It has been a busy year for this editor. First, there was a trip to Florence, Italy, in late January, to attend the Baker Hughes Annual Meeting. Then, in mid-March, there was a speaking engagement with the Rocky Mountain chapter of AADE. This was followed by our company’s MCEDD deepwater conference in Amsterdam, in early April.
The latest trip was back to Italy—this time to Bergamo, where the International Valve Summit (IVS) was held May 14-16, as the 5th International Exhibition and Conference on Valve and Flow Control Technologies, Fig. 1. Every two years, the IVS serves as a meeting place for professionals and decision-makers involved in valve technologies and flow control solutions. The event connects attendees with EPC, managers, engineers and designers responsible for specifying, recommending, purchasing, servicing or distributing valves, actuators, controls and related products. As I quickly learned during two days of attending and participating in IVS, there is far more to be discussed about valves than many folks might imagine.
A host of upstream, midstream and downstream valve applications were displayed in the exhibition and discussed in various conference sessions. But the topics displayed/discussed hardly stopped with oil and gas. Indeed, there were plenty of valve applications for things like cement, food and beverage, mining, and power generation. As one of the conference organizers told me, “if you have a need, we have a valve for it.”
The conference portion. This year, the IVS expanded its format of two full days to include an extra half day of conference sessions on May 14, ahead of the opening of the exhibition on May 15. It was my privilege and pleasure to serve as moderator for that entire opening afternoon session of the conference portion of IVS. This included moderating two roundtables and introducing two individual speakers over a 4-hr period.
The first roundtable was a discussion of how to comply with the EU’s Corporate Sustainability Reporting Directive (CSRD), which went into effect on Jan. 5, 2023. The CSRD modernizes and strengthens the rules concerning the social and environmental information that companies must report. As with any governmental/regulatory/bureaucratic item, the process can get quite complicated and spurred an hour of discussion. This roundtable also discussed developments in, and the outlook for, the Energy Transition and decarbonization efforts. Personnel from KPMG, Velan, UniBG, Technip Energies and IOGP participated.
The first individual speaker from IOGP spoke on the topic of “JIP 33, Standardizing Procurement Specifications, brief illustration of the project, and update on its progress status.” He did a good job explaining how the JIP is making a step-change improvement in the specification, procurement and delivery of equipment for the oil and gas industry, through the use of standardized industry procurement specifications.
Following that, the second roundtable was a discussion of “The Intelligent Horizon: An Outlook on New Possibilities in Business Management Introduced by A.I.” Needless to say, any session that covers how artificial intelligence is going to affect particular lines of business is popular these days. And the roundtable participants did an excellent job of discussing potential scenarios and solutions. They represented firms that included Industrial Data Lab, EKR, Vjal Institute, Technip Energies, and Ernst & Young.
Last, but not least, the second and final individual speaker from the firm, Roland Berger, spoke on “Market trends: Challenges and opportunities for the Companies of the Valve Supply Chain.” If that sounds a bit all-encompassing, it was, but the speaker did a fine job of condensing the topic into about 20 to 25 minutes.
I want to thank these speakers and roundtable participants for being so well-prepared and having answers to a myriad of questions. I can’t think of one question that stumped any of them. In addition, I want to recognize the President of the IVS Scientific Committee, Francesco Apuzzo, who in his regular job is CTO of Carrara SpA, where he manages R&D and the Technical Department. Francesco did an incredible job in arranging the conference program and content, and he was my frequent guide and advisor during my time at IVS and overall stay in Bergamo. I cannot thank him enough for all the courtesies he provided.
Results of IVS. Come to think of it, the organizers and entire staff at IVS did a great job of conducting the event like a well-oiled machine. And their hard work is reflected in the final IVS numbers. The event attracted 15,000 people from at least 69 countries, up an impressive 25% from the 12,000 attendees recorded in 2022. In fact, IVS has grown from 5,700 visitors in its inaugural year of 2015 to 7,920 in 2017, and 10,753 in 2019.
Similarly, the number of exhibitors keeps growing. There were 325 exhibitors representing 14 countries, up 13% from the 2022 figure, and more than double the 150 exhibitors in IVS’ first year, in 2015. Congratulations to everyone involved in hosting this event. And speaking of a well-oiled machine, the IVS website is already featuring the date (May 19-21, 2026) for the 6th version of the event.
The U.S. FTC and its Sheffield affair. In contrast to the harmony at ITC in Italy, the political/regulatory environment affecting the upstream industry in the U.S. continues to be unnecessarily volatile. And one can trace the latest episode to the ever-burning hate that the ivory tower idiots in the Biden administration continue to have for the oil and gas industry. They just cannot help themselves; their hate requires periodic jabs intended to hurt O&G companies.
The latest example is where the U.S. Federal Trade Commission (FTC) on May 2 announced that it would insist that as a condition of ExxonMobil’s $64.5-billion acquisition of Pioneer Natural Resources, that retired Pioneer founder and CEO Scott Sheffield (Fig. 2), per a Proposed Consent Order, be banned from filling a seat on ExxonMobil’s board or serving in an advisory capacity at ExxonMobil, as it acquired Pioneer. The reason for this, said the FTC, is comments that Sheffield allegedly made to other Texas operators, where the agency alleges that he suggested to these firms that they coordinate ways to drill less oil. The FTC also alleges that in text messages obtained by the government, Sheffield discussed with OPEC+ officials ways to curtail production and assured them that Pioneer and its fellow Texas producers were trying to keep oil output artificially low. The FTC also suggested that it might refer a criminal complaint to the U.S. Justice Department. It should be pointed out that Sheffield remains a member of the board of directors at The Williams Companies, Inc.
