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At LAGCOE: Don't underestimate U.S. oilman

Oct 28, 2015 / News

The U.S. oilman should never be underestimated.

That was the message Chesapeake Energy President and CEO Doug Lawler delivered in a keynote presentation Tuesday at the Louisiana Gulf Coast Oil Exposition at the Cajundome.

Lawler, who worked for nine years in Lafayette for Kerr-McGee, then Anadarko, said OPEC knows full well that the U.S. oil industry is innovative and creative in the face of down times.

Unfortunately, those down times may last through 2016, Lawler said in his presentation on the "2016 Outlook: Leadership, Performance and Value."

Lawler said the price for a barrel of oil may endure at an average of $50 through next year, with natural gas prices holding in the $2.50 to $3.50 range.

Lawler said enormous global reserves in oil may keep prices suppressed until the reserves melt away. He suggested consumer demand may pick up in China, which he said adds 13 million motorcycles as well as new SUVs each year.

"China is going to go crazy with consumption," he said. "The question is when."

Lawler's was one of several Tuesday presentations.

Jason French, director of government and public affairs for Cheniere Energy, returned to LAGCOE — he spoke at the 2013 show — with an update on Cheniere's investments in Louisiana. He said Cheniere's 1,000-acre LNG development at Sabine Pass is scheduled to export its first liquefied natural gas shipment in January.

Because supply exceeds natural gas demand in the U.S., he said, exporting LNG globally makes good sense for the company, which is spending some $20 billion at the site.

"It's an amazing construction site," he said. "It looks like a small city," with some 4,000 construction workers.

The $20 billion investment, he said, is equivalent to building 30 Superdomes in Cameron Parish. With its developments in Louisiana and at Corpus Christi, Texas, he said, Cheniere is building the equivalent of 60 Superdomes on the Gulf Coast.

A delegation from Mexico was among two international presenters Tuesday. Three speakers discussed reforms in the oil and gas industry in that country, where PEMEX, a state-owned company, has enjoyed a monopoly since 1938, when Mexico nationalized U.S. and Anglo-Dutch companies to form PEMEX.

Mexico's representatives discussed reforms that have come in two waves, in 2008 and 2013, that have opened the country for outside investment for the first time. Guillermo Garcia Alcocer, head of policy for exploration and production for the Ministry of Energy, said reform has been sparked by a decade-long decline in Mexican oil production.

In short, PEMEX has mined the easy-to-reach oil and is short on expertise to harvest available oil reserves off shore and in wells that might be reopened. He said reform was "big" and added, "I never thought I would see the day."

He suggested international investors might profit from bidding on available blocks of oil reserves as well as by helping build infrastructure for oil and gas in Mexico. That includes pipelines and tanks.

Four hundred forty-eight exhibitors opened their booths Tuesday inside and outside the Cajundome & Convention Center.

Missy Rogers of Noble Plastics said visitor traffic was light in the early morning, but she was eager to display and explain her company’s system of using robotics to enhance safety and avoid repetitive motion injuries in the oil industry.

Other exhibitors, their booths set up, walked the floor to observe other products being shown.

Brad Lewis of Well Aware, a San Antonio-based company, said he was enjoying the other exhibits. Well Aware is involved with remote monitoring of wells, he said.

Steve Maley, LAGCOE 2015 chairman, spent part of his morning at the Energy Innovators tent.

"There were great ideas there,” he said. "This is just what we need.”

Charlie Moncla, this year’s "LAGCOE Looey,” the honorary hard-hat-wearing "everyman” character that has served as greeter to LAGCOE participants over the years, said there was "a lot of activity” on the exposition floor, and that people were "excited about the show.”

"We’re optimists, or we wouldn’t be in the oil business,” he said. "In the long run, this country has to have oil.”

Moncla and Maley were among those who marked the show’s opening at 9 a.m. with a ribbon-cutting.

At the ribbon-cutting, Tom Hebert of Young Professionals of LAGCOE presented a check for $20,140.56 to the Community Foundation of Acadiana, which oversees funding for the LAGCOE Education Fund. The money was generated by the Young Professionals’ annual clay shoot.

Mexico's representatives discussed reforms that have come in two waves, in 2008 and 2013, that have opened the country for outside investment for the first time. Guillermo Garcia Alcocer, head of policy for exploration and production for the Ministry of Energy, said reform has been sparked by a decade-long decline in Mexican oil production.

In short, PEMEX has mined the easy-to-reach oil and is short on expertise to harvest available oil reserves off shore and in wells that might be reopened. He said reform was "big" and added, "I never thought I would see the day."

He suggested international investors might profit from bidding on available blocks of oil reserves as well as by helping build infrastructure for oil and gas in Mexico. That includes pipelines and tanks.

Four hundred forty-eight exhibitors opened their booths Tuesday inside and outside the Cajundome & Convention Center.

Missy Rogers of Noble Plastics said visitor traffic was light in the early morning, but she was eager to display and explain her company’s system of using robotics to enhance safety and avoid repetitive motion injuries in the oil industry.

Other exhibitors, their booths set up, walked the floor to observe other products being shown.

Brad Lewis of Well Aware, a San Antonio-based company, said he was enjoying the other exhibits. Well Aware is involved with remote monitoring of wells, he said.

Steve Maley, LAGCOE 2015 chairman, spent part of his morning at the Energy Innovators tent.

"There were great ideas there,” he said. "This is just what we need.”

Charlie Moncla, this year’s "LAGCOE Looey,” the honorary hard-hat-wearing "everyman” character that has served as greeter to LAGCOE participants over the years, said there was "a lot of activity” on the exposition floor, and that people were "excited about the show.”

"We’re optimists, or we wouldn’t be in the oil business,” he said. "In the long run, this country has to have oil.”

Moncla and Maley were among those who marked the show’s opening at 9 a.m. with a ribbon-cutting.

At the ribbon-cutting, Tom Hebert of Young Professionals of LAGCOE presented a check for $20,140.56 to the Community Foundation of Acadiana, which oversees funding for the LAGCOE Education Fund. The money was generated by the Young Professionals’ annual clay shoot.

Ken Stickney | The Advertiser