r u d e l i f e

Oilman Magazine / September-October 2018 / OilmanMagazine.com

American Natural Gas and NATO

By Mark A. Stansberry

In the fall of 1997, I was approached by a

friend of mine, Vladimir, who asked if I could

assist his native country the Czech Republic in

getting into NATO. At the time, he told me the

Czech Republic’s leaders needed to meet with

key U.S. Senate leaders. The U.S. Senate would

have to ratify the Czech Republic going in to

NATO by two-thirds of the Senate votes in

order to be considered.

Vladimir, a prominent Czech artist, and

his family escaped from Czechoslovakia in

October, 1981. The escape occurred three

days before hearing a verdict from the Czech

Communist regime.

The Russians invaded Czechoslovakia in 1968.

Vladimir and his artists’ group painted posters

about the invasion. He spent several months

in jail along with probation. Vladimir was told

that he could never practice art again. Part of

the punishment for not joining the Communist

party was that he could not get a job. However,

about a year later he was able to get a job as a

laborer.

Years later in 1981, the case was reopened.

He was going to have to go to court and

prove his innocence. There was no proof

of guilt. The decision to escape was evident.

In 1982, Vladimir and his family arrived

in Oklahoma with only two suitcases and

speaking no English. Vladimir and his family

were welcomed to Oklahoma and to the U.S.

with open arms. Families of Czech descent in

Tulsa, Oklahoma City and other communities

welcomed them. He began painting again.

Vladimir and I met for the rst time in early

1997. I was so fond of his art that I bought

a painting. He had talked to me several times

about the Russian invasion, about his love for

the U.S., and his love for the Czech Republic

and its people.

Though I lived in Oklahoma, I had a small

business location in Washington, D.C. in

1997. I reached out to several of my friends

and contacts. I was able to arrange a meeting

between the Majority Leader of the U.S. Senate

and the Prime Minister of the Czech Republic

in November 1997.

In November 1997, there were only about 40

U.S. Senators in favor of the Czech Republic

entering NATO meaning at least 27 Senators

were needed for

ratication. By

spring of 1998, the

necessary two-third

votes were in place.

By March 1999,

the Czech Republic

entered NATO.

I only played

a small part, a

meeting between

two world leaders.

Vladimir played a crucial part. He knew what

the price of freedom was. He fought for it.

Vladimir was concerned about how Russia

controlled Eastern Europe especially with the

supply of natural gas. He hoped to see the day

where that control would end, at least curtailed.

The U.S. Administration recently stated that

“Europe will be a ‘massive’ buyer of LNG to

diversify its energy supply. And we have plenty

of it.” Natural gas will be a key player in the

future of economic development in Europe

and of its freedom.

Mark A. Stansberry

OILMAN COLUMN

Additionally, some of the older pipes - joined

with substandard welding - are still in use today.

Weld failures usually manifest as cracks at the

welded joint and can be caused by:

• Improper welding techniques

• Improper welding inspection

• Presence of impurities in the welded steel

• Welding of contaminated surfaces

• Adverse reaction between the weld puddle

and the surrounding environment.

Failure may also originate from defects in the

piping material itself. Impurities can become

trapped in the molten steel during the manu-

facturing process, resulting in weaknesses in the

metal’s crystalline structure. Although unwanted

impurities during steel production were more

prevalent in earlier manufacturing processes,

defects in modern steel materials still account

for a small percentage of pipeline failures. Mate-

rial failure may come in the form of laminations

and inclusions, or blisters and scabs.

Based on the statistical sample data, material/

weld failure is responsible for 22 percent of oil

pipeline failures and 24 percent of gas pipeline

failures.

Equipment Failure

Equipment failure is used to refer to any failure

caused by a pipeline component or device

other than the pipe itself. These include pumps,

compressors, valves, meters, tanks or any other

component essential for safe operation of the

oil and gas transportation system. Equipment

failure typically results in the release of

hazardous uids into the environment, usually

in small quantities. Since oil and gas equipment

is generally located on company property and

subject to limited access, these releases seldom

result in injury to the general public.

Equipment failure can be caused by improper

usage, lack of maintenance or improper

component selection for the given application.

Seventeen percent of oil and 11 percent of

natural gas pipeline failures are brought on by

faulty equipment.

Conclusion

Overall, these four types of failures account for

over 75 percent of pipeline leaks and ruptures

in the oil and gas industry. Incorrect operating

procedures, natural forces and other external

forces acting on the pipeline account for the

other 25 percent.

The devastation caused by oil and gas pipeline

failure underscores the importance of safety

and reliability in these systems. The data from

failure events collected by PHMSA and other

departments worldwide are, however, useful

in understanding the weaknesses that occur in

pipeline management, and are necessary for

continued risk identication, mitigation and

prevention.

Corrosionpedia aims to provide the rst steps

in the research journey for asset integrity

professionals the world over.

Oilman Magazine / September-October 2018 / OilmanMagazine.com

Are Fleet Accident Costs Hiding

in Your Blind Spot?

By Rich Radi

On average, approximately 20 percent of a

company’s eet will be involved in an accident

this year - each incident bringing a signicant

cost to your company. These expenses include

direct costs such as medical bills and vehicle

repairs as well as potentially signicant indirect

costs that may be hidden in your business’

blind spot.

The nancial impact is striking. OSHA

(Occupational Safety and Health Administration)

reported that motor vehicle crashes are costing

employers $60 billion annually in medical

care, legal expenses, property damage and lost

production, alone. The average crash costs

employers about $16,500 and jumps to more

than $74,000 for a crash with injuries and even

$500,000 or more if there is a fatality.

That means a company with a eet of 1,000

vehicles should set aside at least $3.3 million

annually to manage the nancial impact of

accidents.

Calculating the True Cost of a Crash

The true cost of accidents goes far beyond just

repair costs and insurance deductibles. While

most direct costs are typically covered by insur-

ance, these expenses represent only a portion of

the overall cost to your business. According to

conservative insurance agency estimates, $1 of

direct accident cost translates to approximately

$3 of indirect costs. These indirect costs are

often a challenge to identify and even more dif-

cult to measure, but still affect your organiza-

tion’s day-to-day operations and bottom line.

These “hidden” costs can take many forms,

depending on the severity of the accident. A

few of the more common ways accidents can

affect a company include:

• Lost productivity

• Increased insurance premiums

• Signicant exposure to legal liabilities

• Potentially permanent damage to your

corporate image

• Diminished vehicle value

• Increased administrative burden

• Negative publicity

• Workers compensation claims

• Litigation expenses

• Employee morale

Do you know how much eet accidents are

really costing your business? Every time a

driver gets behind the wheel, your company is

vulnerable to repercussions that go far beyond

just repairing a vehicle if you’re not proactively

addressing safety and driver behavior. To

mitigate your corporate risk and control accident

costs, you must establish a corporate safety

culture that protects both your employees and

your business.

Capitalize on Proactive Driver Optics

Most traditional driver safety programs are

reactive in nature instead of proactive: an

accident or driving infraction occurs, then

corrective training is prescribed. Motor vehicle

reports (MVRs) are pulled annually for each

driver, but if an incident occurs in February and

MVRs are run annually in January, another 11

months will pass without management visibility.

Both practices are too little, too late and still

leave your company at risk.

A truly effective driver program is built on a

foundation of monitoring driving habits in

real-time. Rapidly evolving technologies such as

telematics and advanced data analytics allow you

to quickly identify and address high-risk behavior

to improve performance, minimize risk and

reduce accident costs.

Understanding what behaviors your drivers are

exhibiting on the road at any given moment

empowers your company to quickly pinpoint

who needs immediate training to help prevent

accidents from happening in the rst place.

For example, if a driver exceeds the speed

limit on a frequent basis, safety training can

be assigned with the goal of reducing his or

her speeding habit.

Data integration is giving companies real-time

optics into areas they couldn’t track even just

a few years ago. Now, it’s possible to combine

a driver’s motor vehicle report, your corporate

eet policies, telematics data, driver risk scoring

and accident data into a consolidated view of

what’s actually happening behind the wheel.

This seamless integration of data points delivers

enhanced visibility so that you can improve eet

safety and reduce the impact of accidents on

their bottom line.

Drawing a Roadmap to Driver Safety

Success

To effectively remove blind spots from your

corporate safety culture, a successful driver

safety program is both proactive and reactive.

As you’re building your program, include the

following elements:

1. Monitoring MVRs on a consistent, on-going

basis rather than just annually

2. Moving the eet safety policy online and

combining it with a program of online

training modules to promote comprehension

3. Establishing a personalized onboarding

program for new drivers that includes a

driver skills assessment program to identify

poor driving habits and assigns corrective

training before an incident occurs

4. Monitoring drivers through telematics and

advanced analytics to identify high-risk

behavior in real time

5. Prescribing online training modules to

match specic driver weaknesses to improve

behavior

6. Incorporating a scorecard once your

program is well-established to encourage

friendly competition among drivers and

reward your safest drivers

Discover the savings of a crash that never

happens. By injecting technology into your

driver safety program, you’re now less

vulnerable to crashes you previously couldn’t see

coming. Your company’s investment in safety

for the long haul will open drivers’ eyes to their

impact of their behavior, empowering you to

improve their performance, minimize risk and

reduce accident costs.

Rich Radi is Director of

Driver Excellence for

ARI, one of the world’s

largest eet management

companies, with

approximately 1.5 million

vehicles under management in a wide variety

of industries in North America, the United

Kingdom and Europe.

OILMAN COLUMN

The Turbomachinery & Pump Symposia is a vital industry

event, offering a forum for the exchange of ideas among

rotating equipment engineers and technicians worldwide.

The expert-selected technical program combined with an

international exhibition is the perfect platform for networking

and learning new problem-solving methods and technologies.

Learn More at TPS.TAMU.EDU

Oilman Magazine / September-October 2018 / OilmanMagazine.com

FEATURE

As the oil and gas industry grows, the IoT

(Internet of Things) gets more advanced and in

turn, grows along with it. This growth is crucial

and as advances are made to deliver important

data to oil and gas companies, they are presented

with a plethora of software companies from

which to choose. Oil and gas software is so

versatile now that the clientele it benets is spread

across all sectors and ranges anywhere from

small, private engineering rms to large, publicly

owned corporations. The software market is

extremely competitive, with more developers

emerging by the minute. When presented with so

many options, companies have quite the challenge

of nding the perfect software that meets their

needs in a sea of options.

Death of Paper and Value of Time

Since the invention of the printing press, the

world has survived on paper. At the time of its

inception, it was a revolutionary invention. The

subject has long been debated whether or not

it was, in fact, the greatest invention of all time.

Companies across the globe have utilized paper

for decades, centuries even. The oil industry was

no exception. On the ofce side, drafting was

done on large tables or oors, depending on the

size of paper, with protractors and pencils. In

the oil eld, pressure and production readings

on wells were hand written on paper and faxed

into to the corporate ofce each day. The paper

was then led and kept for years until eventually

they were moved off-site where they continued to

be stored for years. Paper meant time and it also

meant manpower – two extremely crucial factors

when it comes to a company’s prot margin.

Time is a huge factor here and it can be a benet

or burden, depending on how it’s managed.

