This month we examine the top five enemies of safety and training—aside from lack of follow up, which deserves a category of its own. Complacency How do you measure complacency? Or can you even measure it? You can sometimes recognize it. Is that reliable? Consistent practices in hiring can be one of the most critical aspects of […]
WATER IN ENERGY 2026: A Free-Flowing Forum
It should surprise no one that this year’s UTPB Energy in Water Conference was the most well attended yet. Brian Ward of APATEQ observes, “There is no comparison to the expert discussions, the tremendous networking opportunities, and the hospitality is second-to-none.” Indeed. Robust panels of deeply committed and insightful professionals discussed the entire oil and […]
Power That’s Portable
Click here to listen to the Audio version of this story! Grids nationwide and in the Permian Basin are strained, pulled at from every direction. Industry and transportation (electric vehicle charging stations) are a significant growth challenge. And in the wide-open spaces of West Texas and southeastern New Mexico, unspooling wire for hundreds of […]
Going Robo
Click here to listen to the Audio version of this story! It’s a new kind of truck on an old familiar road. If you’ve spent any time driving Interstate 20 through the Permian Basin, you know the rhythm of the road. Long stretches of asphalt. Pickups and hotshots. Endless convoys of sand trucks running […]
AI in Action
Click here to listen to the Audio version of this story! What if you could ask your smart speaker something like, “Hey, for our wells in Loving County, what is the risk of frac hits from neighboring leases?” and, in a few seconds, get a detailed answer? Although this sounds amazingly close to asking […]
Compliance, Competence, and Commitment
Safety has a tendency to find all kinds of acronyms to serve as catchy bywords. Take for instance the “Three C’s” of safety. This trio—compliance, competence, and commitment—furnish a catch-all category that encompasses the root causes of all injuries and accidents. Each C is equally necessary. It’s like a 3-legged stool. One weak leg can […]
Fueling the Planet
Click here to listen to the Audio version of this story! Since 2023 the United States has been the world’s top exporter of liquefied natural gas (LNG), ahead of Australia and Qatar. In fact, a recent report by the U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA) showed that the top U.S. gas basins—the Permian is second only […]
Data Centers and AI: A Bubble, a Boom, or the Latest Shiny Object?
Back to Reality. We have transitioned in the past 12 to 18 months from “oil and gas” to “energy, power, and electricity.” We didn’t know what data centers were a couple of years ago, and now there is little else that seems to matter. We are still waiting to see if it is a bubble, a boom, […]
“Back” to the Future!
Welcome to this month’s edition of Safety. Each year, regardless of anyone’s job description, whether white collar or blue collar, back injuries rank among the most prevalent suffered in the workplace. Each year there are more than two million back injuries. Eighty percent of adults suffer a back injury sometime in their lifetime, whether at […]
Beyond the Bubble—An Environmental Reality Check
Click here to listen to the Audio version of this story! While there will always be pollution associated with hydrocarbon production, the Permian Basin is on the forefront of many technologies and operational practices that are reducing emissions at scale—innovations that often lead the way globally, even amid intense scrutiny. The Environmental Landscape: Hard […]
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