SHALE Magazine Sept/Oct 2017 by SHALE Oil & Gas Business Magazine

SHALE MAGAZINE

SEPTEMBER/OCTOBER 2017

CAN ALASKA TURN IT AROUND?

STEER

ENERGY EMPLOYEES MUST LEAD IN THE HALLS OF GOVERNMENT

A NEW KIND OF TRADE ASSOCIATION A RISE IN TEXAS’ LNG EXPORTS

THE 98TH MERIDIAN FOUNDATION

TEXAS ATTRACTIONS AND FUN

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CONTENTS FEATURE

A Rise in Texas’ LNG Exports

COVER STORY

The South Texas Energy & Economic Roundtable (STEER) is a new kind of trade assocation with a unique mission. As a bridge between the oil and gas industry and the community, STEER is tasked with communicating at a grassroots level. It seems that the communities in the Eagle Ford Shale region are benefitting from this new brand of trade associations.

COVER PHOTO AND TABLE OF CONTENTS PHOTO BY MICHAEL GIORDANO

INDUSTRY 34 Can Alaska Turn It Around? 36 STEER: A Business Model That Works 38 Eagle Ford Rises Again 40 STEER Celebrates an Important Milestone

POLICY 44 Asking the Right Question 46 Energy Infrastructure Debate Unites

Business and Labor Against ‘Keep It in the Ground’ Activists

BUSINESS 52 Five Ways to Turn Difficult Employees into Team Players

54 The 98th Meridian Foundation

LIFESTYLE 58 Natural Bridge Caverns 60 San Antonio Fire Museum Preserves the History of the San Antonio Fire Department

SOCIAL 68 WEN Enjoys Wine and Cheese

INDUSTRY

Facing Challenges With Innovation

POLICY

Energy Employees Must Lead in the Halls of Government

BUSINESS

The Joys of Prescription Drug Ads

LIFESTYLE

The Briscoe Western Art Museum Adds to Culture in San Antonio

SOCIAL

Texas Alliance of Energy Producers’ Houston Wildcatters SEPTEMBER/OCTOBER 2017  SHALE MAGAZINE

ADVISORY BOARD VOLUME 4 ISSUE 5 • SEPTEMBER/OCTOBER 2017

Omar Garcia / Senior Advisor As President and CEO of the South Texas Energy & Economic Roundtable (STEER), Omar Garcia is an expert on business opportunities associated with the Eagle Ford Shale. He works with the oil and gas industry, local officials, community members, regional stakeholders, educational institutions and economic development organizations to ensure that the oil and natural gas industry in South Texas is advancing in a positive way that is beneficial to both the community and the industry. Garcia has more than 12 years of economic development experience, and he spent two years working for Bank of America as Vice President of Business Development for the bank’s treasury management division. He is a certified economic development finance professional through the National Development Council, and he graduated from St. Edward’s University with majors in international business and Spanish. In 2010, Gov. Rick Perry appointed Garcia to the Texas Economic Development Corporation.

shana robinson Shana Robinson is currently the Chief of Sales & Growth, Baptist Health System (BHS) for the Tenet San Antonio Market. Robinson is a graduate of The University of Texas at San Antonio, receiving her Bachelor of Liberal Arts degree. Robinson joined the Baptist Health System in January 2007. Her years of experience in sales, physician relations, business development, community service and marketing have been fundamental to her success in the development and implementation of wellness programs for the Baptist Health System. Robinson’s most recent challenge and success has been the development and initiation of the business-tobusiness programs for BHS, which encompass services such as healthcare screenings for athletes and on-site clinics, which assist participating employers in reducing healthcare costs by providing on-site health services for employees.

Thomas Tunstall, Ph.D. Thomas Tunstall, Ph.D., is the Research Director for the Institute for Economic Development at The University of Texas at San Antonio. Previously, he was a Management Consultant for SME and the Component 1 Team Leader for the Azerbaijan Competitiveness and Trade project. Tunstall also served as an Advisor Relations Executive at ACS and was the founding Cochair for the Texas chapter of the International Association of Outsourcing Professionals. He has published a business book titled Outsourcing and Management (Palgrave, 2007) and was the technical editor for Outsourcing for Dummies (Wiley, 2008). Tunstall has consulted in both the public and private sectors. In 2005, he completed a long-term assignment in Afghanistan, where he was Deputy Chief of Party for a central bank modernization project. In 2006, he taught Ph.D. candidates in a business and government seminar at The University of Texas at Dallas.

SHALE MAGAZINE  SEPTEMBER/OCTOBER 2017

KYM BOLADO

CEO / PUBLISHER CHIEF FINANCIAL OFFICER Deana Acosta EDITOR IN CHIEF Lauren Guerra OIL AND GAS ASSOCIATE EDITOR David Blackmon ART DIRECTOR Elisa G Creative COPY EDITOR Katie Buniak VICE PRESIDENT OF SALES & MARKETING Kristy Sommers ACCOUNT EXECUTIVES Michelle Mata, Matt Reed, Cheyenne Williams ONLINE CONTENT MANAGER Fernando Guerra SOCIAL MEDIA DIRECTOR Courtney Boedeker CORRESPONDENT WESTERN REGION Raymond Bolado CONTRIBUTING WRITERS Jack Belcher, Leslie Beyer, David Blackmon, Jackie Edwards, Omar Garcia, Bill Keffer, Simon Lomax, Kelly Warren Moore, David Porter, John Tintera, Thomas Tunstall, Ph.D. STAFF PHOTOGRAPHER Malcolm Perez CONTRIBUTING PHOTOGRAPHER Michael Giordano EDITORIAL INTERN LeAnna Castro

www.shalemag.com For advertising information, please call 210.240.7188 or email kym@shalemag.com. For editorial comments and suggestions, please email lauren@shalemag.com. SHALE MAGAZINE OFFICE: 5150 Broadway St., Suite 493, San Antonio, Texas 78209 For general inquiries, call 210.240.7188 Copyright © 2017 Shale Magazine. All rights reserved. Reproduction without the expressed written permission of the publisher is prohibited.

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PUBLISHER’S NOTE

FIRST AND FOREMOST, AS I WRITE THIS LETTER THE EFFECTS OF HURRICANE AND TROPICAL STORM HARVEY ARE CONTINUING TO PLAY OUT. WHILE THIS WON’T BE PUBLISHED UNTIL AFTER HARVEY HAS CAUSED ITS DAMAGE AND DISSIPATED, I WOULD STILL LIKE TO OFFER MY CONDOLENCES TO THOSE WHO WERE AFFECTED BY THIS DISASTROUS SITUATION. MY THOUGHTS ARE WITH THE RESIDENTS OF TEXAS AS THEY DEAL WITH THE AFTERMATH OF THESE UNBELIEVABLE CIRCUMSTANCES.

industry as do many of our industry experts. The market has seen a drastic transformation and will continue to change in the coming months. Through adversity, however, we see innovation and creativity from many current businesses. One might see this as a silver lining. Though times have been tough for our domestic energy industry, we see new technologies and efficiencies coming to light that will benefit the industry and our nation for years to come. Therefore, I congratulate our oil and natural gas industry on continuing to strive for excellence in even the toughest of times. The September/October edition brings you information from across our nation on key factors that play a role in our current energy market. Hear from our experts on infrastructure, environmental issues, governmental leadership, the workforce and more. Look for us online for additional commentary on the SHALE blog and our social media platforms. Stay engaged and let us know what you think of this new issue! Thank you for your continued support of SHALE Magazine!

This issue comes at a time when oil prices are fluctuating and experts from around the world are speculating on what’s to come in 2018 for the oil and natural gas industry. We continue to stay positive and optimistic on the outlook of the

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 FEATURE

A Rise in Texas’ LNG Exports By: John Tintera

or many Americans, L, N, and G are just three random letters. But these three letters might just stand for three of the most important words in Texas’ energy future: liquefied natural gas. LNG Primer First, a short course on the technology. On land, natural gas, composed primarily of methane, is transported by pipeline from the gas field to market for use in your home’s furnace and oven. The Railroad Commission of Texas is the regulator that oversees the safety of this transportation in Texas. But to move natural gas across the globe, to boldly go across oceans, natural gas is cooled and compressed, stored, and shipped as a liquid, or LNG. This process is efficient, and approximately 600 cubic feet of natural gas can be stored and transported under pressure in 1 cubic foot of storage space. To do this, the original natural gas is treated to remove impurities (like water), compressed and frozen to a temperature below 260 degrees Fahrenheit. On deck a common type of LNG transport ship, you will notice large spherical storage tanks, which look like giant globes. LNG resides within these strong, pressurized and insulated tanks. At the receiving port, the shipment is re-gasified by warming the LNG so it can “evaporate” back into its original

SHALE MAGAZINE  SEPTEMBER/OCTOBER 2017

state, as natural gas. It is then ready for another pipeline trip to its end-use customer. LNG Terminals, a New Twist for a New Use The LNG business is a straightforward flow chart. Natural gas drilling results in producing wells where pipelines collect and transport the gas to an export terminal for shipping the liquefied product overseas. There the process reverses at the import terminal, which sends the re-gasified LNG into pipelines that eventually lead to the enduse consumers. Therefore, there are two types of LNG terminals: an export or liquefying terminal and an import or re-gasification terminal. Before the shale revolution, natural gas was in limited supply and import terminals in the U.S. were under construction. Thanks to hydrofracturing technology, the U.S. now imports very little natural gas. So how did this affect the old import terminals? American ingenuity and investment have allowed these former import facilities to be re-engineered, so what was planned as an import terminal can now serve as an export terminal. That is a game changer that reflects the market forces and economic potential of LNG trade in an energy-starved world. Cheniere Energy, a leader in this reverse-engineering effort, is constructing LNG export terminals at one of the existing sites that was previously permitted for a re-

gasification terminal. The company is also permitting and building new terminals focused on exports. At the Sabine Pass terminal, Cheniere is shipping LNG to almost two dozen foreign lands. This effort has been noticed in the industry, and permits and planning for new facilities from potential competitors are being submitted and processed by the federal government. Who Benefits? The cities of Corpus Christi and Brownsville along the Texas Coastal Bend have much to boast about, and energy production has long been an economic force in the region. According to data from the U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA), Texas accounted for more than 27 percent of U.S. marketed natural gas production in 2015, appointing Texas as the leading natural gas producer among the states. Many of these gas plays are located close to the coast or have extensive pipeline infrastructure, making these two cities a striking opportunity for industrial investment. In February 2016, Cheniere became the first company to ship LNG from the contiguous United States in more than 50 years. Other companies are developing LNG export projects, but they’ve yet to come online. In just over a year, Cheniere has delivered cargoes to 18 countries on five continents. The company is also building a Corpus Christi LNG export terminal that’s expected to start operations in 2019. The first two portions are about 50 percent complete, while a third is in permitting and planning. Texas LNG has announced plans to construct, own and operate an LNG facility at the Port of Brownsville. In Phase 1, it will reportedly have a planned capacity to produce 2 million tonnes per annum (MTA) permit capacity of LNG from approximately 275 MMcf/d or 0.28 Bcf/d of feed gas derived from the vast U.S. natural gas system. Phase 2, to commence at

For many Americans, L, N, and G are just three random letters. But these three letters might just stand for three of the most important words in Texas’ energy future: liquefied natural gas

a later date, will increase capacity by an additional 2 MTA permit capacity. Jobs, Jobs, Jobs According to a North Texans for Natural Gas white paper published in April 2017, Texas LNG exports to other countries will produce more than 136,000 jobs in the U.S. and have an economic impact of $145 billion. As well, more than 70,000 of these jobs will be located in Texas, and the state government will receive more than $20 billion in state tax revenue. Historically, these energy salaries are relatively high. The oil and gas fields of Texas demand hard work but are well-paying. The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission reports that 11 LNG export facilities have been approved for the U.S. and are in various stages of construction and usage. Nine of these will serve the Gulf of Mexico. The Future Is Global Let’s take a brief look at the world’s largest LNG customer: Japan consumes approximately one-third of the global LNG trade. There are many reasons why Japan is focused on LNG: A lack of domestic reserves and resources, a large population, a sophisticated shipping and port system, and even a disastrous tsunami at the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant all play a role. In 2016 the EIA predicted that Japan’s oil and coal consumption would decline, while its natural gas consumption would increase, with its natural gas share of total energy consumption rising from 25 percent in 2020 to 30 percent in 2040. In Europe, Texas LNG may make the world a safer place. The Russian company Gazprom has long been a primary supplier of natural gas to Eastern Europe. This dependence on Russian gas has obvious geopolitical implications and presents opportunities for Russian economic mischief by manipulation of the supply side of the energy equation. The LNG sold to Europe lessens the dominance of Russia in an area embroiled in strife and political intrigue. Perhaps the best summary of what the future may hold comes from Harold Hamm, CEO of Continental Resources: “LNG represents America’s future contribution to the world’s cleaner environment with an immediate reduction in CO2 as this abundant resource becomes accessible to all countries. This export combo serves to spawn an entirely new large industrial complex.” And this industrial complex is growing. It will increase trade, create jobs and enhance our national security. The tide is rising for Texas LNG exports, and a lot of boats will be lifted as we ship our natural resource to an energy-hungry world.

