Our Annual Meeting took place March 24 and 25 in Ogden after getting omicron’d out of January. The wait was worth it as we kicked off with a bluebird day of skiing at Snowbasin Resort. We welcomed representatives from national trade associations American Petroleum Institute and U.S. Oil & Gas Association to give our members an overview of federal policies and actions, which served as a primer for the next day’s events.
Seeing our members’ smiling faces in person was a welcome sight after the previous two years of being virtually trapped in several small video boxes on our computers. And we certainly had a lot of ground to cover! In addition to wrapping up 2021, this year’s Annual Meeting found us on the heels of an extremely busy legislative session. We were proud to welcome members of our state legislature to recap the goings on, offer insights, and share their experiences under the dome. The challenge of a large meeting in the oil and natural gas industry is always one of scope. Since there are so many dimensions to oil and natural gas development — from technical innovations to regulatory policy to the multiple layers of governmental interaction — providing adequate time, space, and depth to the litany of topics is always difficult. This is why we’re frequently torn on breakout sessions. No one can be in two places at once, but breakout sessions allow for extra depth into important issues like air quality or the evolving best practices of public outreach. Our members get to choose which issues affect them most.
We would also be remiss in not calling out our keynote speakers. We featured Bob Fryklund of S&P Global to give us a clear picture of energy markets in the morning, insights we greatly appreciated. At lunch, we welcomed Christopher Guith from the U.S. Chamber, who provided his view of the oil and gas industry, and Nada Culver from the United States Bureau of Land Management provided insights directly from the federal government about the current state of affairs. We’re grateful to them, all of our panelists, our exhibitors, and especially our attendees for joining us for a great day of networking, insights, and fun. For a list of the winners of our Safety and Environmental Awards presented at the annual meeting, please visit the post here: https://update.thenewslinkgroup.org/environmental-and-safety-award-winners/.
