Our 2024 UPA Annual Meeting featured a schedule carefully curated to provide plenty of networking and engagement opportunities. Following consecutive years of record-breaking growth upstream and a barrage of federal rules across the board, we were honored to have a full house. It was our pleasure to provide members with opportunities to connect with one another, discuss the issues pertinent to their individual companies and collaborate broadly with fellow companies and service providers, not to mention to enjoy the beauty of Sundance Resort. While the snow outdoors wasn’t nearly as extreme as last year’s, the insights gained indoors during our various presentations and panels were no less profound. We kicked off the first day with State Representative Robert Spendlove who offered terrific insight into the present state of Utah’s economy and a look forward at our changing demographics. How does Utah maintain its quality of life and bespoke values while continuing to welcome and integrate newcomers? It’s a question we all face. In the afternoon, we tackled the issue of the growing volume of stranded natural gas and options to avoid flaring. We highlighted the innovative collaboration between XCL Resources and Crusoe Energy to utilize that gas for data centers and, looking down the road, computing. The oil and natural gas industry is an industry of problem solvers, and this is a case study in ingenuity. On our second day, we awarded money to the winners of our Wildlife & Energy Photo Contest and then got right to the business of the recently wrapped legislative session. In a spirited discussion about issues of every stripe, we gained remarkable insight into how policy actually gets made. We followed that with a triple shot of roundtables. First up was the downstream roundtable, where an abundance of issues at the federal level took center stage. We segued into a discussion of upstream issues with a panel of heavy hitters representing nearly 90% of the state’s oil and gas production. We then moved into tribal priorities and cooperative development as we covered the important issues faced by our tribal allies, colleagues and neighbors. 10 UPDATE
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