The DUG East & Marcellus-Utica Midstream Conference & Exhibition launched today in Pittsburgh, PA, focused on the state of global and U.S. based oil and natural gas production – including a deep-dive on the pulse of Appalachian oil and gas activity.
The DUG conference provides a potent mix of relevant content presented by expert speakers, and impactful networking with exhibitors focused on addressing key issues affecting the industry. From carbon and regulatory challenges to current global unrest and inflation challenges, this year’s speakers address solutions for mitigating a growing risk landscape.
Balance is a key theme at the conference, capped by Josh Viets, EVP and COO at Chesapeake Energy, advocating for what he called “a balanced energy policy…[where] we contemplate three important principles around any good energy policy, and that [is] to balance affordability, reliability, and creating a lower carbon future.”
Viets discussed the demand in society to lower carbon futures and the importance of not ignoring this point but rather understanding – as an industry – how natural gas can “be a part of the solution going forward and helping us achieve a lower carbon future.” Viets leveraged a host of data to demonstrate the role of natural gas in reducing emissions and showed how in 15 years (2005-2020) the United States led the world in reducing emissions – by 970 metric tons in CO2 – accomplished in large part by growing the base of natural gas.
According to Viets, natural gas played a key role in this reduction. “And so how did we do that? We did that by growing our natural resource base, specifically in natural gas,” said Viets. “You saw natural gas production increase by over 90% in this 15-year time period, you saw natural gas power generation grow by over a hundred percent, and again, this is a key driver seeing this overall absolute emission reduction.”
This analysis underscored the premise of his speech, which is the need for the industry as a whole to balance three aspects: reliability, affordability, and lower carbon, in order to drive profitability, while reducing emissions and meeting growing energy demands.
Addressing Other Challenges
Another key theme at the conference is the need to address challenges by relentlessly focusing on reducing operational emissions through the adjustment of current operational practices and improving facility designs.
Viets saw this as key to be competitive within the investor space. “And so, we have, what we believe to be, a peer leading capital return framework that we expect to be successful and sustainable throughout time with the business model that we put in place.”
By being capital-disciplined and through careful investments, Viets mentions his company “increased gas production by 90%, and increased the amount of drillable inventory that we have by 65%.” More importantly, these transactions add immediate value on what Viets called “key financial measures, including free cash flow per share and free cash flow yield.” He added, “These are lessons learned from the past … and we are committed to maintaining a leverage ratio of less than one.”
It Takes an Ecosystem to Solve Challenges
A final theme in the first day of the conference is the potential power that comes from working together in strategic partnerships toward solving the greater challenges within this sector. The goal of the conference is for participants to gain critical insights from producers on how to reduce drilling costs and increase operational efficiencies from networking with hundreds of like-minded professionals.
For example, Kelvin.ai met with Sirius Instrumentation and Controls Inc. to share ideas on how Kelvin Collaboration Control Software, plus the chemical pumps and chemical injection system components that Sirius is well-known for, together can tackle some key challenges within the oil and gas industry – and how working together may help us solve more customer challenges in the future.
These discussions are part of the intended discovery of best practices and key metrics that DUG strives to accomplish – along with the showcasing of new technologies and trends, and the identification of new solutions.
To learn more about how Kelvin.ai helps customers reduce emissions and hit Net Zero goals — while boosting production and efficiency, contact us today.
