Energy leaders discuss emerging technologies.

• Author: Bicknell, Lindsay
• Position: QA

This month Utah Business partnered with Holland & Hart to host a roundtable event featuring energy leaders to discuss energy demands during the pandemic, emerging technologies, and workforce recruitment. Moderated by Brooke Tucker, deputy director of the Utah Governor's Office of Energy Development, here are a few highlights from the event.

How has COVID-19 impacted the energy industry?

Ed Hatch I VP of Business Strategy I Big West Oil

COVID immediately had a demand hit to our industry. We saw fuel demand down from our refineries' perspective, which ultimately pushes back into crude oil production and the demand for crude oil. And we watched it go back and forth between what refineries could take and produce for end-user demand versus what crude production companies wanted to actually produce and supply to refineries. We also saw really volatile crude oil prices. Never before had we seen the marker for crude oil go negative on prices, which it did for a day.

Alex Moyes I Director of Geoscience & Engineering | Dominion Energy

We are seeing natural gas demand pick up to where we would expect it to be going into the heating season. One year ago we had about 900 rigs operating in North America. We're down about 600 rigs in oil in North America right now, and on natural gas, we're down about 95 from one year ago.

What will be key for a strong economic recovery?

Ed Hatch | VP of Business Strategy | Big West Oil

The sign that we're watching for in oil [and fuels] production is stability. Oil producers have started to experience stability in oil pricing and that helps them because they can start to make production plans again. I don't know that we say that we expect everything to go back to how it was. We think that things could be different going forward. There may not be the full demand there was for our product as there was before COVID, we're watching that closely to see what happens.

How do you see Utah's and/or the West's infrastructure changing in the near future?

Jon Cox | VP of Government Affairs | Rocky Mountain Power

It's too early to tell. When we look at our demand, especially from our larger customers, we have seen a decreased demand in the oil and gas industry. That goes beyond just COVID. There are other issues at play in the global oil and gas market that are impacting the industry.

Jody Williams I Partner I Holland & Hart

I know that Rio Tinto Kennecott has really done a remarkable job in decreasing energy costs with its goal of...