Perspectives From The Chairman

Brian Sims, Independent from Madison, Mississippi, took over as PTTC's Chairman in mid-March. His leadership culminates years of involvement in PTTC's Eastern Gulf Region and on the National Board of Directors. Sims has 23 years of experience in oil and gas exploration, development and production, principally in the onshore Gulf Coast Region. Prior to 1991 Mr. Sims worked 10 years as a geologist in various capacities for Clayton W. Williams, Jr., Inc. in Jackson, Mississippi and Houston, Texas. He received his B.S. degree in geology from Millsaps College in Jackson. He is past president of the Mississippi Geological Society and is a member of several oil and gas associations.

Here's the environment the E&P industry faces as I begin my stint at PTTC's helm. Strained natural gas and oil supply, combined with unpredictable volatility in the pricing market has changed the way we do business today. Certainly activity has increased and there are further opportunities to be pursued, however the risk in decision making has also increased proportionally. Human and equipment resources utilized by industry are at the upper limits across all sectors. Product prices are high, but cost of equipment/services is also up so there is that ever-present pressure on profit margin. Independent producers will have to adapt in order to continue to supply the majority of the nations natural gas needs and play a significant role in brownfield reserve production from marginal wells.

To realize the opportunities in front of them, producers must work smart, which often involves integrating new technologies or approaches into the way they do business. Learning about these newer technologies in a time-efficient manner is critical. That's why I've made the commitment I have to PTTC and its "Connection" role. Part of that connection role is helping industry understand, participate in, and benefit from federal investments in natural gas and oil R&D. Those investments themselves are under pressure as the U.S. strives for fiscal discipline in government.. Its time to fulfill the promise made on a common oilfield bumper sticker of the past— "Lord, just give me another oil boom and I promise I won't screw it up." As an industry let's deliver — for ourselves and the country.

In the next year I'm focusing my attention on three areas where I think PTTC can improve upon already solid services.

Volunteer direction. PTTC's activities deliver value when its workshops, newsletters, case studies, and websites address those technology concerns domestic producers face. We have an existing network of volunteer advisors at the regional and national level and we get feedback from the thousands who come to our activities every year. We find though that "the more specific one gets" in expressing what they want to learn about, the more on target the topics, subtopics and speakers in our workshops become. One of my goals is to impress upon PTTC's audience the importance of "communicating to" their regional Producer Advisory Group. When producers run with knowledge they gain, we also need them to share their case studies and provide the data to demonstrate the impact our technology transfer activities are having.

Leverage. Everyone is busy, so it is critical that when producers do spend time learning about new technology they get the most for the time invested - practical bottom line insights must be delivered and that's what PTTC does best. For those in outlying areas where its not feasible to attend, I want PTTC to improve at making insights and information from workshops available online. Online training is not quite like being there, but it can be close. Doing so also helps PTTC better leverage its financial and human resources.

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