Mike Pompeo, Dan Briouillette Speak At EWTC Annual Meeting

The Energy Workforce & Technology Council’s Annual Meeting ended with remarks by former Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, former Secretary of Energy Dan Brouillette, and power panels on winning the narrative when discussing the oil and gas sector, breaking supply chain disruptions, influencing energy policy, economic analysis and outlook.

The Annual Meeting, which was held in Point Clear, Alabama, highlighted the theme Energy Evolution: Embracing Opportunities. Through this lens, speakers addressed how the energy services sector plays a critical role in the technical advancement of the oil and gas industry, noting that digitalization, remote technology, and automation are all changing the field and allowing companies to create close partnerships between operators, service companies and technology providers that reduce operating costs and environmental impact while increasing well production.

Former Secretary Mike Pompeo was the keynote speaker for the opening session of the Annual Meeting. Secretary Pompeo thanked the members for their work in powering the world and leading in providing affordable, reliable energy. He also discussed Russia/Ukraine, the economy, cybersecurity, and the work of the industry in the global economy and national security.

“What you do every day is a tremendous service to America,” said former Secretary of State Mike Pompeo. “The world depends on affordable energy and that includes fossil fuels. The world is going to be dependent on the products that you all produce, deliver, and manufacture for decades to come.”

Day two started with former Secretary of Energy Dan Brouillette as the keynote speaker of the second general session at the Annual Meeting. Members had the opportunity to hear his thoughts on energy transition, the challenges, and opportunities the industry faces following the invasion of Ukraine, and energy as the driver of the economy.

"America should do what it has always done best and that is lead. Energy underpins every single economy in the world. If you want to grow your economy, you will need more, not less energy. [When I was Secretary of Energy] our policy was an all of the above approach. We supported and we should all support all forms of energy,” said former Secretary of Energy Dan Brouillette.

In her state of the industry speech, Energy Workforce and Technology Council CEO Leslie Beyer outlined the past year's accomplishments and the challenges the energy services sector is facing today and will face in the coming months. She addressed the crisis in Ukraine, and the industry’s ability to meet the growing resource demands for the U.S. and its European allies and called on the Administration to drop the negative rhetoric about the oil and gas industry and encourage investment and increased domestic production by reducing unnecessary regulatory barriers.

“We know there is an ever-growing global demand for energy, and oil and gas must continue to be a part of the equation when meeting this demand for the energy security and survival of our world,” said Beyer. “The U.S. must not abandon its posture in the oil and gas industry if the Administration wants to meet its clean energy goals. We know we are the best option to increase production as we produce oil and gas in a cleaner, safer manner than our foreign counterparts and our industry is critical to providing the energy necessary to meet this growing global demand while also investing in technological innovations to reduce emissions.”

The Council recognized several industry leaders during its awards program. Toby Rice, President and CEO of EQT, was awarded the Industry Influencer Award for his outstanding and personal dedication to advocating on behalf of the energy technology and services sector.

“The most important thing we can do to be a driving factor behind human progress is giving people access to cheap, reliable, clean energy. When you do that, quality of life skyrockets,” said Toby Rice. “[U.S.] LNG exports is the biggest green initiative on the planet. LNG is the biggest renewable initiative on the planet because the biggest issue facing the world today is foreign coal. If we want a thoughtful policy on how we are going to fix the climate, it’s not about what we do here in the United States, it’s what the United States can do for the world. And what we can do is unleash American shale, the innovation and the ingenuity that is in this room that can send our resources overseas to replace foreign coal.”

Other award honorees announced during the three-day conference included Apache Corporation, which received the ESG Accelerator Award, Milestone Environmental Services was presented with the Member Engagement Award, and the DEI Champion Award went to Sivasankaran ‘Soma’ Somasundaram, President and CEO of ChampionX.

The ESG Champion award was presented to Celine Gerson, President and Group Director for the Americas at Fugro.

Mark Reed, General Sales Manager Exploration for Mustang Cat took home the Industry Advocate Award, while Simao Silva, Global Account Director at Oceaneering International received the Emerging Executive Award while the Chapter Champion Award went to the Jody Helbling of the Energy Drilling Company and chair of the Natchez Chapter.

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