We have made some strides toward cleaning up the image of our industry of late - not nearly enough, but some. Unfortunately, the efforts seem to have fallen on deaf ears. At least that is the conclusion I draw from the recent Ackerman McQueen study of attitudes toward the oil and gas industry in Texas. Commissioned by the Texas Alliance of Energy Producers' Foundation for Energy Education, the report is sober reading. In a nut shell, they still don't like us out there. And we are still not doing much about it.

Here are some of the key conclusions of the report:

• 48% of statewide respondents indicated their image of the industry was either neutral or bad;

• on average, one quarter to the respondents think the industry is "somewhat" or "much worse" than it was five years ago;

• just 25% of opinion leaders think the industry is innovative or uses the latest technology;

• nearly three quarters of the respondents feel that the oil and gas industry cleans up sites only because government makes them;

• more than half the respondents believe that the industry does not have enough regulation;

• however, 84% of the respondents indicated that they believed energy/oil/gas to be very important to the State of Texas.

I guess you might call it a love/hate relationship, born of necessity. Whatever you call it, we still have a lot to do to clean up our image with the public.

My thanks to Pat French, senior vice president of the Texas Alliance of Energy Producers, for making the report available to E&P.

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For those of you who have invested millions of dollars in intelligent completions technology development, with no profit to show as yet, a new report by Susquehanna Financial Group LLLP should bring a smile to your face. They say that business in the sector is about to take off. In fact, Susquehanna estimates that the market will double in 2005, to US $200 million, and could grow to $600 million by 2010. That is from a market estimated at $100 million in 2004. Two trends, the group said, confirm this projected growth. First is a shift to longer-term, multi-well contracts - in some cases, with deliveries out to 2010. Second is greater demand for intelligent completions from independent oil and gas producers.

There is additional interesting reading in the report. For instance, 60% to 70% of the intelligent well completion systems installed are in high-cost "critical wells" where intervention costs are high. That means that most of the applications thus far have been in deep water. The remaining installations have been in mature fields to boost recovery or accelerate production, according to Susquehanna. Interestingly, the report concludes that, although they have been late coming to the party, independents are now viewed as repeat customers with increased demand for intelligent completions.

You have to hope they are right. With an estimated $800 million plus invested in previous and ongoing intelligent well technology development since the early nineties, it is time for some payback.