Oklahoma State University offering Energy Midstream and Marketing Program

Friday, September 18, 2015

The Spears School of Business at Oklahoma State University will host the Energy Midstream and Marketing Program Oct. 21-23. The program will be located at the ConocoPhillips OSU Alumni Center on the Stillwater campus.

This program will help participants understand the essential steps required for oil and gas to reach potential consumers and the possible obstacles facing distributors. Participants will also be involved in a discussion about the supply and demand of energy products and other influential market factors. This program will provide practical business applications relevant to the industry while enhancing management skills and improving leadership abilities.

"Given the recent downturn in the energy sector, this is an ideal time to discuss leading topics and issues facing the Midstream sector of the energy industry,” said Betty Simkins, professor of finance and Williams Companies Chair in Business in the Spears School. “We have excellent speakers lined up for this year's program that will be of high interest to industry professionals. The educational opportunities will help companies better prepare to weather these tough times and come through them stronger and more successful.”

Each day will focus on one aspect of the industry. Participants can expect each day to be packed with engaging and informative discussions lead by experts in the field, networking opportunities and an overall great experience that will help you get ahead in the industry.

The focus on Oct. 21 will be on natural gas. The topics that will be discussed that day are Natural Gas Fundamentals, Clint Aichele, assistant professor and Harold Courson Faculty Fellow for the School of Chemical Engineering at OSU; Natural Gas: Challenges and Opportunities, Jack Pashin, professor and Devon Chair of Basin Research at the OSU Boone Pickens School of Geology, and Increasing Productivity Through Accountability, Lee Manzer, professor in the Department of Marketing at OSU.

There will also be a panel on Oct. 21 that will be answering questions on the topic of supply and demand in natural gas, led by the moderator Paul Belflower, Mustang Fuel Corporation in Oklahoma City. The three corporate representatives on the panel are Bill Moler, executive vice president and chief operating officer at Tallgrass Energy in Leawood, Kansas; Dan Johnson, market intelligence professional from Devon Energy in Oklahoma City, and Kevin Clement, executive vice president and president of midstream at SandRidge Energy in Oklahoma City.

The main focus of Oct. 22 will be midstream and processing. The day will start with a discussion on the topic Fundamentals: Midstream and Processing, Steve Huckaby, chief executive officer at Meritage Midstream Services in Denver. Throughout the rest of the day there will be discussions on Midstream Financial Strategies, Betty Simkins, Creating and Developing High Performance Teams, Raj Basu, vice president of academic affairs at OSU-Tulsa and associate professor of management, and Effective Outreach and Stakeholder Engagement, Catreana McMullen, manager of public safety and emergency preparedness at Williams in Oklahoma City.

The discussion panel on Oct. 22 will focus on the topic of Building an Effective Supply Chain: What Upstream Manufacturers Need from the Midstream Sector. Serving on the panel will be Mike Dionisio, vice president of supply chain at Devon Energy in Oklahoma City; Mark Davis, executive vice president of sales and marketing at Panton Inc. in Oklahoma City, and Jeff Fisher, chief executive officer of Ascent Resources, LLC, in Oklahoma City.

The final day of the program, Oct. 23, will focus on crude oil. To start the day, Rob Desai, oil and gas analyst at Edward Jones in St. Louis, will be presenting the Crude Oil Outlook.

Following his presentation will be seminars on the topics U.S. Crude Market Update and the Current Market for U.S. Crude Storage, Brian Melton, vice president of pipeline marketing and business development at Blueknight Energy Partners in Oklahoma City; Crude: Challenges and Opportunities, Stephen Bradley, vice president of oil marketing at Continental Resources in Oklahoma City, and Challenges Facing Growth in Light of Tight Oil Production in Oklahoma, = Deniese Palmer-Huggins, senior advisor for the Center of Energy Economics for the Bureau of Economic Geology at the University of Texas in Austin.

The registration fee for the Energy Midstream and Marketing Program is $2,095. Discounts are available if registered by Oct. 1, or if multiple people from your organization register. For more information or to register online go to www.cepd.okstate.edu/openenrollment/energymidstream or contact Sarah Williams, program coordinator, at 866-678-3933.