For those of you wondering where I disappeared to last July, I’ve been in New England undertaking graduate studies. As a native of southern climates, I had some serious adjusting to do. It goes without saying that the winter was hard! I’m glad to now be home in Texas. More importantly, I’m glad to be home in the oil and gas industry.

Although I have been busy, it has not been difficult to keep up with the milestones achieved within the last year.

Nearly a year ago, I accompanied several colleagues to Port Aransas, Texas, situated on the Gulf of Mexico (GoM). We had been invited by Shell to view the sail-out of the main portion of the Perdido Hub. Due to its size and the speed at which it was transported into the GoM, one would think engineers might retire on this assembly project. A few short weeks ago, the spar kicked off first production less than a year from its arrival to the site (which took place in June 2009). Perdido is moored in nearly 8,000 ft (2,438 m) of water, and in addition to serving as the world’s deepest offshore drilling and production platform, during its development the project inspired several new technologies. Projects like Perdido stand as a testimony to growth achieved through innovation.

Impressive as this deepwater milestone is, deep water is not the only segment of the industry where advances are being made. Improvements in technology also are expanding the industry’s lateral reach. While access to much of the offshore area of North America (namely in the US) continues to be limited, ExxonMobil announced in mid-April that it had completed the world’s longest extended-reach well drilled from an existing fixed platform offshore southern California at the Santa Ynez unit.

The well, drilled from the Heritage platform, extends more than six miles horizontally and more than 7,000 ft (2,134 m) below sea level. Through extended-reach drilling technology, Exxon will produce an additional 5.8 MMboe. The benefit of this development is magnified when you take into account the fact that most of California’s offshore acreage provides extremely limited access. By using improved extended-reach technology, Exxon has been able to increase production, ensuring a steady flow of reserves for the future.

With Department of the Interior Secretary Salazar continuing to delay access to much of the offshore acreage in the US, innovations such as Heritage can offer a promising means of bringing reserves into production with a smaller footprint and larger coverage for a single offshore platform.

While these are only two of the industry’s recent milestones, they serve to identify some key characteristics inherent to the energy sector — perseverance, commitment, and resilience.

The world’s economy was rocked financially in mid-2008. Across the board, companies scaled back, and banks tightened their purse strings (at least, the ones that survived did). The oil industry was not spared hardship. It witnessed its highest profits in history dissipate from US $147/bbl to $35/bbl in only a matter of weeks, yet it never lost sight of its goals.

Since mid-2009, I’ve been living in Boston, Mass., which, like many parts of the country, has been severely affected by the current recession, with unemployment running at or near double digits for at least the last six months. While virtually no industry was insulated from the economic crisis, the oil and gas industry tends to show more resilience. Projects like the ones mentioned here serve as examples of how the oil and gas industry handles hardship. Regardless of the current economic climate, the industry remains focused on its long-term goals and keeps moving forward. This is one of the reasons I am glad to be back.

It would be false to imply that there have been no difficulties for the industry or that companies have come through the recession unscathed. There has been scaling back to some degree, but the big picture has always remained in focus. Though many companies were justifiably nervous, they generally keep cool long enough to see a way through the difficult times. Many companies suffered short-term losses, but the majority of the players in the oil and gas game have taken their knocks while continually focusing on far-reaching targets.

I’m glad to be “home” in an industry that doesn’t give up, and with OTC at hand, I couldn’t think of a better time to re-enter the oil and gas industry.

I hope to see many of you on the show floor!