October 20, 2014

Duke students get hands-on with hydrocarbons in Houston

Nicholas Institute for Environmental Policy Solutions

Duke university students, faculty and staff got a chance to see – and sometimes even touch – the physical, financial and research infrastructure that underpins the oil and gas sector in the United States during a five-day fall break field trip to Houston, Texas.

It was the 10th consecutive energy field trip to Texas organized by the Nicholas School of the Environment (NSOE), and was led by Lincoln Pratson (pictured right), the Truman and Nellie Semans/Alex Brown & Sons Professor of Earth and Ocean Sciences. The group consisted primarily of candidates for NSOE's Environmental Management master's degree, along with Daniel Raimi, an associate in research from the university-wide Energy Initiative, and Brian Prest, a second-year Ph.D. student.

The students visited oil and gas production sites, industry research facilities, refineries and petrochemical plants, and museums describing the geological and technological history of oil and gas production. Industry experts on each of these topics guided the group at the sites while experts from Rice University, Schlumberger, Royal Dutch Shell and ExxonMobil gave presentations on unconventional oil production, carbon capture and storage, the geopolitics of energy, energy investment, and more.

Duke alumni and faculty played a major role in the trip. Dr. Gary Isaksen, an adjunct professor at the Nicholas School, manager of ExxonMobil's Global Ocean Science & Policy, and manager of ExxonMobil's Arctic Science & Policy, gave students a look inside research and training facilities in Houston (shown left). Isaksen and colleagues demonstrated and allowed students to experience ExxonMobil's three-dimensional simulator, where geologists examine 3-D images of oil reservoirs, and trainees learn how to safely work on a drilling rig.

Fuqua alumnus Rob Jacobs, CEO of Caird Energy, an independent oil and gas producer based in Fort Worth, spent a full day with students to discuss business, policy and technology. Russell Sherrill, another Fuqua alumnus who now directs the investment firm Global Energy Capital, explained how his firm evaluates investment opportunities in the energy sector.

The group visited additional Duke alumni at EDF Trading, where Trinity and Fuqua graduate Ben Rich and Fuqua graduate Greg Bosl described how they trade products including oil and gas futures, electricity contracts and emissions credits.

For a hands-on experience with the industry's physical infrastructure, students toured ExxonMobil's Baytown refinery and chemical plant, one of the largest facilities of its type in the world.

They also visited a mature oilfield with Randy Little, co-owner of H-M Oil (shown right). Little guided students around his company's Brookshire oilfield, where dozens of pump jacks operate 24 hours per day, seven days a week