PRESIDENT’S LETTER

IN THIS ISSUE

PRESIDENT’S LETTER ................................................. 3 table of contents w/ feature articles members in motion ................................................ 8 calendar of events ............................................... 19 Economic alliance in motion ..............................20 MEMBER LISTING .................................................... 24

CERAWeek HOUSTON TAKE AWAYS

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A LOOK BEHIND THE CURTAIN OF TRUCK DRIVER SHORTAGES

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Economic Alliance Houston Port Region, created in 1985, provides professional economic development services for the businesses and communities surrounding the 25-mile Houston Ship Channel. Since 2008, Economic Alliance has supported 65 successful projects that have helped create 3,179 new jobs and over $13.7 billion of capital investment to the Houston Port Region.

We are proud to count among our members the following cities, communities, chambers of commerce and other government entities:

Harris County Port Houston City of Baytown City of Deer Park City of Galena Park City of Jacinto City City of La Porte City of Morgan’s Point City of Pasadena City of Pearland City of Seabrook City of Shoreacres City of South Houston Community of Channelview Community of East End Community of North Shore Community of Sheldon Community of South Belt-Ellington Baytown Chamber of Commerce Deer Park Chamber of Commerce Highlands-Lynchburg Chamber of Commerce Houston East End Chamber of Commerce North Channel Area Chamber of Commerce Pasadena Chamber of Commerce Pearland Chamber of Commerce South Belt-Ellington Chamber of Commerce

Please take time to recognize our 2022 Board of Directors:

Charles Montgomery, Houston ILA Dock and Marine Marcelo Moacyr, BGE Dr. Lynda Villanueva, Lee College Dennis Winkler, Winkler Public Relations Brent Cockerham, Moody National Bank John Grimes, LBC Tank Terminals Doug Mansfield, Mansfield Marketing Roger Gossett, Diamondback Works Allatia Harris, San Jacinto College Captain Robert Thompson, Houston Pilots Association Chris Cain, LyondellBasell La Porte Plant Jay Bice, H+M Industrial EPC Natalie Picha, Royal Harbor Partners, LLC John Golashesky, Turner Industries Thomas Brinkso, BIC Alliance Larry House, INVISTA Luis Aguilar, Health And Safety Council Stephanie Wiggins, CenterPoint Energy Jim Griffin, San Jacinto College - Center for Petrochemical, Energy & Technology Leonard A. Bedell, Mobil Steel International, Inc. Katie Yount, McDonough Engineering Russell Carter, Bohler Engineering Matthew Goldston, PKF Texas Elizabeth Fazio Hale, Gulf Coast Authority Chris Talley, Structure Tone Robert Armstrong, Kuraray America, Inc. Janet Gonzales, Bank of Texas Kristi Claypool, Meador Staffing Services Buddy Tucker, Ohmstede Industrial Services Inc. Connie Tilton, ExxonMobil Nathanael Ince, Pinnacle Matthew Blunck, Enterprise Holdings David Bush, Orion Group Holdings, Inc. Herb Hildebrand, San Jacinto College - Small Business Development Center Stuart Cayer, Kelsey-Seybold Randy Boeding, R. Boeding Group, LLC Jonathan Schmaltz, McCarthy Building Companies, Inc. Matt Buchanan, Pearland Economic Development Corporation Misha Baker, Shell Deer Park Stephen Kelman, Wood David Tolson, Arete Advisors Bret Gardella, City of Baytown Paul J. Plauché, MobilOps

