Conversations on energy

Jim Gallogly and Erika Hartwig One day after ConocoPhillips took a $4.5 billion impairment charge in its second quarter earnings due to a pullout from Venezuela, the company played host to a town meeting at the Columbia Marriott, Wednesday, June 27.

Conoco and Exxon refused to join four other oil companies that signed over majority stakes in huge oil projects to Venezuela's state oil company, Petroleos de Venezuela SA. By not signing the agreement, they still might pursue compensation through arbitration.

USC's Office of Research and Health Sciences also played host at the town hall meeting of about 200 Columbians. Columbia was one of 35 stops on ConocoPhillips' nationwide "listening tour." The town hall meeting fostered an open forum for citizens to express their opinions about energy issues and topics, including traditional oil and gas development and consumption, renewable fuels, alternative energy sources, and energy efficiency and conservation.

The panel at the head table had two representatives from Conoco: Jim Gallogly, executive vice president, refining, marketing and transportation; and Sabrina Watkins, manager, advanced technology.

Sabrina Watkins Joining the Conoco executives were four Columbians: Charles Bierbauer, dean, College of Mass Communications and Information Studies, USC; Erika Hartwig, renewable energy coordinator, South Carolina Energy Office; John Litton, P.E., assistant bureau chief, Bureau of Air Quality, SCDHEC; Jim Rogers, leader of New Carolina Apparel, Automotive, Nuclear and Textile Clusters.

Watkins was proud to cite Conoco's 16,000 patents, implying successful problem solving at her company was always in the works. The need for new technologies is heightened as alternative fuels become more important, such as soy beans that become diesel fuel. Carbon storage is a whole new field as coal burning plants capture carbon and then look for a place to put it.

Watkins called for a mandatory national framework to reduce greenhouse gases, and she called for more efficient means to take the heavy oil out of the ground in Canada and refine it.

Erika Hartwig She predicted the improved liquification of natural gas and coal for transport and cleaner burning. She also suggested the potential for natural gas drilling offshore near South Carolina.

Rogers of New Carolina discussed the need for stability and competition in energy prices. He said a new baseload capacity is needed for coal- fired generating plants. His New Carolina, aka the S.C. Council on Competitiveness, is focusing on its nuclear cluster for future development of electric power generation.

Hartwig of the S.C. Energy Department shared her dissatisfaction with S.C.'s under- developed mass transit systems, the lack of decent bus service in every city in the state. On the matter of alternative fuels, particularly ethanol, S.C. can't grow enough corn. S.C. is a corn deficit state that both grows and imports corn.

Audience member Ann Elliott suggested some practical application of kudzu, widely available every summer for opportunities.

Another member of the audience wanted to know why the U.S. and Australia declined to sign the Kyoto Agreement, and asked about hydrogen fuel- cell powered automobiles.

Charles Bierbauer The panel concurred that hydrogen fuel cell power was in the country's future, but a failure to find a cheap supply of pure hydrogen was holding up progress.

www.conocophillips.c om/energy.

John Litton Jim Rogers