About the author: John Tintera, Executive Vice President of the Texas Alliance of Energy Producers, is a regulatory expert and licensed geologist (Texas #325) with a thorough knowledge of virtually all facets of upstream oil and gas exploration, production and transportation, including conventional and unconventional reservoirs. As a former Executive Director and 22-year veteran of the Railroad Commission of Texas (considered the premier oilfield regulator in the nation), Tintera oversaw the entire regulatory process, including drilling permits, compliance inspections, oil spill response, pollution remediation and pipeline transportation.

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cover story

STEER:

A NEW KIND OF TRADE ASSOCIATION PHOTOS BY MICHAEL GIORDANO

BY: DAVID BLACKMON

SHALE MAGAZINE  SEPTEMBER/OCTOBER 2017

Omar Garcia

SEPTEMBER/OCTOBER 2017  SHALE OIL & GAS BUSINESS MAGAZINE

No one questions their ability to effectively communicate with a broad range of stakeholders in the Eagle Ford Shale region of South and Central Texas. No one questions that STEER has been a real asset for the last five years, not just for the oil and gas industry which it represents, but for the entire Eagle Ford community. Indeed, it often seems as if the only thing anyone really questions about STEER is why this uniquely-structured trade association exists in the first place. To fully understand the answer to that question, we need to start by understanding unique and unprecedented opportunity the Eagle Ford Shale presents to the people of the region. A Sleeping Giant Beneath The Chalk Nestled in a quiet area of suburban Dallas, just off the intersection of Texas State Highway 12 and Interstate 30, lies the neighborhood of Eagle Ford. At one time an incorporated

SHALE MAGAZINE  SEPTEMBER/OCTOBER 2017

city, Eagle Ford was annexed in the mid1950s by the city of Dallas, whose city center skyscrapers can be seen just 6 miles away. Originally settled by the family of Enoch Horton in 1844, the community soon became known as an important crossing of the West Fork of the Trinity River. The Horton family established a grist mill; and within a few years they donated land to establish the town’s first cemetery and for the right of way and depot for the Texas and Pacific Railway. As was the case for hundreds of communities in Texas’ early decades, the establishment of a rail depot led quickly to rapid population growth. By the 1870s, Eagle Ford had become a key shipping point for the cattle industry, and its population had grown to several thousand. The death of the trail drives led to the collapse of the cattle business, and by the 1890s, Eagle Ford’s population hovered around 50 citizens, where it remained well into the mid-20th century. Memory of the community’s heyday was largely lost to

history, where it remained until late 2008. Not far from the location of the original Horton grist mill, a small cliff face reveals an out-cropping of the Austin Chalk formation, which had become famous during the 1970s and again in the 1990s for the production of prodigious amounts of crude oil. Indeed, the Chalk is experiencing a bit of a third revival today. Immediately beneath the Chalk outcropping, another formation displays what seems to be a rocky, clay-like profile. This formation is actually a shale formation, one that happens to be the source rock for the Austin Chalk. It was the oil migrating up from the Eagle Ford that made the Chalk such a prodigious formation to begin with. Like the Austin Chalk, the Eagle Ford Shale extends deep into South Texas and even under the Rio Grande into northern Mexico. Unlike the Chalk, however, this formation had received scant attention until October 2008, when Petrohawk (now a part of BHP

PHOTOS BY MICHAEL GIORDANO

NO ONE QUESTIONS THE EFFECTIVENESS OF THE SOUTH TEXAS ENERGY & ECONOMIC ROUNDTABLE (STEER). NO ONE QUESTIONS THE EXPERTISE AND ENERGY CONSISTENTLY DISPLAYED BY STEER PRESIDENT OMAR GARCIA AND THE ENTIRE STEER STAFF.

Billiton) drilled what is credited as the first commercial horizontal well completed in the formation in La Salle County. The well, completed with a 3,200-foot horizontal lateral involving a 10-stage frac job, produced at an initial flow rate of about 7,600 MMBTU of natural gas per day, and the race was on. Companies had been drilling for oil and gas in the 21-county swath of South and Central Texas now known as the Eagle Ford Shale region for many decades. Companies who drilled wells into formations deeper than the Eagle Ford considered the shale to be a nuisance, because they would always get a “kick” — a show of natural gas — when the drill bit hit the shale. So, they knew the formation contained gas but also knew that the rock itself was too tight to yield economic quantities using conventional drilling and completion methods. That all began to change in the late 1990s, when Mitchell Energy pioneered the wedding of horizontal drilling and heavy hydraulic fracturing jobs as a means of producing natural gas from the Barnett Shale region in North Central Texas. Mitchell proved that shale rock could indeed yield the dry natural gas that characterized the Barnett formation, though the jury was still out on whether you could also extract crude oil and petroleum liquids from this very dense rock. Many doubted the latter could ever happen. That belief began to change in the mid2000s, as producers began to find ways to extract natural gas rich in liquid content — what the industry refers to as “wet gas” — in commercial quantities from the immense Marcellus Shale in Pennsylvania and West Virginia. After all, if natural gas liquids could be released from shale, why not oil? It was, as it turned out, a very good question, the answer to which was just around the corner. The Discovery Begets a Boom No one was surprised when Petrohawk’s discovery well turned out to be a wet gas producer. It wasn’t until 2009, as other producers began drilling wells west and north of Petrohawk’s position, that the variability of the Eagle Ford was discovered. Within months, it became apparent to everyone that the farther west and north you drilled into the shale, the wetter the production became. By the end of 2009, maps were being produced dividing the formation into a southeastern “dry gas” zone, a central “wet gas” zone, and a northwestern “crude oil” zone. Such variability within a single shale formation was unprecedented. Throughout 2009 and 2010, excitement over the Eagle Ford’s production and economic development potential grew in sync with its rising rig count. By the middle of 2010, as the rig count approached 15,

Justine Carroll

everyone involved knew this resource presented an unprecedented opportunity for a part of Texas that had historically experienced little in the way of economic development, and whose geography was typified by large farming and ranching operations and small towns. Late in 2011, as that rig count ran up to nearly 250, America’s Natural Gas Alliance — which was then active in Texas but has since merged with the American Petroleum Institute — commissioned The University of Texas at San Antonio’s Institute for Economic Development, led by Dr. Thomas Tunstall, to perform an initial economic impact study related to the play.

The results were staggering. The press release for the study contained the following findings: “In 2011 alone, the play generated over $25 billion in revenue, supported 47,000 full-time jobs in the area and provided $257 million in local government revenue. The study also concluded that in 2011, [Eagle Ford Shale] development: • Paid $3.1 billion in salaries and benefits to workers, • Provided more than $12.6 billion in gross regional product, SEPTEMBER/OCTOBER 2017  SHALE MAGAZINE

• Added more than $358 million in state revenues including $120.4 million in severance taxes • And spurred a triple-digit sales tax revenue increase in various local counties.” By the end of the year, the region was being widely hailed as one of the hottest economic development areas in the United States. It was around that time that the oil and gas industry in Texas realized this resource needed special attention, especially with regard to public and media relations. Oil and gas is an extractive industry, which is always going to have an impact on the communities in which it operates. From traffic and noise to water and road conditions, this extractive industry, and the rapid economic

SHALE MAGAZINE  SEPTEMBER/OCTOBER 2017

development it created, was also producing a variety of industry-wide issues and conflicts that needed to be properly attended to. The Challenges of Very Good Times The industry had done itself great reputational damage several years prior by failing to pay proper attention to issues and conflicts as they arose in the Barnett Shale development in North Texas. Cognizant of this information, representatives of companies active in the Eagle Ford Shale engaged in a process to ensure things would be different in the Eagle Ford Shale region. It was out of that process that the idea for the South Texas Energy & Economic Roundtable (STEER) was born. Statewide trade associations in the oil and

Finding the Right Person for the Job From the outset, it was clear to

PHOTOS BY MICHAEL GIORDANO

Chris Ashcraft

gas industry have traditionally been created, funded and staffed to deal with legislative and regulatory matters at the state level. As such, most of these associations are either headquartered in the various state capitals or, at the very least, maintain offices in the capitals from which their lobbyists and regulatory staff do their work. No state is home to a more effective and powerful set of statewide trade associations than Texas, a large reason why the state’s regulatory environment for oil and gas development is somewhat favorable when compared to other states. The simple fact is that the state government of Texas likes the oil and gas industry, and wants to ensure companies are able to operate within the state in a safe and responsible manner. The industry’s taxes and royalties fund a sizable portion of the state’s budget, and its activities are responsible for the creation of hundreds of thousands of high-paying jobs. So, no one in late 2011 had in mind a new trade association that would somehow replace any already-existing associations. Those trades were doing their jobs quite well. Rather, the thought among those working on the concept was to create a different kind of association that would serve a different set of needs. While the existing trades were set up to address legislative and regulatory issues, they weren’t set up to communicate at the grassroots level. Whether it was with the news media, communities or the general population, the industry’s traditional trade associations were not established to take on the task of communicating with the community. Indeed, the same could have been said of the industry as a whole until the last 15 years or so. The world was changing, but the industry was slow to change with it. The industry’s experience in North Texas, as well as other reputational disasters taking place in other parts of the country, had convinced those drilling and producing in the Eagle Ford that this all had to change. The play was becoming so prolific, and the opportunities so enormous, that the industry felt an obligation to do what was needed to ensure the play worked for all involved. Clear and accurate communications were vital to achieving that goal.

Haley Bloemer

Yliana Flores

everyone involved that hiring the right person to lead this new venture was the single most important factor in making it work. Leading STEER is not a job for just anyone. It’s a job for a person with boundless energy. It’s a job for someone who has a keen understanding of the region, its people and its economy. It’s a job for someone who doesn’t mind driving hundreds of miles a day to attend a Kiwanis, Lions, Knights of Columbus or Rotary club meeting in Beeville, Cuero, Gonzales, Tilden, La Grange, Goliad, Freer, Falfurrias, Cotulla, Kenedy, Karnes City or Seguin. It’s a job for someone who can comfortably relate to the unique, culturally diverse population in South Texas. It was decided that the perfect person for this job would feel comfortable communicating with a wide range of people. From property owners, business leaders, elected officials, and more, the leader of STEER would be shaking many hands. Additionally, and of great importance, the leader of this organization needed the ability to convey information accurately to journalists calling from Reuters and Bloomberg News, as well as the San Antonio ExpressNews and the Beeville Bee-Picayune. In other words, it’s a job tailor-made for Omar Garcia. Luckily for the industry, Garcia happened to be interested. “We started STEER back in October of 2012,” says Garcia, STEER’s first and only President, with a smile. “They gave me the name of the association, a title and a bank account and said, ‘Go get it done.’” Garcia was born and raised in Kingsville, which is not technically in the Eagle Ford Shale play but sits in the central part of deep South Texas. Indeed, other than his years spent obtaining his degree in international business and Spanish at St. Edward’s University in Austin,

Garcia has spent virtually his entire life in the region. Prior to joining STEER, Garcia enjoyed a successful career in various economic development roles at the state and local levels. A former Vice President of the San Antonio Economic Development Foundation, Garcia was appointed by Texas Gov. Rick Perry in 2010 to a leadership role with the Texas Economic Development Corporation (TEDC). Garcia looks back on that role with TEDC with fond memories. “I was able to travel the world promoting Texas,” he says, “We visited Spain, Amsterdam, Germany, Brazil, and Argentina. It was a pretty dynamic appointment and a lot of fun promoting the state, and to tie it all back to San Antonio and South Texas, which was my focus in that role.” Twelve years of experience in the economic development realm, along with a three-year stint banking in Houston, really helped prepare Garcia for his role with STEER. “Having the connections from San Antonio to Corpus Christi to Laredo, working in the region for many years helped me get this job. And it helped me establish STEER pretty quickly with the relationships that I had across the region,” he says. “It allowed us to start STEER by establishing a solid reputation. To know you had someone who knew the region and understood it, and knew the players, the culture, [and] how politics worked. I think those were really important factors.” Managing a Growing Association Garcia’s ability to hit the ground running very quickly led to him and

