The Energy Workforce Energy Technology Committee hosted its annual seminar in Houston at the Caterpillar Oil & Gas offices last week in partnership with the Nuclear Energy Institute. This year, the seminar, titled “Advancing Sector Capabilities,” focused on the sector’s wide range of technologies, including emissions reduction, CCUS, and nuclear.
Maynard Holt, Veriten, opened the seminar by outlining his perceptions of how the energy technologies sector will evolve in the coming year, particularly with the upcoming U.S. election and its impact on geopolitics. Tony Cottone, 1PointFive gave the customer update and shared OXY’s vision and leadership around direct air capture and how critical partners are to the innovation process. During lunch, attendees had the opportunity to hear from Texas Public Utility Commissioner Glotfelty, a strong proponent of nuclear energy in Texas and working on improving the permitting process.
The emissions panel with Jason Roe, DNOW; Raman Hanjra, Baker Hughes; Rodney Harms Caterpillar Oil & Gas; and moderated by Ashley-Rachelle Horstman, Accenture, discussed how organizations in the energy services sector view their role in driving emissions reduction and how they partner with their customers. They highlighted challenges for small and medium-sized companies in adopting emissions reduction technologies and explored emerging innovations in emissions monitoring and abatement. Additionally, the panelists shared insights on scaling these technologies and lessons learned in advancing emissions reduction strategies.
The panel on CCUS discussed the impact of tax incentives on CCUS project adoption, the management of risks through Monitoring, Measurement, and Verification (MMV) plans, and the public concerns around CO2 transportation and deployment. The conversation led by Richard Salter, SLB; Jeremy DeMuth, Deloitte; Brent Staley, NOV; and moderated by Jackie Longstaff, Caterpillar Oil & Gas, also explored challenges to scaling CCUS and the optimism surrounding its future, particularly looking toward 2025.
Closing the seminar were two nuclear-focused panels – one looking at the financial and investment piece and the other at the nexus between that sector and energy services. During the nuclear nexus panel, Nick Morris, Shepherd Power; Reed Clay, Texas Nuclear Alliance; Douglass Robison, Natura Resources and Matt Guyton, Piper Sandler, examined what lessons nuclear energy can learn from the success of oil and gas in shale plays and explored other applications of nuclear in refining, petrochemicals, and LNG. The conversation, moderated by Jack Belcher, Cornerstone Government Affairs, also highlighted the role of the energy services sector in expanding nuclear energy production and supply chains in Texas, along with the potential types and applications of different nuclear facilities in the state.
The finance panel included Ted Roosevelt, Barclays; Juliann Edwards, The Nuclear Company; Ryan Nielson, Citi; David Staack, Texas A&M and moderated by Benton Arnett, NEI. During that discussion, panelists each brought their perspectives on the challenges and opportunities the nuclear industry has encountered when accessing finance in recent years. They were very optimistic about the public’s evolving perception of the industry as a low-emissions baseload power source and how that will translate to more projects in the near and long term.
The “Advancing Sector Capabilities” seminar successfully brought together a wide range of industry leaders to discuss the evolving role of energy technologies and explored both the challenges and opportunities across various sectors, with a focus on partnerships, innovation, and scaling solutions to meet future energy demands.
Thank you to our event sponsors.
Thank you to our strategic partners.
Maria Suarez-Simmons, Senior Director Energy Policy, writes about industry-specific policies for the Energy Workforce & Technology Council. Click here to subscribe to the Energy Workforce newsletter, which highlights sector-specific issues, best practices, activities and more.
