Postponed for a year because of the pandemic, the big, wide, wonderful Permian Basin International Oil Show will be held Oct. 19-21 at the Ector County Coliseum with over 30,000 energy industry people expected.
The biennial show is one of the biggest exhibitions in the world of new oil and gas technology and it’s an economic bonanza to Odessa and the 17-county Basin that totaled $23.9 million in revenues when the last one was held during inclement weather three years ago.
Monica Tschauner, director of the Odessa Chamber of Commerce’s Discover Odessa marketing arm, said that with 4,616 hotel and motel rooms here, the event will see participants staying in Midland, Andrews, Monahans, Crane and probably other towns and cities even farther afield as many arrive a week to 10 days early with trucks and cranes to set up their extremely heavy exhibits.
“There are lot of parties and catering that happen with the different businesses for their employees and guests,” she said. “People are coming from all over the world.”
Noting that attendance sometimes topped 100,000 in the old days, Tschauner said admissions finally had to be restricted to industry representatives only so that they could concentrate on business.
Referring to the Nacero Corp.’s plan to start construction late this year on a $7-billion lower carbon gasoline manufacturing plant at Penwell, she said, “With Nacero coming in and with its having been three years since the last show, the room demand will be all over.
“They’ll be staying wherever they can.”
Chamber Economic Development Director Wesley Burnett added that hotel-motel tax receipts and the sales of gasoline and materials for booths will also balloon.
Nacero will make gasoline from a combination of natural gas, captured bio-methane and mitigated flare gas, according to its website.
Started in 1940 as the “The Little International Show” and held on even-numbered years since 1950, the exhibition will henceforth be staged on odd-numbered years because it is expensive for companies to participate and there will be more new developments in 2023 than there would be next year, said Executive Director Tony Fry.
This year’s theme is “Celebrate Our History, Embrace our Future.”
Show President Tommy Pipes said there was no consideration of putting it off again. “This is a whole different year than we had last year at this time,” said Pipes.
“We’ll have a strong group of exhibitors showing their wares. We always have a big turnout if there is good weather and I don’t see a reason why this year will be any different.”
Fry reported Sept. 20 that there was already a full roster of 735 vendors including 14 companies from Canada and two each from India and China along with numerous American-based international corporations that need more than one of the 1,129 indoor and outdoor spaces.
“The Basin is having football, fairs and other trade shows and we felt like it was time to get back into the program,” Fry said. “The Oil Show provides a good opportunity for customers and vendors to come together and see what’s out there with the new technologies, products and services that are being offered to the guys in the field.”
Asked how much business will be done, he said some money and equipment will change hands during the show, but most of it will transpire in the following weeks and months. “It depends on the size of the equipment and the size of the project,” Fry said, noting that midstream transactions will be made to bolster pipelines along with business concerning the upstream production and services end of the industry.
“Most of it will be making contacts that are followed through in two to six months.”
Fry said attendance “was barely 20,000 in 2018,” but the turnout should be much better this time with a little luck with the weather, adding that all the equipment will be gone by Oct. 26 or 27 “because it comes out a whole lot quicker than it goes up.”
He said there will be no official discussions of the energy policies of the Biden Administration, which many oilmen have stringently criticized since President Joe Biden took office in January, because it “is strictly a trade show.
“We don’t have seminars and that kind of stuff on our agenda,” Fry said.
IF YOU GO
With admission restricted to industry personnel who have registered and been given ID tags, the Permian Basin International Oil Show at the Ector County Coliseum will be open during these hours:
- 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. Tuesday, Oct. 19.
- 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. Wednesday, Oct. 20.
- 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Thursday, Oct. 21.
The Chuck Wagon Gang will serve lunch on Monday, Oct. 18, and each day afterward with tickets for Monday being $15, Tuesday $24, Wednesday $21 and Thursday $16 with prices varying according to the menu. Participants are advised to buy advance tickets on the show’s website under “registered exhibitors” to be guaranteed a meal.
