New SPE President To Help Organization Evolve Through Pandemic and Energy Transition
Ever since Tom Blasingame was announced as the 2021 SPE president more than a year ago, he had been looking forward to the day he would officially assume the highest-ranking volunteer position within the organization. That moment finally came, but not quite as he or anyone else expected. “I can assure you, I had a grand plan,” he gently quipped during his inaugural speech. “But the pandemic pretty much wiped that slate clean and led me to focus on where we and how we are to continue.” Blasingame, an SPE Distinguished Member and petroleum engineering professor at Texas A&M University, officially assumed his new duties during a small ceremony attended by invited guests and SPE staff in Houston on 2 November. The event helped kick off SPE’s Annual Technical Conference and Exhibition (ATCE) in October. Reflecting one of the grand challenges facing the new president, the rest of ATCE is being held entirely online in response to the COVID-19 pandemic that swept across the world earlier this year. Donning a coat and tie instead of his trademark beige coveralls, Blasingame told attendees in the flesh and those joining via the online broadcast that the theme of his SPE presidency is “Survive, Revive, and Thrive.” Along these lines, his top priority will be to steer SPE through the recovery process “while also seeking to serve the traditional needs of our members.” Noting that the industry has a long history of weathering storms, Blasingame described the headwinds being faced today as a “near-perfect hurricane” brought on by a global pandemic, financial turbulence, and a historic drop in oil demand. But he highlighted another force that is reshaping the upstream industry, one that predates the pandemic and is certainly going to outlive it. Environmental, social, and corporate governance (ESG) criteria have in just a few short years risen from obscurity to become a major lens through which public stakeholders and global investors view upstream companies. “If you don’t know it, you’d better memorize it - put it on your pillow,” Blasingame said of the three-letter acronym.