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PHOTOS COURTESY OF STEER

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STEER getting involved in more and more initiatives as the organization became increasingly well-known throughout the region as an honest broker. Before half a year had gone by, that increasing involvement grew into a need to add staff members. As luck would have it, Garcia began the process of finding the Vice President of STEER when one such initiative led him to the right person. “I had coordinated a meeting with Omar when I was at the Alamo Area Council of Governments [AACOG] where I worked in natural resources on alternative energy and transportation,” says Chris Ashcraft, STEER’s Vice President. “One of those issues was natural gas vehicle transportation. I actually asked Omar to come out and meet with me to help us in our efforts to build out natural gas vehicle infrastructure. A lot of the members at STEER at that time were either utilizing natural gas vehicles or in the process of converting their fleets.” That meeting ended with Garcia asking Ashcraft if he was interested in joining STEER instead, and he ultimately accepted that offer. Ashcraft has been at STEER now for almost five years. “It’s been awesome, the best decision I ever made for my family,” he says. Ashcraft comes from a military family — his father served in the U.S. Army for 30 years. When asked where he grew up, he gives a classic Army brat reply: “I mostly grew up in Maine but I lived all over the place.” After obtaining his degree in political science at the University of Maine, Ashcraft followed in his father’s footsteps, joining the U.S. Army as a medical officer. It was during his Army service that he and his wife first lived in San Antonio. “We just fell in love with the city,” he says. “When I got out of the Army, I moved to Washington, D.C., worked at the [Environmental Protection Agency (EPA)] under the Bush administration on the Farm, Ranch, [and] Rural Communities Federal Advisory Committee.” But presidential administrations come and go, and shortly after the Obama administration came into power, Ashcraft left the EPA and brought his family back to San Antonio, where he had landed a job at the AACOG. There, Ashcraft says, he “ended up working on everything from air quality to alternative fuel transportation, oil and gas, natural gas vehicles. So, I have a varied background, a lot of relationships” from those years with AACOG. Those relationships and the SEPTEMBER/OCTOBER 2017  SHALE MAGAZINE

skills he brought with him to STEER helped prepare him for the collaborative efforts in which the organization involves itself with a broad range of members and stakeholders in the region. As the organization continued to develop and evolve, it began the process of creating a set of committees designed to help address the variety of issues that were arising with the increasing industry presence across the region. “We started off with two committees back in 2012,” Garcia says. “The first two were the Communications and Stakeholder Relations committees, which were the foundations that STEER was built upon. But our committees have evolved as [the] organization has grown. Since 2012, we’ve added a Health Safety Environment Committee, a Water Sustainability Committee, an Operations Committee and a Millennial committee. The Millennial Committee was set up to understand how to communicate, how to market millennials, how to get them involved, what are their hot-button issues.” Each additional committee and the issues it was designed to address added a new level of complexity to STEER’s sphere of work, thus requiring more staff work to keep it all moving in the right direction. As 2013 rolled along, Garcia and Ashcraft became overwhelmed, and the need to add another person was evident.

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Again, as luck would have it, the right person for the job was about to become available. Oil and gas is known as a boom-and-bust industry, a business in which every company has its ups and downs. Unfortunately, when those down times hit, they are often accompanied by significant reductions in staff. When Chesapeake Energy implemented a large layoff during August 2013, one of the unlucky employees caught up in it was Haley Curry Bloemer. “Yes, I was let go at Chesapeake, but in the most positive way, if that’s possible,” Bloemer says with a laugh. “And the next morning Omar called and said that he wanted me at STEER and to hold tight.” It took Garcia a little while to get all the interviews, paperwork and member approvals in place, but “within two months I was working for STEER and then moved to San Antonio that next January [of 2014].” While at Chesapeake, Bloemer spent 18 months as the company’s external affairs manager for both their Eagle Ford Shale and Permian Basin assets, so she came to STEER already very familiar with the western half of the Eagle Ford region, which is where the Chesapeake leasehold assets are concentrated. “I had an office in Austin [while with Chesapeake], but I really didn’t live there. Mainly I lived in Uvalde in a family

friend’s house,” she reflects. “I traveled around the west side of the play and got to do some amazing things. Part of what I was in charge of was making sure that the company’s communication strategy was being deployed effectively and making sure that what we were doing was being understood by the local region, whether it be County Commissioner or a chamber or just the community in general. One of the best things Chesapeake taught me was about the industry itself. Each employee was expected to be able to explain the process of drilling and completing a well to anyone, regardless of their background.” Once on board with STEER, she immediately became immersed in the work of the STEER committees and quickly began to expand her understanding of the full region. “I was put in charge of the Stakeholder Relations Committee and the Communications Committee. In getting to know the east side of the play, I found it very interesting. Even though there are many of the same issues across the entire play, the subregions have differing personalities and cultures. There is a denser population on the east side than on the west side. I had a pretty firm grasp of the west side of the region, so bringing that together and [looking] at a holistic picture of the Eagle Ford as a whole was a challenge. It was very exciting to bridge my experience at Chesapeake, and working

at STEER has brought that experience to an entirely different level. When I left Chesapeake, I knew I wasn’t done with the Eagle Ford.” Her opportunity with STEER had just begun, because this was one of the few industry trade associations whose membership didn’t dramatically fall when the bust in oil prices hit in 2014. Growth During Boom and Bust “Remarkably, we have grown our membership base from 2014 to today,” Garcia says when asked about how STEER managed during the downturn. “In 2014 we had 11 members on our board of directors; today, we have 15, with two other members who aren’t at the board level.” STEER did lose one past member company, but that was because it sold its assets and left the Eagle Ford play completely. But the addition of several new members has more than made up for that loss. “Our members’ commitment never waivered because our mission was needed even more during the downturn. More than ever, we needed to go out and communicate with these communities to help them manage through the downturn. To help them plan for what that’s going to look like, to help them prepare for what their tax revenue may look like after a high in 2014 to a low in 2016.” This is a

very good point that many in the industry and the news media tend to overlook: The boom and bust cycles endemic to the oil and gas business may well impact small communities even more significantly than the companies themselves. Garcia says that “some counties and cities did a remarkable job with that revenue” that they had taken in during the boom years of 2009 through 2014. “Others had challenges. But with our diverse background on staff, we were able to work with some of the counties and some of our stakeholders in the region. So that never changed, and the member companies recognized that.” Of course, now that drilling activity is picking up — the Eagle Ford rig count more than tripled between July 2016 and July 2017 — many of the challenges faced during the boom times are coming back. “Workforce has always been a challenge,” says Garcia. “Trying to get our younger generation involved in the oil and gas industry has been tough. And especially now that we’ve had a downturn, some of the parents don’t want their child to go into our industry.” But workforce is far from the only challenge: Roads, noise, water, dust and other environmental impacts also become more visible issues as industry activity picks up. “Roads were a hot topic back then in 2014,

and we’re back at it again because roads are being utilized at a much heavier pace than they were, 6–12 months ago,” Garcia says. “Impacts, whether it’s environmental, water or others, those remain steady whether we were in the great boom years or in down times.” Ashcraft agrees: “The decrease in drilling gave companies a chance to refocus on core assets — the Eagle Ford being one of those — and catch their breath and improve understanding about their place in the community, their infrastructure, their partnerships. STEER and its six committees made up of core technical staff from all these companies provides a unique opportunity for people from those companies to really learn from one another and find out what those impacts were in the communities. So, I think that that provided a unique value to all those operators to be prepared when times got better again.” And then there are the anti-fossil fuel activist groups who attempt to make inroads into the region frequently. “Groups attacking this industry have not stopped,” Garcia says. “And another reason why our member companies have never wavered their commitment is for us to be properly funded to combat some of that negativity.” While, as Garcia points out, the anti-oil and gas activism hasn’t stopped, it’s also important

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to note here that, while conflict groups have persistently attempted to gain footholds in the region, those efforts have failed, largely due to STEER’s efforts. Where faulty studies and alarmist claims attacking the Barnett Shale development were able to gain significant traction during the early years of the last decade in North Texas — mainly because the industry did not act quickly enough to mount an effective response — these same groups and others who have tried to deploy similar tactics in the Eagle Ford have invariably found their claims rapidly met with factual information and effective communications provided by the staff at STEER. That rapid, consistent, effective response has encouraged such groups to focus most of their efforts in other parts of the country. The Staff Expands Again The ongoing issues, rising membership and increasing activity in the region also created a need for STEER’s management team to further expand its staff. Two new director-level jobs have been added since 2015 to help meet the increasing needs in the area’s community engagement and communications. Justine Carroll was the first to come on board in early 2015. A native of San Antonio, Carroll and her family had spent 15 years in

Austin where she obtained her degree in public relations. She was working for a healthcare nonprofit at the time, but had always wanted to return to San Antonio. Again, as luck would have it, Omar Garcia and STEER came calling at just the right time. “In my role as communications director, I am responsible for our communications committee and ensuring that STEER is speaking to its stakeholders whether that is through social media, our website, presentations in South Texas or working with various media outlets throughout South Texas.” The most recent staff addition is Yliana Flores, another native San Antonian who just came to STEER in mid-2017. While she is new to the association, she did not come in as an unknown to STEER’s staff. Flores obtained her bachelor’s degree from St. Mary’s University in communications, and she is now working on a master’s degree in public administration at The University of Texas at San Antonio. After college, she says, “I started my career at AACOG, actually. I got an internship through AmeriCorps, and I worked under the Clean Cities effort with Chris Ashcraft.” When Ashcraft left AACOG, Flores took over the Clean Cities effort. “From there, I went over to the San Antonio River Authority where I was doing intergovernmental relations for their Southern Basin region. So, I spent a lot of time

in Karnes and Wilson [counties]. I was there for about two and a half years and absolutely loved the people,” she says. “That’s the best part of being out in those regions; when I had the opportunity to come here, I knew it was going to be a good fit because of the relationships that I had built with the people that I had been working with for the past three years now.” There are common themes among all the staff at STEER: communications, relationships, communities, and partnerships. That isn’t lost on Garcia — in fact, it’s his daily focus. “What I think is the most important thing is that STEER recognizes who our audience is, and it’s rural South Texas, it’s rural counties. And while social media plays an important role for us say in the Metros, in the region our successes are measured by handshakes and visibility. It is really important for us to be seen in the community, shake those hands, attend the County Commissioner meetings, attend the city council meetings … so that they know we have a vested interest in their community and that we’re there to help, and that’s a big part of our communication strategy.” Carroll expands on that theme: “We go out there and we build those relationships and they have our cell phone numbers and they’ll text us if they need anything. So, it’s important

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for us to keep in constant contact with these stakeholders because we want to talk to them, we want them to come to us if they need something related to the industry.” Their efforts are not limited to communities in the Eagle Ford region. “We have relationships with the Victoria newspaper even though they’re not technically in Eagle Ford,” Carroll continues. “They still have a lot of readership; their coverage area is where we need to be reaching out to. Even Corpus Christi, we’ve gone to Corpus to visit with the television stations and the newspaper. We try to stay in constant contact.” It is this constant outreach, this consistent effort to make contact with stakeholders, this active, continuing focus on communications with communities and the news media that distinguishes the STEER business model from the industry’s traditional trade associations. It is no accident that every one of STEER’s employees comes from a background of communications, collaboration and relationship-building. The people fit the plan. Bloemer points out that the consistent contact is crucial to the organization’s effectiveness. “It’s important for them [stakeholders] to know that we’re not just going to be calling when we need something from them,” she says. “I think a lot of public relations has become so fast and there [are]

so many different avenues to go that people forget that it is about a relationship. They just send information out thinking that journalists are supposed to just take that, it’s their job. Well, it is their job, but it’s more about making sure they understand who you are and the information they can gleam from the organization. Which for us is anything related to the industry, but you have to make sure that they feel comfortable and that they remember to call you. It’s not about dropping off a pamphlet and expecting them to remember you the next day. It’s about knowing how their kids are doing and things that are important. I think that’s something that STEER has really done well.” As Ashcraft points out, building trust is also key. “[Stakeholders] have to know that what they’re always going to get from us is the truth. We’re not going to run away from the hard questions and, most importantly, we have the resources and technical expertise across our membership that we want to answer those hard questions. We want to listen to the community and their news outlets, because a lot of the time those local media outlets reflect those natural concerns that are in the community. STEER’s strength comes from getting the boots on the ground with those relationships, listening and answering those questions that people don’t know, not being

afraid to answer them and to be honest with them. And when we don’t know an answer, being honest with them and [saying] that we’re going to find out.” All of this may sound sort of like communications 101 to those in other industries. But for an industry like oil and gas — which in the past has had a habit of shying away from communications and media relations activities — this is really radical stuff. It Matters What You Don’t Do, Too Because STEER is so different from the industry’s other state associations, what Garcia and his staff doesn’t do matters just as much as what they do. The main thing they don’t do is lobby. “We don’t spend any time in Austin or Washington, D.C., to lobby a specific bill. Our role is to work with the communities in South Texas,” he says. “Being able to say that we don’t spend time in Austin or D.C. lobbying on specific issues lends a lot of credibility to the organization. Because the people in the Eagle Ford know that we are community-focused. They know that we are going to be there for them. And they know that we’re not going to be there working on issues that may not favor rural South Texas. “Our mission has lent itself to make

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About the author: David Blackmon is Associate Editor for Oil and Gas for SHALE Magazine. He previously spent 37 years in the oil and natural gas industry in a variety of roles, the last 22 years engaged in public policy issues at the state and national levels. Contact David Blackmon at david.blackmon@shalemag.com.