The concept of advanced technologies allowing

companies to manage, report and analyze data in

real-time, is an incredible asset. It’s a tool, that to

be able to have a competitive advantage in an ever

evolving oil market, a company or individual must

possess in order to keep up with the times.

Industry Software Leaders

Drillinginfo, based out of Austin, Texas is the

leading SaaS (Software as a Service) and data

analytics company for energy exploration and

production decision support. Their technologies

– intelligence, analytics, tools and services

combined into one, can benet anyone from

royalty owners and small independents, to

large corporations. Allen Gilmer, founder of

Drillinginfo, was an independent oilman for

seven years, co-founding three protable E&P

(Exploration and Production) companies prior

to founding Drillinginfo in 1999. Together

with some other independent operators with

seismic and land backgrounds, “We thought,

‘what can we do to make this process better and

more efcient? What tool can we invent that no

one has ever seen before to improve on this?’

We were the very rst in our eld to go out

to market selling to the small guys rst,” says

Gilmer. Drillinginfo is now one of the most

popular and widely used oil and gas software

with approximately 50,000 users. Time is essential

to their mission, as they provide instantaneous

access to everything a company could possibly

desire in their eld. Because of the advantage

they offer, time is saved and excessive manpower

that would normally be needed to complete these

tasks, is no longer required.

Oildex is another company making remarkable

strides in the O&G software industry. They are

the leader in nancial automation solutions for

the industry. They allow their users to seamlessly

and securely collaborate with their business

partners, automate critical business processes

and eliminate the high cost and errors associated

The Evolution of Efficiency

in Oil and Gas Software

By Sarah Skinner

Photo Credit: Chutima Sonma – www.123RF.com

Oilman Magazine / September-October 2018 / OilmanMagazine.com

FEATURE

with the handling of paper. In May of this year,

Oildex announced its

OpenTicket

, which is the

next generation of the company’s digital eld

ticket solution.

OpenTicket

is the industry’s only

comprehensive, end-to-end cloud-based platform

that provides operators and service providers

with all the software they need to generate,

review and approve digital eld tickets. “Highly

inefcient paper eld tickets are the last obstacle

to overcome when it comes to automating and

digitizing the oileld,” said Craig Charlton, CEO

of Oildex. “

OpenTicket

solves this problem and

allows service providers to quickly and easily

submit eld tickets while allowing operators to

quickly and easily approve those eld tickets.

Coupled with our Openinvoice platform and

recently announced Supply Chain Finance

program, we are creating the most efcient

source-to-settle ecosystem in the oil and gas

industry.”

OpenTicket

is a complete solution for

both operators and service providers, it provides

ofine mobile support for service providers,

support for D&C (Drilling and Completions)

“Virtual Company Man” capability and optimized

processing which expedites approval. Before

OpenTicket

became available, it would typically

take 4 to 8 weeks to accept a eld ticket and

approve the invoice. Now the process can be

done in around an hour.

On August 13, 2018 it was announced that

Thoma Bravo, LLC, a leading private equity

investment rm has agreed to acquire Quorum

Software. The transaction is expected to close in

the third quarter of this year. Quorum is another

cutting-edge software industry leader. They

focus on helping oil and gas companies meet

their long-term goals using familiar Microsoft

technologies, enabling enterprise integration,

driving faster deployment and providing access

to clean, consistent and consumable data. The

focus of Quorum is the user experience and

cloud-based software, which allows any and every

important piece of data to be accessed from

anywhere. “The North American oil and gas

industry continues to grow, with a heightened

focus on operational efciencies and maximized

capital productivity. Quorum’s comprehensive

capabilities across the value chain with advanced

technical innovation and deep domain expertise,

coupled with our strong brand, positions us

well for continued growth. We look forward

to beneting from Thoma Bravo’s expertise in

helping companies grow through their prudent

investment strategies. We are also thrilled to

partner with their software industry experts to

harness exciting new growth opportunities,”

says Perry Turbes, Chief Executive Ofcer of

Quorum Software.

The Challenge of Transitioning

Although it would be ideal, companies cannot

purchase software, sign a check and expect

to have their whole organization transformed

overnight. Reasonably speaking, the transition

and training that goes into converting, plays a

large role. It is an immense commitment for all

personnel involved from interns to the CEO.

Drillinginfo offers a Customer Resource Center,

which is a central location for customers to

nd links to instruction materials, product

documentation, submit a support ticket,

ask questions, submit ideas, nd out about

Drillinginfo events or even sign up for training.

They also offer live webinars, many of which

are free for subscribers and potential customers

that are curious about what they offer. In-person

training or “transform courses” are paid in-depth

training courses designed to assist the new or

experienced user to accomplish key workows

with hands-on, instructor-led exercises. Courses

are half or full day and cover topics from data

loading and visualization through interpretation,

velocity modeling and multivariate statistics. Each

face-to-face course includes access to a training

computer with appropriate datasets and a hard

copy training manual which can be used as a

desktop reference after the training course. When

asked how long it generally takes to “go live”

with one of the Drillinginfo products, Gilmer

said, “Since most of what we do is app-based,

the access and information is instantaneous. The

larger and more specic packages may require

additional training.”

In regard to setup and transition, Quorum has

very specic timelines set forth on their website.

It is in place to develop a plan that minimizes

disruption, enhances business processes and

speeds time to value. With a team of deployment

experts, there are three options of integration:

• Rapid – Using out-of-the-box standard

conguration, the Rapid Deployment Package

gets clients fully operational with myQuorum

applications in three to four weeks.

• Rapid+ – Using a variety of conguration

options, the Rapid+ package delivers an

entire suite of fully integrated myQuorum

applications in ten to twelve weeks.

• Tailored – Beginning with a comprehensive

needs assessment, the Tailored Package

features a custom engagement and fully

deploys in as little as three months.

Companies can choose to send their employees

to Quorum’s education center or host the training

at their facility. Either way, the education and

training services help get the most from the

myQuorum investment.

Oildex has a dedicated team of implementation

specialists that assist operators with deploying

OpenTicket

. The team uses a proven

methodology that focuses on the adoption of

the software by both operators and their service

providers, not just setting up the software

and training users. The methodology builds

on Oildex’s 15 years’ experience deploying its

OpenInvoice product to oil & gas operators

and to oileld service providers. The Oildex

team works with each operator licensing

OpenTicket

to develop a rollout strategy that

meets their particular needs. Most operators use

a segmented rollout strategy where they onboard

targeted regions and supplier types sequentially,

as opposed to a single big-bang company-

wide rollout. Implementation timeframes vary

with the size and complexity of the operator.

Typical projects take 30-45 days from the initial

kickoff meeting to initial ‘go live’, followed

by ongoing efforts to continue growing the

supplier community.

OpenTicket

implementation

teams typically manage the project, congure

OpenTicket

to support the customer’s unique

business rules, help the operator’s eld personnel

learn how to use the new system to review and

approve digital eld tickets, and work with the

operator’s suppliers to get them onboarded.

A major problem companies run in to with

conversion, is the unwillingness for some of the

older generation to adapt to these practices. They

are set in their ways and doing things the only

way they have known for decades. It is a challenge

to get them to accept and utilize the new

technologies out there. Because of the experience

they provide, the knowledge some of these

employees possess is invaluable and companies

do not want to lose them. This makes transition

delicate and it’s so important that the focus is on

making them feel comfortable and condent in

this new role. For the software to be successful,

everyone has to be on board.

Each of these software companies, in addition

to the many others out there, are offering a

service. It is not just any service, though. They

are offering the ability to gain an advantage

in an extremely competitive market. So, when

presented with this software, the question is not

“if ” we will convert over to cloud-based software,

but “when.” When the decision is made to make

that leap, which one will be chosen? What sets

one apart from the other? Distinguishing factors

that come into play are the personalization

aspects. All of them can be tightly integrated,

customizing the software to t every need of

an oil and gas company, which makes them

invaluable. Extensive research is key though. Do

the homework. The information is all there for

an educated decision to be made to nd which

software will be the best t for the company’s

bottom line. Once the decision is made, and

personalization and training have occurred,

actually “going live” becomes a reality. At that

time, it will be a wonder how the industry ever

survived without it.

Oilman Magazine / September-October 2018 / OilmanMagazine.com

Interview: Shoshi Kaganovsky, CEO

and Richard Haun, Vice President

Engineering, SensoLeak

By Tonae’ Hamilton

Below is an interview with SensoLeak CEO, Shoshi

Kaganovsky and Vice President Richard Haun. The

interview text has been left in tact, with only minor

grammatical adjustments.

Tonae’ Hamilton: What inspired you to work on

creating articial intelligence for the oil and gas

industry?

Shoshi Kaganovsky: It began eight years ago when I

developed a system for helicopter engine monitoring.

I decided to combine AI and machine learning to

prevent critical failures by “identifying” the defects

when they rst begin and before they escalate into a

critical failure. With the development of the product,

we then had the ability to alert a pilot to abort,

minutes before a potential crash. I also realized that

the energy industry suffered from some dated pipeline

networks and related systems. Naturally, failure of

these systems does occur and can have had long term

effects on the environment and pose a danger to

personnel and the general public. Failures still occur

despite the best efforts of operators ranging from

eruptions of gas and product lines, spills, leaks, etc. As

a result, I decided to create a system that could identify

the occurrence of pipeline leaks quickly and provide

means to track the events. My intent was to develop a

system that could be accepted as an industry standard

and to provide a game changing improvement in

safety and risk management. Articial intelligence

can be looked at in many different angles and can be

benecial when used in the energy industry. At this

point, I am very focused on the energy industry as

my main target for safety improvement using articial

intelligence.

TH: Being a female innovator in a male-dominated

industry, are there any challenges you’ve faced while

working in the industry?

SK: There have been a lot of challenges. In an

industry such as this one, my position is unique and

usually, I am pitching my ideas primarily to men. With

my name being “Shoshi” which is not gender specic,

many assume I am a man. When I show up, I have

been told that they are waiting for Shoshi until I tell

them I am Shoshi and we have a laugh. All in all, it’s

ne and I enjoy the business. It’s a pleasure to work

with the guys and gals across the industry and it is

enjoyable to be in this vibrant industry.

TH: When did you begin working at Sensoleak and

what advancements have you seen your company

make in the oil industry since you began?

SK: I founded the company in 2016! However, I

started development of the technology in 2010.

During that time, I was developing products and

working as a tech scout. I also guided several start-

ups. I would watch companies go under because of

underdevelopment of their technology as well as their

inability to predict all of the expenses. My strategy

was to not enter the market before the technology

was ready and be cautious regarding costs from day

one. I had my technology ready for commercialization

in 2016 and incorporated Sensoleak. I traveled for

over 200 days that year and reached out to industries

in many countries to get Sensoleak some traction.

My team and I started offering proof of concepts

(POCs) as a method to provide client familiarity with

the technology. Some of these developed into long

term agreements. As the company solidied further,

I identied the U.S. as the best place for Sensoleak

Global HQ. I planned the move to Houston, Texas

in August 2017 just in time for Harvey, the hurricane,

to ood my new hometown. I ended up volunteering

with the Red Cross during the nights and helping with

more physical tasks during the days. In December

2017, I opened my stand-alone American company

and started recruiting people to grow the Houston

business in the O&G industry rst focusing on

pipeline networks. I hired top consultants to get a

handle on improving the technology at a quicker

pace. Compared to when I started, we improved the

technology on accuracy and with great methodology.

