Sam Fletcher
OGJ Online
HOUSTON, Aug. 15 -- An invited panel of 18 industry representatives said they want continued federal funding of technology research, plus some other concessions that US Department of Energy officials hadn't listed for discussion at a Houston hearing.
That hearing Tuesday afternoon, chaired by Robert S. Kripowicz, acting assistant secretary for fossil energy, was the last of three in the latest study of potential federal oil and gas research programs. Other hearings were in Denver and Pittsburgh (OGJ Online, Aug. 6, 2001).
The stated aim of the review, to be completed in September, is to help define technology investments that the government should make to keep US oil and gas wells flowing, improve prospects for US technology abroad, and safeguard the environment. Like previous DOE studies, it proposes to examine "the complete spectrum" of current technology.
But while industry representatives applauded the success of previous government-industry technology programs, they also called for streamlining the permitting process for drilling and greater access to federal lands, both onshore and offshore.
"As (natural) gas demand increases, as it surely will, we must find ways to make new gas reserves available," said Robert A. Mosbacher Sr., chairman of Houston-based Mosbacher Energy Co. and former US Commerce secretary under President George H. Bush.
The best way of providing those new reserves is by opening more federal land to exploration, particularly the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge (ANWR), said Mosbacher. Alaska's natural gas resources can be developed and a pipeline constructed to move it to markets in the Lower 48 States more quickly and safely than the development of export and import terminals to move liquefied natural gas from Trinidad into US Gulf Coast markets, he said.
New technology has helped the industry tap new oil and gas reserves in mature US basins even in periods of rising costs, said Robert W. Gee, former assistant secretary for fossil energy in the DOE during President Bill Clinton's administration. "The country requires a sustained commitment to technology development to minimize the environmental impact" of future exploration and development, said Gee, now a principal of the Gee Strategies Group that serves as consultant to energy companies and utilities.
The rapidly expanding coalbed methane market is the "direct result of the transfer of technology to independent producers through previous government research programs," said Craig Clark, executive vice-president of US operations for Apache Corp., Houston.
However, industry representatives also complained that some federal research programs are woefully underfunded and supervised by administrators who sometimes are not responsive to the industry's needs. Participation in government research programs is sometimes limited by corporate fears that they will forced to give up proprietary information and technology, they said.
Speaking on behalf of the National Ocean Industries Association and the Petroleum Equipment Suppliers Association, Aston A. Hinds, a vice-president of Halliburton Co., said solving energy and environmental problems will require "an active collaboration among government, industry, academia, and other stakeholders."
US Rep. Sheila Jackson Lee (D-Tex.) said, "One of the errors of the DOE, Congress and the administration is that we have not sold the need for an energy policy to the public." She suggested a "matching" of academic institutions with small independent producers and energy companies for research purposes.
"Research is the first step to understanding," she said. "That doesn't mean we will implement it, but at least we will understand it."
She also called for "continuous reporting of depth and content of offshore reserves." She said government officials "need to know where oil and gas reserves are located and the technology that's needed to develop them."
DOE officials said results of the review are expected to help shape the administration's fiscal 2003 budget. Interested parties may submit written statements of up to four pages through Aug. 30 to the DOE's Office of Natural Gas and Petroleum Technology or by email to [email protected].
Contact Sam Fletcher at [email protected]