In a recent interview with The Way Ahead, 2021 SPE President Tom Blasingame sat down with TWA Interview section editor Yogashri Pradhan to discuss several topics of interest to young professionals (YPs). In the Q&A below, he talks about how YPs can prepare for the energy transition, the main challenges facing them in the industry, and his advice on how to not only survive but to thrive in their careers.
You are on record as saying that SPE must facilitate the "energy transition," which implies that our students and YPs must develop skills in renewable/sustainable energy sources. How do you suggest that a student or YP best develop such skills?
This is an extraordinarily important question and has several very difficult-to-measure elements. As a career-long academic, logic says that to be the strongest possible technical contributor, one must focus on the fundamentals.
The fundamentals matter: they build "muscle memory" in the brain. Some will say that experience does the same thing, and I cannot argue with that, but experience alone does not guarantee creativity—the ability to create a solution from scratch. The fundamentals do exactly this.
By induction, I am sure that chemical engineers will leap to their feet and say, "We are the most fundamental," or perhaps mechanical or civil engineers will do this. I can't argue with that, especially since petroleum engineering is so applied. However, my graduate work taught me that I could (or at least attempt) to solve any type of engineering/applied problem.
So, is this discussion leading to "We should all become chemical engineers and get PhDs?" No, but I had to lay that groundwork. The critical path for energy transition is to know our role and to look for ways to evolve, innovate, and create in a less-defined area. The concept of an energy mix implies these energy sources are independent of each other—this is the wrong way to think. We need to focus on an energy mix that is interdependent.
Frankly, the energy marketers are way ahead of us on this. They understand that being able to predict near-term energy needs (in the next days to a week) is critical for managing purchase prices; the ability to understand factors for the mid-term energy needs (months) is necessary for managing opportunities to optimize capacity (and costs); and the prediction of long-term energy needs (years) is essential for understanding and prioritizing energy resource investments.
After laying that foundation, now I’ll address the specifics of the question: “How do students and YPs prepare for energy transition?”
The term "energy engineering" has been around for about 20 years. I even proposed that my own institution (Texas A&M) create an energy engineering program, which it has (sort of). Stanford University created its "energy resources engineering" in 2006, and reading from its 2011–2012 catalog, we note, "The curriculum includes basic science and engineering courses that provide sufficient depth for a wide spectrum of careers in the energy and environmental fields." This is a simple, but effective, statement of my own concept of what energy engineering should be.
So, enough with the philosophical side of things—students and YPs in the energy industry will have to master at least two disciplines in the future, preferably three. Energy transition will require a knowledge and skills transition. We see this now as many students and YPs rush into the machine-learning and artificial-intelligence domain.
I believe that another major area of emphasis will be the integration of energy systems, and while not prevalent in the oil and gas sector, integrated energy systems are a strong field of study and practice in mechanical engineering, typically in terms of optimizing energy use in buildings or other energy-consuming systems.
Imagine, like with energy marketing/trading, your goal is to assign the most appropriate energy resource into a given device or system, for example, solar heating for buildings with natural gas as a backup resource. Such integrated systems may seem obvious (or even boring) but have enormous implications in utilization and optimization of energy source and consumption.
In addition, many of us in the oil and gas industry do have transferrable skills, examples of which are shown in the following list.
- Drilling and production skills can merge into mechanical systems (machinery, piping, heat transfer, etc.).
- Reservoir modeling can apply to modeling of other systems.
- Oil and gas property evaluation (reserves) skills are applicable to energy systems management.
- Reservoir engineering skills can be applied to geothermal, solar heating, carbon capture/utilization, and renewables.
- Petrophysics can merge into geomechanical systems across scales (nano/micro to mega-scale).
To keep up with and adapt to the ongoing changes in the industry, continuous learning seems important for career progression. Can online courses and materials be effective in upskilling? How can YPs use SPE’s online courses to stay current or add skills?
As an academic, I believe in formal course learning, but more importantly, I know that people must master self-learning to stay relevant in their careers. In truth, I suppose all learning is self-learning, but in school we have a guide and a taskmaster (the teacher); out of school it is more difficult to motivate self-learning.
I believe that self-learning is not accepting the digested knowledge of others (e.g., blogs, chats, etc.), but rather, the ability to investigate content such as books, reference papers, and even video content. Tools like OnePetro are essential for accessing reference materials, and if I am completely honest, it is my one indispensable resource. I would be far less functional in a technical sense without OnePetro.
So, what will your go-to resource be? As we add video content, OnePetro will grow exponentially, but how does one "search" video content without watching it all? This is a technical challenge, but just like search engines for text, this need will be addressed.