The machine learning and AI provides a solid

basis for identication of systems deviating from

the norm. I am very happy with the development

progress of our systems and our strong team. With

Richard as our VP of Engineering, I am amazed at

how the entire Wikipedia of pipeline knowledge and

engineering can t into a human’s head! Our entire

team’s role is very important to the business and

tech development. We managed to develop a system

that has ease of implementation and can be easily

introduced into existing systems. For decades, data has

been collected from pipelines and our focus at this

point is to minimize the false alarm rate toward zero.

We want our system to assess issues that are the real

problems, that are serious concerns for the operator.

If there is any deviation from the norm, our system

will catch it. Our system learns to detect any deviation

from the norm and to make it visible to operators.

False alarms are more than just a nuisance since they

can eventually mask a real issue. Real issues result in

bad press, and a lot of expenses for operators that

can be avoided (environmental nes, clean-ups, idle

time, maintenance, etc.). False alarms interfere with

real alarms and we provide methodology so that

our system can accurately separate real issues versus

operational deviations in our systems. Companies in

the past have tried to predict what will happen based

on past events and have entered into comprehensive

programs to prevent future incidents. Our system

contributes to this approach in that it learns in real

time 24-hours a day and 365-days a year, providing the

best integrity picture in real-time. The AI recognizes

trends in increased pressure drop over time, pigging

events, start-ups, shut-downs, opening laterals to

divert ow, and operational irregularities. This allows

the system to identify and catch real issues early by

separating the normal-though constantly changing-

system parameters. With our system, we track the

pipeline network functions and performance allowing

the technology to learn on the y. With any serious

issue identied, it will automatically localize the

individual system segment that has the underlying

cause and provide operators with precise notication.

During its normal operation, the technology

continually evaluates the sensors providing data to

yield notice to the operator of malfunctions occurring

either due to an individual sensor or a zone. As the

algorithms identify sensor malfunctions, they will

ignore them until they again begin providing improved

results. With the AI, machine learning and combined

physics the technology contains all the necessary

parameters to oversee a task such as providing early

warning of a system aw occurrence while assisting

with maintenance by identifying questionable sensors.

Richard Haun: I joined in May and was immediately

impressed with the level of tech that they had on

the table, from their data systems to their data

scientists. What I hoped to bring to the table was my

50 years of experience with pipelines, much of it in

the eld. My background includes a great deal of

analytical work associated with the pipeline business

and software development to resolve the tougher

problems. I have written hundreds of programs in

the course of my career. One of the things we do at

Sensoleak is combine AI with principles of physics,

sound judgement, and engineering analysis. The

disadvantages of strictly using engineering software

with pipelines is that when you rst start a system, you

can only provide estimates of ttings, line roughness,

product density and viscosity which can lead to

inaccurate estimates of predicted to measured values.

The initial evaluations for owing gauge pressures

in pipelines are therefore always based on estimates

OILMAN COLUMN

Continued on page 22...

Shoshi Kaganovsky

Oilman Magazine / September-October 2018 / OilmanMagazine.com

OILMAN COLUMN

and as internal roughness increases over time, the

estimates are further away from reality. Because of

these considerations the pipeline parameters are

best identied by the operational characteristics. By

incorporating AI and machine learning, the advantages

are that you can actually learn from the system and

resolve parameter evaluations internally over time.

Because operating procedures are complex, our

systems are constantly monitoring changes and once

an anomaly is identied, the system automatically

drills down in the anomaly where you can decide if

the anomaly is operational, if there is a leak, or if

anything is abnormal due to sensor detection. If it is

found to be an unusual operational procedure result,

it can be picked up through the system and learned

to be acceptable. Naturally this is useful for future

operations of the pipeline. Of course, with any new

pipeline network detection system, operators still

have to provide information so that any anomaly

occurrence is properly characterized to prevent a false

alarm. You can drill down and read the pipeline better.

TH: With Sensoleak’s move to Texas, how do

you think the move will affect the company and,

furthermore, the oil and gas industry?

RH: The center of the oil and gas industry is Texas

and with our move, there is more access to many

engineers in Houston to help support the implemen-

tations. Most of the international companies are in

Houston. I believe that being so available to the oper-

ating companies as well as the reneries and pipeline

operators, we will be able to catch on very quickly as a

preferred provider. We already have things to do here

and the storm (surge in clientele) is coming. I think it

is an ideal location and we will be very successful here.

We will be able to expand our role in the oil and gas

industry through one successful implementation after

another.

SK: I second that. I used to y so much to the U.S.

and would realize that if you don’t have a local pres-

ence, it is a difcult way to promote the business. I

learned from Americans that unless they are looking in

the “white of your eye,” nothing will be found. I also

learned that if I am present and working in their time

zone, the demand is higher and we can accomplish

way more. Just seeing the team working in one space

makes me happy. When I just started, I had a couple

of developers in Israel, but because there isn’t really an

industry there, I had difculty recruiting local O&G

engineers so I hired remote ones from Canada and

the U.S. Now we can collaborate better and everyone

can brainstorm and write ideas on the board which is

more convenient. Houston is an international hub and

you can feel and see a lot of languages and cultures

which is way more interesting. The timing is right with

our move to Texas, as O&G majors seem to be ready

to adopt new tech. I feel welcomed now in Houston,

but whenever there’s a need to explain my personal

style I say that I’m not impolite and I’m not aggressive,

I’m just Israeli – hands on approach, hard work and

a very fast pace. This is how the culture is there. As

ex-military I am used to trying to take things forward

fast, keep the best interest of my company and team

in mind while presenting the best solutions to existing

problems. As for the machine learning experimenta-

tion Richard mentioned, we want to see this company

become successful and I can see it is beginning to hap-

pen now. We are about to establish our presence in the

industry pretty soon. We are meeting with companies

big and small and discussing how we are able to assist

them in ways most benecial to them. If our move

here helps to improve the industry and has a favorable

impact, then this would be our real success – seeing

this technology beneting the industry.

TH: Can you describe the articial intelligence (AI)

technology you have in mind to replace the current

pipeline infrastructure?

RH: I really like it. The AI, methodology, and tech

applications we’re using are state-of-the-art and very

cutting edge. The analytics and learning methods

are based on engineering logic of the pipeline

network system. The overall AI system is automatic,

can drill down into circumstances, and identify if

a circumstance is an operational event. The system

can learn the data as it comes in and predict analyti-

cal benchmarks and nd anomalies. Anything that

deviates from the norm is called an anomaly. They are

discovered and rationalized to determine whether or

not individual sensors are being affected. The system

is a lot smarter and faster than an individual. It gives

individuals overseeing the pipeline networks the op-

portunity to work smarter and you don’t get the ‘crying

wolf scenario’ of false alarms. The system gives you

honest alerts and includes the engineering knowledge

automatically in the intelligence software. Regarding its

teaching and learning times, the algorithms are being

taught and are developing norms. The algorithms are

automatically updated as norms change. The system

can readily adapt and learn with current happenings

which the pipeline systems today could really use.

Once you have the correct information it is also really

clear which components require maintenance. This is

an added ‘plus’ of the system implementation.

SK: The innovation lies in the correlations and shows

how variables affect each other. The beauty in machine

learning is that it can learn over time and teach itself

and adapt to changes. In terms of developing technol-

ogy, we want to get to the point where machines can

learn specic alerts, be able to prevent failures, and

identify what is happening in the pipeline network and

what should be done. Right now, the algorithm helps

decision makers make decisions regarding mainte-

nance, operations, safety and identies the network

segment which encountered a problem. We plan a

more robust system in the future that can output de-

scriptions of the recommended maintenance schedule

items and procedures in a timely manner for more

efciency.

TH: What effect do you expect the new technology/

AI to have on the pipeline infrastructure and on the oil

industry as a whole?

SK: The aging infrastructure needs attention although

the industry is very diligent. It is important to protect

nature and water bodies that we have and our system

which allows network segmentation, can allow the

algorithm to ‘tighten up’ evaluations in different

segments per client wishes. As an example, segments

of pipelines that go near residential areas, schools,

churches, wetlands, lakes or rivers, can be automati-

cally identied to allow the algorithm response to be

more sensitive for anomaly detection. We optimized

a process of data analysis and we are putting data in

order and making it more accurate than in the past.

Although, our system can be applicable to monitor

anything that can be equipped with sensors, pipeline

networks are our current focus. With our system, we

can help preserve the environment, improve safety,

save litigation, and create a friendlier public environ-

ment for operators. If we take for example one of the

ofine projects we ran with one of the three largest

O&G companies in the U.S., we were provided with

several months’ data (pressure, ow, temperature and

density) and managed to identify all the defects, all the

failures and all the false alarms while our competition

identied all the false alarms as leaks. Major problem

that costs the industry tens if not hundreds of millions

of dollars annually – where the operators respond to

these (false) alarms by shutting down the pipelines, dig

along the line, just to realize there’s no leak. Sensoleak

is trying to minimize false alarm rate to zero and

provide the operators only with real alerts that require

their attention.

TH: Besides the inclusion of articial intelligence and

other innovations, what other changes do you think

need to happen to improve the current state of the oil

and gas industry?

RH: I think the operators of oil and gas are very

conscientious and I believe that they are striving for

the best. It’s difcult to change an old industry and it

has been on a slow though steady improvement for

the last 50 or 60 years. I have to say that the oil and gas

companies are staffed with very responsible people. I

have many colleagues in the industry and they never

take safety for granted and are environmentally-con-

scious. The companies work diligently and have tough

standards for the employees and if employees do not

follow through with policies, they will be terminated.

I love the industry and have been in it for a long time.

I think the industry is also quite responsive to imple-

menting available improvements that improve system

integrity. Company executives that are operating pipe-

line networks have to answer to government agencies,

shareholders and peers. I think they have been very

responsive in moving system integrity improvements

forward. This AI system may be the next selection for

many of them.

TH: What changes or innovations would you like to

see happen in the oil industry or specically in Sen-

soleak going forward?

RH: I’d like to see our system installed in all of the

pipeline control rooms, but if not in the primary

systems, at least in the sub-systems. Everyone has a

system which is an excellent approach. Having a pri-

mary system in place with another unobtrusive parallel

system running essentially off-line is something I think

to be a great benet.

TH: Are there any other types of articial intelligence

and technology you are working on for other issues in

the oil industry?

SK: Applications are innite. When I researched new

industries while working on aircraft, I considered

both the oil and medical industry. Back in the 60s,

our vascular system was compared in similarity to oil

applications. A question that came to my mind was,

“What if we used systems for the oil industry to detect

problems with the heart or other organs in the body

which can save a life?” If I can save one person’s life I

would know that I left behind something meaningful

with my work. Since the medical industry is rather

difcult to penetrate, I felt the oil industry was ready

for us and there were many issues ready to be solved.

In the future, I am hoping to develop applications that

can prevent anything that can affect our well-being.

We can use data to improve current systems whether

it be for oil and gas, wind energy, rotating equipment,

aircrafts, or health.

