I had attended the Third Annual North Dakota Energy Expo and now the Fifth Annual North Dakota Energy Expo. My interest in energy goes back to my days as Plant Engineer at 3M Hutchinson, where I was able to reduce energy consumption by nearly fifty percent. That was some forty years ago! That interest in energy conservation was carried through my farming career where I promoted the production and use of ethanol.
Most energy conferences are about a specific form of energy, such as, solar, wind, biomass, coal, gas and oil. The ND Energy Expo is about all. This year we also heard about clean coal technologies at Washburn.
This year the Expo was held at Bismarck State College in an unfinished building called “National Energy Center of Excellence” with a panoramic view of the Missouri River. While the sun made PP presentations fade the view was spectacular and a photo through the window does not due it justice. This center will be finished this year.
I will start my report on the conference by defining two words used often in the presentations: “play” and “fracking”. “Play” defines an area in an oilfield where there is a lot of activity. “Fracking” is a method used to facilitate oil removal.
The Expo started out with opening remarks by the governor of ND (Dalrymple-R), and the two Senators (Conrad-D and Hoeven-R). While all energy produced in North Dakota was mentioned it was clear that the conference emphasis would be about oil production. All three politicians emphasized cooperation on policy issues between parties, contrasting Washington DC. Hoeven gave the best speech with the exception of the comments about the Keystone pipeline project. His comments were on the Keystone pipeline was identical to other comments and speeches I have heard on the subject. It was obviously handed to him by the Keystone project lobbyist. He even neglected to draw any benefit to North Dakota.
The two most interesting comments on opening remarks was that in the last decade of development of the Bakken oil play, there were 6000 oil wells in 2008, and now, there are 10,000. Further expansion rate will depend on infrastructure and available people. The people was the second comment, it is predicted North Dakota population will double. While numbers become vague at this point, it takes three to five people to support one production worker. Needs to be filled are teachers, doctors, retail store workers and, of course bar tenders.
Dr. Steven Koonin, Under Secretary of Science U. S. Department of Science, was the first keynote speaker. He discussed the affect the Bakken oil will have on US oil imports. He said oil imports have been reduced from 60% to 50% and that the oil from ND would have further impact. He also alluded to the fact energy use efficiency was increasing. For those not versed in the second law of thermodynamic, it is a fact that today, energy used to do useful work from oil, is only 10% taken from wellhead to use in the automotive engine. But that is changing! Transporting one person in a Prius versus a Suburban is at least twice as efficient. As more efficient cars are built less oil will be required per capita for transportation.
The next session was on people resources. I will comment on two Panelists. The first was Jan Morrison, focusing on STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Math) education in ND. She discussed the need for technically oil industry workers needed in the oil industry. She said most new technical workers would be from outstate ND. She made it clear ND students had great opportunities in science and math fields.
The next panelist Mellisa Blake was, who was mayor of Wood Buffalo, Alberta. Wood Buffalo is the near the oil sands of Alberta. Wood Buffalo is about 1500 miles North of Williston. She gave a picture of Williston in a few years. The focus of her speech was on development of infrastructure from education, transportation, to health care. One example she used illustrated problem of rapid population growth. For employees to get to work, was an hour and a half. Without traffic it was twenty minutes. They built an extra lane for bus travel only. As people started taking buses to work, travel time on the road was reduced to less than an hour. She used another example of housing prices. A $240,000 house in southern Alberta, an identical house in Wood Buffalo would cost $720,000. As she told this story there was a similar story in the Bismarck Tribune of a retired school teach in Williston, who could no longer afford her apartment when the rent was raised from $720 a month to $2200 per month.
A three member panel gave a presentation on fracturing. The first speaker was an expert in environmental rule making and a representative from Halliburton explained how environmental sensitive the were they were in the fracking process. The final presentation on fracking was by Kathleen Neset who is President of Neset Consulting service. She gave elegant presentation on the geology formation of the Bakken Basin and how fracking is used.
The next presentation was an environmental presentational on the Keystone pipe line benefits. I’ve heard this speech before and the message is the same: (The US pollutes a lot and Canada should be allowed to pollute a little.) Fact is, Canadian oil sand is not environmental desirable because of the extraction process excess use of energy and transportation fuel yield per barrel is very low. The Keystone project is primary reason I attended this conference. What I heard was a repeat of a lobbyist scribe.
The closing session on Monday was about the financing energy development in North Dakota. The most profound statement made was that new financing was difficult for new energy projects, other than oil, because North Dakota has an energy surplus. If changes were not made the biggest surplus would be in electrical energy. In the opening remarks on Monday, several comments were made about the lack of a comprehensive plan to connect the electrical grid east to west coast.
The electrical grid problem has been a subject of presentations and conversation at energy meetings for the last decade. Solutions opposed by many special interest group and no one is in charge. At the federal it is between DOE and Commerce. As I write this blog, an article appears in the Minneapolis Star Tribune (Sunday, November 20th) about Indiana blocking the transmission of western wind power into Indiana.
On the last day the Expo, focus was on environment. A paragraph would not do justice with this topic so I will write a follow up Blog.
A comparison of the fifth North Dakota Energy Expo to the to the Third North Dakota Energy was a comparison of what might happen to what is happening. The Third conference and previous was sponsored by now retired Senator Dorgan. Senator Hoevan, then Governor of North did not attend. The now recognized impact of energy production in North Dakota has now made this a must attend for politicians.
I am planning to attend sixth Annual North Dakota Energy Expo.
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