Latest / Under Pressure: Compressor Talk / Challenging the Myths of the Oil and Gas Industry

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Challenging the Myths of the Oil and Gas Industry · Under Pressure: Compressor Talk

• 0:02
  SPEAKER_00: This is Under Pressure.
• 0:04
  SPEAKER_00: Compressor Talk by Midwest Compressor.
• 0:07
  SPEAKER_00: Strategies, systems, and stories from the compressor world.
• 0:12
  SPEAKER_00: With your host, David Abshire.
• 0:15
  SPEAKER_00: And now, on to the show.
• 0:20
  SPEAKER_01: Good morning.
• 0:21
  SPEAKER_01: This is David Abshire with Aiden Larrabee here on Compressor Talk this morning under pressure.
• 0:27
  SPEAKER_01: So Aiden, thanks for jumping on this morning on a beautiful Thursday morning here in the great state of Texas.
• 0:34
  SPEAKER_01: So welcome to the show.
• 0:36
  SPEAKER_01: We're uh we're gonna uh visit with Aiden this morning, and he's gonna tell us a little bit about his background and his plans for the future.
• 0:42
  SPEAKER_01: So we'll get started.
• 0:44
  SPEAKER_01: Aiden, uh, can you uh start by telling us a little bit about your background and what your day-to-day life looks like now as a you know Texas AM engineering student?
• 0:53
  SPEAKER_02: Absolutely.
• 0:54
  SPEAKER_02: Well, thanks for having me on the podcast.
• 0:56
  SPEAKER_02: First of all, David, I'm excited to share a little bit about my story and what I'm up to right now.
• 1:02
  SPEAKER_02: As you said, I'm currently a senior petroleum engineering student at Texas AM and I'm very excited about getting to enter the industry soon.
• 1:14
  SPEAKER_02: Day to day, right now, as a college student, uh, the semester has just started up, so getting busy with classes, you know, that's sort of my job right now is going to classes and taking part in a really neat capstone class right now that's putting together all the skills that I've learned over the past three and a half years to prepare me for industry.
• 1:41
  SPEAKER_02: And so getting to practice putting those into use before going out into the real world.
• 1:49
  SPEAKER_01: Well, that's that's exciting for sure.
• 1:51
  SPEAKER_01: And I I know, of course, you're always I'm sure you're ready to be done.
• 1:56
  SPEAKER_01: That's every every engineering student that I visit with, uh, you know, that last final year is so hard to, you know, just kind of get over the hump and get everything moving forward, which I know everybody at that point in life too, they're ready to be done.
• 2:09
  SPEAKER_01: Because it's it's everybody's tired of being a broke college student because as I know, of course, and having kids in her college still, I've got a senior right now at the University of Arkansas, and she's going for business and finance, and so I know that she's ready as well.
• 2:27
  SPEAKER_01: So I I completely relate a hundred percent.
• 2:30
  SPEAKER_01: Um, so it looks like uh you grew up in Maine, which isn't exactly oil and gas country.
• 2:36
  SPEAKER_01: So how did you end up, you know, choosing the petroleum engineering program?
• 2:40
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, you you could say it's definitely not oil and gas country.
• 2:45
  SPEAKER_02: Although it's heavily reliant on oil and gas, which is kind of the irony behind all this, especially just given this time of year.
• 2:55
  SPEAKER_02: So growing up, I had no idea about the upstream oil and gas industry.
• 3:01
  SPEAKER_02: I thought, you know, gas just came out of the pump at the gas station.
• 3:06
  SPEAKER_02: Um there's not much of a context for it, and I didn't even really know any engineers.
• 3:11
  SPEAKER_02: Neither of my parents are in oil and gas, neither of my parents are engineers, but I was a strong STEM student in high school and had identified that engineering seemed like a good path for me, but I didn't know what type.
• 3:26
  SPEAKER_02: So I looked up and came across mechanical, and I was like, okay, that sounds interesting, but it was really broad.
• 3:34
  SPEAKER_02: There's so many different directions you could go with that, and I'm somebody who likes to be able to visualize what my future could look like.
• 3:43
  SPEAKER_02: So mechanical left pretty much every door open.
• 3:49
  SPEAKER_02: During my sophomore and junior year of high school, that was when COVID was going on, and in Maine, it was a really serious time for us, and the school policy sent me at home for the end of my sophomore year, and then we had a hybrid remote schedule my entire junior year, and sort of consequently from that, I found myself with a lot of free time on my hands, and to fill part of that time, I just started listening to podcasts, and by dumb luck, came across one that was about the oil and gas industry.
• 4:32
  SPEAKER_02: It was not technical at all.
• 4:34
  SPEAKER_02: There was no petroleum engineering talk about it, but it gave me a new perspective on this industry that we're a part of that really changed the way I thought about it.
