For strategic and economic reasons, the U.S. domestic petroleum industry must be able to compete with foreign producers and refiners. A major sector of our economy and our national interests are clearly at stake. Compliance with environmental regulations is a major factor in that competitiveness. The strategic and economic importance of this industry requires that industry, government and academia combine their resources and coordinate their efforts toward finding solutions for the environmental problems that represent the greatest challenge to the competitiveness of the domestic petroleum industry. The success of this effort will not only stimulate jobs in this industry sector, but also contribute in a large way to the environmental health of the nation. In response to this need, the four major research universities in the oil-producing states of Oklahoma and Arkansas have joined together to form the Integrated Petroleum Environmental Consortium (IPEC). The mission of IPEC is to increase the competitiveness of the domestic petroleum industry through a reduction in the costs of compliance with U.S. environmental regulations. Objectives specific to meeting the goals of the consortium include the following:

Development of cost-effective technologies to meet the challenges of environmental regulations to the competitiveness of the domestic petroleum industry.

New technologies are needed in the petroleum industry now to provide cost-effective solutions to environmental problems in exploration and production and refining. The U.S. petroleum industry is already undertaking this challenge; however, the industry needs help. While the price of crude oil has declined, the cost of doing business has not. The inevitable result has been severe reductions in work force and closings. The domestic petroleum industry has lost 500,000 jobs in the last decade. It is time for the federal government to re-evaluate the regulatory burden on the domestic petroleum industry with the goal of optimizing environmental protection at the lowest possible cost and to help the industry develop the cost-effective technologies it needs to meet environmental standards. With a dwindling technical work force caused by both redirecting E&P operations and layoffs, the domestically-oriented work force is increasingly focused on environmental compliance, not technology development. Industry RD&D spending fell 22% from 1994 to 1996. Industry laboratories, which were once on the forefront of technology development, are now empty and dormant as expenditures are shifting toward near-term product and technical services. The former research leaders still employed are now "putting out fires" and the independent producers rarely have a technical staff for any kind of RD&D. The U.S. petroleum industry must rely more and more on technical professionals in academia for research. However, budgets are tight and only the most immediate of problems are being addressed. Even a 3-5 year time frame is often farther out than the industry can afford to look.

From 1995 to 1997 Federal support for oil and gas RD&D has been cut by 31% (U.S. Department of Energy). Given the strategic importance of this industry, the Federal government should reverse this trend and direct a larger segment of RD&D resources to the development of new, cost-effective environmental technologies to support the domestic petroleum industry. A critical segment of this effort should be support of university research. A major part of this research funding should place emphasis on providing near-term solutions to these problems with direct input from the petroleum industry. In partnership with industry, IPEC can help provide these solutions through competitive grants within IPEC institutions.

The petroleum industry will measure the relevancy of research in terms of the tangible results produced. In the context of the vision of IPEC this means new, cost-effective technology made available to industry. The greatest impact on competitiveness on the domestic petroleum industry will be made by improved solutions to problems that have a significant economic impact on the industry. The research conducted within IPEC, therefore, by necessity has a strong applied element.

Whenever possible, IPEC uses an integrated team approach to technology development. The teams are not only integrated with respect to scientific and engineering disciplines but also integrated with respect to the technology development process itself. In other words the teams also consist of members whose expertise is in scale-up and commercialization of new technology. If the work product of the team is to make a significant impact in the domestic petroleum industry the most important member of the team is the end user of the technology. A teaming of investigators from different disciplines and representing different levels of the technology development process greatly facilitates communication among the investigators and keeps the team focused on solving the problem. The team approach is certainly the shortest path to making a meaningful impact on the competitiveness of the domestic petroleum industry.

This team and systems approach to solving real problems in the domestic petroleum industry is the hallmark of IPEC. Fundamental research is coupled with bench-scale testing of concepts, pilot testing, field demonstrations and technology transfer. The end user of the technology is always involved in technology development as an advisor and hands-on participant. As an investment in future technology development, undergraduate and graduate students are integrated into every aspect of the work of the consortium. Undergraduate students gain valuable experience working on consortium projects while graduate students use consortium research work for their theses and dissertations. The integrated approach to technology development gives these students much-needed pilot and field experience and industrial contacts.

Dissemination of information regarding state-of-the-art petroleum environmental technology, new technology development, and legal and regulatory issues which can impact the competitiveness of the domestic petroleum industry.