SHALE MAGAZINE  SEPTEMBER/OCTOBER 2017

PHOTOS COURTESY OF STEER

this organization into what it is today: A very successful community relations oil and gas trade association,” Garcia says. “That’s what we do; we don’t have to worry about what’s going on in Austin. Does it affect us? Of course, it does. Do we follow it? Yes. But our focus areas are the people and the communities in South Texas.” In the end, it is that focus on its unique role that has made STEER such an important player in the success story of the Eagle Ford Shale. Given the immense opportunity the Eagle Ford Shale represents to South Texas, that success has been vital to everyone living there, not just to STEER’s member companies. There’s nothing magic about any of this — it just takes a lot of hard work and dedication, planning and execution, creativity and communications, and, above all else, bringing in the right people to make it all work. Garcia and his staff have proven time and again that they are the right people. And so, STEER works, for everybody.

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INDUSTRY

Facing Challenges With Innovation By: Leslie Beyer, PESA President

or the past few years, much discussion has focused on the question of when the market will recover. While some industries are new to the concept of using technology to overcome challenges, the oil and gas industry has utilized this practice since its origins. Today, innovative minds and technology will once again answer the call as the oil and gas industry continues to face challenges, from the economic difficulties brought on by lower-price markets to the demands of changing regulations and calls by some to move away from fossil fuels. Led by the efforts of the oilfield service, supply and manufacturing companies that make up the Petroleum Equipment & Services Association (PESA), one only has to look across the shale oil and gas regions to see this firsthand. Low prices have demanded greater efficiency; and PESA members, working with their customers and partners, have delivered. The oil and gas industry has proactively advanced environmental and worker safety protections. Industry can point to clear progress in reducing methane emissions thanks to strong voluntary efforts. Additional innovations in multiwell pad drilling and rig components powered by natural gas and solar provide collective benefits beyond saved time and money. The lower-for-longer market has even served to kick-start tomorrow’s technologies. For instance, take the focus many PESA member companies are placing on developing and implementing automation. The benefits of this effort are clear: improved efficiencies, safety and accuracy. Exponential growth in the use of data across the oil field has also further driven these efforts. Oil and gas innovators are using data trends to advance automation not only across the drilling rig but throughout the entire supply chain. The largest fruits of these labors are still to come, and we have always found a way through the work of innovative minds. Like the oilfield service, supply and manufacturing sector it represents, PESA has evolved substantially since its founding in 1933. PESA is the national trade association representing 200 companies that

provide the services, technology, equipment and expertise necessary to safely and efficiently explore and produce oil and natural gas. Serving as the unified voice for the sector, and advocating for and supporting its achievements in job creation, technological innovation and economic stability, PESA seeks opportunities to further empower its members and support this vital division of the oil and gas industry. PESA elevates the issues of the oilfield service sector by engaging with policymakers on legislation and regulations that impact the safety and vitality of the energy industry. As federal and state agencies move forward in implementing the new administration’s agenda, PESA is increasing awareness of the issues that impact our division and promoting education in the disciplines driving the competitiveness of our workforce. In addition, PESA educates key policymakers on the innovations driven by the oilfield service and supply sector to harness natural resources safely, more efficiently and with a smaller environmental footprint. PESA member companies are technology leaders, developing disruptive technologies that should be mentioned in the same breath as autonomous vehicles and advanced genomics. As we face the challenges of tomorrow, we must not shy away from directing our talent, technology and entrepreneurial spirit toward navigating the headwinds both for the good of our industry and society. PESA is confident that with the right focus, continued innovation and a commitment to working together, we can successfully navigate the challenges we face now and in the future.

PESA is confident that with the right focus, continued innovation and a commitment to working together, we can successfully navigate the challenges we face now and in the future

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For more information about PESA, visit pesa.org.

SEPTEMBER/OCTOBER 2017  SHALE MAGAZINE

INDUSTRY

Can Alaska Turn It Around? AFTER YEARS OF DISAPPOINTMENT IN THE OIL AND GAS SECTOR, THERE ARE SIGNS OF ENCOURAGEMENT By: Jack Belcher, HBW Resources

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roughly 600,000 BOPD, according to the Alaska Oil and Gas Association. In the late 1980s and through the 1990s, a number of actions within the industry and the federal government began to impact the ability of the oil and gas industry to replace declining production in Prudhoe Bay. The Exxon Valdez oil spill created a huge public outcry regarding oil and gas development in Alaska. Environmental nongovernmental organizations (NGOs), whose position in the U.S. public policy debate was on the increase, began to use the Valdez spill as a rallying cry against oil and gas production in Alaska, particularly in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge (ANWR). A small section of ANWR, known as the 1002 area, had been reserved for potential future oil and gas development. Efforts to open ANWR, the National Petroleum Reserve in Alaska (NPRA) and other North Slope areas were met with strong

opposition by certain members of Congress and anti-development groups. At the same time, the federal government began applying federal environmental statutes and executive actions like the National Ocean Policy in more restrictive ways. These actions reduced access to oil and gas resources; delayed permitting for drilling, infrastructure and related activities; increased the expense of oil and gas development; and made all activities more susceptible to litigation. “Over 60 years, the federal government has eroded access to Alaska’s oil and gas through the application of onerous statutes and regulations,” Harbour says. Toward the end of the 1990s and into the early 2000s, Alaska began to recognize potential markets for its natural gas resources. Natural gas resources on the North Slope, which the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) estimates could be as high as 80 trillion cubic feet (TCF), have no pipeline access and are

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hen you think of Alaska, one of the first things that probably comes to mind is a robust oil and gas industry. Alaska has been a world leader in oil production for decades. But a recent slew of disappointments, initially led by federal government action, then by falling oil prices, has taken its toll on the state. If it weren’t for oil and gas resources, Alaska might never have become a state. Prior to statehood, the basis of Alaska’s economy was natural resources, but it wasn’t until the Swanson River oil discovery, the first in the state, by the Richfield Oil Company (which later became ARCO) in 1957, that a viable pathway for statehood emerged. In addition to political maneuvering between Republicans and Democrats (at the time Hawaii was considered a likely Republican state and Alaska a Democratic one) and over major civil rights legislation, Alaska’s newly found oil resources helped grow support for statehood. “Alaska statehood happened because of oil and gas development,” says Dave Harbour, former Commissioner at the Regulatory Commission of Alaska. The Alaska Statehood Act, which narrowly passed Congress in 1958, led to statehood in 1959. It provided for 104 million acres to be given to the state. Most of the state’s federal acreage, including its vast offshore acreage, was also believed to be available for resource development. With the discovery of oil at Prudhoe Bay and the subsequent construction of the TransAlaska Pipeline System (TAPS), Alaska became a globally significant oil province, playing a huge role in enabling the U.S. to respond to OPEC and threats of future oil embargoes. It also played an important role in maintaining U.S. energy security as U.S. energy supply struggled through the 1980s and 1990s. In 1988, Alaska North Slope oil production accounted for 25 percent of total U.S. production. Throughput in TAPS also peaked that year at around 2 million barrels of oil per day (BOPD), and is now

therefore stranded. A number of pipeline proposals emerged in the 1990s and 2000s that would bring that gas to market in the lower 48, where U.S. markets for electricity were suffering from a supply shortage. Then Gov. Frank Murkowski negotiated a deal with Alaska oil and gas producers for a natural gas pipeline that would create a commercially viable option, but it wasn’t popular with many Alaskans. Sarah Palin, then mayor of the city of Wasilla, unseated Murkowski in the Republican primary largely due to her charge that Murkowski negotiated a sweetheart deal for the oil companies. Since his defeat, no Alaska gas pipeline proposal has received serious consideration and the market no longer exists in the lower 48. The 2005 Energy Policy Act provided a royalty holiday for initial production of oil and gas in Arctic Alaska as a way to incentivize frontier oil and gas exploration. The Alaska Outer Continental Shelf (OCS) offers extensive resources estimated by the USGS at 27 million barrels of oil equivalent (BOE) and 132 TCF of gas. Shell, ConocoPhillips and Eni were among companies that acquired leases in the Alaska OCS (Beaufort and Chukchi seas). Opposition and litigation delayed an Alaska drilling program for years. Shell alone spent $6 billion in pursuit of a drilling program that was fought by NGOs and delayed by lawsuits. Shell ultimately drilled a dry hole in the Chukchi Sea in 2015 and has exited Arctic exploration; however, Eni is still pursuing an OCS program. With lower oil prices and a very difficult regulatory and legal environment, enthusiasm for Arctic OCS oil and gas development is quite low at this time. The political and regulatory environment during the Obama administration put additional pressure on oil and gas development in Alaska. The Department of the Interior under Secretary Ken Salazar was quite contentious with Alaska as permits, both onshore and offshore, faced delays, and development in new areas was not really on the table. In mid-2014, the threat to oil and gas in Alaska from the federal government was replaced by oil prices that had plummeted in early 2014 and have struggled to recover ever since. “Clearly for Alaska oil and gas, one of the major challenges is the lower price scenario and the cyclical nature of the business,” says Kara Moriarty, President and CEO of the Alaska Oil and Gas Association. “While the Trump administration has been good news, for Alaska (already in a high-cost environment), low oil prices make it that much harder to compete against a global portfolio.” There are signs of encouragement, though, Moriarty notes: “This administration knows the importance of oil and gas and the role Alaska can play in energy dominance.” The management plan for NPRA and an update of the assessment of ANWR oil and gas resources ordered by Secretary of the Interior Ryan Zinke are “very encouraging,” she says. “Alaska also has a strong congressional delegation that knows the importance of oil and gas and is focused on making the permitting system more reasonable and rational.” Faced with budget deficits, largely due to declining oil and gas

If it weren’t for oil and gas resources, Alaska might never have become a state

revenues, the state has been under pressure to increase revenues by taxing the oil and gas industry. The state just experienced the seventh change to its oil and gas tax policy in 12 years. It continues to look at new ways to raise revenue, and Gov. Bill Walker and members of the Legislature find themselves increasingly at odds with the oil and gas industry, not only over tax policy, but also over the state’s changing policy for building a gas pipeline and supporting liquefied natural gas exports. Despite the uncertainty and low commodity prices, Alaska has vast oil and gas resources that many oil and gas producers are willing to pursue. There has been a great deal of activity in recent years in the Cook Inlet and Kenai region of Alaska. Hilcorp has been a leader in developing offshore resources in the Cook Inlet, which has been instrumental in securing long-term gas supplies for Anchorage. Other smaller companies have also pursued projects in the region but have been struggling due to low oil prices and the fact that the Alaska Legislature has not fully funded tax credits that were initially made available for small producers in Alaska, a result of the budget shortfall that is now hurting smaller oil and gas producers. There are also exciting things in the works on the North Slope: ConocoPhillips announced the Willow discovery at NPRA, which could produce 100,000 BOPD over the next six years. Hilcorp is pursuing necessary approvals to drill and produce the Liberty Project, which the company describes as the largest undeveloped, light oil reservoir on the North Slope. It has an estimated 80 to 150 million barrels of recoverable oil with peak production of between 60,000 and 70,000 BOPD projected within two years of initial production and a life expectancy of 15 to 20 years. It is an artificial island located 15 miles east of Prudhoe Bay. Armstrong Energy and Repsol announced the discovery of a massive field on the North Slope with an estimated 1.2 billion BOE of recoverable oil, the largest onshore conventional hydrocarbon discovery in the U.S. in the last 30 years, according to Repsol. The companies have submitted permits to develop the Pikka area of the field, anticipating first production in 2021 and a potential rate of 120,000 BOPD. Caelus Energy is pursuing a discovery at Smith Bay, with an estimated 6 to 10 billion barrels of oil in place. It believes the development has the potential to provide 200,000 BOPD of light oil to TAPS. Caelus is also pursuing onshore development of the Nuna field, just east of the Colville River. It estimates a resource potential of 75 to 150 million BOE and peak oil production of 15,000 to 18,000 BOPD. Earlier this year, the U.S. Bureau of Ocean Energy Management approved a plan for Eni to drill a well in the Beaufort Sea from an artificial island. It still has permits to obtain but plans to use extended wells more than 6 miles long. 88 Energy and Burgundy Xploration, which operate under Accumulate Energy Alaska, are pursuing the Icewine prospect in a potential shale play on the south side of the North Slope on state lands near TAPS. A resources appraisal firm estimated that the prospect could contain about 980 million barrels of recoverable oil and natural gas condensate liquids — about 200 million barrels of which is oil, according to 88 Energy. Collectively these projects and prospects could do a lot to extend the life of TAPS. “We just passed the 40-year anniversary of Alyeska and Prudhoe Bay, and if we play it right they could be around for another 40 years,” Moriarty says. It is unclear whether or when Alaska will return to its former glory as a global energy producer, but with its huge untapped resources, it will certainly play a big role for years to come.