• 4:46
  SPEAKER_02: It kind of contradicted some of the things that I've been told about, you know, oil and gas is bad, it's going away, it's not here to stay.
• 4:54
  SPEAKER_02: And it opened my eyes to the importance of the work that we do and the impact it has on a global scale and on my own life.
• 5:03
  SPEAKER_02: I was really oblivious to the lifestyle that we're living here as citizens in the United States, and how much we rely on hydrocarbons to make it possible.
• 5:16
  SPEAKER_02: So that was pretty impactful, and petroleum engineering seemed to fit the thing I was looking for as far as a STEM technical discipline, but an industry that I was also interested in and where I could go to make a tremendous impact, especially since people my age aren't going into the industry.
• 5:38
  SPEAKER_02: So that was exciting to me.
• 5:40
  SPEAKER_02: And I had the top-ranked undergraduate program, and so was uh fortunate to identify the school uh I applied and was accepted, and just the log doors continued to open to make it possible for me to to study at AM.
• 5:58
  SPEAKER_02: And four years later, it's been one of the best decisions I've made in my entire life.
• 6:04
  SPEAKER_01: Awesome.
• 6:04
  SPEAKER_01: That's that's such a cool story.
• 6:06
  SPEAKER_01: I I love to hear that.
• 6:08
  SPEAKER_01: Of course, too.
• 6:09
  SPEAKER_01: I love that you were able to listen to a podcast and get some knowledge, of course, too.
• 6:14
  SPEAKER_01: So I'm one of those folks that, you know, I'm I'm very much uh self-taught on a lot of things, and in our industry, what you'll see is, of course, a lot of the folks uh that are in our industry, you know, they have oil and gas background in their family.
• 6:29
  SPEAKER_01: So, you know, generally lots of times we like to follow suit with that, but it's so cool that you kind of spun off on your own, you know, way, which of course, and I love hearing you say, you know, it's been one of the best experiences of your life, you know, by making that decision.
• 6:43
  SPEAKER_01: So I don't know if you've ever heard of Alex Epstein.
• 6:46
  SPEAKER_01: He is uh so, anyways, I've got some books of his back here.
• 6:50
  SPEAKER_01: I've met him a couple times and listened to him speak a super, super cool individual.
• 6:55
  SPEAKER_01: So, anyways, I just I love to hear the transition from kind of what you've been told all your life and kind of see it go the other way.
• 7:02
  SPEAKER_01: And you're exactly right.
• 7:04
  SPEAKER_01: One of the things that I've seen with young students today that are in engineering, uh, lots of times they don't pursue the petroleum path, they just go to the mechanical direction with the education.
• 7:14
  SPEAKER_01: Uh, I know lots of mechanical engineers that are in the oil and gas industry, and lots of them don't have their petroleum engineering degrees.
• 7:21
  SPEAKER_01: So, anyways, that's a that's a really, really cool story.
• 7:24
  SPEAKER_01: So, what was it about the energy industry that contradicted what you'd heard before and made you seriously consider it as a career?
• 7:32
  SPEAKER_02: Well, I think back to when I was a freshman in high school, the biology class I had, we watched some documentary about uh the impacts of the negative impacts of oil and gas and emissions on the world, and it really painted a one-sided picture and failed to show the impact that the industry has in a positive way, and the fact that it lifts people out of poverty and energy poverty poverty is a real issue, especially in the area I grew up in, where people face heat or eat situations in the winter time where half well, maybe not half, but a lot of people have wood stoves in their home as the so they're heating, right?
• 8:25
  SPEAKER_02: So biomass is a fuel source, home heating oil, and so it was really important in my life, but I was oblivious to it, and that's just you know, in the state of Maine, which is way better off than a lot of places in the world.
• 8:40
  SPEAKER_02: And so the more I broadened my perspective, it really demonstrated to me the impact that this industry has uh at a global scale because it's a global industry, and so that was really important to me in sort of challenging those assumptions that I had been making and wasn't even realizing at the time.
• 9:02
  SPEAKER_02: And so I'm really excited about the opportunities that I've had and are in front of me to be able to go and do work that positively impacts where I grew up, but around the world as well.
• 9:14
  SPEAKER_01: Absolutely.
• 9:14
  SPEAKER_01: I love that.
• 9:15
  SPEAKER_01: That's so cool.
• 9:16
  SPEAKER_01: You hit the nail on the head, buddy.
• 9:18
  SPEAKER_01: Like there's no other better way to describe what you just described.
• 9:22
  SPEAKER_01: And I think too, that's one of the things I really like about Alex Epstein is you know his perspective on the oil and gas and what he measures it by, of course, and poverty levels.
• 9:32
  SPEAKER_01: He goes in the depths and talks about that over an international spectrum.
• 9:36
  SPEAKER_01: Of course, here in the US, uh everybody's really spoiled by you know having uh reliable electricity, reliable heat, uh reliable sources of you know energy.