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Oilman Magazine / September-October 2018 / OilmanMagazine.com

OILMAN COLUMN

The latest trend in digital transformation is

leveraging RPA (Robotic Process Automation)

to automate between 30 to 45 percent of manual

work. There are ever increasing reports of

organizations using RPA to accelerate execution

of tedious, monotonous tasks in nance and

accounting, human resources, recruiting, supply

chain and other oil and gas functions. There

is mounting evidence that organizations that

implement RPA can achieve a 40 percent average

reduction in processing time and a 50 percent

average reduction in costs. RPA implementation is

enabling improved accuracy, increased reliability,

and strengthened controls. It appears that RPA

is helping combat skilled labor shortages in data

management and analytics positions, by creating

easier and more efcient access to operational data

and real-time information.

While RPA has been leveraged more in the back-

ofce space, there are big opportunities within

oil and gas operations, such as joint venture (JV)

and revenue accounting, drilling and completions,

production engineering, eld operations,

subsurface, and operational data management.

Joint Venture Accounting and Revenue and

JIB Netting

Those oil and gas companies that use RPA

to automate their monthly close process have

experienced 30-50 percent improvement in closing

times. The expectation is that JV accounting and

revenue and JIB netting processes could benet

from leveraging RPA, as well. The necessary levels

of IT integration between the various internal and

external systems is challenging to implement and

maintain. If the systems cannot be integrated, then

considerable man hours are spent transferring data

from one system to another. RPA can be used,

in a non-invasive way, to create a bridge between

the various systems. RPA can also automate

high volumes of adds, changes, and deletions to

the accounts. Lastly, RPA bots can be used to

mitigate staff shortages, build expert knowledge

into processes, and free up resources to work on

activities that add more value.

Drilling and Completions

As oil and gas teams are drilling wells, they must

compile and analyze data from multiple sources

to ensure they’re drilling in the right direction at

the right costs. If the team is heading in the wrong

direction, it must be identied quickly. RPA can

provide valuable support for operational reporting

and drilling performance by automatically pulling

data from systems, such as WellView, to help in

the analysis process. RPA can also pull vendor

well data, purchase order data, costs, and forecast

data into a data warehouse to be used for more

comprehensive analytics. Drilling engineers can use

RPA to look at data and see differences between

processes across rigs. This creates substantial

time savings and streamlining, which can result in

signicant nancial improvements over the year.

Work Over Optimization

A signicant amount of human resources is spent

identifying in which wells to invest workover time

and effort. Typically, the investigation process

requires conducting analysis using multiple tools

to then compile an evaluation. The end-to-end

process requires data to be captured, transformed,

and transferred from one system to another – a

tedious and burdensome process. So much so, that

many teams utilize best guesses to evaluate and

make decisions, which doesn’t always translate to

pursuit of the best targets. RPA can be used to

automate the repetitive activities, which will free

up time for resources to conduct value adding

evaluations to identify the best workover targets.

Production Engineering

Production teams are in regular need of historical

well data that provides a performance story for a

well, from beginning to end. To pull together this

type of information, team members will spend

many hours obtaining information from analytics

tools and multiple sources (legacy databases, excel

les, engineers’ knowledge, etc.). RPA is built to

handle this type of task, as it sits next to existing

tools and data sets and mimics the steps humans

take to gather information from the disparate

sources. An RPA bot can be set to execute hidden

commands in the legacy systems to speed up

processing. It can also run unattended, 24 hours

per day and 7 days per week. The result is an

efcient process with superior results.

Field Operations (Field Asset Team)

The team members who are hands-on in the eld

need access to well information and analytics to

be able to safely optimize, operate, and maintain

wells and all surface equipment on the lease or

facilities. The challenge becomes getting these

team members the information they need in a

usable format. Having information delivered in an

easy to access, user-friendly manner is critical to

eld operations teams. RPA can be used to gather

information from various systems, compile the

information into a ranked issues report, and deliver

the report to eld operations’ team members by

email or another report out method. Using RPA

will free operations support staff to work on

higher value activities.

Subsurface Data Management and Operations

Data Analytics

For geoscientists, drilling, operations, and

production engineers to conduct data analysis

that helps move the needle for the business,

they must have data available in a usable format.

Subsurface data management and operations

data analytics team members are instrumental to

making the data available. Unfortunately for many

organizations, these team members are in high

demand and are stretched to capacity. RPA can

expand the capabilities of these team members

through automation of data request processing;

data capture from legacy systems; data cleanup;

data storage in a warehouse; and conducting QA

/ QC steps on the data to ag potential problems.

When there is an increase in project volume or

data ingestion, data processing capacity can be

expanded to meet the increased demand.

The briey described ways that RPA can be

leveraged by oil and gas operations provides a

view of some of the benets that can be achieved.

RPA helps companies do more with the limited

resources available. RPA also helps to reduce

costs, sometimes by as much as 35-65 percent

for onshore process operations, and can improve

efciency by as much as 50-75 percent. In some

transaction-heavy applications, the time to process

data can be reduced by up to 95 percent. Another

known benet of RPA technology is that it offers

an investment recovery period between six to nine

months, which has proven to be a major driver for

RPA market.

With this in mind, one might wonder if oil and gas

companies have time to waste when it comes to

implementing RPA. We think not.

Allen Yoho is a management

consulting with Enaxis Con-

sulting. Yoho has over 10

years project management

experience, as well as an

established track record of

leading projects from incep-

tion to operation utilizing project management

best practices to deliver superior results. Over

the past seven years he has worked extensively

in the oil and gas industry. Yoho earned a BS

of Business Administration in Finance from

California State University – Sacramento, as well

as an MBA from University of Warwick.

RPA Creating the Oil and Gas

Workforce of the Future

By Allen Yoho

Oilman Magazine / September-October 2018 / OilmanMagazine.com

Revamping the Oil Industry with

Technology and the Millennials

By Tonae’ Hamilton

Technology has become so prevalent in our society

that it has worked its way into various industries.

Industries such as retail, nance, education, and,

of course, IT have all implemented technology in

varying extents. One industry however, that had

remained unaffected by the spread of technology

for a long time, is the oil and gas industry. Until

recently, the oil and gas industry had remained

stagnant in traditional methods of operation with

little signs of innovation. With the spread of

technology coupled with the rise of millennials, or

young adults, the oil industry has now experienced

a slew of developments and technological

innovations, which some may say were overdue.

We recently sat down with a young geologist and

technical advisor for Drillinginfo, Ian Thomasset

who weighed in on the impact technology and the

younger generations have had on the oil industry.

Before his position with Drillinginfo, Thomasset

got his start in hydrology. Through his own

research, he became more familiar with the energy

industry and saw how energy shapes the global

economy and how necessary and signicant of

an impact it makes. He stated how the energy

industry has an “impact on the day to day lives of

individuals” and how he wanted to be a part of

that. At that point, Thomasset found a position

with Consol Energy (now known as CNX gas)

where he gained his rst real exposure to big data

in the oil and gas industry. Acquiring immense

knowledge in big data while at Consol Energy,

he later transitioned to Drillinginfo as a technical

advisor in January. Wanting to further apply his

geology degree to the energy industry, Thomasset

saw Drillinginfo as the perfect t.

Since working at Drillinginfo, Thomasset has

helped companies gure out solutions with big

data and analytics. He mentioned that being a

part of a “generation that has seen technology

throughout their lives and have been constantly

exposed to it” has allowed him, as well as his

peers, to more easily embrace change and take

on different approaches. “The running joke I’ve

heard is that all the easy oil and gas has already

been found and nowadays it is trickier,” said

Thomasset. With technological developments in

place, Thomasset mentioned how the industry has

become a lot more willing to change the course

of how to nd oil and gas. “I came in with the

mindset that industry veterans may resist change

but found that as long as they see the science

behind it, they are open to those changes,” said

Thomasset. He further described how he has

seen industry veterans and newcomers alike work

together to embrace change.

Contrary to the way the oil industry was in the

past, Thomasset expressed how people now

involved with unconventional oil have the mindset

of “I am most likely going to nd something.” He

further described how people now consider the

operational costs and ROI (Return of Investment)

they will receive from their prospects. “There has

denitely been a major shift from conventional

prospect thinking to unconventional prospect

thinking and weighing out the cost-benet analysis

more,” said Thomasset.

When it comes to whether or not the oil and gas

industry has become a more “attractive” eld for

the younger generations, Thomasset mentioned

how he’s seen a huge boom in industry interest,

including from his colleagues while in graduate

school. “It is that new technology that makes

the industry more positive and attractive to the

younger generations,” said Thomasset. With a

surge of new, younger workers coming to the

industry, Thomasset was asked how that may

affect the industry. Thomasset stated, “With all

the talk involving big data, it is going to be a real

co-mingling of the old school ways of working

in the industry and the new data strategies

and approaches that come from the current

generations. This intermingling is what is helping

the industry become what it is today.”

With technology’s larger role in the oil industry

today, Thomasset was asked whether he believed

this implementation of technology was a positive

change. Thomasset stated, “Technology has

denitely positively affected the industry. It has

provided transparency and a level playing eld.

The small guys from smaller companies can have

the same access to information as the major

companies, so long as they obtain the right data

set. The industry will be a lot safer because we’ll

have an abundance of good information available

for everyone to see.” Thomasset added “Being able

to get a leg up in the industry and use information

to compete with bigger companies is great. The

independence of small companies to be able to

leverage such information is huge. At Drillinginfo,

the idea to use data to level the playing eld is

key and fundamental to our purpose. Using data

to make things clearer eliminates those unknown

and murky aspects of the business. The younger

generations denitely have a grasp on technology

and are very comfortable using it, meaning we are

able to do more with less.”

Drillinginfo, serves clients in various roles

throughout the energy industry and Thomasset

mentioned how he has helped his customers

know how to utilize decision support solutions

and big data and handle products with ease. “I

think it’s been fun driving value into their acreage

positions. Helping guide people to quicker, faster

decisions and providing them with solutions in

relation to our products is what I enjoy doing,”

said Thomasset. When asked what developments

he hopes to see going forward in the industry,

Thomasset expressed he’d like to see a cleaner

reporting system in regard to well spacing.

“Finding out which wells may be interfering with

each other is something I’d like to see possible in

the near future. Having a greater understanding of

information and data now is what can help drive

out solutions,” said Thomasset.

OILMAN COLUMN

Photo Credit: Evgeniia Kuzmich– www.123RF.com

Oilman Magazine / September-October 2018 / OilmanMagazine.com

Why Oil and Gas Companies Should Consider

eDiscovery as a Standard Business Process

By Brian Schrader, Esq., BIA

OILMAN COLUMN

One unfortunate aspect of owning a business is

that, from time to time, there will be a disagreement

with another party — be it a client, employee,

contracted partners or an outside organization —

that can’t be resolved by any other means but a

lawsuit.

In the oil industry, issues surrounding land use

factor prominently into lawsuits. For example,

disputes commonly arise over contracts for the

operation of pipelines or the leasing of land

where wells are located. Royalty income is another

frequent focus of litigation, as royalty owners battle

over the income to which they feel they’re entitled.

In addition, oil and gas businesses continue to see a

rise in legal matters related to environmental issues.