About the author: Jack Belcher is Executive Vice President of HBW Resources and consults energy and transportation clients on government relations, regulatory affairs, situational risk management, coalition building and stakeholder relations. He is also Managing Director of the National Ocean Policy Coalition. Previously, he was Staff Director for the U.S. House of Representatives Subcommittee on Energy and Mineral Resources.

SEPTEMBER/OCTOBER 2017  SHALE MAGAZINE

INDUSTRY

STEER: A Business Model That Works By: David Blackmon

SHALE MAGAZINE  SEPTEMBER/OCTOBER 2017

membership. Progress was fast: Less than eight months after I had first raised the idea with Looney, STEER was up and running; and it has been a great benefit to the industry and the people of South Texas ever since. The great thing about the STEER model is its applicability to any region of the country. While it can create concern among the pre-existing conventional industry associations that it will be a competitor, the reality is that STEER serves a complementary role, performing functions that the traditional industry associations have not

been staffed or funded to perform. And STEER, like HSOC, stays away from lobbying, focusing instead on community relations and communications. Prior to the last decade or so, the oil and gas industry by and large treated the functions of community engagement and media relations as little more than nuisances. For many decades, oil and gas exploration was almost always conducted in rural areas, far away from subdivisions, schools or downtown areas where people used to gather. The industry’s big concern was

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t was great to be able to write this issue’s cover feature on the South Texas Energy & Economic Roundtable (STEER) and its outstanding staff, including President and CEO Omar Garcia. Watching the organization have so much success has been very rewarding, since I played a minor role in its creation back in 2012; and writing the piece provided a chance to reflect on the STEER business model and why the oil and gas industry should try to replicate it in other parts of the country. By late 2011, it had become obvious to everyone that the Eagle Ford Shale was a world-class resource that represented an unprecedented opportunity for economic development in South Texas. Shortly after a lunch during which I and a group of colleagues talked about how best to go about protecting this opportunity, I got on a conference call with the Haynesville Shale Operators’ Committee (HSOC). This coincidence of timing was what spurred my involvement in the germination of STEER. HSOC was the brainchild of the Louisiana Oil & Gas Association (LOGA) and its President, Don Briggs. Created during the height of the development of the Haynesville Shale natural gas development, the organization served as an extremely effective voice for the industry in what was at the time the busiest shale development region of the country. The challenge the Haynesville Shale presented to LOGA was its concentration in the northwest corner of the state, hundreds of miles from the state capital of Baton Rouge, where LOGA’s offices were located. Rather than have its staff constantly travel back and forth between Baton Rouge and Shreveport to help its members address community and regulatory issues, LOGA came up with the model of establishing a committee within its organizational structure that essentially functioned as a separate trade association. To become members of HSOC, companies paid separate dues, and the committee itself had its own separate staff. To further distinguish HSOC as a separate entity, the HSOC staff seldom became engaged in the single most crucial role of any state trade association — lobbying the state’s legislature. Instead, HSOC focused on helping members with community and media relations, functions that have not traditionally been strong points for the industry’s legacy associations. The model worked. HSOC was a tremendous asset for producers, the media and communities in the region, all of whom needed an honest-broker intermediary to help understand and communicate with one another. Seeing no reason why this model wouldn’t work just as well in South Texas — where the sudden, massive growth in oil and gas activity was very predictably creating lots of friction and challenges in the local communities — I took the idea to Rob Looney, then-President of the Texas Oil & Gas Association (TXOGA), one of the industry’s largest trade associations, headquartered in Austin. My involvement ended there, since I had a conflicting role with one of the industry’s national trade associations at that time. Looney very quickly created a study committee within TXOGA to develop a proposed model. It was that study committee that ultimately developed the STEER model, which differs from HSOC in that STEER was to become a completely new and separate trade association with completely separate

not conflict with local communities or even interaction with the news media; instead, legal, legislative and regulatory matters were far more pressing. Naturally, the industry’s trade associations tended to be located either in Washington, D.C., or in the various state capitals, and those associations were staffed to deal with those pressing issues. But the combination of rapid population growth in some of the big shale plays and increased public awareness of oil and gas operations in general has changed all of that. It’s key to remember that the means of extracting petroleum products from shale rock — the wedding of hydraulic fracturing and horizontal drilling — was developed in the Barnett Shale, which sits smack in the middle of the Dallas-Fort Worth Metroplex. Drilling in the Barnett began to really ramp up during the 1999– 2001 time frame, at the same time the region was experiencing a huge population boom. Operators there soon discovered that leases that had been taken out in the mid-1990s on what had been ranch- or farmland had since become home to new housing subdivisions by the time companies were ready to move a drilling rig onto the location. Never in its history had the U.S. oil and gas industry been forced to deal with such a high degree of local community issues and media attention simultaneously. The state’s then-existing trade associations were caught off guard equally as much as their member companies were. They were all staffed by great people — I knew and worked with them all — but they were simply not staffed or funded to be able to effectively address the volume and variety of issues that were coming at them rapid-fire out of North Central Texas. Worse, their member companies were very slow to help them adjust to this rapidly changing landscape. Thus, the early years of the 21st century were disastrous for the industry from a reputational standpoint, not just in Texas, but nationally. Eventually, the industry did devise several innovative and effective approaches to help with these issues, like the Barnett Shale Energy Education Council and the Joint Association Task Force. These efforts have gone a long way in repairing the reputational damage done in those early years. The creation of STEER and the hiring of the right person, Omar Garcia, and his great staff to lead the association early in the development of the Eagle Ford Shale played a big role in making sure the industry did not suffer similar reputational damage in South Texas. It’s a real success story, and one that can be repeated anywhere in the country.

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INDUSTRY

Eagle Ford Rises Again By: Thomas Tunstall, Ph.D.

and Professor Harriett Romo. Day two started with an update on the state of energy in Mexico, in the wake of reform efforts in that country. After that, several community leaders discussed their experience with the ups and downs of the Eagle Ford over the past few years. Texas Railroad Commission Chair Christi Craddick also described how the Commission has transitioned from largely manual processes to more automated methods for activities such as permitting new wells in the state. While the most recent conference was probably the least attended of any so far, the mood was generally upbeat. After hitting bottom last year in terms of oil prices, rig counts and overall economic activity, the recent rise in oil prices has rejuvenated the region somewhat. Community leaders clearly remain cautious with regard to budgets and spending, and infrastructure remains a key concern. OPEC and its allies have clearly struggled with the success of shale production in the U.S., particularly with regard to the resilience of domestic producers. According to luncheon speaker Darin Turner, with Invesco Real Estate, the two lowest cost producers of crude oil in the world are Saudi Arabia and the United States. Every other producing country in the world has higher costs. Clearly the shale revolution has changed the dynamics of the

Robert McKinley, UTSA Senior Associate Vice President for Economic Development, at podium. Seated from left to right: Leodoro Martinez Jr., Eagle Ford Consortium Chairman; Tommy Calvert, Bexar County Commissioner; Joel Rodriguez Jr., La Salle County Judge

energy industry for years or even decades to come. For one thing, oil prices appear likely to have a built-in ceiling of $60 per barrel for the foreseeable future, perhaps as long as a decade or more. Each time OPEC and Russia decide to curtail production, the shale producers are at the ready to increase production and fill in the supply gaps. Perhaps the most interesting upshot of the

shale revolution? If Saudi Arabia intended to drive shale producers out of business by increasing production in 2014, that plan clearly backfired. Going forward, the U.S. — and particularly Texas — will play an outsize role in the dynamics of the global oil and gas industry. All of these changes have been only about six years or so in the making. Who would have thought?

About the author: Thomas Tunstall, Ph.D., is the Senior Research Director at The University of Texas at San Antonio Institute for Economic Development. He was the principal investigator for numerous economic and community development studies. He has published peer-reviewed articles on shale oil and gas, and has written op-ed articles on the topic for The Wall Street Journal. Dr. Tunstall holds a Ph.D. in political economy and an M.B.A. from The University of Texas at Dallas, as well as a B.B.A. from The University of Texas at Austin.

SHALE MAGAZINE  SEPTEMBER/OCTOBER 2017

PHOTOS COURTESY OF THOMAS TUNSTALL, PH.D.

he sixth annual Eagle Ford Consortium conference was held June 7–8 at The University of Texas at San Antonio Downtown Campus. Long gone are the heady days, when the first conference in 2012 sold out and then oversold, ultimately to more than 500 attendees. By the third year, it looked as if attendance would soon top 1,000. Then oil prices swooned in 2014, causing the oil and gas industry, as well as local communities throughout South Texas, to take a pause and regroup. Activity in the Eagle Ford is once again on the upswing, with rig counts now north of 80 and still climbing gradually. More than 2 billion barrels of oil and condensate have been produced from the Eagle Ford to date, with an overall recoverable estimate of 10–12 billion barrels. Although the level of activity will continue to depend on oil prices, there is a lot of life left in the Eagle Ford. The first day of the conference was kicked off by Leodoro Martinez Jr., Chairman of the Eagle Ford Consortium. Speakers included Chairman and Commissioner of the Texas Workforce Commission Andres Alcantar and several prominent UTSA faculty and administrators, such as Interim President Pedro Reyes, Senior Associate Vice President for Economic Development Robert McKinley

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INDUSTRY

STEER Celebrates an Important Milestone By: Omar Garcia

This month marks an important milestone for the South Texas Energy & Economic Roundtable (STEER). In October, we will celebrate our five-year anniversary. So much has changed since the inception of STEER. We have seen prices and rig counts fluctuate. The state of the oil and gas industry in South Texas is vastly different from 2012, when we first got started. I don’t think anyone could have imagined the ups and downs that have taken place since exploration and production of the Eagle Ford Shale first began. I commend our founding members for their foresight to create an organization focused on grassroots efforts in South Texas and collaborate with those working and living in and around the Eagle Ford Shale region. The success of STEER as an organization, and the oil and gas industry in South Texas, is the direct result of those collaborations. We have enjoyed our growing relationships with countless elected officials, community leaders, nonprofit organizations, various community organizations, hospitals, school districts and higher education institutions, regulatory agencies and so many others. It has been a pleasure to work with Celebrating each of you over the years. As the state of the oil and gas industry in South Texas changed 2012 - 2017 over the last five years, STEER evolved alongside with emerging industry and community needs. Our relationships with the

Years!

communities of South Texas helped us to learn the specific needs for each region. We have been able to evaluate the economic impact of the industry over the last five years. Also, as the industry grew, so did the needs of our companies, resulting in new committees including the Operations and Millennial committees, along with new staff members. STEER has been committed to showcasing companies in South Texas for the past four years at our Eagle Ford Excellence Awards. We have awarded numerous companies and organizations with the distinguished award. Our dedication to the upcoming fifth annual Eagle Ford Excellence Awards remains. No matter the state of the industry, we feel it is important to recognize those who make safety a priority, protect the environment and give back to our South Texas communities. I want to thank STEER’s current board of directors for their continuous support of our mission. STEER board members include BHP Billiton, Chesapeake, ConocoPhillips, Devon Energy, Encana, EnerVest, EOG Resources, Marathon Oil Corporation, Murphy Oil Corporation, Pioneer Natural Resources, Statoil, SM Energy, Noble Energy, Cheyenne Petroleum, EP Energy, Sanchez Energy Corporation and XTO Energy. I would also like to thank STEER’s entire membership for their dedication to the success of the organization. Our Supporting, Resource and Associate Members are an integral part of this organization, and we would not have the capacity to execute the goals of each of our committees without them. As the first five years have come to an end, I want to reiterate STEER’s goals. We are here to work with the communities of South Texas. We are here to connect the industry to the communities in which we live and work. You will continue to see STEER in South Texas and beyond. I look forward to continuing the strong working relationships that we have developed with those in the Eagle Ford Shale region. I am proud to be a native South Texan and proud to be President and CEO of this amazing organization.