• 9:48
  SPEAKER_01: And I think uh, you know, one of the things I've seen over the last you know ten years in this industry is that people just take it for granted, right?
• 9:55
  SPEAKER_01: And when you look at lots of different third world countries that do not have, you know, of course, uh natural gas or oil that's easily accessible, there's a struggle to, you know, of course, bring them up to the modern day age with the energy reliable infrastructure that they need to, you know, be able to live comfortably, right?
• 10:14
  SPEAKER_01: So it's it's super cool, and I'm super excited that you're you're bringing that up because most young kids I talk to your age, they they don't have this perspective, so I really appreciate this.
• 10:25
  SPEAKER_01: So let's look here.
• 10:26
  SPEAKER_01: It says you choose you chose Texas AM as one of your top petroleum engineering programs in the country.
• 10:32
  SPEAKER_01: So, what stood out to you about the school and the program at Texas AM?
• 10:37
  SPEAKER_02: Well, one of the first things I'll say, and it's funny because you brought up the book by Alex Epstein, the department um advisor, when I visited my senior year in high school, I got to visit the school, and she gave me a copy of Alex Epstein's book, The Moral Case for Fossil Fuels.
• 10:55
  SPEAKER_02: So that just solidified the deal.
• 10:59
  SPEAKER_01: That's that's so cool.
• 11:01
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, no, I love the the program, the faculty, we get to learn from world-class people um in academia, but also a ton of professors in the department have real-world experience.
• 11:16
  SPEAKER_02: And so to get to learn from them technical material that they have applied in real-world situations is really valuable for us, and I think helps prepare you for industry.
• 11:29
  SPEAKER_02: So that's one component of it.
• 11:31
  SPEAKER_02: The other side of it is just the university as a whole, I think is a wonderful institution, and it has really um been impactful in me and giving me a place to grow and to welcome me in as an outsider, as a Yankee.
• 11:47
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, coming from the Northeast.
• 11:49
  SPEAKER_02: And so it's been a wonderful environment to learn and grow in.
• 11:54
  SPEAKER_02: And the department is really tight-knit.
• 11:57
  SPEAKER_02: You know, oil and gas is a tight-knit community, and I think that the petroleum engineering department at AM is a reflection of that, and the network has helped give me so many different opportunities, and that's been something that I didn't even expect when I signed the line to go to AM.
• 12:15
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, that's that's so cool.
• 12:17
  SPEAKER_01: I will say Texas and A Texas AM's engineering program is phenomenal.
• 12:23
  SPEAKER_01: There's several, several good engineering programs at several universities, and Texas AM is definitely right at the top with everybody else.
• 12:31
  SPEAKER_01: Impacts from other students that I know that have gone to Texas AM and their experience and what the culture's like, what the staff's like.
• 12:41
  SPEAKER_01: So it's it's exciting to hear that again.
• 12:43
  SPEAKER_01: Uh so that just reconfirms, of course, uh, you know, as other engineering students listen and trying to make their decisions, uh, you know, and they hear folks like yourself talk about their experiences and how you know welcoming they are, and of course, supportive, and to helping you build those relationships early on in your career as you're a student and you start to transition.
• 13:02
  SPEAKER_01: So I'm I'm super excited about that for you as you get ready to transition on.
• 13:07
  SPEAKER_01: So it looks like you've had some real field experience, including working on Alaska's North Slope.
• 13:13
  SPEAKER_01: So, what was that like for you as an engineering student to be able to work in Alaska?
• 13:19
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, it well, first of all, it did.
• 13:21
  SPEAKER_02: It stemmed from opportunities that the department promoted.
• 13:24
  SPEAKER_02: One of the graduation requirements we have actually is an internship.
• 13:29
  SPEAKER_02: And so they really promote pushing us out to get that real world experience, and through companies that come to recruit students at the university and and the departments involved in helping us um unlock those opportunities, I was able to go work on the North Slope of Alaska, which is something that I'd never heard of the North Slope when I came to AM.
• 13:54
  SPEAKER_02: And even if I had, I never would have expected to go there.
• 13:58
  SPEAKER_02: But it was one of the coolest opportunities of my life to go work at one of the legacy fields of North America, the largest conventional oil field in North America, and to go up there and gain field experience.
• 14:14
  SPEAKER_02: I got to for 14 days in a row uh sit on a slick line unit or coil tubing to run logs, to shoot perf guns, to just do well interventions, learn about artificial lift in an environment where just the pace of the work being done is rapid.
• 14:35
  SPEAKER_02: And so the learning curve for me was really steep.
• 14:39
  SPEAKER_02: But I got to learn from guys who were from kind of all over the place, which was really cool.
• 14:45
  SPEAKER_02: And to draw from experience that they had in the North Slope, but really all around the world.
