Scott Kidwell
The Permian Basin Petroleum Association has represented the oil and natural gas industry of West Texas and Southeast New Mexico for 60 years. In that time, the leadership and staff of the PBPA has changed and evolved to represent the Association’s membership and needs. Today, PBPA is led by President Ben Shepperd, and a full-time staff comprised of Caci Koegel, Michael Lozano, Jamie Ramirez, and Stephen Robertson. Michael Miller, Dan Hinkle, and Chris Kearney have also been providing tremendous work as specialized contract employees.
During the last year, many of you may have missed out on directly interacting with the staff, as you likely missed out on directly interacting with anyone except your immediate family. Until PBPA held a membership luncheon on April 1, 2021, we hadn’t held an in-person event since February 2020. However, just because you didn’t see them, didn’t mean our staff wasn’t working diligently to remain the voice of the Permian Basin, and to ensure your rights to operate in the world’s most prolific oil patch.
As PBPA, and hopefully the world, begins to open back up I wanted to talk about what the staff has been accomplishing for you in the proverbial, and sometimes literal, dark. Next time you see them in person, as many of you hopefully did at our April Membership Luncheon or our 2021 Spring Swing Golf Tournament, ask them what they’ve been up to and thank them for all they accomplish on our behalves.
PBPA was founded back in 1961 to be the voice of oil and natural gas operators in the Permian Basin who had felt ignored by those in Washington, D.C. While PBPA still has a strong reputation in our nation’s capital, where we continue to work on a number of issues important to the membership, we also have an incredibly strong presence in Austin, Texas; Santa Fe, N.M.; and throughout the Permian Basin. The PBPA staff is what makes all that possible.
In the last few months, the staff has been advocating for our industry and region in Austin and Santa Fe while both Texas and New Mexico conducted legislative sessions (at the time of this column, the New Mexico legislature has adjourned but the Texas Legislature is still in session). This advocacy consists of engaging with legislators and their staff on bills and priorities of the membership. Phone calls, personal visits, official written comments or public testimony offered in committee hearings, along with committee meetings for our own membership, have been greatly utilized by the staff at every turn to make sure the Permian Basin has had the best representation possible.
While PBPA is well known for our regulatory and legislative advocacy, there is so much more to the association. Whether from the headquarters of the PBPA in Midland, or from our satellite offices in Austin and Santa Fe, the staff of the PBPA works with a variety of different stakeholders to help protect your right to operate. On a weekly, if not daily, basis the staff handles requests from local, state, national, and even international media looking to cover the Permian Basin. They conduct interviews, provide pertinent data points, confirm or deny assertions, and makes sure someone is standing up for our industry. The PBPA staff also works closely with Jesse Mullins and his staff at PBOG to put together a first class monthly magazine for our members. But engagement with such stakeholders doesn’t end there. PBPA staff also interacts with academic institutions, economic research firms, and regulatory bodies, while also participating in panel discussions, giving presentations at conferences, and even confronting groups opposed to our industry to provide accurate and impactful data on a variety of issues.
Along with all of that work, the staff still facilitates and helps run the following standing committees that continued to operate, even if virtually, during the pandemic:
- Regulatory Practices Committee
- Texas Legislative Committee
- New Mexico Legislative Committee
- Electrical Coalition
- Health, Safety, and Environment Committee
- Water Committee
- Species, Habitat, and Operations Committee
- Legal Committee
- Executive Committee
- Finance Committee
I could fill up an entire column writing about the work of any one of the above committees. The organization, execution, and results of these committees take a tremendous time and effort from our staff, and it truly makes PBPA the incomparable advocate that the Permian Basin deserves.
Not one of the individuals on the PBPA staff is responsible for all the efforts described in this column. However, each individual staff member contributes tremendously to making PBPA the outstanding association it is today. Throughout this year, return to this column to learn more about our staff and what they mean to the PBPA.