About the author: Omar Garcia is the President and CEO of the South Texas Energy and Economic Roundtable, STEER. STEER connects the oil and gas industry to South Texas communities, facilitating and coordinating communication, education and public advocacy surrounding the production of energy resources in South Texas.

SHALE MAGAZINE  SEPTEMBER/OCTOBER 2017

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POLICY

Energy Employees Must Lead in the Halls of Government Special to SHALE

ver the years, many members of the energy industry have hung up their hard hats and headed to Washington. Former ExxonMobil CEO Rex Tillerson, now the U.S. Secretary of State, is just the latest example. It makes perfect sense to bring business leadership, perspective and expertise into the halls of government. In many areas—whether energy, technology, healthcare or another sector—career politicians often lack the knowledge and experience needed to make informed decisions on policy issues impacting specific industries. This is why, for example, doctors who become members of Congress play such an important role in shaping healthcare policies, just as military veterans elected to office lead on national defense. Here’s another example from our industry: Before Colorado Gov. John Hickenlooper entered government, he was a petroleum geologist. He understands our industry and has taken a sensible, balanced approach to energy policies.

Energy Nation understands that the best advocates for our industry are its own members, and the program aims to make sure we have a seat at the table when it comes to determining policies affecting what we do We Can All Be Citizen Leaders on Energy Most of us, of course, have no desire—or stomach—to leave the energy industry for politics. But we can all play a critical role in shaping energy policies by sharing our expertise and raising our voices. An effective way of doing this is by joining Energy Nation, the American Petroleum Institute’s energy employee advocacy program. Energy Nation understands that the best advocates for our industry

SHALE MAGAZINE  SEPTEMBER/OCTOBER 2017

are its own members, and the program aims to make sure we have a seat at the table when it comes to determining policies affecting what we do. Elected officials often don’t know the details of an industry’s history, operations or values. This is especially true in our line of work. But the best government leaders are good listeners. They want to hear from voters — and from experts in their communities, including industry professionals. We all have the opportunity to become advisors to elected officials on issues impacting our operations and success. To take it a step further, energy employees might consider engaging in advocacy to be a worthwhile responsibility. Energy is too important to our nation’s economy, security and way of life for us to stand silently by while government adopts misguided regulations and policies. It’s worth remembering, too, that elected officials constantly hear from activists opposing oil and natural gas. We Are Energy Proud When we advocate for sensible energy policies, we also can demonstrate our pride in the industry. We need to defend our industry — but we can be proactive about the work we do. We have a good story to tell with many great

messages to share, including: ● Energy drives economic growth and supports good jobs. The oil and natural gas industry supports more than 10 million American jobs — and we’ll be adding an estimated 1.3 million jobs by 2030. ● Our industry supports environmental progress. The expanded use of American natural gas has reduced our nation’s carbon emissions to 25-year lows. Reliable, flexible natural gas also makes solar and wind energy possible. ● American energy strengthens our security. Our nation is less dependent on foreign sources of energy because of increased production of American oil and natural gas. We are more secure by providing most of our own energy. It’s easy to be an energy advocate when you participate in Energy Nation. Right now, Energy Nation is running its Energy Proud campaign to build our industry’s advocacy strength and train employees to become advocacy leaders. Every industry employee should step forward and become a trusted voice on energy with their local, state and national elected officials.

To learn more about Energy Nation and its mission, visit www.energynation.org.

connect. share ideas. discuss. SHALE Oil & Gas Business Magazine is an industry publication that showcases the significance of the South Texas petroleum and energy markets. SHALE’s mission is to promote economic growth and business opportunity that connect regional businesses with oil and gas companies. It supports market growth through promoting industry education and policy, and it’s content includes particular insight into the Eagle Ford Shale development and the businesses involved. Shale’s distribution includes industry leaders and businesses, services workers and entrepreneurs.

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POLICY

Asking the Right Question

he perennial policy tug of war between energy development and its effects on the environment has many components, and the position of any given politician, interest group or individual citizen is usually heavily influenced by the particular component that is considered to be paramount. But that doesn’t mean that the other components have suddenly evaporated or are of no further relevance or value. The considerations in any analysis of energy development versus its effects on the environment include the visual, aesthetic, nostalgic, economic and practical; and whether the anticipated effects are real or perceived, significant or inconsequential. Not surprisingly, in an era of 24/7 cable news, reflexive and unfiltered commentary on social media (including by our president), and instantaneous “knowledge” courtesy of Google and Wikipedia, any hope for civil and informed discussion on this topic is all but futile. Yet, we are still a representative democracy, consisting of elected officials who are charged with governing the other 325 million of us. Their policy decisions will have cascading consequences for us and future generations. Just like one’s perspective on any issue, the direction and conclusion of any policy analysis can be influenced by the way in which the terms of the debate are framed. For instance, in the debate between energy and the environment, what is the ideal against which any policy question

SHALE MAGAZINE  SEPTEMBER/OCTOBER 2017

is to be measured? For the past 50 years — in which “environmentalism” has morphed from a movement to stop seemingly unchecked pollution by industry into a crusade to “freeze” the state of nature and prohibit any sign of mankind’s presence — the environmentalist movement has declared untouched nature to always be good and any progress by man to always be bad. If that is, indeed, the measuring stick, then energy development will always be found wanting, when compared to preserving pristine nature. But should that be the measuring stick? It seems dangerously analogous to voluntarily engaging in a hunger strike and expecting any result other than death by starvation — i.e., man will take no steps to preserve himself through the development of lifesustaining energy, where it might have even the slightest adverse effect on nature. In his book The Moral Case for Fossil Fuels, Alex Epstein challenges this premise head on and argues that the more rational measuring stick should be: Does this position help or harm human flourishing? In other words, instead of making nature the ultimate focus of our concern, we should make decisions that put the protection and preservation of people as our highest priority. Many well-meaning environmentalists have likely conflated the two goals, believing that protecting nature at all costs from human action is the same thing as protecting humans — but that clearly isn’t the case. Damming rivers to generate electric power is for human purpose, but it is an act that changes nature. Cutting down trees is for

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By: Bill Keffer

human purpose, but it is an act that changes nature. Paving roads and highways through prairies, plains, deserts and forests are for human purpose, but they are all acts that change nature. In response, many environmentalists might argue that their real point is that any act that changes nature ostensibly for man’s benefit should be weighed against any adverse effects that act will have on nature — a point with which Epstein would readily agree. Both the benefits and the consequences should be considered. But, when it comes to a discussion of energy versus the environment, that sort of balanced analysis rarely happens. In my experience, when environmental groups attack the oil and gas industry, they never acknowledge the incredible and pervasive role that those energy sources have played, and continue to play, in making life livable and fueling our modern economy. Likewise, when extolling seemingly nature-respecting energy sources like wind and solar, these same groups fail to acknowledge the adverse effects these sources have on nature — like bird kills; the hazardous mining, use and disposal of rare-earth metals; and the elimination of ecosystems by the installation of vast solar farms. In a dispassionate and objective assessment of the pros and cons of different energy sources, there should be a more complete debate. That debate should revolve around this central premise: Which policy enhances human existence? A recently released report on one of the current targets of attack by environmental groups — hydraulic fracturing of shale to develop oil and natural gas — appears to

Just like one’s perspective on any issue, the direction and conclusion of any policy analysis can be influenced by the way in which the terms of the debate are framed

contain a valiant effort to analyze the issue in an objective and comprehensive manner. “Environmental and Community Impacts of Shale Development in Texas” was written by The Academy of Medicine, Engineering & Science of Texas (TAMEST). This group of Texans consists of members of the National Academies of Science, Engineering, and Medicine; Nobel laureates; respected academics from major Texas universities; and representatives from environmental organizations, the oil and gas industry, and state government. The report addressed six topics: geology and earthquake activity, land resources, air quality, water quantity and quality, transportation, and economic and social impacts. TAMEST’s findings and recommendations in each of the six topic areas are based on presently known data and recognized science. In the report, there are no indictments, but there are investigations and inquiries. Where the science demonstrates actual or likely harm, appropriate action will need to be taken — but not in the form of absolute prohibition or Luddite resistance. It is so critically important that catastrophic fear-mongering not be allowed to choke off all rational analysis. While the industry should never stop striving to do its job better, safer and cleaner, there must always be an acknowledgement that the exploration, production, transportation and refining of oil and natural gas simply don’t happen in clinical, germ-free environments. One plaintiff’s lawyer I dealt with in many oilfield-pollution cases used to argue to the judge that the presence of any additional molecule of an oilfield-related pollutant (e.g., weathered oil, barium, lead, etc.) on his client’s property was actionable and compensable. That kind of extreme position is unwilling to concede that the countless benefits provided by petroleum might actually outweigh in no insignificant way the alteration of nature by adding to the naturally occurring level of an element in the soil by even the smallest measurable amount. As the venerable, old saying goes, “reasonable minds can differ” on a given issue. But unreasonable minds add nothing to a salutary debate and resolution of a policy issue. Unreasonable minds distort and distract from the desired goal. One-sided analysis is, by definition, unreasonable. Our pursuit should be creating an environment in which man flourishes — and that means cheap, abundant, reliable and efficient energy.

About the author: Bill Keffer is a contributing columnist to SHALE Magazine. He teaches at the Texas Tech University School of Law and continues to consult. He served in the Texas Legislature from 2003 to 2007.

SEPTEMBER/OCTOBER 2017  SHALE MAGAZINE

POLICY

Energy Infrastructure Debate Unites Business and Labor Against ‘Keep It in the Ground’ Activists By: Simon Lomax

Dakota Access: Open for Business From mid-2016 until earlier this year, anti-oil and gas activists set up camps in Morton County, North Dakota, to block the final stages

SHALE MAGAZINE  SEPTEMBER/OCTOBER 2017

of construction of the Dakota Access Pipeline. The pipeline, designed to carry Bakken crude from North Dakota to Illinois, had already received construction permits at the time of the protest. After months of delays and protests that turned violent at times, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers eventually ordered the activists to leave before spring snowmelt flooded the camps on the banks of the Missouri River. Officials raced against time to remove scores of abandoned vehicles and enough garbage to fill more than 800 dumpsters before the cars, trucks and trash were swept into the river. The obvious irony of environmental protesters showing such disregard for the environment generated its own controversy, and after months of mostly sympathetic media attention, activists found themselves

on the defensive. North Dakota Gov. Doug Burgum even asked the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) for financial help after cleanup crews removed more than 24,000 tons of trash, debris and human waste left behind by the protestors. “I respectfully encourage a review of disaster declaration criteria to include intentional human-made disasters,” Gov. Burgum wrote in his request to the president through FEMA. Construction on the pipeline was completed in April and commercial deliveries began in June after legal challenges were rejected by the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals. But Earthjustice, an anti-oil and gas group that serves as a free law firm for the environmental lobby, continues to try to kill the project. A separate lawsuit, filed last year on behalf of the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe, is still active

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y choosing to produce more energy at home, America has opened the doors to new opportunities and growth across the economy. The surge in domestic oil and natural gas production has lowered household energy bills, cut the cost of manufacturing goods in the United States and supported the livelihoods of millions of working families. There is also a huge infrastructure component to America’s energy renaissance. As oil and gas production output has increased, so has the demand for pipelines to transport oil and gas from where it’s produced to where it’s consumed. Tens of thousands of miles of new pipelines have already been built, with dozens more projects currently under construction or in the permitting process. Each one of them represents a major investment in the nation’s infrastructure and job security for construction workers. Support for these projects has been widespread, especially among business and labor groups that often find themselves on opposite sides of major policy debates. But a vocal minority of environmental activist groups has fought these pipeline projects at every turn. Rallying under the slogan of “Keep It in the Ground,” groups like 350.org and the Sierra Club believe blocking pipelines will help bring about their ultimate goal of a total oil and gas development ban. Two projects in particular — the Dakota Access and Keystone XL pipelines — have captured national attention in recent years. So where do these projects currently stand, and what does that say about the broader discussion of energy and environmental issues in America today?

and seeks to invalidate the permits and other approvals given to the pipeline. Despite past legal failures, Earthjustice “will continue to push for the pipeline to be shut down,” the group said in June. But such a move would block more than $20 million a day in oil deliveries, causing a “staggering” economic impact, a coalition of business groups has told the federal judge hearing the case. The new pipeline “plays an integral role in the North Dakota and regional economy, currently transporting over a third of all oil produced in the Bakken region,” warned the groups, which include the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, National Association of Manufacturers and several energy industry trade organizations. The protracted fight over the Dakota Access Pipeline, along with similar activist campaigns, have also prompted trade unions to play a bigger public role in advocating for these projects. In July, National Public Radio reported that the campaign against pipelines is turning some pipeline workers “into activists themselves.” NPR profiled Pipeliners Local Union 798, based in Tulsa, Oklahoma, which is encouraging members to contact lawmakers, sign petitions and attend rallies in support of pipeline projects. “We’re trying to do a job. That’s all we’re trying to do,” pipeline welder and job steward Ed Coker said in an interview for NPR’s All Things Considered. “We certainly are not trying to destroy the environment. You know, I’m as worried about the environment as anybody else.” Keystone XL: Permitting Process Revived As the Dakota Access Pipeline opened for business, the review of the Keystone XL Pipeline entered its final stages after years of obstruction and stalling tactics from “Keep It in the Ground” groups and their political allies. Having received its federal approval, the pipeline now faces a state-level permitting process in Nebraska.