• 14:52
  SPEAKER_02: It was a world-class outfit up there, and for me, it just gave me an opportunity to put into practice a lot of the skills that I was learning in the classroom to real world situations.
• 15:03
  SPEAKER_01: I love that.
• 15:03
  SPEAKER_01: So that's one thing.
• 15:05
  SPEAKER_01: Earlier this week, I was talking to someone, and you know, the people that are in the oil field, you know, we come from all walks of life and all different areas of the US.
• 15:15
  SPEAKER_01: And one of the things I've seen when you get to the Alaska area or the North Dakotas or to the Permian Basin where there's a lot of heavy drilling activity going on, you know, everybody that are is there are generally from you know lots of different places all over the US and they're very good at what they do.
• 15:35
  SPEAKER_01: And you know, it it's just cool because you meet people from all over the US, all over the world for that matter, that come in and you know work in our industry that lots of times don't get don't get recognized for what their knowledge is and what they do and what they're good at.
• 15:48
  SPEAKER_01: And of course, too, we we see the big companies, uh, they definitely gravitate towards those folks and hold on to them and take very good care of them.
• 15:57
  SPEAKER_01: So that's a that's a cool story.
• 15:59
  SPEAKER_01: So what did it what did being in the field teach you that you simply can't learn in a classroom?
• 16:06
  SPEAKER_02: Well, for one, especially when I'm a engineer coming out of school and just getting started, it taught me that I know nothing compared to the people who are out there in the field doing it every day, and they're gonna be my first call for how how can I solve this problem?
• 16:25
  SPEAKER_02: And so the expertise that these guys have that are out in the field is just incredible, and the situations that they've come up with or that they've dealt with and have come up with solutions for is really remarkable.
• 16:41
  SPEAKER_02: One of my favorite places when I was working up there just to go and spend some of my time was the shop where they had all the different tools and attachments for um, you know, the different rigs or the uh coil, whether it was a coil attachment or something that we were gonna run for the slick line unit and just all these different tools.
• 17:02
  SPEAKER_02: And they weren't necessarily something that you could buy.
• 17:07
  SPEAKER_02: It was they faced a unique situation and they came up with it and they built a tool specific for a situation that they were dealing with, and it worked.
• 17:15
  SPEAKER_02: And so just the collective experience of being out there every day and encountering those challenging situations was really eye-opening for me to see the creativity and the knowledge that uh these people had to go and solve questions or solve problems that come up every day that really you just can't get equipped for in the classroom.
• 17:40
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, absolutely.
• 17:42
  SPEAKER_01: Well, I think I think the more and more you know you're able to get out in the field as you you know spend the time there and listen to the the wisdom of the folks that's been in the industry for a long time and understand, you know, how they've came about with this knowledge and just that field experience, right?
• 17:59
  SPEAKER_01: The folks that I know that are successful in the oil and gas business, they 99% of the time they've got really good field experience and they use that on a day-to-day to help navigate decisions that they make.
• 18:12
  SPEAKER_01: And you know, these decisions can be huge, right?
• 18:14
  SPEAKER_01: If you're gonna go back in to, you know, drill a well or rework a well and you're spending lots of money, sometimes it's not your money, right?
• 18:22
  SPEAKER_01: So you've got to be very careful with that.
• 18:24
  SPEAKER_01: And of course, too, as investors in our industry, you know, they definitely want a return on their investment.
• 18:29
  SPEAKER_01: So when you go in to drill a new area or to rework an existing well or to add, you know, gas compression, of course, or any of those things, like there's things that you have to look for and know.
• 18:41
  SPEAKER_01: So I I think the more field experience that any engineering student can get throughout their career definitely gives them a huge advantage.
• 18:50
  SPEAKER_01: And the ones that I see that are successful that work for the big major companies have great field experience.
• 18:56
  SPEAKER_01: So I will encourage you, of course, as you get out to be able to spend as much time as you can with the folks with the boots on the ground, and those guys will definitely help set you up for success.
• 19:07
  SPEAKER_01: And as you grow in your career, you'll be able to just take off and and flourish and not look back.
• 19:12
  SPEAKER_01: So um, in your opinion, uh what's the the biggest misconception people your age have about the oil and gas industry?
• 19:21
  SPEAKER_02: I don't even know if you could limit it the misconception of people my age.
• 19:26
  SPEAKER_02: Uh a huge misconception is that the industry's going away.
• 19:31
  SPEAKER_02: And that was something I faced, you know, family members.
• 19:34
  SPEAKER_02: Uh when I told them I was leaving Maine to go study petroleum engineering at Texas AM, they kind of you know raise their eyebrows and they're like, is that are you sure that's a good idea?
• 19:45
  SPEAKER_02: Are you gonna have a job in 10 or 20 years from now?
