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PESA High Performer Spotlight: Nate McPherson, Engineering Manager, Black Horse LLC

Nate McPherson

Nate McPherson, Engineering Manager, Black Horse LLC

What influenced your decision to enter the oil and gas industry?
An opportunity to develop new products and directly work with customers is what influenced me to enter the oil and gas industry. My first 12 years with Caterpillar was in operational roles with hydraulics supporting the mining industry. My customers were often internal customers within Caterpillar manufacturing. The opportunity to expand my career while staying with Caterpillar was a welcomed challenge and honestly moving from the Midwest to Houston was a fairly easy decision for my young family!

What do you find most challenging and most rewarding about the industry or your work?
Since moving to this role as engineering manager for well stimulation pumps, what I find most challenging is validating new products and designs for the application and convincing customers to change. As a major component supplier, it can be nearly impossible to simulate or predict all scenarios for the application without actually going to the field. We rely on our strategic partners and strong customer relationships to gain more validation experience than can be achieved through traditional means of design. When successful, this is obviously the most rewarding part of the role to provide more value to our customers than our competitors.

Where do you hope to see the industry develop over the next five years? What role do you believe you will play in the industry’s future?
Specific to the well stimulation pumps, I am excited about our new products and the industry embracing more integrated assets, remote monitoring, and data analytics to improve the quality and safety while reducing costs for well stimulation. The majority of the pumping assets in North America are rather manual and heavily dependent on the operators. With these new systems in place, we can provide more precise and timely feedback to the operator for effective and efficient operations. Additionally, predictive diagnostics will prevent catastrophic damage or unplanned downtime. Many of these technologies already exist within the industry on other assets and I am very excited to bring them to the well stimulation pumps.

What would you tell someone who is thinking about entering the oil and gas industry?
From my early perspective, I see the oil and gas industry as extremely entrepreneurial and eager to find new ways to solve problems. While some aspects of the industry has been highly regulated and very precise, there are many areas to quickly improve the products and services. If you are willing to learn quickly, take some calculated risks, it can be very rewarding industry. There is significant forecasted demand for our products and services, even though it can also be highly volatile at times.

How has your involvement in PESA supported your life goals?
PESA has enabled me to learn more about the entire industry from end to end more quickly that I could have on my own. The engagements events and members all share common goals to drive innovation, create jobs and continuous learning … all of which align with my personal goals. Whether I am training for a triathlon, doing homework with the kids or working around the house I am looking for a better way to do a task and learning how I can improve.

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