What I’d like to emphasize is that the individual is responsible for self-learning, personally and professionally. Young and old need to realize that we in SPE have tremendous resources at our disposal. For example, we have the SPE Online Education Portal and in this resource you will find
- Upcoming and on demand webinars
- Online training courses
- Educational videos
- eSessions
- Distinguished Lecturers
- Business Management and Leadership webinars
- PetroTalks
- Online Education Series
And while we have been a bit quiet about our plans and activities during the pandemic, SPE has been building its portfolio of online content and plans to offer a significantly greater volume of content to members in the coming years. We recognize that this is our single most impactful mission—to ensure the technical competence and capabilities of our members.
There are also other SPE educational programs such as SPE Live Series, SPE Competency Management Tool, and SPE Petroleum Engineering Certification.
Some of this may seem like a menu, but it is a listing I created with assistance from SPE staff and from searching on www.spe.org, just like you might. As a career-long academic I always point toward "fundamentals first, applications second." I mention this because the vast portfolio of online SPE content is directed toward applications, and this is obviously due to demand/need for such content.
Specific to the question regarding the use of online courses for upskilling, the answer is obviously yes, but with caveats.
- How will you reconcile any deficiencies you may have for a given online course?
- Will the selected course yield the upskilling you want/need?
- Can you self-learn the material without extensive exercises? (Probably not.)
My suggestion to YPs is that you make sure you manage your expectations for an online course. Like your coach or parents always told you, "You will only get out of it what you put into it." SPE will continue to evolve its array of online courses, and frankly, I hope that some of you reading this article will step up and prepare online course content for SPE at some point.
The technology of delivery will evolve, but the rigor of learning must be there as well. We tell students that they need to work at least 3 hours outside of class for every hour inside of class on the course materials. The same is true for online courses.
To make the best use of SPE's online courses, create a skills management plan with a mentor and consider using the online SPE eMentor program. Selecting courses on your own without consultation or planning may lead to issues such as taking courses out of order and/or not taking prerequisite courses when you really need to.
Ultimately, all learning is self-learning, and to be successful with any online course offerings, the student must commit to the process of self-learning, all the more so because the content is offered online.
What do you believe are the three most significant challenges and three most likely opportunities that YPs in oil and gas will face in their careers?
The challenges are obvious, but the opportunities will be the best in our history.
The three challenges for YPs:
- Much tighter landscape in traditional petroleum engineering (you must distinguish yourself)
- More difficult-to-access capital, at least at present and in the foreseeable future
- Much more public scrutiny of oil and gas as an industry (must engage/align with public)
The three opportunities for YPs:
1. A much tighter landscape in traditional petroleum engineering is also an opportunity. Those with the best skills, the best work ethic, and those willing to take creative and financial risks will reap tremendous rewards.
2. The opportunity to engage in and facilitate energy transition. Paths will evolve, but late adopters will probably not be (as?) successful. YPs need to align their education, skills, and experience with a progressive view on energy with oil and natural gas as transition fuels; in particular, natural gas. Such opportunities will require significant competence in core energy knowledge and skills, but also the abilities to engage with and adapt to new energy scenarios. In short, this will be difficult to do by design, but a strong technical background and exposure to multiple energy resources will be essential.
3. The opportunity to create new energy models from the ground up.
- I am not saying conventional oil will dominate the market indefinitely, but it likely will.
- I am not saying unconventional oil and natural gas are the future, but they most likely will be.
- I am not saying gas hydrates are the future, but these may be.
- I am not saying geothermal is the future, but it will eventually be a much bigger contributor.
- I am not saying that energy resource management will be a new discipline, but it most probably will be.
- I am not saying hydrogen is the future, but it likely will be.
During your previous roles in SPE leadership and as the current SPE President, you have been a supporter of YPs and championed for opportunities for them. What are some key lessons learned from your own YP days?
Thank you for this question. I probably need to remind myself of these early career lessons more often. I was extremely fortunate early in my career to have had a few SPE experiences that, upon reflection, led to some truly remarkable opportunities. Frankly, I was also very fortunate to have stumbled onto a technical topic that led to several innovations in reservoir engineering, but those innovations may not have been so impactful if not for the opportunities that one SPE experience in particular facilitated.
My attendance at the 1st SPE Colloquium on Education in mid-1991. This colloquium was a bit more informal compared to our forum and workshop programs today, and it was an unbelievably diverse group of characters from industry and academia. The colloquium focused around transitioning the relationship between industry and academia.
At that time industry would tell academia what to do, academia would pretend to listen, and then go do whatever it wanted anyway. But this meeting was very progressive in a number of ways. We looked at how our curricula met (or didn't meet) industry priorities, the need to become more interdisciplinary (especially in geoscience content), and what challenges our industry and academia would face. I recall one industry person screaming (literally) that there should only be 1/3 to 1/2 of the programs in petroleum engineering, that industry continuously consolidated, but academia just continued to grow like some sort of bureaucracy.