• 19:49
  SPEAKER_02: And uh I think that we're thinking about it the wrong way, if that's the way we're trying to analyze whether or not I'll have a job in 20 years.
• 20:00
  SPEAKER_02: Energy demand is skyrocketing right now at all times.
• 20:05
  SPEAKER_02: And oil and gas is gonna continue to play an important role in that, in meeting, even if we just sustained where we're at right now, there's so much work that needs to be done.
• 20:18
  SPEAKER_02: Um, and yet alone a lot of forecasts are gonna show us to continue to ramp up the demand for oil and gas.
• 20:25
  SPEAKER_02: So that's something that I think we really miss out on.
• 20:30
  SPEAKER_02: Um, you know, oil and gas.
• 20:32
  SPEAKER_02: For me growing up, I thought gas was just, you know, what you put in your car.
• 20:35
  SPEAKER_02: Uh, but it's also more than electricity generation, you know.
• 20:39
  SPEAKER_02: It's in this shirt that I'm wearing, you know, that has um oil and derivatives that are making it up.
• 20:45
  SPEAKER_02: And so that's important.
• 20:47
  SPEAKER_02: It's really hard to replace.
• 20:50
  SPEAKER_02: And these companies who are hiring petroleum engineers are the same ones who are looking to expand what it even means to be, you know, and all of the above when it comes to energy.
• 21:04
  SPEAKER_02: Um, you know, is it geothermal, enhanced geothermal systems?
• 21:08
  SPEAKER_02: They're hiring petroleum engineers to go work for them.
• 21:12
  SPEAKER_02: Are you pursuing carbon capture or sequestration in your business?
• 21:16
  SPEAKER_02: They're also it's oil and gas companies that are hiring petroleum engineers to do that.
• 21:20
  SPEAKER_02: And so the skill set that you're gaining um is broadly gonna go towards producing oil and gas.
• 21:27
  SPEAKER_02: But even as we branch out into these different areas, the skills that you're learning in the classroom are gonna prepare you for the different situations that are probably gonna happen in the future.
• 21:40
  SPEAKER_01: Absolutely.
• 21:41
  SPEAKER_01: Well, I one of the things I've heard uh throughout all of 2025 was uh, you know, lots of times the oil and gas, once someone hears those two words, of course, it's kind of a negative impact to what we've gone up against on the political climate.
• 21:57
  SPEAKER_01: And so I've heard everybody start to use the phrase.
• 22:00
  SPEAKER_01: And we've talked about it, of course, transitioning the word from oil and gas to energy.
• 22:06
  SPEAKER_01: So we are in the energy industry, and to change the mindset of folks that once they hear oil and gas as a negative, to use the word energy.
• 22:16
  SPEAKER_01: And like you said, I see so many different oil and gas companies as well that are getting into different ways to produce energy.
• 22:23
  SPEAKER_01: So that's extremely important.
• 22:25
  SPEAKER_01: The majors are leading the way, obviously, because they know that they need to diverse, uh, which is good.
• 22:32
  SPEAKER_01: Uh, we want to have options in some areas it makes sense, in some areas it don't, right?
• 22:37
  SPEAKER_01: Uh it's all all definitely going to the source of energy.
• 22:42
  SPEAKER_01: So as we grow, of course, as you know, as a world, and you know, everybody's gonna increase the demand of energy, so we're gonna need all the energy we can get.
• 22:50
  SPEAKER_01: It was exciting this week to see Trump, you know, he's definitely signed off on a lot of big, big bills that's kind of went the other direction this week.
• 22:59
  SPEAKER_01: As far as political, you know, uh he announced, of course, that Ford obviously is gonna quit manufacturing electric cars, right?
• 23:07
  SPEAKER_01: So he announced that.
• 23:08
  SPEAKER_01: And of course, too, he also announced that he's gonna back off on the EPA regulations for equipment in the farming industry, which of course will roll into the oil and gas industry as well.
• 23:20
  SPEAKER_01: So all these regulations that came out are now getting backed away and saying, hey, do we really need these?
• 23:27
  SPEAKER_01: And using a smart concept on ways for you know, people like us in the energy industry or somebody in the agriculture or someone in automotive can actually get in there and make a product and get it out that's not gonna hurt the environment, that of course is gonna be way more cost effective.
• 23:45
  SPEAKER_01: So it's it's really really the things he's done in office have really helped, you know, on those things, those little tweaks along the way definitely make a difference for folks that whether or not they're gonna, you know, make the decision to buy a new car, right?
• 23:58
  SPEAKER_01: Because they might not be able to afford afford to buy a new car with all the regulations and stuff that's been put on them.
• 24:04
  SPEAKER_01: So it looks like you've been heavily involved in the Society of Petroleum Engineers student chapter at AM.
• 24:10
  SPEAKER_01: So, how has that shaped your development since you've been there at AM?
• 24:14
  SPEAKER_01: Yes, this is one of my favorite things to talk about.
