DUG Eagle Ford Look Back

Crowds of O&G companies and their vendors gathered in San Antonio last week for the DUG Eagle Ford 2013. The Henry B. Gonzalez Convention Center was abuzz with the continuing activity within the Eagle Ford Shale. Attendees were treated to a variety of speakers with both Upstream and Midstream concentrations. The keynote was delivered by Robert O’Neill of Seal Team Six to a full house that loved his insight into his own experiences in the battlefield.   Asset Tracking in many ways is becoming a more essential part of the day-to-day operations of many of the attendees. The massive amount of equipment such as frac tanks, generators, and pumps and the speed at which they move creates a large problem in efficient deployment, retrieval and service verification.

The questions I seem to get asked the most though usually revolve around intrinsic safety or whether or not our GT-1 is a satellite-based device. These questions are uniquely important to the oil and gas market because of the safety concerns with electronics in hazardous environments and the spotty cell coverage in many of the remote areas. Cellular tracking devices work great in metropolitan areas or on trucks that are never out of coverage for long, but for field equipment on a field in Carrizo Springs or Cotulla a more reliable device is needed.   At the end of the last day, when we were pulling down our displays, we said our goodbyes to old friends until the next event and compared notes on how we thought the show went. For most it was a successful opportunity to meet new customers and get introduced to new prospects. The biggest takeaway for me is that people are still genuinely optimistic of the future of oil production inside the Eagle Ford and for some companies it is still their largest area of growth.