Our daily personal and work lives over the last several months have been affected by COVID shutdowns, supply chain interruptions, weather events (read Texas ’21 Freeze), construction material shortages, computer chip shortages, global container imbalances and workforce shortages. Minimizing the impacts of these events is what Economic Alliance Houston Port Region has been working on through several of our initiatives. Being home to the world’s largest petrochemical complex and the nation’s busiest port, we are at the center of the global supply chain, impacting not only our lives locally but the entire world daily. Working with our regional leaders, we are identifying and supporting infrastructure projects on land and sea that move people and product more efficiently. Our efforts are to keep us competitive globally and improve quality of life for the entire region. Initiatives focused on workforce development are continually promoting the careers that drive our economy along the Houston Ship Channel. The Houston Port region was already experiencing an exodus of experienced workers through retirement pre-COVID. Now, with fundamental shifts in the way people choose to work, shortages in key supply chain occupations are heightened. Economic Alliance is now more than ever focused on filling the workforce pipeline by exposing the next generation to quality, high-demand, high-paying jobs in manufacturing and logistics. The good news is that, anyway you look at it, we are thriving and as busy as ever in the Houston Port Region. Port Houston is moving a record number of containers month-over-month, and the number of large vessel movements are at pre-COVID levels. It will be a busy “bounce-back” year for the whole region. Economic Alliance and its membership base are ready to address issues and position ourselves to take advantage of new business opportunities that arise!

Have a great Q2 and God Bless,

Chad Burke, President & CEO Economic Alliance Houston Port Region

203 Ivy Avenue, Suite 200 Deer Park, TX 77536 (281) 476-9176

ECONOMIC ALLIANCE EXECUTIVE BOARD

Chair: Bob Bradshaw, INEOS Treasurer: Dr. Brenda Hellyer, San Jacinto College Secretary: Rob Bacon, ExxonMobil Vice Chair: Ryan Sitton, Pinnacle Vice Chair: Mayor Michel Bechtel, City of Morgan's Point Vice Chair: Monty Heins, DOW Past Chair: Steve Cote, Brady, Chapman, Holland & Associates

COMMUNICATIONS ADVISORY BOARD

Sarah Arroyo, Lubrizol Heather Betancourth, Chevron Phillips Chemical Company LLC Jessica Blackmore, Shell Deer Park Sara Cronin, TPC Group Amanda Fenwick, San Jacinto College Lauren Harrell, Associated Builders & Contractors of Houston

Jason Lee, Exponent Prosperity Accelerator Advisors, LLC Lori Pace, ADIM Media, LLC Kara Slaughter, LyondellBasell Bill Stephens, Chevron Aaron Stryk, ExxonMobil Connie Tilton, ExxonMobil Dennis Winkler, Winkler Public Relations Tess Hammock, Community First ER MaryJane Mudd, EHCMA Sabrina Schwertner, Texas Chemical Council Brian Waddle, Lee College

ECONOMIC ALLIANCE STAFF Chad Burke, President & CEO Chad Carson, VP of Economic Development Bridget Yeary, Financial & Administrative Manager Marisela Ramirez, Events & Membership Director Patti Bell, Workforce Development Manager Karen Gregory, Contracts Manager Amanda Baucum, Marketing & Communications Director

LAYOUT AND DESIGN Amanda Baucum Marketing & Communications Director

FOR EDITORIAL & SPONSORSHIP SUBMISSIONS amanda@allianceportregion.com

CERAWeek Houston

TAKEAWAYS BY: Margaret A. Kidd, Program Director, Supply Chain & Logistics Technology, University of Houston

Pictured below (from left to right) are Daniel Yergin, Vice Chairman, S&P Global and the Honorable Sylvester Turner, Mayor, City of Houston.

Pictured above (from left to right) are Carlos Pascual, Senior Vice President, Global Energy, S&P Global, H.E. Mohammad Sanusi Barkindo, Secretary General, Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries and Jeffrey Currie, Global Head of Commodities Research in Global Investment Research (GIR), Goldman Sachs International. In March, CERAWeek by S&P Global celebrated forty years of bringing together energy executives, policy makers, academics, technology innovators, power, renewables, financial and automotive leaders, along with thousands more for the week of March 7 – 11th. With a platform for providing insight to energy in transition, geopolitics, and technology, along with the outbreak of a Russian led war in Ukraine and mounting economic sanctions on the Russian economy, the global leaders that gathered in 2022 had a unique opportunity for dialog during one of the most unprecedented times in history in terms of climate crisis, environment, and energy security.