Sheffield did not take the accusations lying down. On May 28, lawyers filed a Public Comment to the FTC on his behalf, in response to the FTC’s Proposed Consent Decree and May 2 press release relating to the merger of ExxonMobil and Pioneer Natural Resources.
A prepared statement issued through a media agency representing Sheffield said, “The Comment addresses the FTC’s allegations and demonstrates that they are based on a false narrative, mischaracterization of the facts and evidence, and a baseless interpretation of the applicable law. The comment calls on the Commission to vacate the Proposed Consent Order and dismiss the proceeding without further action.”
Referring to the Comment, Sheffield said, “This document lays out in detail why the FTC is wrong to imply that I ever engaged in, promoted or even suggested any form of anti-competitive behavior.” He continued, “It also shows how publicly and unjustifiably vilifying me will have a chilling effect on the ability of business leaders in any sector of our economy to address shareholder demands and to exercise their constitutionally protected right to advocate for their industries.”
Sheffield’s last sentence is right on the money, and the whole situation again brings into question how government officials appear to be trying to restrict free speech. And his situation eerily reeks of the manner in which officials have gone after former President Donald Trump. From this editor’s point of view, the whole Sheffield affair seems to be another petty attempt by the Biden administration to mess with the U.S. oil and gas industry that it obviously hates, due to this regime being populated with climate change zealots. Through these actions against Sheffield, the Biden people also seem to be sending a message to ExxonMobil, in effect saying, “we can put our collective governmental thumb on you any time we want to, and if you don’t comply, we can mess with your business.” It’s that simple and nakedly obvious.
Severe weather topples windmills in Iowa windfarm. Last month, we brought you news of how a severe hailstorm seriously damaged a solar farm southwest of Houston. We also told you that experts are increasingly concerned that damage to solar farms from hailstorms is a growing problem in the U.S.
Well, now we bring you a story about serious damage to windfarms near the towns of Greenfield and Prescott, in southwestern Iowa. On May 21, according to Associated Press, the Orient wind farm owned by MidAmerican Energy Company “suffered a direct hit from a powerful tornado that crumpled five of the massive, power-producing towers, including one that burst into flames.”
Video of the direct hit on the wind farm showed images of the violent twister ripping through the countryside, uprooting trees, damaging buildings and sending dirt and debris high into the air. Several of the turbines at the Orient wind farm recorded wind speeds of more than 100 mph as the tornado approached, just before the turbines were destroyed, the company said in a statement. Meanwhile, another four windmills at the Prescott wind farm, owned by RPM Access, were also destroyed by a tornado in that same area of severe weather, Fig. 3.
“This was an unprecedented impact on our wind fleet, and we have operated wind farms since 2004,” MidAmerican told AP. A spokesman for the American Clean Power Association said such incidents are “extremely rate.” But one has to wonder, given the continuing installations of more windmills across the U.S., coupled with increasing amounts of severe weather across the country, whether we will see more and more of these incidents. And if that happens, what will it do to the stability of U.S. electrical power, particularly if not enough hydrocarbon-fueled backup generation is available?
You can’t make this up. On May 24, Round 2 of the Charles Schwab Challenge golf tournament in Fort Worth, Texas, on the PGA Tour was temporarily halted, to allow the passage of severe weather that featured thunderstorms. A news release attributed to “Staff” of the PGA Tour said that play was suspended at 5:05 local time and would resume at 6:15 pm. But then, the release contained the following sentence: “Play was called because of electricity within 10 miles of the course.” Who is the genius who wrote this text? Wouldn’t you say, “because of lightning” or “because of an electrical storm featuring considerable lightning”? Does the PGA realize that a mistake this stupid calls into question the competency of its entire media staff? Methinks probably not. WO
IN THIS ISSUE
Special focus: Well Completion Technology. This month’s lead theme includes four features. In one item, NexTier authors discuss how a unique collaborative approach to completions management demonstrates how working from a different perspective can optimize operational efficiency and improve well economics. Meanwhile, an author at Intelligent Wellhead Systems observes that as fracturing intensity continues, operators are looking for additional ways to increase efficiencies. One such solution is automation in the fracing process. In addition, an Oil States Industries expert says that at the wellsite, oil and gas production can be made smarter, faster, more efficient and safer. The ability to utilize real-time data to make automatic and instantaneous adjustments can produce reductions in the days spent on frac operations and increased wellsite safety. Finally, former ConocoPhillips CTO Greg Leveille, who now heads a new company, discusses how far too many companies are seemingly holding back on utilizing horizontal wells to access Enhanced Geothermal Systems and risk missing a golden opportunity to extract heat from the Earth’s crust.
Sand control: Explaining sand erosion in oil and gas production. Authors from Emerson say that erosion, due to entrained sand, is a growing problem, and existing technologies have limitations, but new solutions are available to address this issue. Sand erosion challenges span across different areas, such as reservoir management, health, safety and environment, integrity management and production management.
Offshore technology: Can an offshore drilling rig run on green methanol? A Noble Corporation author describes how a feasibility study for the decarbonization of offshore drilling operations has been conducted. The key will be to utilize well-proven engines capable of operating on methanol and diesel with comparable performance characteristics.
EDITORIAL@WORLDOIL.COM