• 24:17
  SPEAKER_02: And to me, when I was saying earlier about how much I appreciate the department, this aspect of the experience of attending AM has been a huge part of what has made it so special for me.
• 24:32
  SPEAKER_02: I was fortunate to get involved with the student chapter of SPE right away, my freshman year, which was hugely important for me because it got me plugged into learning about oil and gas because I didn't know anything at that time.
• 24:49
  SPEAKER_02: And so that kind of gave me a jump start.
• 24:53
  SPEAKER_02: The way engineering at Texas AM is set up is your freshman year, you enter into the College of Engineering as a general engineer.
• 25:03
  SPEAKER_02: You actually haven't branched out into your specific major, and so by joining SPE, I was able to accelerate my knowledge of petroleum engineering and learning about the industry before I was even technically in the department.
• 25:21
  SPEAKER_02: And so that was huge for me.
• 25:23
  SPEAKER_02: I gained a tremendous amount of mentors, upperclassmen who were two, three years ahead of me, who I could ask them for their advice because they had recently gone through the same experiences that I was facing.
• 25:38
  SPEAKER_02: Um that was really instrumental to receive the coaching and guidance from them from me.
• 25:44
  SPEAKER_02: Um and then the impact that it's had through involvement.
• 25:48
  SPEAKER_02: I've done uh uh a lot of different roles and activities over these years.
• 25:54
  SPEAKER_02: Started out freshman year as the freshman recruitment director, and so got to reach out to my peers and was trying to get them to join this organization that really helps you grow as a professional.
• 26:10
  SPEAKER_02: It helps support you academically, um, and it's also social and helps you grow the social bonds with people in the industry.
• 26:19
  SPEAKER_02: Uh I transitioned following that to taking on uh a more external role within the organization where I helped organize the career fair that this Society of Petroleum Engineers hosts.
• 26:33
  SPEAKER_02: And it's one of the largest major specific career fairs, I think, out there.
• 26:39
  SPEAKER_02: Uh we've been fortunate every fall to bring in about 40 companies to come to College Station to recruit petroleum engineers for internships, for co-ops, for full-time positions.
• 26:55
  SPEAKER_02: And there's not a lot of other programs even within AM or departments anywhere who have opportunities like that.
• 27:04
  SPEAKER_02: We're so fortunate to get access to these companies, and so I was really grateful to be involved with that.
• 27:14
  SPEAKER_02: And then my sort of latest role has been uh an executive series, and so we're fortunate that there's a lot of former uh Texas AM students who are leaders at different energy companies, and so we've been able to bring some of these guys in to come and speak with students and share their story and sort of do similar to what we're doing now and help inspire people and give them some life lessons that they can draw on as they start out their career.
• 27:47
  SPEAKER_02: So I'm really grateful for the impact SPE has had for me.
• 27:52
  SPEAKER_02: And you know, we talked about that experience in Alaska.
• 27:54
  SPEAKER_02: I had I would have never had that chance had it not been for SPE and the people working on my behalf to bring that opportunity and make it possible.
• 28:06
  SPEAKER_02: And I'm really grateful now to be able to be a leader within the organization and help serve the students within the department and really more broadly, people who aren't even petroleum engineers but who want to work in oil and gas.
• 28:22
  SPEAKER_02: I think that SPE is one of the best ways to directly get involved, to learn about the industry and to get to interact with people in the industry who want to see students from Texas AM succeed.
• 28:35
  SPEAKER_01: I tell you what, the SPE really just does a phenomenal job, just like you mentioned, and of course, too, uh I love hearing your story about how they've done such a great job mentoring you and getting you the connections and educating you as well along the way.
• 28:52
  SPEAKER_01: And that's one of the other great things about that program, just knowing how much they do to give back to the engineering students and to work with them and to educate and to lead, right?
• 29:02
  SPEAKER_01: Which uh gives you such good real-world you know advice and ways to mentor, and of course, too, with your experience, and I love hearing such a positive experience you had, you're gonna do the same thing, right?
• 29:15
  SPEAKER_01: You're gonna you're gonna know one day you're gonna graduate and you're gonna look back, and why you're a part of that program and have the opportunity to come back and do the exact same thing for an engineering student to make those connections to set them up for success.
• 29:29
  SPEAKER_01: Uh so I love that.
• 29:31
  SPEAKER_01: That's that's such a cool story.
• 29:33
  SPEAKER_01: So it looks like here you're doing research on enhanced geothermal systems.
• 29:39
  SPEAKER_01: So, what excites you about applying oil and gas technology to new energy applications?
• 29:45
  SPEAKER_02: Well, I'll laugh.
• 29:46
  SPEAKER_02: I research wasn't on my radar.
• 29:50
  SPEAKER_02: I didn't really know anything about enhanced geothermal, uh, but I took a formation evaluation class um my junior year um with a professor who's doing research in that area and sort of after that class was invited to participate in this research.