Led by San Francisco-based Sierra Club, anti-oil and gas activists are lobbying the Nebraska Public Service Commission to block the final leg of the pipeline. While the project originates in the Canadian province of Alberta, it will also carry Bakken crude oil produced in Montana and North Dakota, giving the Keystone XL pipeline added significance. Business and labor groups have teamed up to convince Nebraska regulators to approve Keystone XL’s final permits. In a joint statement, the Nebraska Chamber of Commerce & Industry and two AFL-CIO member unions — the Omaha Federation of Labor and the Omaha and Southwest Iowa Building and Construction Trades — said the “exhaustively studied” project will create thousands of jobs, generate millions of dollars in local property taxes and support a “long term, stable supply of North American energy.” The construction and ongoing maintenance jobs “are well-paying with good health and pension benefits — exactly the kind that are so desperately needed in today’s economy,” said the United Association of Journeymen and Apprentices of the Plumbing and Pipe Fitting Industry of the United States and Canada in testimony to Nebraska state regulators. This kind of bipartisan support, spanning the business community and labor unions, follows similar trends in South Dakota and Montana, where Keystone XL pipeline permits and approvals have already been granted. Bipartisan Coalition vs. Narrow Opposition While it will take time for the legal challenges and permitting procedures to resolve themselves, the debate over the Dakota Access and Keystone XL pipelines has already illustrated a much larger trend in energy and environmental politics. There is broad and deep support for domestic energy production and energyrelated infrastructure projects — support that crosses party lines. As for the “Keep It in the Ground” agenda, its support is narrow, shallow and stranded on the fringes of the political spectrum. No doubt, anti-oil and gas activist groups will probably persist with the “Keep It in the Ground” campaign for some time. But it’s a failing strategy, and at some point, the organizers and funders of these groups will have to go back to the drawing board.

About the author: Simon Lomax is a research fellow with Vital for Colorado, a coalition of state business leaders focused on energy policy. Before going into advocacy, he was a reporter for 15 years and covered energy policy for Bloomberg News and Argus Media. The views expressed are his own. Find him on Twitter at @simonrlomax.

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BUSINESS

The Joys of Prescription Drug Ads

e’ve all been inundated with talk about healthcare reform for the past weeks, months and years. We are all too familiar with key concepts and buzzwords like pre-existing conditions, coverage under your parent’s plan and Medicaid expansion. While Congress is off on vacation, I wonder if maybe we could work on another concept that would greatly improve quality of life across the board and would require no additional funding or regulations. Here it is: The airwaves are inundated with advertisements for prescription medications. Can we just stop that, please? I have a couple of issues with this concept, the first being that I would love to be able to

SHALE MAGAZINE  SEPTEMBER/OCTOBER 2017

watch the evening news with my family without having to hear warnings about the potential side effects of erections lasting more than four hours or painful postmenopausal intercourse. Or what about the kind, gentle voice explaining how great this new diabetes drug is, with the happy lady walking down the street and buying flowers with a spring in her step, and then the guy’s voice coming on at the end and saying, “Serious side effects can occur, including death.” Well, isn’t that true of just about anything at some point? Another issue with these advertisements is that, in many cases, we watch these ads on TV or hear them on the radio or see them in a magazine, and think, Hmm, maybe I’ll ask my doctor about that. I have

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By: Kelly Warren Moore

some of these symptoms, actually. Read the fine print a little closer, and it’s easy to come to the conclusion that maybe I’m really sick! Maybe I have a tumor! Maybe I only have three months to live! Say a patient goes to the doctor and says, “I’ve been having these symptoms: I have a persistent cough. I am sometimes tired. I seem more prone to infection than usual. I think I need Keytruda.” The doctor says that the first thing he wants to do is a chest X-ray and a blood test. He comes back and says that the X-ray is clear, and the blood test is normal. So he doesn’t think you need Keytruda but suggests you take a Zyrtec, because it seems like your cough might be allergy-related. He doesn’t want to get into a big detailed conversation with you about this — he knows you don’t need Keytruda. “But, but, but, I’m disappointed,” the patient says, “because that ad for Keytruda was very soothing and the lady seems like she is so much happier taking Keytruda!” Finally, the doctor peers over his readers, sighs deeply and says, “Do you know what Keytruda is prescribed for?” “Persistent cough and tiredness!” the patient exclaims. “Um, no. Keytruda is for melanoma treatment in patients who have lung cancer. You don’t have lung cancer, nor do I presume you want lung cancer. You aren’t getting Keytruda!” the doctor exclaims. This kind of advertising has been an absolute boon to advertising agencies and the media outlets that charge mightily for the time and space the commercials and advertisements cost the pharmaceutical companies in efforts to expose the public to their products. For years, there was a very different, more exclusive relationship between pharmaceutical companies and physicians. Advertising prescription drugs was frowned upon by doctors, who had always been directly educated by the pharmaceutical companies and educational programs about available treatments for their patients. Today’s direct-to-consumer (DTC) advertisements are powerful promotional tools, and regardless of how frustrating or ridiculous they might seem, they are probably here to stay. The Food and Drug Administration highly regulates these advertisements in an effort to ensure that the consumer is well-informed and aware of any potential side effects of the drug

The Food and Drug Administration highly regulates these advertisements in an effort to ensure that the consumer is well-informed and aware of any potential side effects of the drug advertised advertised. That’s why that last bit at the end of every commercial lists the zillions of things that might go wrong if you take this fabulous pill for this awful condition. The FDA does regular surveys of physicians about their DTC impressions, and the positive benefits do seem to outweigh the negatives. Physicians report that customers who say they’ve seen an ad for a particular product seem to be better informed about their condition and potential side effects, and they do seem to be aware of alternate available treatments or medications for the condition in question. They also seem to be more engaged in taking responsibility for their own care. All of these are very good things. The downsides are that in some cases, physicians feel pressured or obligated to prescribe the name-brand product the patient is requesting, even when the doctor may have preference for another or it may be better

practice to start with an older, less powerful product. Additionally, in an effort to educate the consumer about all the risks that may be associated with the drug as required by law, patients can sometimes get confused about the overwhelming benefit of a particular medication in treatment of a serious condition as compared to the relatively low risks associated with that medication. All those risks listed at the end of the ad can end up overpowering the reason the ad caught the patient’s attention in the first place. For now, I’d be happy if we could just see less of the couple holding hands in separate bathtubs or staring longingly at each other when their hands happen to brush each other at the family picnic while hearing about the possibility of prolonged erections while watching the news. Come to think of it, maybe watching less of the news might make me a little less grumpy about all those ads!

About the author: Kelly Warren Moore has sold clinical research and development software solutions to the pharmaceutical and biotech industry for the past several years. She previously spent 20 years in business development for the pharmaceutical research and development field, focusing on multi-study, global clinical programs. She has a Bachelor of Arts degree in economics from The University of Texas at Austin. Any opinions expressed in this article are strictly her own and are not meant to represent those of any employer, client or organization with whom she is affiliated. SEPTEMBER/OCTOBER 2017  SHALE MAGAZINE

BUSINESS

Five Ways to Turn Difficult Employees into Team Players By: Jackie Edwards

Schedule Regular One-to-One Meetings Open, regular and honest communication is key to helping turn difficult employees into team players. When you schedule consistent one-to-one meetings with your entire team, you show your staff that you care. This is especially important for challenging employees, who may feel as if they aren’t being heard. As tempting as it may be,

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don’t postpone or cancel these meetings, as this can cause further frustration and a lack of trust. Demonstrate Sensitivity If you aren’t close with the difficult employee, you might not know the real reasons behind his or her challenging behavior. While it is important that all employees show respect and perform their duties, issues caused by difficult employees likely have a root cause. Did a close relative of the employee recently pass away? Are they struggling with mental health problems? Are there other serious issues the employee is experiencing? Be cognizant and sensitive of potential underlying problems. Don’t Be Discouraged Your efforts will not produce immediate results. In fact, they may not even produce results for weeks or months. That’s why it is essential to have realistic expectations when working with difficult employees. Helping challenging individuals in the workplace isn’t an easy task, but it is absolutely a worthwhile endeavor. Create Opportunities for Teamwork Need a project tackled quickly? Pair some of your top performers with challenging employees to create a real situation that demands teamwork. Repeated

exposure to situations like these can help difficult employees build their teamwork skills and, ultimately, make them effective team players. Foster a Positive Work Environment Working in a positive environment has the potential to transform attitudes and performance. If your team environment is currently suffering, even the most dedicated staff members can lose motivation and become disengaged. Do everything you can to create an upbeat, focused and encouraging environment for your team. Can All Difficult Employees Be Turned into Team Players? The short answer to this is a definite no. Inevitably, some

While numerous strategies have been created to make it easier to work with challenging staff members, it can be unsatisfying to simply learn to tolerate difficult employees

individuals will be resistant or possibly defiant to your efforts. Some people are going to remain stuck in their toxic behaviors, even with a highly effective manager as the team leader. However, your efforts and dedication have real power. With strategies like the ones listed above, you have the potential to transform lowperforming, unmotivated and even insubordinate employees into team players.

About the author: Now working as a writer, Jackie Edwards started her career in human resources for a number of small businesses. She specialized for a time in handling workplace disputes and provided mediation for colleagues who were finding their working lives difficult due to any number of reasons, including stress at home or situations within the workplace that were tough to handle. After becoming a mom, Edwards refocused and decided to spend more time with her family. When she’s not writing, she volunteers for a number of local mental health charities.

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s soon as you read the title of this article, someone (or perhaps multiple individuals) may pop into your thoughts. Because we all have different personalities, varying backgrounds and unique opinions on how things should be done, we are bound to encounter problems with others in the workplace. As a manager, it is likely that you are currently overseeing at least one difficult employee. While numerous strategies have been created to make it easier to work with challenging staff members, it can be unsatisfying to simply learn to tolerate difficult employees. Managers are responsible for the success of their teams, so it makes sense to want to help the entire team (including challenging staff members) thrive. How do you begin to achieve this goal? Here are five ways you can encourage difficult employees to become team players.

SEPTEMBER/OCTOBER 2017  SHALE MAGAZINE

BUSINESS

The 98th Meridian Foundation By: David Porter

When we think about a meridian, if we think about meridians at all, we picture an imaginary line on a map with no significance that can be seen with the naked eye. But the 98th meridian is different, according to noted Texas historian Walter Prescott Webb and his first book, The Great Plains, published in 1931. The 98th meridian, which runs through the heart of Texas, is the dividing line between east and west, where everything changes. The Great Plains, which begin at this demarcation, are different. They are semiarid (rainfall generally less than 20 inches per year), flat and treeless. Modes of life that worked for settlers east of that line did not work for those moving west. It would be well worth one’s time to read Webb’s works in order to gain a better understanding of Texas and Western American history. His writings were wellrespected in the mid-20th century, but after his death in 1963 they became less so. This decline in prominence, starting in the late 1970s, could be ascribed to the beginnings of political correctness infiltrating the intellectual and opinion-making classes. Current-day Texans will find his writings on Texas water problems very prescient. After leaving office, I still wanted to be involved in

the important issues I dealt with while on the Railroad Commission of Texas. I decided to set up a nonprofit organization to study, educate and solve issues. These issues all seemed to fall within three general areas: water, land and energy. They are of great importance to all Texans (and all people), our economy and, indeed, life itself. I have named this new nonprofit organization the 98th Meridian Foundation. Just as the 98th meridian represents a dividing line where the landscape changes, it is my intention that the 98th Meridian Foundation represents a new frontier of thinking about how to solve the problems surrounding these issues in bold, innovative ways. Because of the close nexus of these issues, we must examine how potential solutions affect land, water and energy production individually and collectively. Land, water and energy are the three legs holding up the metaphorical stool of Texas life, and we must see that all three legs are strong and in good repair. If I had to define the essence of Texas in three words, I don’t think that I could do any better than land, water and energy. The 98th Meridian Foundation is dedicated to working on solutions to problems that take into account the big picture and attempt to preserve and improve what makes Texas great. The foundation will approach problems with a long-term vision, looking through a free market-oriented lens in an attempt to strengthen the traditional communities of Texas. One of our first areas of special emphasis will be the rural communities of Texas.

