While many of our classmates vacationed, rested at home, or caught up on homework over fall break, 22 intrepid Nicholas School students headed to Houston for an insider’s look at the energy industry. We spent five days meeting with executives in the oil, natural gas, and energy trading sectors. I returned to Durham with a much greater appreciation for the scope and depth of issues currently facing the energy industry.

Highlights of our trip included:

- visiting a biodiesel refinery

- donning 3-D glasses for a subsurface visual simulation at the upstream research facility for ExxonMobil

– driving through the biggest maze of pipes I have ever seen at ExxonMobil's Baytown refinery site

- exploring the Ocean Star museum (a decommissioned offshore oil rig in Galveston)

- touring BP’s headquarters

- enjoying the views from the 49th floor while discussing energy trading at Fortis

- visiting the Weiss Energy Hall in the Museum of Natural Science

We also dutifully researched Texas nightlife at the local Armadillo Grill – as authentic as the lead singer of the band who asked one of our group members after the rest had left if we had “gone back to Starbucks.”


Overheard in Houston:

“Business can’t succeed in a society that fails.” – Manager of Sustainable Development for ConocoPhillips, quoting the World Business Council for Sustainable Development

“You will live to see a day when China is as important a country as the U.S. I won’t. I smoke.” – Schlumberger Carbon Services Representative

I also liked BP’s definition of sustainable, because it is much more succinct than most I’ve heard – “making decisions that stand the test of time.”