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Energy Companies Use Downturn To Prepare For Oil Industry’s Upturn

Companies are using the downturn in the oil industry to regroup. Technology and an aging workforce are also forcing companies to adjust future plans.

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The three-day North American Prospect Expo Summit is underway at the George R. Brown Convention Center. Bruce Rutherford is with JLL. He advises energy clients on real estate transactions.

“The industry is looking for ways to get through these cycles with less pain and less risk.”

The industry’s workforce is aging, but companies must develop talent even in lean times.

“No one should envy an oil executive. They have to make very, very large bets on what will happen far into the future, and particularly the decision whether or not we’re going to hire these young people when we can.”

Allen Gilmer runs Drillinginfo — a monthly index of the latest data in the onshore oil industry. He says fracking and other technological advances have changed how the industry operates.

“You kind of have to tune up the system to maximize your production for a certain set of geological criteria. And then as you move away, it starts getting out of tune and you have to kind of tune it up again. You know, what do you do to extract more and more out of it?”

Companies at the NAPE Summit are sharing best practices on staying sustainable with oil prices under $30 a barrel.

Editor’s correction: Stated in an earlier version, NAPE does not stand for National Association of Petroleum Engineers. We apologize for this error .

 

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