American Oil and Gas Reporter - September 2017 - 93

ConventionSection: Arkansas Independent Producers & Royalty Owners

Workshops Bring Industry To Teachers
LITTLE ROCK, AR.-Over three days
in June, the Arkansas Independent Producers & Royalty Owners Association
brought 19 school teachers closer to the
oil and gas industry, and through them
the next generation of decision makers
and industry workforce.
"I think a shortcoming of our industry,
historically, has been getting out our message," muses AIPRO President Mike Callan.
"Certainly, a good way to do that is to increase the exposure our educators have to
our business and the work we do."
Adds AIPRO Executive Director Rodney Baker, "We know those opposed to
our industry figured out a long time ago
they needed to start with children. To
have a classroom teacher say, 'I have
been on those sites and have seen the
drilling rigs and pipelines, and the people
who are doing it. There wasn't oil spilled
everywhere around that rig, and there
wasn't gas spewing off those facilities.'
We think that is very positive."
Those positive impressions are being
made a couple dozen teachers at a time
through workshops conducted jointly by
AIPRO and the Arkansas Petroleum Council
under the auspices of the Arkansas Energy
Education Foundation and its Energy Rocks!
energy education outreach program.
Open to first- through 12th-grade science,
math and technology, and social studies
teachers, the first workshop was conducted
in 2014. After a brief hiatus in 2016 because
the industry downturn left the organizers
without an active drilling site to tour, the
teacher workshop returned this year for
three days of tours, activities and interaction
with industry personnel, Baker says.
Prior to being employed by AIPRO
last fall, Baker says he spent 38 years
with the Farm Bureau and "sat through
lots of workshops of one kind or another.
But this teacher workshop was impressive
not only for what went into it, but the
way the teachers reacted. They clearly
appreciated the access they had to the industry. They appreciated the extra details
that went into letting them go up on rig
and talk with the guys operating it. They
kept mentioning the access they had and
how that was different from just looking
at PowerPoints all day."
Personal Interaction
Baker says this year's teacher workshop
opened at noon the first day at South-

western Energy Company's Arkansas
headquarters in Conway, where he provided state and national perspectives on
the industry.
Other first-day presentations included
an introduction to Southwestern by
Arkansas Manager Ryan Ainsworth, a
discussion of Arkansas geology by Chris
Marlow, a geologist with the Arkansas
Geological Survey, and a midstream perspective from Amber Olah, U.S. public
awareness team leader for Enbridge Inc.
But the highlight of the day, Baker
says, was a producer panel consisting of
Callan in his capacity as vice president
of governmental affairs for Stephens Production Company, Walt Dueease with
XTO Energy Inc., and Rick Bauman,
whom Baker says is an engineer with
Arklatx Operating Co., and has "worked
all over the world."
"They just sat down without any
notes or slides and talked about their
experiences working in the industry and
what some of the problems are. That allowed for a lot of questions and answers,"
he relates.
Callan says that was his first experience
with the teacher workshop. "I was extremely
impressed not only with the program, but
also with the questions and interactions
we had with the teachers," he reveals.
For example, Baker says, the first
question dealt with the impact on Arkansas
of the United States withdrawing from
the Paris Climate Accord. "That sort of
set the tone," he recalls. "I thought we
had a lot of good questions."
The first day's activities concluded
with a reception and dinner at a local
restaurant with most of the day's presenters
in attendance so the interaction could
continue, Baker says.
Showing All Sides
The second day consisted of touring
an active drilling site, a hydraulic fracturing
operation and producing well site, as
well as a tour of Welspun Tubular LLC's
pipe manufacturing facility in Little Rock.
Opened in 2009, Welspun Tubular
employs more than 400 workers and is
capable of producing 350,000 net tons of
spiral-welded pipe annually, according
to its website.
During the final stop of the day, Baker
says the teachers spent about two hours
learning how transmission pipelines are

rolled from flat steel stock, welded inside
and out, and pressure tested. "One reason
we added Welspun is the negative publicity
that has been turned on pipelines," he
says. "We thought it would be interesting
to give them a realistic view of the quality
product being produced in the United
States and in Arkansas. Hopefully they
came away with an understanding of the
quality that goes into these things."
Another purpose of the Welspun tour,
he continues, was to emphasize that oiland gas-related careers extended beyond
exploration and production. "The teachers
clearly were interested in what kinds of
jobs their students could move into in
the future," Baker observes.
This extended to the drilling, completion and production sites the teachers
visited, he continues. "They actually got
to go up on the rig and into the control
room," he says. "The guys were pretty
open about what somebody can earn
straight out of high school, if they are
capable and willing to work hard."
Callan mentions that industry representatives discussed not only college degrees related to oil and gas, but vocational
training as well. He says, "Students who
may not have a career path aimed toward
a four-year college can make a very good
living for their families, with good-paying
jobs with good benefits."
The workshop concluded on the third
day with an outside look at oil and gas
through the eyes of Clay Knighten, director
of conservation programs for the Nature
Conservancy; Becky Keogh, director of
the Arkansas Department of Environmental Quality; Larry Bengal, director
of the Oil and Gas Commission; and
local, county and statewide perspectives
from the Conway Chamber of Commerce,
two county judges, and the Arkansas
State Chamber of Commerce.
"Having representatives from the OGC
and DEQ, and not only members of the
industry, creates an added level of credibility for the program, and gives teachers
a more balanced look at the pros and
cons of fossil fuels and the work we do,"
Callan opines.
Interspersed throughout the first- and
third-day presentations were various activities the teachers could apply to their
classrooms, Baker mentions.
SEE TEACHERS PAGE 113

SEPTEMBER 2017 93

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