As different as these civil lawsuits are from one

another, the legal process for each one plays out

roughly the same. Litigation requires both parties

to go through discovery, during which they gather

any relevant les to respond to document requests

and to support their side of the case. What was

once a tedious task of gathering physical documents

by hand, has evolved into a fully digital process

that sweeps up a wide variety of data much more

efciently.

During electronic discovery (eDiscovery), these

disparate forms of data are collected, processed,

analyzed, ltered, reviewed and ultimately produced

to opposing parties. If you’ve ever started this

process from scratch, you know that it can be time-

consuming, stressful and — if your company’s data

isn’t well managed to begin with — fairly chaotic.

It’s true that for some companies, lawsuits only

come around once in a while (if you’re lucky). But

when the need for eDiscovery occurs, it doesn’t

help anybody to handle it each time in the same

haphazard, frantic way. In addition to putting

unnecessary stress on your IT department to collect

the necessary data, working on an accelerated time

frame can result in data being lost or mishandled

that might make the difference between winning or

losing a case.

All of this can be avoided by taking a step back and

thinking about eDiscovery instead as a long-term,

standard business process. Assuming that you’ll be

involved in one or more lawsuits during the life of

your company — and chances are you will — it’s

simply a smart business decision to establish a

system that allows you to respond to eDiscovery

needs more quickly and with the condence that

you have every relevant document available to use

in your case.

Here’s how you can start creating a standard

eDiscovery process:

1. Take stock of your situation

Taking on a company-wide standardized eDiscovery

process may sound overwhelming. Particularly if

you have multiple ofces or have previously merged

with another company, you may not have a good

handle on what data even exists and where it’s

located.

So, obviously, that’s the rst step. In as detailed a

way as possible, map out where your organization’s

data is – what les are with what people and in what

departments, when they were created or modied,

and who has access to them. Go beyond what you

might think is relevant — in addition to invoices,

maintenance records, contracts and land-lease

agreements, data including emails, voicemails,

photos, videos, Slack messages, social media posts

and even texts are all admissible in court.

Also outline your processes for managing litigation

holds, the method by which your data will be

collected and if you will do any initial ltering of

your collected data. However, be cognizant of the

time it might take. If you’re adding one or all of

these tasks onto your IT department’s already heavy

workload, consider whether it’s in your best interest

to nd a software solution and/or to hire an outside

vendor to do the job.

2. Choose an effective eDiscovery platform

To save both time and money in your eDiscovery

process, select a platform (or multiple platforms

— more about that in a second) that is capable of

collecting and processing your data and preparing

it for legal review. Look for a comprehensive

solution capable of automating legal holds, doing

remote collection of targeted groups of data and

culling down your les. Ideally, your platform will

also provide preliminary data analytics — allowing

you to weed out irrelevant documents early in the

eDiscovery process, understand the amount of data

you’re working with and predict potential costs.

Most companies choose to also use a second,

compatible platform for reviewing the les. This

platform typically can do more in-depth analysis

and search the data to determine relevance. As

complex as this might sound, it all saves money in

the long run if it prevents your legal team from

having to unnecessarily dig through documents at

what will certainly be a high hourly rate.

There’s one additional benet of having a

centralized eDiscovery platform, and it’s a huge

one — once your documents have been collected,

reviewed, tagged and processed as part of a case,

they’re there to stay in a safe, centralized place.

There’s no need to collect them or have them go

through legal review a second time, and they can be

used again if future cases call for them.

3. Keep your review costs down with advanced

planning

Document review is usually the most expensive

part of the eDiscovery process. The most effective

way to reduce this cost is to make sure that the data

you’re handing over for legal review is pared down

as much as possible. One increasingly popular way

of doing that is to use TAT (Technology Assisted

Review). It’s a form of articial intelligence that

can be taught to identify relevant documents, and

the system gets better at its job over time. TAR is

a game-changing innovation that can streamline

the review process dramatically, reducing costs

and maintaining a high level of quality. TAR’s only

drawback at the moment is that it hasn’t advanced

to the point where it can accurately categorize

spreadsheets or les that contain mostly formulas

and graphs.

Lastly, once you’ve prepared your data for the

review process, you’ll need to decide whether

you’ll outsource a legal team, which could include

contract attorneys or a full-time managed review

services team supplied by an outside vendor.

Alternatively, your in-house attorneys could do the

work. Although each option has its advantages,

your primary concern should be that the team has

the background knowledge and training to do their

work effectively. Using the same team each time you

need documents reviewed will provide institutional

knowledge and ensure consistency, quality, accuracy

and speed — so whatever you decide, make sure

you’re thinking long-term.

Because litigation is almost a fact of life for suc-

cessful businesses, particularly in the oil industry,

it’s smart to be prepared rather than tackling a

large, important job under tight time constraints.

A standard eDiscovery process goes hand in hand

with your company’s information management

procedures, it will enable you to respond to any

legal issues quickly and effectively, and it will save

signicant time and money compare to an ad-hoc

approach.

Brian Schrader, Esq., is

President & CEO of BIA

(www.biaprotect.com), a

leader in reliable, innovative

and cost-effective eDiscovery

services. With early career

experience in information

management, computer technology and the law,

Brian co-founded BIA in 2002 and has since

developed the rm’s reputation as an industry

pioneer and a trusted partner for corporations

and law rms around the world. He can be

reached at bschrader@biaprotect.com.

www.beachwoodmarketing.com

Beachwood navigates teams

to ﬁnd deals that no one else can.

2828 NW 57th Street, Suite 309 l Oklahoma City l (405) 463-3214

We don’t market to test the waters, we hit the market to make waves.

Oilman Magazine / September-October 2018 / OilmanMagazine.com

OILMAN COLUMN

Permian Basin Outgrows Pipeline

Infrastructure, Construction Boom

Underway but has Growing Pains

By Eric R. Eissler

Oil production in the Permian is growing at an

800,000 barrel per day (BPD) annually. With

production recently averaging 3.3 million BPD,

the industry is on pace to outstrip its 3.6 million

BPD of pipeline capacity in only a matter of a

few months, according to an estimate by leading

regional driller Pioneer Natural Resources. The

Chairman Scott Shefeld told Bloomberg in late

June that wells will have to be shut down due to

lack of pipeline capacity. However, not Pioneer’s

wells, the company was able to bypass this problem

by thinking ahead and reserved a majority of their

pipeline space in order to continue production and

grow their own production.

More pipelines required: construction in

full swing

With pipelines in the Permian reaching capacity,

construction is in full swing and at the right

time, too. With higher oil prices and the Trump

Administration pressing on Iran and now Turkey,

oil prices will continue to rise due to turmoil in

the region.

Taking advantage of the situation, mid-stream

company, Plains All American Pipelines, is working

around the clock to push up the timetable as much

as possible. The company has two major pipelines

expansions under way: Sunrise and Cactus II. The

scheduled in-service dates for these projects are

projected to be around January 2019 for Sunrise

and partial service early in the fourth quarter of

2019 for Cactus II.

In addition to these projects already under

construction, Plains All American Pipelines is

working with super-major ExxonMobil on a large-

scale oil pipeline project that will ship more than 1

million BPD out of the region. Plains and Exxon

are quickly laying the foundations for this project

in hopes of breaking ground soon, with the aim of

having it in service by 2021. More detail about the

pipeline was made available in a press release from

ExxonMobil:

The proposed common carrier pipeline would

be designed to ship more than one million

barrels of crude oil and condensate per day,

providing a safe, efcient and cost-effective

option to transport ExxonMobil and other

third-party production to market destinations

in Texas. The pipeline would originate in both

Wink and Midland, Texas with delivery points

in Webster, Baytown and Beaumont, Texas.

A priority would be placed

on using existing pipeline

corridors to help limit

potential community and

environmental disruptions.

If that was not enough, there is

yet another pipeline in the works,

The Gray Oak Pipeline, which

is being built by multinational

Phillips 66 and Canadian

Enbridge, aims to carry more

than three million barrels per day

from West Texas to the Corpus

Christi and Houston regions.

The pipeline is expected to come

online during the second half of 2019.

Finally, Kinder Morgan, this summer, also just

announced that it too would join the pipeline

building frenzy. The company announced it has

teamed up with Apache Corp and a Blackstone

subsidiary on the construction of a $2-billion,

2-billion-cu-ft gas pipeline project that will take

natural gas from the Waha area to the Gulf Coast

and to Mexico.

With all the investment in pipeline infrastructure in

the Permian Basin, it is easy to see that the region

is expected to remain hot for a long time and

continue on an upwards trajectory in terms of oil

production.

Regulators support pipeline expansion

Even though Texas is one of the most oil and gas

friendly states in the union, there is still regulation

and regulatory bodies, namely the Railroad

Commission of Texas, which oversees the entire

oil and gas industry of the state. However, this

time around, the Permian Basin is in luck because

earlier this summer Ryan Sitton, a commissioner

on the Railroad Commission of Texas tweeted,

“We need investment in energy transportation

infrastructure like pipelines and ports to realize

Texas’ full potential.” Rightly said, because without

it, the industry will slow, which would affect supply,

and supply would affect consumer prices, which

adversely affects the economy.

Bottlenecks are not only for pipelines:

Electricity consumption spikes

As more and more operators settle into the

Permian Basin, the region is going though

expansion pains that were notable in the boom

towns of North Dakota earlier this decade. While

there not enough pipelines in the basin to get the

oil out, there is now a problem with supplying

enough electricity to the region because many

operators have taken the cheaper and more

environmentally friendly method to get energy,

that is, hooking up to the grid. However, the grid

was never intended to support such demand from

a growing oil and gas industry. To remedy this

issue, the state will build more transmission for the

electric grid, but that is going to cost money. To

top it off, those who are hooked up to the system

are expected to share the cost of expansion. Under

state regulations, the costs of transmission projects

are shared by all users of the power grid, regardless

of whether they are served directly by the

transmission or the utility building it. Dallas power

utility Oncor, which serves the Permian Basin,

is asking regulators to expedite two transmission

projects, costing an estimated $223.6 million, to

meet the spiking demand in the Permian.

Boom is back, but with challenges

While the Permian is poised to see record growth

in the coming years, it will not be an easy growth

that the region has been accustomed.. There will

be many infrastructure challenges that lie in the

way. However, within these challenges lie great

opportunity for all the companies involved with

the oil and gas industry in the Permian Basin.

While there are constraints in the short term, the

Permian is set to be transformed by 2020 with a

larger pipeline network and an electric grid that will

be able to handle the future demands of an even

stronger industry within the next few years.

OILMAN COLUMN

Oilman Magazine / September-October 2018 / OilmanMagazine.com

OILMAN COLUMN

Interview with Phillip Bird, Collector,

Oklahoma Oil and Gas Memorabilia

By Tonae’ Hamilton

Below is an interview with Oklahoma Oil &

Gas memorabilia collector Phillip Bird. The

interview text has been left in tact, with only minor

grammatical adjustments.

Tonae’ Hamilton: What inspired you to start

collecting memorabilia?