There was a common theme through multiple sessions during CERAWeek regarding the underinvestment in the oil and gas sector over the last five to seven years as a result, of ESG pressures from the financial community. During the “Assuring

Stability in Energy Markets” panel, H.E. Mohammad Sanusi

Barkindo, Secretary General, Organization of the Petroleum

Exporting Countries (OPEC) frankly shared that in the sixty years of OPEC there had been seven major cycles in the oil and gas sector, OPEC’s role was not political but one of assuring stability in the energy markets, and OPEC never anticipated what is occurring today in terms of a global energy crisis of historic proportions – simply in unchartered territory. Notably, Barkindo provided that currently there was a perception of shortages, but the impact of sanctions placed on Russia would catch up and it would take a magician to continue the production and export of seven to eight million barrels of oil a day in Russia.

Pictured to the left (from left to right) are Daniel Yergin, Vice Chairman, S&P Global and the Honorable Lisa Murkowski, United States Senator, Alaska.

Some of the alternative supplies proposed to make up a portion of the anticipated shortfall from Russia included spare capacity from the strategic petroleum reserves, Iran, Venezuela, increased production from OPEC and redirection of oil from Russia to China and India, as they were a neutral vote on sanctions. The afore mentioned options remain as partial solutions.

Adding to the conversation on this panel was Jeffrey Currie, Global Head of Commodities Research in Global Investment Research (GIR), Goldman Sachs International who shared that the war on climate change and ESG investing has led to significant underinvestment in the entire commodity complex of oil and gas, metals, and grains at a time of tightness in the market and low inventories hit with shortages that the system cannot absorb. Russia is the second largest producer of commodities and the reaction of sanctions on Russia has created a great deal of uncertainty around risk and corporate social responsibility. Currie illustrated that the unwillingness of market participants to take cargo from Russia was based on potential loss of life of crew on ships in the Black Sea, lack of underwriters to provide insurance to ships, lack of financial institutions willing to provide commodity trade finance, potential damage to corporate reputation/brand, and possible secondary sanctions combined will create real shortages of commodities. Remarkably, Currie reminds that we are seeing a revenge of the old economy as investments were redirected into the new economy that aligned with ESG and the resulting under investment has circled back at the worst time for the global interconnected economy.

This panel discussion closed with Barkindo advocating to use the crisis as an opportunity to bring investment back into the oil and gas industry. Additionally, that decarbonization would benefit from technology but the bottom line, if we are to commit to the United Nations sustainable development goals you cannot crowd out the hydrocarbons industry in terms of capital as every citizen of the world needs unfettered access to energy, in a viable and affordable basis. CERAWeek was particularly timely to look at issues at the corporate, national, and sub-national level and for attendees to take the responsibility for solutions to protect the right of all people to access energy.

The stark reality that global economies are facing, is that there is limited capacity in the world to replace seven to eight million barrels of oil per day that have historically come from Russia. Under investment in oil & gas sector over the last number of years as the world focuses on energy transition has added additional constraints to the tight energy market. Clearly one more reminder that is time to take energy security seriously.

CERAWeek lived up to its reputation of being the world’s premier energy event held in our nations “Energy Capital, known as Houston.” The depth and breadth of the conference content, along with the thousands of global thought leaders participating in shaping the energy agenda made for an awe-inspiring week.

Pictured below (from left to right) are Marco Poisler, COO, Global Capital Projects & Energy, UTC Overseas and Adjunct Professor, Supply Chain & Logistics Technology, University of Houston, and the Honorable Iván Duque Márquez, President, Republic of Columbia.

Pictured to the right (from left to right) are Daniel Yergin, Vice Chairman, S&P Global and the Honorable Joe Manchin, Chairman, U.S. Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee, United States Senator, West Virginia. Pictured above (from left to right) are Flávio Guimarães, CEO USA, Radix Engineering and Software and Margaret A. Kidd, Program Director, Supply Chain & Logistics Technology, College of Technology, University of Houston.