Leslie Beyer, Council CEO, discussed the Council’s past, present and future as the national trade association for the technology and services sector of the oil and gas industry with NOV’s Assaad Mohanna during a live-streamed episode of “Insight Out.”
Beyer and Mohanna delved into the Council’s new scope and vision for transforming energy by giving its membership tools and representation to enable a low carbon energy future.
“The new name reflects what the sector contributes to society, opening the door for us to talk about our role in energy transition. No one understands how to develop energy at a global scale than the highly-skilled oil and gas workforce.”
Leslie Beyer, CEO, Energy Workforce & Technology Council
Beyer said the merger reflects a strategic decision to unite the sector to form the largest oilfield services and equipment association. The Council facilitates best practice sharing in important areas like safety, human resources and ESG, and broadens its reach by increasing geographic representation.
“We’re 600 companies and 600,000 employees strong, and the combined organization extends our geographic reach,” Beyer said. “There are industry allies in DC who can be educated about oil and gas, and supply chain jobs in their district. We take it upon ourselves to handle that education and talk about our highly skilled workforce and how our companies are involved in development across energy technologies.”
In addition to advocacy and communications, the Council leads first of its kind training and certification programs on Inclusion & Diversity, ESG and leadership development, as well as providing forums for members to share best practices on health, safety, HR and other issues companies must address.
“The Council had an edge with our committee structure going into the perfect storm of the downturn in the industry and the onslaught of the pandemic,” Beyer said. “Within those first few days, we were hosting best practices calls with health and safety and HR leads from 70 of our companies sharing their approaches to shared challenges.”
The organization remains focused on energy transition and leading conversations on the oil and gas sector’s role in decarbonization.
“We’ve been in that space, starting with the ESG conversation, for several years now,” Beyer said. “Our members have been the ones developing the technology to enable the transition to lower carbon energy.”
Beyer said that the energy transition is underway and accelerating.
“It’s not about switching from one fuel source to another, but the entire energy ecosystem working together to offer options.”
Watch the entire conversation on YouTube.
Mohanna is a guest on the Energy In Transition podcast in an episode to be released on Tuesday, May 18. The podcast discussion examines NOV’s role in low carbon energy production and the concept of energy addition.