Phillip Bird: I got into collecting several years

ago. I had a lot of friends in Oklahoma and Texas

that were in the business and if you live in either

state, you’re bound to know many people in the oil

business. I started collecting because I loved the oil

business and gas industry. It was an industry that

employed a lot of people. Here in the south, we

didn’t have the big buildings like in the east, but we

supplied the fuel to build them. That fact amazed

me and made me proud to be from Oklahoma. I

was a lender years ago and had clients in the oil

business as well. They truly are a different breed

of people and are very hard working. Over time,

I acquired over 1400+ books. I have a yearbook

of Webb City that was called “The Driller” and

it is amazing how you can just build a city over

night. There are several cities like that in Oklahoma

including Three Sands. With that said, through

friends in the business and an appreciation for the

oil industry, I was inspired to collect memorabilia.

Everyone collects something but oil and gas is my

favorite stuff to collect. I have many little oil rigs

and other smaller items that I collect.

TH: When did you begin collecting memorabilia

and what was the very rst piece you acquired?

PB: It began in the 1980’s, though I cannot

remember the exact rst piece. I had several pieces

from the beginning and actually lost a few pieces

unfortunately during moves. Having had so many

pieces from the beginning, I unfortunately cannot

recall the rst piece.

TH: Out of all the items you collected, can you

share what your favorite piece is?

PB: That’s a tough one. I have one book that is a

reproduction of an older book created by Aubrey

Mcclendon. It talks about Chesapeake Energy and

features pictures of Oklahoma City oil elds. I also

have books and pictures where you can see the old

oil elds under the Capitol Site and pictures of the

Mary Sudik which is all so fascinating. The Mary

Sudik no.1 is from 1930. I also like the Tulsa oilman

and the Gusher pieces which truly exemplify Okla-

homa. Therefore, I dont have just one or two favor-

ites, rather I have several pieces that I really like.

TH: What made you decide to sell your collection

now and why did you decline the rst time?

PB: Though I really enjoy my collection, a lot of

people I know have gotten out of the oil business,

passed on, or moved and I just don’t get to enjoy

it as much as I used to. I really enjoyed showing it

to people but I just don’t have that many people I

can show it to anymore. Many people used to come

by every week to check the collection and would

have to come by several times just to see everything

because of the size of the collection. I was offered

money the rst time to sell my collection, but I was

not ready at that time. I enjoy showing it still but I

just can’t show all the pieces in the way I want due

to a lack of space. I go by a philosophy that if you

can’t show it, you don’t need it anymore. There are

so many little pieces of memorabilia that I have that

it is just amazing seeing how many there are. I have

Rufnex Yearbook, Crooked

Oak High School, 1960s

J.R. Ewing from the

TV series Dallas

Oil Well at Oklahoma

State Capital

Mary Sudik Oil Well Gusher Webb City High School

Yearbook, 1935

Tulsa Oil Man, Oil Well Gusher, Decanters and a Drill Bit from the Tar Creek Project Derrick Yearbook, Victoria,

Texas, 1960s

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OILMAN COLUMN

had it for so long, but sometimes you just need to

move on.

TH: Are there any pieces of your collection that

you plan not to sell or may pass on to your family?

PB: No, I do not intend on keeping any pieces.

It all needs to go together.

TH: What makes your oil & gas collection unique

or different from other collections of the same

type?

PB: My stuff is more local than others you’ll see.

When people think oil and gas they think like a

Shell oil sign. My collection is a tribute to the oil

industry. I have books, small oil rigs, advertising

pieces and small items that makes it different than

any other person’s collection. As far as I know, no

one has as many books as I do. I have some really

unusual books and a few hundred of my books are

autographed by the authors, themselves. That makes

them worth a lot more than those books that aren’t

autographed. If there is someone that has a bigger

collection than I do, I’d like to see it. My collection

pays homage to the state of Oklahoma. You’d be

surprised of how many famous individuals are from

Oklahoma and were in the oil business. Clark Gable,

who was a top movie star in the 1930s and 40s used

to work in the oil elds!

TH: Do you currently have any other types of

collections?

PB: I also collect high school and collegiate

yearbooks, which some you will nd in my oil

collection. I also collect masonic items. I was able

to connect my high school yearbook collection

to the oil collection through locations the high

schools were in, such as Victoria, TX. Such

locations in Texas and Oklahoma are big on the oil

industry. Additionally, I collect antiques and movie

memorabilia as well as guns and coins.

TH: If you could pick a place for your collection to

go after you sell it, where would you like to see it?

PB: I’d like to see it in a restaurant, club, or cafe.

A bagel shop would also be a great place for my

collection so customers have books to read and so

they can learn about the oil and gas business and

learn about Oklahoma and its history. It would be

nice to have it in a restaurant where I could go and

see it. I think it would be neat to be able to go visit a

restaurant and see my collection.

TH: Do you plan on starting any new collections in

the future?

PB: I’m not sure what my next collection would be

since I haven’t planned on that yet. Something like

that you can’t plan on, often these kinds of collec-

tions start by accident. People collect some of the

strangest items sometimes and don’t plan on it.

Oklahoma Oil and Gas Books

(Approx. 1,400) and Other Collectables

Oklahoma Oil and Gas

Memorabilia For Sale

The collection is a fantastic showcase

representing the Oklahoma Oil and Gas

industry and is perfect for displaying in a

restaurant, bar, coffee shop or museum.

For more information, contact Phillip Bird

at 405-463-0636 or morgtagebird@cox.net.

Oilman Magazine / September-October 2018 / OilmanMagazine.com

Natural Disasters Strike, but the Oil and Gas

Community is Ready to Repair and Pull Through

By Eric R. Eissler

OILMAN COLUMN

Natural disasters have always been something

everyone must think about from time to time. While

it might not ever happen to you or your company, it

still happens, and it is happening more and more as

the Earth’s weather patterns change. In the oil and gas

industry, managers must think about the possibility of

natural disasters striking more often. This is imperative

due to the location of oil and gas wells in extreme

locations such as in the sea, on the coast, in the

desert, etc. All of these locations have unique weather

patterns. Additionally, there are also earthquakes,

tornadoes, hurricanes, and massive tidal waves that

need to be considered, too. All of these threats will

lead to signicant damage if the right precautions are

not in place. Finally, do not forget about getting the

proper insurance.

To get a better idea of what some companies are

doing to mitigate the damage that could occur from a

natural disaster, we reached out to a company to learn

more about their processes.

Logistics industry faces changing weather

Dominic Dupre of Dupre Logistics provided some

insight into how some companies are gearing up for

more and more natural disasters that are occurring

in the U.S.

Unfortunately, our emergency response

surrounding natural disasters is put to work

once every 2-3 years as we operate along the

Gulf Coast, from Florida to South Texas, so we

have been able to adjust and learn from each

experience. In the crude hauling division, we

operate a central dispatch model with remote

business even when the ofce is closed down.

Additionally, our eld execution is segmented

by area with multiple maintenance facilities that

ensure the business continues to run in the

event that operations are shut down in certain

geographical areas.

Besides natural disasters, there are also disasters that

come from within oil and gas equipment and can

trigger a massive disaster that can give way to other

environmentally damaging effects. For example, the

most recent The Deepwater Horizon oil spill began

on April 20, 2010, in the Gulf of Mexico on the

BP-operated Macondo Prospect. At approximately

9:45 pm, methane gas from the well expanded into

the drilling riser and rose into the drilling rig, where it

ignited and exploded, engulng the platform. There

were 126 crew members who were on board at the

time: seven BP employees, 79 from Transocean and

employees from other companies. The Deepwater

Horizon sank on the morning of April 22, 2010. It

was considered to be the largest accidental marine

oil spill in the history of the petroleum industry. The

U.S. Government estimated the total discharge at 4.9

million barrels of oil into the ocean.

Government and regulatory bodies are here to help

The National Petroleum Council prepared a paper

entitled, “Enhancing Emergency Preparedness for

Natural Disasters: Government and Oil and Natural

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OILMAN COLUMN

Gas Industry Actions to Prepare, Respond, and

Recover.” The paper, published in 2014, found

the following challenges in addressing emergency

situations:

• It is critically important for government emergency

response organizations to have a baseline under-

standing of the dynamic nature of the oil and gas

supply chains.

• Improved situational awareness about the status

of oil and gas infrastructure and service disruptions

from industry would enable DOE and other gov-

ernment agencies to more effectively respond.

• A major challenge during emergency response is

effective communication between and within federal

and state agencies and with industry.

• The maintenance of a trained, knowledgeable

response organization within government agencies

should be a priority along with processes to sustain it.

• Within industry and across all levels of government,

leadership commitment and funding are required

to continuously improve and ensure a state of

readiness to respond to supply chain disruptions.

Be prepared, not scared

At a recent API (American Petroleum Institute)

meeting this past May 2018, a subject of debate was

that of being prepared in the oil and gas industry.

This is imperative as the

southern United States is well

into Hurricane season, which

runs from May 15 (previously

June 1 and now has grown by

15 days. However, this is still up

for debate.) to November 30.

Hurricanes are one of the biggest

natural disasters for the U.S.

and the rening industry, due to

rening units’ proximity to water.

Jeff Gunnulfsen, Director of

Security and Risk Management

at the American Fuel and

Petrochemical Manufacturers,

said the following on his

commitment to safety in the

eld at the API Meeting: “The

rening and petrochemical industries practice

emergency response, every day, 365 days a year.

No two storms or emergencies are alike, and our

industries prepare vigorously and consistently for all

types of disruptions. Preparation is the rst step in

managing major events, and by working diligently

with industry partners, we’re able to minimize the

impacts of unpredictable events.”

More information on the steps oil and gas industry

professionals are taking in the midst of Hurricane

season can be found here: https://www.api.org/

news-policy-and-issues/hurricane-information.

Eye of the storm

While the weather is changing, the oil and gas industry

is adapting and developing new technologies and

procedures to weather the storm. New protocols are

being established and more time is being dedicated

to safety training for handling natural disasters. While

natural disasters cannot be prevented, tactics can be

employed to help mitigate the damage caused by a

storm or worse. While mother nature has the upper

hand in this battle, humans are resourceful and full

of ingenuity in coming up with innovative ways to

prevent damage or to make repairs on the y.

Oilman Magazine / September-October 2018 / OilmanMagazine.com

OILMAN COLUMN

Building and launching a start-up in any industry

can be difcult. Building a business requires time,

money/investment, experience, and connections.

Nevertheless, more individuals nowadays are taking

the entrepreneurial route to expand their careers.

With the spread of technology, building a business

in recent years has become more practical. Two

young entrepreneurs, Tyler Moehlman and William

Vandiver have recently developed a start-up, with

the aid of technology, in the oil and gas industry,

an industry once known for being very traditional

and not technologically advanced. Moehlman and

Vandiver have entered the energy industry with

plans to innovate current processes and improve

operations. They describe what it’s like being young

entrepreneurs in the industry and their plans for

change through technology.

Both Moehlman and Vandiver graduated from

Texas A&M, with Moehlman studying petroleum

engineering and Vandiver studying engineering

technology, respectively. Moehlman admitted that

he originally majored in the eld for the high-end

salary, but realized that choosing a career should

be based on what you enjoy rather than monetary

value. Moehlman chose to work at an offshore

oil rig the summer before his freshman year. “I

worked for Hercules Offshore as a roustabout and

it provided me with a very humbling experience on

how this industry works at the ground oor. That

experience also assured me I was in an industry I

wanted to be in,” said Moehlman. Vandiver also

had a positive experience with his internship in

the oil industry. “I got to see the administrative

processes of a company and see how the engineers

and geologists come together. The internship really

steered my attention towards exploration,” said

Vandiver.