Just as the 98th meridian represents a dividing line where the landscape changes, it is my intention that the 98th Meridian Foundation represents a new frontier of thinking about how to solve the problems surrounding these issues in bold, innovative ways About the author: David Porter has served as a Railroad Commissioner (2011–17) and Chairman (2015–16), as well as Vice Chairman of the Interstate Oil and Gas Compact Commission (2016). Prior to service on the Commission, Porter spent 30 years in Midland, Texas, as a CPA working with oil and gas producers, service companies and royalty owners. Since leaving the Commission, Porter works as a consultant for oil and gas companies. He also serves as Chairman of the 98th Meridian Foundation, a nonprofit concerned with water, energy and land issues.

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LIFESTYLE

The Briscoe Western Art Museum Adds to Culture in San Antonio Special to SHALE

Throughout the year, the museum hosts a number of cultural events, special exhibitions, gallery talks, two film series and a distinguished lecture series.

SHALE MAGAZINE  SEPTEMBER/OCTOBER 2017

PHOTOS COURTESY OF THE BRISCOE WESTERN ART MUSEUM

s one of the newest cultural jewels of the San Antonio River Walk, The Briscoe Western Art Museum is a must-see stop for fans of the history, culture and art of the American West. Housed in the restored historic former San Antonio Public Library building, The Briscoe offers a permanent collection of Western art and artifacts, displayed in nine galleries reflecting themes of movement, work, conflict and opportunity — key elements in the rich history of the American West. Through paintings, sculpture, photography and historic relics, The Briscoe weaves together stories of the American Indians, vaqueros, American cowboys, pioneer women and others who define the West. Named in honor of the late Texas Gov. Dolph Briscoe Jr. and his wife, Janey, the museum opened in the fall of 2013. Highlights of the museum include Pancho Villa’s last known saddle, an interactive diorama of the Alamo conflict, a restored chuck wagon and replica Wells Fargo stagecoach, and Santa Anna’s ceremonial sword and sheath. Next door to The Briscoe is the Jack Guenther Pavilion, a threestory event venue with a modern architectural aesthetic and stunning views of the River Walk and downtown San Antonio. Adjacent to the Pavilion is the McNutt Sculpture Garden, with its central courtyard and lush setting showcasing an impressive display of bronze sculptures created by the country’s top Western artists. Throughout the year, the museum hosts a number of cultural events, special exhibitions, gallery talks, two film series and a distinguished lecture series.

Upcoming Exhibitions and Events: Fall/Winter 2017 That Day: Pictures in the American West The Photographs of Laura Wilson September 15–December 10 Free with museum admission This exhibition of 80 photographs by renowned photographer and author Laura Wilson introduces us to worlds that are framed equally by beauty and violence, taking us into a West defined by diverse communities outside the suburban middle class. Wilson’s subjects range from legendary West Texas cattle ranches to impoverished Plains Indian reservations to lavish border-town cotillions. Also featured are compelling portraits of artists who are associated with the region, including Donald Judd, Ed Ruscha and Sam Shepard. The unforgettable images in That Day tell sharply drawn stories of the people and places that have shaped, and continue to shape, the nation’s most dynamic and unyielding land. Text from Wilson’s journals accompanies the photographs, recalling her personal experiences behind the camera at the moment when a particular image was captured. Wilson casts a fresh light on the West — a topic of enduring fascination.

Yanaguana Indian Arts Market October 7–8 10 a.m.–4 p.m. Free admission

The first weekend in October, The Briscoe Western Art Museum hosts its popular Yanaguana Indian Arts Market — the only one of its kind in Texas. Now in its fourth year, the two-day event features dancing, musical performances, storytelling, artist demonstrations (glass blowing, painting, printmaking, pottery, sand painting and weaving), interactive art-making and Native American-inspired food. This community event offers visitors a glimpse into tribal tradition and contemporary Native culture. Yanaguana refers to the San Antonio River’s earliest known name, given by the Payaya people who inhabited the region. Support for Native artists, their livelihood and the integrity of their artistic process is very much a part of The Briscoe’s mission. Participating artists represent more than two dozen federally recognized tribes from various parts of the country. The Yanaguana Indian Arts Market is held in accordance with the Indian Arts and Crafts Act, a critical piece of legislation that protects Native artists and consumers; market attendees are assured that what they purchase is authentic and that the materials used are of the highest quality.

Museum Hours

Museum Admission

Tuesday 10 a.m.–9 p.m. (free admission 4–9 p.m.)

$10 adults; $8 seniors (65 and over), students and retired military

Wednesday–Sunday 10 a.m.–5 p.m.

Free for children 12 and under, and active military and family (up to four people)

Closed Monday

The Briscoe Western Art Museum is located at 210 W. Market St., San Antonio. For more information, call 210-299-4499 or visit briscoemuseum.org.

SEPTEMBER/OCTOBER 2017  SHALE MAGAZINE

LIFESTYLE

Natural Bridge Caverns ADVENTURE ON A WHOLE NEW LEVEL Special to SHALE

SHALE MAGAZINE  SEPTEMBER/OCTOBER 2017

Country. Visitors who like testing their balance and fear of heights can visit the Canopy Challenge Explorer Course, where they have 30 minutes to grapple their way to the top of a 60-foot, four-tier ropes course. A different kind of adventure awaits visitors at ground level, in the AMAZEn’ Ranch Roundup, where twists and turns through a 5,000-square-foot outdoor, timed maze present endless fun. Navigational skills are challenged to hit each checkpoint and find the way out. Guests shouldn’t

PHOTOS COURTESY OF NATURAL BRIDGE CAVERNS

n March 27, 1960, four St. Mary’s University students discovered the largest cave in Texas, located between New Braunfels and San Antonio. As they made their way through a rubble-filled crawlway, they encountered a whole new world — underground. After carefully walking and crawling through 2 miles of vast cavern passages, they returned to the surface to tell the landowners of their astonishing discovery. Realizing the possibilities, the owners decided to develop what is now the first half-mile of today’s Discovery Tour at Natural Bridge Caverns. Commercial development began almost two years later in 1962. During excavation of the entrance trail, arrowheads and spearheads dating from 5,000 B.C. were found, as well as jawbones of a species of grizzly bear that became extinct more than 8,000 years ago. On July 3, 1964, Natural Bridge Caverns opened and soon became one of the most treasured natural attractions in Texas, offering adventure on a whole new level. It became a registered U.S. natural landmark in 1971. The Discovery Tour goes 180 feet below ground and is the original, most popular cavern tour, introducing guests to a world of natural beauty. The Hidden Passages tour offers another world-class cave, where darkness and shadows play upon delicate structures and around every corner is a mystery. Natural Bridge Caverns is constantly growing, as tiny drops of water and the slow passage of time form massive, otherworldly formations. These formations retain a luster that is seen in few caverns. Appearing to be made of wax, they are actually as hard as limestone and change from room to room. Maintaining a constant 70 degrees yearround, Natural Bridge Caverns is the perfect entertainment destination. The Canopy Challenge Zip Lines allow guests to snap into a harness and fly high across the landscape of the Texas Hill

miss a visit to the Mining Company for some good old-fashioned fun, where mining for gems, fossils and other treasures is just like when miners panned for gold. After all the adventures, visitors can relax, shop and enjoy refreshments in Discovery Village. There’s more to explore than ever before right now at Natural Bridge Caverns.

The Discovery Tour goes 180 feet below ground and is the original, most popular cavern tour, introducing guests to a world of natural beauty

For more information on Natural Bridge Caverns, visit naturalbridgecaverns.com.

SEPTEMBER/OCTOBER 2017  SHALE MAGAZINE

LIFESTYLE

San Antonio Fire Museum Preserves the History of the San Antonio Fire Department NEWEST ADDITION TO THE EXHIBITION IS AN 1892 AHRENS FIRE PUMPER Special to SHALE

SHALE MAGAZINE  SEPTEMBER/OCTOBER 2017

PHOTOS COURTESY OF THE SAN ANTONIO FIRE MUSEUM

n 1892, the city of San Antonio purchased an Ahrens fire pumper manufactured that year by the American Fire Engine Company of Ohio. It battled many a blaze by pumping 700 to 750 gallons of water per minute and could carry up to six men if needed. However, this horse-drawn fire pumper, also known as a steam fire engine, was retired from service in 1910 when fire engines in San Antonio became motorized. The San Antonio Fire Department then donated it to The Witte Museum in 1939. Later, The Witte loaned it to the Houston Fire Museum, until recently, when it was delivered to the San Antonio Fire Museum on August 14. “After more than 30 years, this 1892 fire pumper has returned to the Alamo City and will now be part of our permanent exhibition thanks to The Witte Museum,” says Jim Wueste, President of the San Antonio Fire Museum. “We believe it will make a great addition to our collection of vintage fire trucks.” The history of the fire service in San Antonio dates back to the 19th century, when every available citizen would run toward the smoke and red glow in the sky. Later, volunteer fire companies were formed, and the entire community was no longer needed to fight a blaze. City growth and technological advances in firefighting equipment

and techniques eventually led to the creation of a full-time, paid department, and in 1891 the San Antonio Fire Department (SAFD) was established. The history of the SAFD is preserved by the nonprofit San Antonio Fire Museum, founded in 2013 and operated by retired firefighters and other volunteers. Its mission is to research, capture and display the history of the fire service as it evolved in San Antonio. The Fire Museum is housed in the former SAFD Station No. 1 at 801 E. Houston St., right across the street from the Alamo. “Our vision is to offer the best museum firefighting experience for our guests,” says Wueste, who retired as a Battalion Chief in 2005 after 33 years with the SAFD.

SEPTEMBER/OCTOBER 2017  SHALE MAGAZINE

Through audio and visual displays; exhibitions of apparatus, equipment, photos and records; and with docent assistance, the Fire Museum presents San Antonio’s firefighting past to visitors in an informative and historically distinctive atmosphere. Other museum highlights include vintage fire trucks, including a 1912 American LaFrance and a 1951 Mack, which the Fire Museum often uses for parades and other special occasions. A well-stocked gift shop sells SAFD caps, T-shirts and other items; and a children’s area offers educational opportunities such as fire safety puppet shows for groups of 10 or more.

The history of the SAFD is preserved by the nonprofit San Antonio Fire Museum, founded in 2013 and operated by retired firefighters and other volunteers

In 2016, more than 16,000 visitors toured the San Antonio Fire Museum, which, Wueste says, would not have been possible without the volunteer assistance of 40 museum volunteers, who often donate about 1,200 hours of their time each month. “We’re proud of what we do to preserve the history of our city’s fire service and to represent our brothers and sisters in the San Antonio Fire Department,” Wueste says. A familiar face at the fire museum is that of spry 86-year-old Walter Brewer, a docent and retired firefighter who volunteers three times a week. “I enjoy interacting with people and seeing the look of astonishment on their faces when they see all of our old fire engines,” he says. “The kids have a ball, too. They like having their picture taken next to the fire trucks, and many will tell me they want to be firefighters when they grow up.” Brewer joined the San Antonio Fire Department in 1952 and helped fight fires for 32 years before retiring in 1985. Volunteering at the museum, he says, is a godsend: “It feels like being at home.”

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The San Antonio Fire Museum, located at 801 E. Houston St., is open from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Tuesday through Saturday. Admission is $5 for adults, $3 for seniors, and $2 for children ages 3–12. Children under 3 are admitted free. School and group tours are available. For more information, visit www.sanantoniofiremuseum.org or call 210-390-7236.

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SOCIAL

Texas Alliance of Energy Producers’ Houston Wildcatters

PHOTOS COURTESY OF DABFOTO CREATIVE

The Texas Alliance of Energy Producers and the Houston Wildcatters Host Committee honored Bryan Sheffield and Parsley Energy on Aug. 23 at the Petroleum Club of Houston. Sheffield and the senior management team at Parsley Energy were presented with the Wildcatter Award.

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SOCIAL

WEN Enjoys Wine and Cheese

PHOTOS COURTESY OF SHALE

Women’s Energy Network (WEN) members gathered at the seventh annual WEN Houston Wine Tasting, themed Wine of the Americas, on July 27 at Brennan’s steakhouse. Attendees enjoyed assorted wine and cheese with plenty of lively discussion! Gracious sponsors of this event included the Grand Cru sponsor, Kirkland & Ellis, and Wine and Cheese sponsors, Fragomen and the University of Houston.

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SOUTH AFRICAN RESTAURANT IN HOUSTON WITH PROGRESSIVE CUISINE

ATV ADVENTURE TAKES FLIGHT NATIONAL SAFE DIGGING MONTH

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