Disrupter Conference Changing Lives

I just returned from Drillinginfo’s second Energy Disruptors Conference at the The American Club in Kohler, Wisconsin. Digital data and technological advances are transforming the oil and gas industry. Our industry, always strong, has gained new strategic importance geopolitically in light of increased production. Drillinginfo’s prescient and proactive summit challenged us, a select group of energy leaders, to recognize, shape, and harness disruptive and transformational changes. 

Led by a representative cross-section of experts from oil and gas, technology, public relations, commodities, higher education, government, and finance, energy leaders (upstream & midstream, independents & majors) considered how we can and must actively shape our future to meet society’s ever-expanding energy needs. We discussed current and future technologies, governmental policies, geopolitical events, and political and public perception, all of which shape our course and portend both opportunities and challenges for our industry.    

The United States has emerged, relatively recently, as the dominant world leader in energy generation. The energy industry, which is comprised of thousands of companies, does not have a unified approach or a plan to craft a way forward so that society recognizes the value of the industry and politicians support it. In the face of geopolitical, regulatory, and environmental changes and the rapid expansion of technology, we have come far. But the measure of our success, moving forward, depends on our ability to harness public and political good-will to support our industry to benefit American citizens and the United States, politically and geopolitically. 

As much as ever, energy is one of the bedrocks of modern society. New technologies are creating increased demands for energy, for example, technologies related to artificial intelligence, robotics, transportation, global computing, bioelectronics and more. To meet these expanding energy needs, the industry must coalesce, much like technology companies have done, to set goals, find a voice, and communicate our value to the public. If the public perceives our industry as damaging rather than a valued partner in modern society, politicians will hamper our efforts to meet future energy demands to the detriment of all. Rather than criticize public perception, we must work together to transform it.

Change is inevitable; indeed, it is upon us so quickly that it threatens to overwhelm us. Our society in general, and our industry in particular, is in the midst of cataclysmic changes that we have never experienced because of the speed at which it is occurring. Energy disrupters is not a buzz word but a reality. True visionaries, like DrillingInfo, challenge leaders to collectively find a way harness those disruptions for positive outcomes.

What we all walked away with was a better understanding of just how much more energy we will need in the digital explosion that is upon us. It appears to many that the Energy Information Administration (EIA) hugely underestimates the energy needs of a world with flying personal drones, self driving cars, weekly or daily rocket launches... any one of which could double to quintuple energy demand over time … without a population explosion. Our goal is to meet the demand of low cost, reliable, widely available, efficient, safe energy to power this great new world. It is those companies who stand with us who will make positive changes to harness these opportunities and challenges in the days ahead.

What impacted me personally the most this year at the conference, is the impact we can all have around the world, changing lives forever. Most of our world population does not have electricity and sufficient drinking water. Energy development in those underdeveloped countries provides a life and existence that billions have never experienced, a life as we know it, and take for granted everyday. It brings a life free of disease, light at night, comfortability in our homes, clean drinking water and education and a purpose for living.

America was a poor uninhabitated country not that many years ago, and in many of our lives we have seen prolific changes in our lifetime, we never thought was imaginable. Now America is a very prosperous world leader and energy made all of that happen in a relatively short period of time. As I sat in in many of the sessions this year, we spent more time discussing real solutions rather than wasting time complaining about geopolitical issues. America needs to continue its efforts to make a difference in the lives of those in the poorest of countries to help develop energy resources to change their lives forever.