Most important were the people I met there. A few of the older faculty (e.g., Don Green at University of Kansas stands out. He was exceptionally kind to a young loudmouth) and some of the younger faculty became lifelong colleagues (Mohan Kelkar at University of Tulsa, to whom I owe much for his example of not letting personalities get in the way).
Service on the SPE Education and Professionalism Committee. I have wracked my brain trying to recall how I became involved in this service. I believe it was due to the colloquium, for which Don Green served as the chair of the committee.
I was so flattered to be on the committee, I worked like it was a job, taking notes and corresponding with members (recall this was before email, so things were a lot more personal). I felt like I had won the lottery because I got to see the way things worked at a committee level, and we even made some real progress.
As my service progressed, the previous members rolled off and I was asked to be the chair. I thought they had lost their minds to give me the opportunity to lead. I tried to emulate what I had seen in the previous generation of committee members and hoped that no one knew just how scared I was of making a mistake.
It was good service. We began to codify changes in curricula at many programs and we planned a cycle of colloquia.
There were challenges, but what I recall the most was that the senior members were not only kind, but deferential to me. They allowed me, someone half their age and with a fraction of their experience, to lead and to give them tasks. I still feel affected by the responsibility they gave me. That feeling has led most, if not all, of my career experience: Elevate others and don't wait until people are ready; just give them the opportunity to contribute and lead.
Relationships must be tangible. There is not enough paper for me to write how grateful I am that I was able to create tangible relationships in both service and research/applications. In particular, I am well beyond grateful for the relationships that I had with my graduate students at Texas A&M. Each was different, each was special, and each taught me something—some more than I taught them.
Professional relationships require trust, commitment, and most of all, action—action to serve, action to prioritize, and action to deliver. In my early career, I was fortunate to have had relationships that led to truly innovative collaborations, and to a person, these relationships led to career-long collaborations and friendships.
I would also comment that my early technical "competitors" (faculty at other schools) became my strongest personal friends in mid- and late career … probably because of shared experiences, but I would like to think it is out of professional respect and genuine admiration for each other's work. I would be remiss not to mention that at least one of my early-career industry collaborators has been quietly and steadfastly my strongest supporter. I have several, but it is worth noting that "childhood friendships" last a lifetime.
My advice: Put your effort into building and maintaining your personal and professional relationships. In truth, these have proven more valuable than any other single element in my career success. Knowing who to call, who will work, and who to trust to do their very best is your greatest asset.
Any closing comments?
Obviously, my comments and predictions are based on observations/opinions of myself and others, but the reality is that oil and natural gas will remain an essential global industry for at least the next 50 to 75 years (natural gas may be essential for centuries), and in many ways our best days are ahead of us as we in the industry facilitate energy transition.
The one piece of advice I have is to not wait to be told your job is changing. Get ahead of this. Always be focused on your skills—your only real asset—and make certain that you take advantage of every opportunity to learn.
This next bit is harsh. In the future of the oil and gas industry there will be no room for average performers. Each and every petroleum engineer will need to bring their best skills and their best effort. The abilities to create, to innovate, and to adapt will be essential, and remember that there is never a substitute for hard work.
I know this seems like your grandfather's advice or that of your crazy uncle, and I am neither. I am someone who has been tasked with having a progressive view of our industry and where we will be in 10, 25, and 50 years. No view of the future is ever perfect, but one issue is obvious: We have a massive and growing customer base, and we now have a genuinely competitive energy resource environment—oil and gas must adapt to both realities.
Thomas A. (Tom) Blasingame is 2021 SPE President. He is a professor of petroleum engineering at Texas A&M University, where he began teaching as an undergraduate teaching assistant in 1982 after becoming a student in 1980. He joined the full-time staff as an assistant professor in 1991. He has graduated 73 MS and 16 PhD students since 1991 and more than 170 technical articles. He is the second SPE President to come from academia, both from Texas A&M; the first was John Calhoun in 1964. Blasingame has been active in SPE since the early 1990s, serving in a wide variety of roles. He has chaired 20 conferences, 11 ATWs, three forums, and two SPE summits. He served on the SPE International Board of Directors as the Technical Director for Reservoir from 2015 to 2018. He also served as a Distinguished Lecturer, was named a Distinguished Member, and received SPE’s highest honor, SPE Honorary Member. Other SPE honors include the Distinguished Service Award, Lester C. Uren Award, Distinguished Achievement Award for Petroleum Engineering Faculty, Anthony F. Lucas Gold Medal, DeGolyer Distinguished Service Medal, and the SPE Gulf Coast Distinguished Achievement Award for Petroleum Engineering Faculty. Blasingame holds BS, MS, and PhD degrees in petroleum engineering from Texas A&M University. |