A strong technology transfer program is critical to IPEC making an immediate impact on the competitiveness of independent producers. IPEC's technology transfer program will include the following elements:

• Holding a series of free workshops across Oklahoma and Arkansas for independent producers for training in a) first response to spills of produced fluids, b) remediation of spills of produced fluids, c) pollution prevention, d) state and federal E&P environmental regulations, and e) where to get information.
• Holding a series of free workshops across Oklahoma and Arkansas for regulators for training in a) first response to spills of produced fluids, b) remediation of spills of produced fluids, and c) pollution prevention. One motivation for training the regulators in environmental technologies is to make them better regulators by giving them a better understanding of the technology of spill response, remediation and pollution prevention. However, these workshops will differ from those for independents in that workshops for regulators will also provide materials and training to the regulators in how to include an element of training in their contacts with independents. Many independents will not come to a one-day training opportunity even if it is close by and free - they simply cannot afford to be away from their businesses. However, they see the state regulators, especially field inspectors, frequently. If these field inspectors are trained in how best to advise these independents in how to address problem areas and prevent future problems, then IPEC's reach will be greatly extended. IPEC-trained field inspectors become, in effect, IPEC extension agents providing a conduit between IPEC and the independents for technology transfer. IPEC will also utilize these field inspectors to open lines of communication between the IPEC administration and the small independents who are unlikely to respond to traditional outreach mechanisms. Wherever needed, IPEC will also facilitate contact between independents and "experts" to provide additional information on environmental technologies and regulations.
• Developing and distributing self-assessment kits, site checklists and instructional videos to aid independent producers and regulators in the field.
• Sponsoring state regulators to the IPEC-organized International Petroleum Environmental Conference to gather information on new technologies. In return for these scholarships, regulators will be asked to provide "in service" workshops on new ideas/technologies to other agency employees upon return to their jobs.
• Establishing and maintaining an IPEC web site for independents and regulators who are on line to include IPEC research outputs, calendars of events, linkages to other useful sites, technical and regulatory news items, and a discussion group where industry representatives and regulators can exchange information on new technologies and regulations. The webmaster will use Petroleum Abstracts and sources to communicate new developments to the industry.
• Research results from all IPEC technology development projects will be documented through standard EPA reporting procedures. IPEC investigators also will deliver papers and contribute journal articles on noteworthy achievements. All resulting citations can then be picked up and disseminated through such standard online databases as DOE's "Energy Science and Technology", the American Petroleum Institute's "APILIT", and TU's "Petroleum Abstracts".
• IPEC will also provide a central repository for all reports, papers, and articles resulting from its research projects. These documents will be available on demand from the repository for the fulfillment of external orders. IPEC will establish and maintain a web page with links to the EPA NCERQA page. Where appropriate, IPEC research results will also be compiled into databases for nationwide access via Internet. Information concerning the databases will be distributed to the domestic petroleum industry and other interested users through exhibits at selected conferences, the trade literature, target mailings and Internet Listserv messaging. Every effort will be made to guarantee equity of access throughout the petroleum industry. IPEC will also establish a feedback mechanism through which the major and independent oil and gas producers can inform the RD&D community of their experiences with new technologies as well as their technology needs.

To the extent possible, actual field training will be incorporated into IPEC technology workshops. Establishing a single field training site is difficult enough but coupling field training with the need to go where the independents are is a difficult logistical problem. In the state of Oklahoma a mechanism was created by the Oklahoma state legislature to collect a voluntary tax on oil and gas production in the state. The Oklahoma Energy Resources Board (OERB) was created by industry to use these funds for public relations for the industry and to remediate abandoned oil and gas environmental damage. We propose to work with the OERB to include the much needed field component in IPEC training workshops. The idea would be to identify a variety of sites across the state where the OERB will be conducting remediation and couple these with the IPEC workshops. Independents and regulators could attend the workshop one day and be in the field the next seeing technology in action. Since the OERB sites are naturally located in areas of historically intense oil and gas activity, these areas are natural settings for IPEC workshops since many independents can be expected to be working in the mature fields in the area.

IPEC and the IAB recognize that barriers exist to the application of new technology for environmental applications. One way that IPEC will address this problem is to encourage the involvement of end users in funded research projects. This not only helps to keep the project focused on practical application but also provides a first user if the project is successful. However, we recognize that we must go beyond the first user concept to be successful in getting new technology recognized. As will be discussed below, technology transfer to the regulatory community (especially field inspectors), educating them to the potential of new technologies (from inside and outside of IPEC), will make them more open to approving their application. In other words this should help in getting new technologies "blessed" by the regulators. The problem that remains though is the contractor who is afraid of the potential liability of the unsuccessful application of new technology. This is indeed a thorny problem. IPEC will use the IAB and the IPEC Affiliates Group to address this problem. In particular IPEC will work closely with the National Energy-Environmental Law and Policy Institute (NELPI), the Sarkeys Energy Center (OU), the office of the Oklahoma Secretary of Energy, and Representative Larry Rice (Chair of the Energy & Natural Resources Committee in the Oklahoma House of Representatives) to seek a regional solution to this problem. IPEC will also work with the Interstate Oil and Gas Compact Commission (IOGCC) to export any solutions to other oil and gas producing states.

IPEC will develop and initially offer this environmental technology transfer program for the domestic petroleum industry primarily in the States of Oklahoma and Arkansas. However, this program should be viewed as an test program from which successful elements can be readily exported to other oil and gas producing states in cooperation with organizations like the American Petroleum Institute, the Independent Producers Association of America, or the Interstate Oil and Gas Compact Commission. Therefore, this program is national in its scope and potential.