• 30:07
  SPEAKER_02: And I was a little doubtful at first.
• 30:09
  SPEAKER_02: It wasn't something that initially uh kind of would be something that I'd naturally be inclined to go and look into.
• 30:17
  SPEAKER_02: But what kind of sold me was the opportunity to go and use some reservoir modeling software that is incredibly common in oil and gas because really we're studying a lot of the ways that fracturing, hydraulic fracturing occurs in different types of rocks.
• 30:37
  SPEAKER_02: And so, you know, if you have shale for oil and gas, you have uh granite for geothermal systems, there's ultra mafic types of rocks for hydrogen generation.
• 30:49
  SPEAKER_02: And so, how can we apply those skills for oil and gas that we use to these different contexts, enhanced geothermal being one of them?
• 30:58
  SPEAKER_02: But research has given me a great opportunity to go and grow my skill set uh in sort of a novel area.
• 31:07
  SPEAKER_02: And as a result of that, I feel like I'm gonna be a better petroleum engineer when I go work for an energy company on an oil and gas project.
• 31:15
  SPEAKER_02: So that's been really exciting.
• 31:18
  SPEAKER_02: But it also makes me excited for enhanced geothermal because there's a lot of progress in that industry right now because of technology with directional drilling and fracking that have unlocked a lot of opportunities for them.
• 31:33
  SPEAKER_02: Um, and so I don't think one takes away from the other.
• 31:37
  SPEAKER_02: I think that they add, and this research opportunity has been a great learning experience for me, and it has allowed me to grow my skill set, and I think I'll be a more valuable member of the team uh because of this experience.
• 31:52
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, that's that's super cool.
• 31:54
  SPEAKER_01: I think I think right now, you just being exposed to all these different avenues, it's just like you said, you you hit the nail on the head again to be a better petroleum engineer, right?
• 32:04
  SPEAKER_01: To have that knowledge that you're learning right now, that the engineers 10 years ago, when they went through, didn't have this, you know, opportunity to learn these other uh parts of geothermal and different different ways uh to produce energy.
• 32:20
  SPEAKER_01: So I I think you're you're setting yourself up for success, um, of course, too to just be open-minded uh and and be aware of you know, I think that's one of the things that I always like to tell anybody that I know that's in college, you know, is just to be open-minded and to listen and to, you know, of course, just really take in what you're getting and put in front of you.
• 32:41
  SPEAKER_01: And like you said, five years from now, you might be able to use it and apply it in an application that you run into.
• 32:47
  SPEAKER_01: So just you know, hold on to that knowledge and just you know keep it in your back pocket because it'll definitely come into play over time, I promise you.
• 32:55
  SPEAKER_01: So it looks like after graduation you're planning to combine engineering with finance.
• 33:01
  SPEAKER_01: So, what kind of role do you ultimately seeing yourself thriving in?
• 33:05
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, so one of the things that I've learned from some of these internship experiences that I've had is at the end of the day, uh, as an engineer, um the companies their goal is to make decisions that are going to have a positive economic value for the company.
• 33:27
  SPEAKER_02: Sometimes you can get stuck uh with the engineer's mindset that, oh, you know, this is the right solution from an engineering perspective, but is it cost effective?
• 33:38
  SPEAKER_02: Is this the is this really the ideal solution?
• 33:42
  SPEAKER_02: You know, we like to build elaborate things as engineers, and sometimes that's not the best solution.
• 33:49
  SPEAKER_02: And also if you want your project to be the one that's selected, um, because there's only so much capital to go towards you know, a million different things that could be done.
• 33:58
  SPEAKER_02: And if you want to have yours be the one that's selected, you need to be able to justify that and to demonstrate why it should be selected.
• 34:05
  SPEAKER_02: And that all comes down to finance.
• 34:09
  SPEAKER_02: And so being able to pair those together uh is a really powerful combination, and I think you need to understand what the drivers of decision making are.
• 34:20
  SPEAKER_02: And so for me, I'm really excited in the future to combine these skill sets to sort of complement each other, whether it be in an engineering role to use finance knowledge to make better decisions, to come up with solutions that might be novel, or if it's in a finance position, using the engineering background that I have to sort of give me a context to um that field experience is gonna be really valuable for me when I'm looking at numbers on an Excel sheet and I know what's actually behind those numbers versus not having a context for what's going on and why I'm making these decisions.
• 35:05
  SPEAKER_02: And so I think they're really complementary, and I think that you need both in order um to I guess if you have a pyramid that you're thinking about, the broader the base, uh, the taller you can make the period, uh the pyramid.
• 35:19
  SPEAKER_02: And so um those are both skills that I'm trying to build and grow as I start my career um so that I can have uh a really positive impact over the long term.
