Environmental issues are a significant component of every energy industry endeavor, whether developing deep water reserves in the Gulf of Mexico, exploiting new unconventional gas resources in the Rockies, the Bakken, Barnett or Marcellus Shales, or extending field development in coastal areas of the U.S.

Almost one-third of all Society of Petroleum Engineering technical papers include some aspect of environmental compliance. As of yet there are no integrated petroleum resource environmental programs. Aware of this inequity, Texas A&M (TAMU) and its partners have created an engineering/environmental research collaboration to bring into one organization the ability to address engineering challenges facing the energy industry coupled with the intellectual resources of the University in protection of our environment. Our team includes engineers and environmentalists, economists and sociologists.

Enclosed is a presentation given to the North Dakota Great Plains EXPO November 11, 2008.