American Oil and Gas Reporter - January 2016 - 145

The Presidential Papers
ASSOCIATION OF ENERGY
SERVICE COMPANIES
JOYCE RYEL
SENIOR ADVISER, DOT &
REGULATORY AFFAIRS
SUPERIOR ENERGY SERVICES-NAS
HOUSTON, TX

FROM THE PRESIDENT
The oil and natural gas industry's history is one of booms and busts, rising
and falling with the price of and demand
for oil and gas. In our current bust, companies have cut costs by reducing head
counts and wages, competitively pricing
supplies, and closing marginal operations.
Although there is limited expectation of
recovery in 2016, the industry must begin
to prepare for the future.
For an industry hit hard by falling commodity prices and other deflation, the time
for dynamic leadership has come so we
can change the oil and gas industry we
know into something better. The Association
of Energy Service Companies is the country's leading trade association for oil and
gas service companies, and is up to the
challenge of dynamic leadership.
AESC was founded in 1956 by seven
oil and gas industry leaders working in
Odessa, Tx. Their goal was to form an
organization that could provide a medium
for exchanging information and ideas, as
well as a unified voice to represent their
industry. The original name was the Association of Oilwell Services Contractors.
Its goals were lower insurance rates, safer
practices, improved labor turnover rates,
better business practices, stronger public
relations, and the exchange of ideas and
information. These goals still hold true
today.
AESC's structure consists of three
main groups:
* Sustaining members provide products or services for the express purpose
of completing, maintaining, assessing,
enhancing and/or abandoning an oil or
gas well.
* Associate members offer focused
products or services that connect with
the energy industry in support of on-site
service providers, and are categorized as

safety and engineering groups, manufacturers/suppliers, insurance, financial, legal
and consulting companies.
* Producer members are exploration
and production companies, operating
companies, refiners, marketers and royalty
owners.
The association has a proven record
of 60 years of serving energy service
well site providers by representing their
interests at both the federal and state
levels in all aspects of statutory, regulatory
and compliance issues. AESC's mission
statement is to provide a voice to the oil
and gas industry.
An Important Role
AESC represents more than 750 member companies with more than 300,000
employees. These companies and employees depend on AESC's leadership
and guidance as the oil and gas industry
works toward American energy independence. We have seen positive developments,
with the House of Representatives in
early October 2015 passing historic legislation to remove the 40-year-old crude
oil export ban and modernize oil export
policies. But the battle is not over.
The vote comes as low oil prices have
forced energy companies to lay off thousands of workers, slash capital spending
and reduce rig counts by more than a
thousand. But this bust offers the industry
a chance not only to survive, but to make
changes that will strengthen us when the
boom returns. Longstanding dynamic
leaders, as well as newly developing leaders, undoubtedly will be the catalysts for
transforming the industry.
AESC is even more critical to ensuring
our companies can continue to operate
in a tightening regulatory environment.
For more than five decades, AESC has

operated through a network of national
committees and local chapters that address
safety, technology, environmental, insurance, public policy, training, oil field
theft and other issues of common concern.
A key challenge arises from declining
membership, a result of 20 years of consolidation, coupled with the remote small
independent well servicing operators that
are scattered around the country and have
not learned the benefits of AESC membership.
AESC is supported by national committees including Associates Advisory;
Business Analysis; Health, Safety & Environmental; Human Relations; Insurance;
Legal; Membership; Oil Field Trucking/Fluid Hauling; Pressure Pumping; Political
Affairs; Small Business Issues; Technical;
Wireline/Well Logging; and Workforce
Development. Industry leaders from many
companies support these committees and
work on the sector's issues.
The Workforce Development Committee has developed a curriculum to
target future leaders at the high school
level with astonishing results. The Oil
Field Trucking Committee has hosted a
Department of Transportation educational
class and conference to support those
using the nation's highways. The Political
Affairs Committee hosts an annual Washington visit to allow those representing
our industry to hear from those with the
boots on the ground.
The Health, Safety and Environmental
Committee develops training materials
and regularly updates the Recommended
Safe Procedures and Guidelines for Oil
and Gas Servicing Operation. Each volunteer-led committee contributes to the
safety of workers and the public, and
supports the operation of our industry.
AESC gathers safety statistics from
members to help develop data that reflect
the energy servicing companies' injury
and illness experience while measuring
progress and offering comparisons with
other industries. AESC is partnering in
an alliance with the Occupational Health
& Safety Administration that is dedicated
to reducing the industry's injury and
illness rate.
On Nov. 17, the HSE Committee hosted
a four-hour training event focused on the
properties, detection, hazards and avoidance
techniques of hydrogen sulfide at the University of Texas at Arlington's OSHA Education Center. About three-dozen people
JANUARY 2016 145

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