Moehlman and Vandiver also shared challenges

they’ve faced while building and promoting their

startup and what experiences they’ve had being

young individuals in the oil industry. Moehlman

expressed how experience has been one of their

biggest challenges when presenting to prospects,

for example. “The oil and gas industry is lled with

entrepreneurs and their merit is weighted by what

they have done thus far in industry. Many of them

have either worked for large corporations or have

been in industry longer than I have which is always

a factor investment groups weigh when evaluating

management teams,” said Moehlman. Vandiver

also added to that sentiment, stating “A new

company is something that people would place at a

higher risk when funding new management teams.

We learned that having experience on your side

and attracting experienced personnel to your team

is something you want to have, going forward in

the industry.”

When asked why they chose to stay in Texas to

develop their start-up, Moehlman and Vandiver

expressed similar reasons for selecting Texas as

their primary location. Moehlman mentioned

how he and Vandiver actually discovered a project

in Texas two weeks before their graduation.

Moehlman felt passionate about their project and

thus requested a four month time period from

his future employer to present their idea around

town. “Houston is the energy capital of the world

so I didn’t need to travel very far to present my

prospect,” said Moehlman. Similarly, Vandiver

stated how a signicant amount of the energy

industry is in Houston and Dallas. “There are

many private equity rms and better taxes for the

business here in Texas. It is also a more attractive

place for oil businesses and there are prospects

close to home. Texas felt like a good homebase for

our startup and Tyler and I have known this place

our entire life,” said Vandiver.

Since starting their business, Moehlman and

Vandiver have made a handful of advancements in

the industry. In regards to the developments made

in their start-up, Moehlman stated, “Thinking

back to our eld analysis, I think we have been

more meticulous with how we approach looking

at a prospect and evaluating its worth. Using

Drillinginfo, we were able to view the completion

programs of offset wells around us. Fracking has

evolved tremendously these last few years and we

were able to observe which wells have or haven’t

been completed with new generation programs.”

Chiming in on the advancements made in the

industry with their start-up, Vandiver stated “We’ve

created a network and in any industry that is

important. Through developing good prospects,

we met great people in the industry who value

good, well-thought-out prospects. From getting the

project funded, to execution, we met some of the

best geologists and engineers in industry and have

had the opportunity to talk shop with them.”

Coming into an industry that is recently being

revamped with technology, Moehlman and

Vandiver described how their background in

technology overall has helped them transition

Innovating the Industry with

an Energy Start-up

By Tonae’ Hamilton

Photo Credit: drserg – www.123RF.com

Oilman Magazine / September-October 2018 / OilmanMagazine.com

OILMAN COLUMN

into the energy industry and excel. Moehlman

described how larger fracs, longer laterals, and

straighter wellbore creation while drilling have

all become possible through technological

advancements. “Drillinginfo’s interface, for

example, provides an array of data for each well

that you don’t have to go digging for to discover,”

said Moehlman. Vandiver expressed how his

background in mechanical, manufacturing, and

engineering has allowed him to compare different

tools and their lifespan from service companies

and determine the best and most durable drilling

equipment by tool life. “Drillinginfo has also

helped with selecting equipment and has allowed

us and many other individuals to view pie charts,

decline curves, and other visual representations of

data to thoroughly evaluate potential prospects.

With technology, we are able to convey messages

and data more easily via powerpoint, excel, etc.”

said Vandiver.

Moehlman and Vandiver were asked if they are

currently developing new technologies for their

start-up. Although they expressed they aren’t

currently developing any, they shared how they

follow up with other companies to gain insights

on what they’re developing and examine what

new technologies are available in the industry.

“We got to meet a startup that is using Articial

Intelligence to perform directional drilling

which I thought was an incredible concept,”

said Moehlman. Vandiver talked about current

technologies he’s impressed with, stating “With

technology currently, we have been able to receive

a better analysis of wells and drilling conditions

and we get a clearer picture of what we are drilling

through. With wider azimuth seismic we get a way

more detailed fracture analysis and a clear picture

of the stress prole on some of these brittle

carbonate reservoirs. Companies like Drillinginfo

are coming out with solutions and software

applicable to well drilling operations allowing you

to make more responsible decisions.”

When asked whether they believed the rise of

technology in the energy industry is for the

best, both Moehlman and Vandiver agreed

that technology has impacted the industry

positively. “When dealing with an industry where

the primary element you work with is nature,

the earth’s subsurface, the primary reason for

technology is to keep the wheels turning and

and leave everything functioning properly,” said

Moehlman. Similarly, Vandiver stated “Technology

is denitely going to progress and unlock new

horizons in the industry. We’ve seen it with the

shale oil revolution and with some of these

natural gas hydrate ‘ice’ elds up north that now

produce hydrocarbons. Both commercial horizons

were made possible due to leaps in technology.”

As for what future improvements they’d like to see

in the industry, Moehlman stated “I want to see

new companies with more innovative databases,

articial intelligence (AI), and automated drilling.

Automation, AI, and new databases are involved

in other industries around the world and I would

like to see our industry incorporate those same

innovations.” Vandiver stated that observing real

time data across the industry and incorporating

AI and blockchain technology into oil and drilling

solutions are improvements that would play a

major role in the industry.” Our generation will

certainly be the one to push these technologies

forward and go on to new horizons,” stated

Vandiver.

The Neverending Story: “Fixed” vs.

“Floating” Royalties in Texas

By Thomas G. Ciarlone, Jr.

The Texas Supreme Court and our Courts of Ap-

peals have now been struggling for years with the

elusive distinction between “xed” and “oating”

royalties. In application, the difference between the

two can have drastic and, depending on your posi-

tion in a mineral title dispute, potentially catastroph-

ic consequences. The case law has, by no means,

been a model of clarity or consistency, and few

hard-and-fast rules have emerged at the appellate

level to give practitioners any legitimate comfort

when drafting or interpreting conveyances.

At a purely denitional level, it is easy to differenti-

ate between these two types of royalties:

• A “xed” royalty is set in stone, for all posterity.

It is an unchanging fraction of total production.

• A “oating” royalty, by contrast, is dynamic.

It is a fraction of the royalty under the active

mineral lease.

So when the lease royalty increases, so does the

“oating” royalty. Not so with the “xed” royalty;

it is what it is, regardless of the terms of whatever

lease happens to be in effect at the time.

Sounds simple, right? In theory, yes. In practice, not

so much.

The Texas Supreme Court’s recent decision in

U.S. Shale Energy II, LLC v. Laborde Properties,

L.P. represents the latest chapter in this ongoing

jurisprudential saga.

In Laborde, the grantors had reserved to

themselves an NPRI (Non-Participating Royalty

Interest), dened as follows (emphasis added):

There is reserved and excepted from this convey-

ance unto the grantors herein, their heirs and

assigns, an undivided one-half (1/2) interest in

and to the Oil Royalty, Gas Royalty and Royalty

in other Minerals in and under or that may be

produced or mined from the above described

premises, the same being equal to one-sixteenth

(1/16) of the production. This reservation is what

is generally [sic] termed a non-participating Royalty

Reservation.

The operator under a lease with a one-fth royalty

credited the successors to the reserving parties

with one-half of the one-fth lease royalty—i.e.,

one-tenth of total production. But the successor to

the grantee cried foul, arguing that the reservation

expressly limited the NPRI to one-sixteenth of

total production. The Texas Supreme Court sided

with the operator’s interpretation.

Notably, nothing in the record indicated that

a mineral lease was in effect at the time of the

NPRI’s reservation. The majority in Laborde

accounted for this omission with the oft-repeated

refrain that, for a decades-long period in the history

of our state, it was widely assumed that the royalty

in mineral leases could only be, and would always

be, one-eighth.

Finally, punctuation also matters, or at least so it

would seem. In particular, a comma can apparently

make all the difference in the world. On this score,

according to the majority opinion, because “the

same being equal to … one-sixteenth was set off by

a comma, it constituted “a nonrestrictive dependent

clause.” In other words, wrote Justice Lehrmann for

the Court, the phrase could be “taken out of the

sentence without changing its essential meaning.”

(While the present author considers this a bit of a

stretch, he simultaneously admits that he has little

trust in people who don’t use the Oxford comma.)

Tom is a litigation partner in

the Houston ofce of Kane

Russell Coleman Logan PC,

where he serves as the head

of the rm’s energy practice

group. Tom is also the host

of a weekly podcast on legal

news and developments in the oil-and-gas

industry, available at www.energylawroundup.

com, and a video series on effective legal writ-

ing, available at www.theartofthebrief.com.

Oilman Magazine / September-October 2018 / OilmanMagazine.com

OILMAN COLUMN

Interview: Tom Williams, President of Research

Partnership to Secure Energy for America (RPSEA)

By Eric R. Eissler

Below is an interview with RPSEA President, Tom

Williams. The interview text has been left in tact, with

only minor grammatical adjustments.

Eric Eissler: Regarding the technology roadmap,

which I really like the title, “Keeping it Going for the

Long Haul – the Easy Stuff is Gone.” I have been

saying that for a long time. The technology developed

today is going to win the resource war of tomorrow.

That being said: What is new? What is the latest and

greatest coming out of RPSEA?

Tom Williams: The RPSEA R&D program was

funded through the Energy Policy Act that expired

at the end of 2016. Since then, we have been active

in technology transfer activities, conducting a variety

of studies for onshore and offshore activities, and in

reauthorizing the program.

By completing the nal report and R&D roadmap, and

supporting other government-led initiatives, there is

clearly a contrast to the quality and effectiveness of a

R&D program managed by the government versus one

like RPSEA, managed through a public-private partner-

ship. This was well documented in the R&D roadmap

and our nal report. I am overwhelmed by the support

I receive almost daily by calls, emails and at confer-

ences I attend about the need to get our program going

again. We had over 950 individuals contribute to these

reports. All our reports are posted on our website at

www.rpsea.org.

The chance of getting reauthorization is good, but

requires a comprehensive bill that includes specic

language and the support of Congress and the Trump

administration. Timing is the great unknown. The

good news is the Trump Administration and Congress

strongly support a healthy oil and gas industry built on

technology. This is how the U.S. got in the position it is

in today and is the future.

EE: Because of the competitive nature of the industry

how are trademarks, licensing, etc. handled?

TW: We are an easy-to-do-business-with group driven

by industry and researchers, not bureaucrats. Our pro-

cesses promote the technology and processes that will

help commercialize and promote the companies that

receive our research awards.

Some of the contract language in our government

award and oversight has been onerous, but the goal is

to make the process – from proposal through award –

as least painful as possible. But because they’re public

funds and the DOE has had oversight of the awards, it

is not pain-free.

EE: When you have all these top companies working

together and which compete amongst themselves, how

is the intellectual property handled?

TW: We don’t own IP. Companies bring their IP to the

table and commercialize the technology they develop.