• 35:32
  SPEAKER_01: Well, Aiden, I think you're setting yourself up for a huge successful career in the industry, you know, combining finance with it, it's gonna give you such an advantage to knowing what the financial folks are looking for, right?
• 35:45
  SPEAKER_01: When they're going in to get a return on their investment.
• 35:47
  SPEAKER_01: I wish that more young engineering students would, you know, of course, take a deep dive into the finance side too, because lots of times those decisions, you know, ultimately, you know, navigate the direction and how aggressive companies can be.
• 36:01
  SPEAKER_01: You know, just all of those things to understand the economic impact to whether or not you can drill a well, you can rework a well, you can use uplift on a well.
• 36:12
  SPEAKER_01: I mean, there's all these different uh financial tools that you'll have in your bag that you'll be able to set yourself up for success.
• 36:19
  SPEAKER_01: And know too if it's cost effective, you know, to be able to make those decisions too as a patrolling engineer.
• 36:26
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, that's huge.
• 36:28
  SPEAKER_01: I see you having a very, very long, successful c uh career in the energy industry.
• 36:34
  SPEAKER_01: And you'll be able to, you know, one day be able to have younger engineering students like yourself come in and work for you and be able to lead them and educate them.
• 36:43
  SPEAKER_01: And I'm excited about that because that's one of the things that I've seen over the over the course of my career is the mentoring that people get to do in this industry to, you know, bring other engineering students in, educate them, teach them, feed them, and then one day they're gonna be leading their their own departments or their own companies and being able to be crazy successful and have a great career.
• 37:06
  SPEAKER_01: And I wish, I wish there was more petroleum engineering students like you out there.
• 37:10
  SPEAKER_01: I've met lots of them that, you know, they kind of have a mindset where they just want to go work for a major oil and gas company and you know, just work there 30 years and retire, right?
• 37:20
  SPEAKER_01: And just treat it as a job.
• 37:21
  SPEAKER_01: But it definitely definitely shows me today that you definitely are career-minded, which I'm excited about for you because you'll have a very, very exciting career in this industry, and I'm looking forward to that for you.
• 37:33
  SPEAKER_01: And I definitely appreciate you coming on today and being able to visit with me, and of course, to share your experience at Texas AM, and of course, too, I'll be excited to, you know, after a year or two, once you're ready and you're set up with another company to bring you on and say, Hey, do you remember we talked, you know, a couple years ago, and you know, you're getting to work for a major oil and gas company in a major basin.
• 37:56
  SPEAKER_01: So I'm excited about your future for you, and I'm really excited to see where you are, you know, in five years from now, and to know that you're gonna be very successful and very blessed because of the amount of work and dedication you put in to your experience at Texas AM, but also to to the industry, right?
• 38:14
  SPEAKER_01: And thanks to the SBE, of course, for setting yourself up for success.
• 38:19
  SPEAKER_01: I just love hearing those stories.
• 38:20
  SPEAKER_01: It just makes me so happy to know that uh young students that are going into higher education are getting, you know, set up for success by different programs like the SPE that we support, right?
• 38:32
  SPEAKER_01: So we support all of those programs as well, and you know, it just reconfirms it to hear it when it comes from an engineering student like yourself.
• 38:41
  SPEAKER_01: So thank you so much today for jumping on.
• 38:43
  SPEAKER_01: Uh, what we're gonna do, Aiden, uh, I'm gonna send you if you can send me an email.
• 38:47
  SPEAKER_01: I know you have my email contact with your address.
• 38:51
  SPEAKER_01: We're gonna send you out some cool Midwest Compressor swag as we get to send out to folks.
• 38:56
  SPEAKER_01: I'll wear that around schools.
• 38:57
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, you can you can support uh Midwest Compressor down there, of course, at A and uh you know, wear some cool swag as well.
• 39:05
  SPEAKER_01: But definitely thanks again.
• 39:06
  SPEAKER_01: I loved your story.
• 39:07
  SPEAKER_01: You've got such a great story.
• 39:09
  SPEAKER_01: Definitely excited for your future and look forward to you know talking to you soon.
• 39:14
  SPEAKER_01: So hopefully in the next uh year or so as you get everything set up and get landed where you need to go, and we're able to do this again, and you're able to kind of tell us about your experience as a new petroleum engineer.
• 39:25
  SPEAKER_01: So, anyways, thanks again for coming on to the podcast, and we'll look forward to talking to you soon, buddy.
• 39:31
  SPEAKER_01: Thanks, Aiden.
• 39:31
  SPEAKER_01: Have a great day, buddy.
• 39:33
  SPEAKER_01: Hey, thanks, David.
• 39:38
  SPEAKER_00: This has been another great episode of Under Pressure Compressor Talk by Midwest Compressor with your host, David Abshire.
• 39:46
  SPEAKER_00: Until next time, keep pumping.