Day 4: ExxonMobil & Ingrain

We were greeted warmly this morning at ExxonMobil’s Upstream Research Facility by Gary Isaksen and Steve Greenlee.  Gary is a manager of external technology at ExxonMobil and an adjunct professor in Duke’s division of Earth & Ocean Sciences. Steve, a Duke alum, was recently named President of ExxonMobil’s Upstream Research.  Steve spoke first about Exxon’s steady approach to supplying energy.  Since there are so many external factors dictating the extent of oil and gas production, Exxon works very hard to be a predictable partner that delivers steady results.  Apparently the supermajors all have very distinct corporate cultures; ExxonMobil is regarded as very conservative and very science and technology focused.  This caution and calculation seems to inform most decisions and business practices.

After Steve spoke we broke into two groups, I was with Gary for some Q&A first.  At times it was a very surreal experience, not at all what I expected from visiting the largest oil company in the world.  Gary described some of his work to mitigate the effects on marine life that offshore exploration and drilling might have.  Of course Exxon’s focus is extracting and refining oil as efficiently as possible, but the company is made up of scientists and engineers who dedicate their time to ensuring future supply.  Industry best-practices are a large part of being a reliable partner, including significant environmental impact studies.

Then came the highlight of the day.  We were each given 3D glasses and for a virtual tour of an oil well, LNG container ship, and prospect site.  It’s amazing to me that they can build accurate 3D models of salt flows and the other rock formations of an area under 3,000 feet of ocean and 15,000 feet of earth.  You get the sense that Exxon has the technical means and resources to accomplish anything.

The afternoon proved that fact even more.  We were invited to tour the Baytown refinery which is the largest and most integrated refinery in the country.  Our tour guide was another Duke alum, Brock Pearson.  Brock has spent the last 5 years at Baytown and gives a mean tour.  The size of the facility is shocking enough, but a few of his personal anecdotes really drove home the scale.  Apparently Brock and two colleagues were able to increase Baytown’s diesel capacity by 50,000 barrels per day by rearranging some of the fuel flows.  I’m sure it was more complicated than he described, but size of the increase is amazing.

We left Baytown thoroughly shell-shocked, but the day wasn’t over just yet.  One of Lincoln’s former PhD students, Henrique Tono, started a 3D rock modeling company called Ingrain to improve oil & gas extraction.  Ingrain scans well samples using CT imaging to create virtual porosity and permeability models to predict reservoir flows.  Henrique could not be there, but his partner, Boaz, gave a great presentation and tour of the facilities.  Ingrain felt more like a tech start-up than an oil & gas service company, but based on the morning’s Exxon tour, technology seems to be the backbone of the industry.

Many thanks to Gary, Steve, Brock, Boaz, and the other presenters for the candid discussions of their operations and vision of the future.  Pretty cool to see the reach of Duke’s network in the energy industry.

Due to the private nature of what we were shown at ExxonMobil, photos were not allowed. To get a grasp of the size of the Baytown refinery take a look at the Google Maps satellite view - http://bit.ly/2MUf7f