Process and ownership are dened in the proposal and

award process. The primary way to judge the success

of a project is if someone is saving money from a new

Oilman Magazine / September-October 2018 / OilmanMagazine.com

OILMAN COLUMN

technology and another is making money, reinvesting it

via increases in hiring and production.

About 25 years ago, when I was at DOE, they did not

understand this. I believe the DOE National Energy

Technology Lab (NETL), which provided oversight

with our program, now do. They were good to work

with.

EE: As the quest for hydrocarbons continues, much

of the remaining vast reserves lie under the ocean

oor, which is still a great unknown. How do you visu-

alize the next steps to mapping the oceans and building

equipment that will function in the most remote areas

of the earth?

TW: Exploration in deepwater has made a lot of ad-

vances. Recent discoveries in the Gulf of Mexico and

elsewhere, internationally, show there is a tremendous

future. The evolution and application of various subsea

systems is evident; new technologies have been applied,

some developed through the RPSEA program. It can

compete with shale.

We are also blessed with a progressive offshore regula-

tor who has made a dramatic change in the past 18

months from an agency with poor communication to

one of cooperation. The culture is still evolving for

the better. This allows new, improved, safer and more

effective technologies to be developed and applied

instead of prohibited.

Investments in offshore R&D are highly needed. The

challenge includes a better way of demonstrating new

technologies, so they can be approved and applied.

Being risk adverse is warranted. We are currently work-

ing on a new R&D roadmap with the OESI program,

focused on technologies that will improve offshore

safety and environmental performance. This report will

be done this fall and has been needed for a long time.

Again, this contrasts the difference between a not-for-

prot organization like RPSEA and the government

who, for a variety of obvious reasons, are not capable

of putting out a credible report.

EE: Getting back on land, how has the unconven-

tional resources program been developing?

TW: As I noted, our base funding has expired, but

past R&D investments are the gift that keeps giving.

Technologies developed under our program – those

that better characterize unconventionals – are now

being applied and adapted, and they’re still evolv-

ing. Our reports are constantly being downloaded,

and references of this work are always being made at

technical conferences like the Offshore Technology

Conference (OTC), Society of Petroleum Engineers

(SPE), American Association of Petroleum Geologists

(AAPG) and the Society of Exploration Geologists

(SEG). It is rather remarkable!

EE: In terms of reaching tight oil and gas shales, in

addition to making them economically vital has been a

long process. What contributions has RPSEA made to

this eld? What are the next steps to further develop

technology and keep the U.S. as a leading producer of

oil and gas?

TW: The roadmap is clear. We learned we do not

know enough about the reservoirs or the ways to best

produce the reserves in the ground. We know we have

a very low-recovery factor for oil and gas, but the per-

centage is just a guess. We do know we must do more

to increase production per well and address the tre-

mendous reserve in the ground. That [addressing the

reserves in-situ] does not require much more drilling,

but instead improved understanding and the develop-

ment of better methods. The easy stuff is gone.

EE: While we can’t see into the future, what is your

prediction for the next ve years in the oil and gas

industry?

TW: People who predict these things are well-paid

analysis – who are almost always wrong – and weather-

men, who are just wrong half of the time. We can

maintain our production levels through investments in

R&D. Industry must never lose focus of continuously

investing in zero-incidence goals and in being good

environmental stewards. This is a role government

co-funding can properly play, onshore and offshore,

and one that will provide a high return on those

investments. Momentum can shift on a dime when bad

things happen.

RPSEA is the Research Partnership to Secure

Energy for America, a nonprot corporation es-

tablished in the State of Texas. RPSEA has met the

requirements for a 501(c)(3) corporation and holds a

tax-exempt status with the Internal Revenue Service.

RPSEA currently consists of consortium members

representing virtually all sectors of the natural gas

and oil supply technology value chain.

Elections: What’s at Stake

By Gifford Briggs

If there ever were a time in U.S. history when

the phrase “elections have consequences” would

be most accurate, now would be that time. The

contrast between the past and current United States

President could not be more different. Under

President Obama, we experienced a moratorium on

drilling in the Gulf of Mexico, endless regulations

and negative rhetoric.

Under President Trump, we have seen a

reawakening of the oil and gas industry across

the nation. Approval processes have become

more streamlined, allowing businesses to go forth

unhindered by big government policies, and a push

is being made for U.S. energy dominance.

Louisiana is heading into another election year, but

this one will be unlike any other our state has ever

seen. With the installment of term limits, we expect

to see an increase in voter activity during the 2019

election cycle. Many expect the 2019 election cycle

to be not only one of the most expensive elections,

but one of the most pivotal elections we have

experienced.

So what all is at stake for the 2019 election year?

Before we get into that, Plaquemines Parish has

their Council and Parish President up for election

in 2018. This parish is ground zero for the coastal

lawsuits. It is important for those inside and out of

Plaquemines Parish to pay close attention to these

elections.

The 2019 election cycle will see one of the most

signicant legislative turnovers in Louisiana’s

history. Along with the Governor’s bid for re-

election, 66 legislative members are term-limited

along with a handful of others who are leaving

ofce seeking other elected ofces or are merely

choosing to end their career in the Capitol.

The implications of this election cannot be

overstated. The next round of legislators will not

only be charged with redistricting in 2020 but

possibly 2030 as well. A skilled legislator can impact

House and Senate lines and change the political

landscape of the entire state. National dollars are

pouring into states to shape legislatures to the

political makeup of their choosing. The thinking is

that if you control the legislature, you control the

lines. If you control the lines, you can inuence

policy for years to come.

For the oil and

gas industry, these

elections can be a

turning point. Decades

of abusive lawsuits

driving investment out

of South Louisiana

and the highest

severance tax rate

on oil in the nation,

all can be addressed,

inviting investment

and jobs back into our

communities that need them. 2019 will also be a

key year for the development of the Austin Chalk.

As this play comes into prominence, we need to be

sure that the people we elect are supportive of the

Chalk’s development.

The stakes in this election cycle are high, but the

reward can be even greater. To reap that reward,

citizens and business must answer the call and fulll

their civic duties to participate in the process. If you

don’t vote, you don’t have the right to complain.

Gifford Briggs

Oilman Magazine / September-October 2018 / OilmanMagazine.com

Meridian Energy Group is well underway

with its efforts to build the Davis Renery.

Davis, commonly referred to as the “Cleanest

Renery on the Planet,” was permitted as a

synthetic minor source by the NDDoH (North

Dakota Department of Health – Air Quality)

after an extensive 18-month review. This PTC

(Permit to Construct) issued by the NDDoH

validated all of claims Meridian had made over

the past four years when they undertook the

challenge to “clean up” the rening industry.

Meridian commenced construction in July near

Beleld, North Dakota, east of the Fryburg

Rail Terminal just a month after the NDDoH

issued the permit. The company contracted

with SEH D|B out of Bismarck, ND to

take on a signicant portion of the project,

executing grading and other site work activity

that is necessary for the renery.

SEH D|B will lead civil construction activities

by rening site grading plans to establish

nal grades and contours. Initial construction

activities will include: the installation of

erosion control devices, stormwater pond

development, and ditch shaping to establish

vegetation and ensure runoff, which will be

addressed to protect surrounding areas and

existing waterways.

According to Dan Hedrington, SEH Principal

and Senior Project Manager, “This is truly a

history-making event and we are eager to get

started on the site work. The Davis project is

an extremely environmentally sound project,

and will no doubt positively impact the rening

industry, North Dakota and its residents.”

The contract with SEH D|B employs a team

of local subcontractors from Beleld and

surrounding areas. Martin Construction Inc.,

Dickinson, North Dakota’s premier earthwork

construction company, will be the primary site

developers for the civil construction. Martin

Construction President, Kurt Martin is eager

to join the Meridian cause and deliver the

various benets the Davis Renery will bring

to the Bakken. “It’s exciting to be part of a

project that brings

economic stability

to western North

Dakota and features

key advancements

to cleaner renery

methods,” says

Martin.

Meridian has not

only been busy

with construction

in North Dakota,

the company has

also expanded its

Engineering and

Projects operations

in Houston.

Meridian recently

signed a long-term

lease with Boxer Property for a 10,000 sq.

ft. building to accommodate its Engineering

and Projects departments. The new ofces,

in the Greenspoint district of Houston, are

strategically located near both The Woodlands

and IAH Airport. This Houston location will

include a full digital integration in order to

interface in real time with Meridian ofces in

North Dakota and California.

This expansion came just two months after

Meridian was issued the PTC for the Davis

Renery in Billings County, North Dakota,

and subsequently began earthwork and other

site preparation work at the Davis site. The

continued expansion of the Meridian presence

in Houston will ensure the timeline for the

Davis Renery will remain on schedule for

design and construction of Davis, with full

commercial operation scheduled for late

2020. Meridian’s Houston operations will also

facilitate access to the professional stafng

required for the development, engineering

and contracting for future rening and other

projects that are currently in the planning

stages.

Lance Medlin, Meridian EVP of Projects,

led the lengthy process of determining the

ideal site for Meridian’s new ofce. “We are

fortunate to have developed a partnership with

Boxer Property that we allow us to continue

the development of the Davis Renery as well

as our future projects. This expansion gives

us the ability to house our Project Teams in

one facility, giving us better efciencies and

momentum for moving our projects forward,”

says Medlin.

Chad Hope, Meridian CFO, also expressed his

enthusiasm for the continued expansion. “This

growth is both a result of Meridian’s progress

and the exciting future opportunities we’re

being presented with and represents the most

cost-effective manner of meeting our current

and future needs,” says Hope.

Meridian is condent the Davis Renery will

become the blueprint for all renery products

that follow it. Leveraging BACT (Best Available

Control Technology), Meridian has literally

set the new green technology design standard

for modern oil renery and has redened

what’s possible in applying true innovation

to all phases of the process – construction,

operation, emissions control, and of course,

ongoing regulation and monitoring.

OILMAN COLUMN

Meridian Energy Group Meeting

Timeline Objectives for Davis Refinery

While Expanding Engineering

Operations in Houston

By Jason Spiess

www.cleangulf.org

Improving prevention,

preparedness and response

of oil and hazardous materials

spills in inland, offshore and

marine environments

Conference Tracks Include:

• Planning&Preparedness

• Response

• SubseaandDispersant

• TrainingandExerciseBestManagementPractices

• Information/ResponseTechnologies&Research

• InlandPreparednessandResponse

• EmergingTrends

OILMAN to receive a $50

registration discount!

November 13-15, 2018

ErnestN.MorialConventionCenter

NewOrleans,LA

32585

32585_CG18 Flyer OILMAN.indd 1 6/7/18 1:33 PM

Future Site of the Davis Renery (Photo courtesy of Meridian Energy Group)

www.cleangulf.org

Improving prevention,

preparedness and response

of oil and hazardous materials

spills in inland, offshore and

marine environments

Conference Tracks Include:

• Planning&Preparedness

• Response

• SubseaandDispersant

• TrainingandExerciseBestManagementPractices

• Information/ResponseTechnologies&Research

• InlandPreparednessandResponse

• EmergingTrends

OILMAN to receive a $50

registration discount!

November 13-15, 2018

ErnestN.MorialConventionCenter

NewOrleans,LA

32585

32585_CG18 Flyer OILMAN.indd 1 6/7/18 1:33 PM

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