Blog Introduction27 Feb
My consulting services involve proposal research and writing for advanced technology development and commercialization in military and commercial sectors. These services help to create marketable products from laboratory innovations by focusing on the following business development issues:
- understanding markets
- analyzing the impact of government policy
- evaluating the competition
- assessing technology maturity
- developing a commercialization path for laboratory innovations
This blog will examine the energy space in the context of these five business development issues for the following reasons:
- The United States was once a major exporter of oil. “Altogether, between December 1941 and August 1945, the United States and its allies consumed almost 7 billion barrels of oil, of which 6 billion came from the United States.”1 Currently the United States now imports nearly 60 percent of its crude oil needs. “The United States imported $400B of petroleum in 2008, which accounted for 50 percent of the trade deficit.”2
- The reality is that the lower 48 states reached peak oil production in 1971 with subsequent decreasing levels of production in spite of technology advancements in seismic imaging, horizontal drilling, completion and artificial lift. The U.S. Gulf of Mexico attained peaked production in 2003. Today 80 percent of the Gulf’s production stems from deepwater platforms. Alaskan oil production peaked in 1979.
- There are several other compelling reasons to focus on the energy space. These include the environment, economy, employment, and healthcare costs.
Occasionally there will be postings on subjects not directly related to energy per se, such as the Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) program. These topics will be chosen because of their overall importance to energy (e.g., the need for innovation to help move the United States toward a sustainable energy future).
Postings in this blog will be a work-in-progress effort to figure out what is possible on a time and cost scale to avoid massive disruptions to our way of life. Your comments are most welcome.
1 Yergin, David. 2010. The Prize—The Epic Quest for Oil, Money & Power. New York: The Free Press.
2 Electric Vehicles in the United States —A New Model with Forecasts to 2030, Center for Entrepreneurship & Technology. University of California, Berkeley. Number 2009.1.v.2.