(Tech Connections Column, March 2007, American Oil and Gas Reporter)

This continues to be a good year for those exploring for and exploiting domestic oil and gas resources. Opportunities abound and technology is part of nearly all.

Speaking of opportunities, PTTC Executive Director Don Duttlinger is headed back into the for-profit world to seize opportunities there after six years of faithful service to PTTC. We wish him well. Having served for years as national project manager, I am stepping to the plate in the executive director role. The bulk of the team remains intact to continue delivering on our mission.

PTTC itself is stepping up. When formed in 1994, the vision was for PTTC to become industry funded within a few years, whereby producers, consultants and the service sector would provide financial resources. Industry has supported PTTC, but generally in intangible ways rather than with dollars. Pardon PTTC for the delay, but our board of directors, composed of producers from across the country, fully accepted the challenge last year of transitioning to an industry-funded model. As many know, we developed a membership plan that provided various ways for companies to participate. We have taken that proposition to the marketplace, and it has sent a clear signal: What PTTC was offering was not quite right.

What we have learned is that first, industry has no problem paying fair prices, but it wants to do so only for what it is interested in–purchasing ala carte rather than eating from a buffet. Second, companies want to pay on a as-they-go basis when the product/service is there, not when someone is describing how it will be there. Third, as opposed to a scatter gun approach, businesses want focused, trustworthy, insightful and well organized technology information that saves them time in developing the confidence needed to make application decisions. Fourth, industry expects PTTC to demonstrate the same efficiency that for-profit businesses must. Fifth, making the information locally available is essential; one can talk about thinking nationally, but we all want it where we live and work. One could sum it as become leaner, meaner and entrepreneurial. Consequently, we are rethinking our offering in light of that strong feedback.

Ideas were still in process when this column was being written, but one that we are excited about is “semi-virtual” knowledge centers. The concept is simple. For a given topic, say hydraulic fracturing, PTTC would identify a few respected, unbiased individuals, universities or organizations that are recognized as leaders in the field. We listen to those experts, letting them help define what content needs to be captured within a knowledge center. We then retain them to develop the knowledge center and make information available through the Internet and workshops. It is not really research; it’s gathering all that is relevant (as determined by experts).

What would a knowledge center contain? Many elements are envisioned. To start, there would be a white paper that crisply summarizes the science, the remaining issues, and the directions industry is pursuing to solve those issues. Hearing this from acknowledged experts will save days or weeks of digging for reliable information. There also would be case studies demonstrating how technology solved real world problems. Vendors and service providers would have a place to show how their solutions matched problems. A “links” section would enable users to quickly connect with those vendors.

There would be an annotated bibliography directing individuals to the papers/articles publicly available that the experts considered to be seminal works. Active research consortia would be described along with their research thrusts and who to contact to get directly involved. A calendar would alert users to upcoming workshops across the country that were focused on the topic, or to proceedings from past workshops that might be available. Each year the experts would develop a top-notch workshop, which would be videotaped. Local workshops combining videotape and live presentations of regional case studies could be made available.

Is anyone convinced? Would it be worth a few hundred dollars to an independent producer to save days or weeks of scarce time, especially considering that a person can have more confidence that the decision he is making is the right one? PTTC thinks so. Contact me at 918-241-5801 (e-mail lcole@pttc.org) and let me know whether you agree.

Why are knowledge centers important to PTTC? They are available only to those who “pay to play.” Those willing to pay are a self-qualified audience–they are coming with a need and an application requiring services. This creates the incentive for vendors and service providers to provide funds to demonstrate their capabilities. It doesn’t require thousands, but rather hundreds of individuals, for this to be attractive for the service community. Everybody wins: producers, vendors and service providers, PTTC, and ultimately the country as more domestic oil and gas is discovered and produced.