The energy industry needs to re-evaluate its priorities for the workplace. Photo courtesy of Thomas Miller/Breitling Energy

The oil and gas industry today is being shaped by truly unprecedented conditions. In the face of a global economic crisis, players in this space are grappling with how best to spend and save resources in a way that's smart, deliberate and centered on expanding a company's value.

But even when the price of oil was four times what it is today, only 13 percent of the oil and gas industry's leaders said they were moving fast enough from a tech investment perspective, according to data my company, Quorum Software, pulled back in October. This was the writing on the wall that the industry was unprepared for a crisis of this magnitude, let alone two.

At the same time, there are a number of critical labor challenges that could curb Houston's oil and gas sector's ability to rebound. In order to future proof the energy industry and attract and retain young and innovative talent, Houston's oil and gas leaders need to prioritize investments in technology and start creating specific business advantages through tech.

Create a place young talent will want to land

In the Houston area, millennials age 25 to 34 make up the largest percentage of the adult population, according to the most recent data from the U.S. Census Bureau. Despite this, oil and gas has historically suffered a gap in talent for this employee subset.

As the Houston energy economy seeks to attract talent from Gen Z and millennial pools, they must invest in transformative technology and become a modern energy workplace.

In our recently released industry report, oil and gas decision makers made it clear that they understand having better technology generates more efficient workplaces. What's more, four out of five of these industry leaders think employees will leave without access to sound technology.

Technology will play as an essential part of crisis recovery, and Houston's business leaders in this sector must align their tech investments over the next two quarters in order to both drive business success and also retain and attract a rich talent pool.

Prepare for the long road ahead

Oil and gas leaders in this region are familiar with managing volatility. Prices rise and fall much more quickly than in other industries, with fluctuating regulations, border skirmishes, trade deals, weather and local and global politics all impacting an ever-changing market. We have entered a period when short-term stability and long-term success are both in jeopardy unless you innovate now – especially as the prognosis for long-term structural change in the industry indicates that things might get a lot tougher before they turn around.

In my 30-plus years in the software industry, I've heard thoughtful people talk a lot about disruption. The idea that companies use software and/or technology to disrupt both their internal operations or disrupt markets to make sure that markets don't disrupt them. In just a few months, the commodity pricing shifts have disrupted economic forces on our businesses. As much as we've talked about technology for transformation and modernization, we need to adopt strategies that allows for more agility and sustainability during big market swings.

Judging by the responses in our recent report, oil and gas decision-makers are realistic about the business challenges ahead of them and their inability to solve the problems using the technologies they have in place. Like their IT decision-maker counterparts, 95 percent of oil and gas industry leaders agree that in today's marketplace, a company that doesn't embrace technological advances will not succeed in terms of streamlining operations (land management, accounting, etc.). In fact, in oil and gas, 97 percent of respondents believe the industry will decline if it doesn't adapt to the changes around it.

The takeaway? To survive today — and thrive tomorrow — you don't need to disrupt your business, but you do need to modernize it to be agile and sustain revenue production. You need to bring new technologies into the fold to improve your efficiencies. You need to challenge the status quo, not only to help you endure today's conditions, but also get where you want to go.

This point is only unscored by recent reports that highlight how the Texas Workforce Commission is relying on tech from the 1980s as unemployment claims overwhelm the system. Across industries, and especially those experiencing the volatility that the oil and gas industry is, technology holds the key to attracting and retaining talent, streamlining operations, and staying afloat in these uncharted waters.

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Gene Austin is the CEO of Houston-based Quorum Software.

This week's innovators to know includes John Berger, Mary Beth Snodgrass, and Gene Austin. Courtesy photos

3 Houston innovators to know this week

Who's who

Houston is still — but most accounts — emerging as a tech and innovation hub, which could seem to mean that the startups that make up the innovation ecosystem reside in early stages of business scale.

However, this week's sampling of Houston innovators to know demonstrate the scope in scale of Houston's companies — from a CEO to a newly public company and recently hired CEO of a rapidly scaling software company to a health tech leader fresh out of the gates.

John Berger, CEO of Sunnova

Photo courtesy of Sunnova

Taking a company public brings on a slew of changes. One that might be overlooked is the change for the leader of that company. John Berger —CEO of Sunnova, a Houston-based solar energy company that went public last summer — joins the Houston Innovators Podcast to discuss the changes and where his company is headed.

Transitioning from a private company CEO to a public company CEO has been eye opening, Berger says on the podcast, joking that he now has to watch what he says. But change is ultimately something Berger says he embraces.

"I really look at myself and how I can change myself," Berger says. "I'm a different CEO today than I was 12 months ago, and hopefully I'll be a different CEO in 12 months, because the company demands it." Read more and stream the episode here.

Mary Beth Snodgrass, co-founder of Healthiby

Mary Beth Snodgrass is convinced she can help people make life-enhancing changes that affect health and financial situations because, well, science.

The co-founder of Healthiby created the platform to use financial incentives to drive positive health and wellness decisions. The Houston company is in pilot mode but has plans to expand.

"What we're really focused on this year is, in addition to our incentives, digital content and coach guidance, is making sure that participants are engaging among themselves," Snodgrass tells InnovationMap. "Science shows there are benefits to surrounding yourself with other people who share similar health goals." Read more.

Gene Austin, CEO of Quorum Software

Photo courtesy of Quorum

A new CEO is tasked with exponential growth at a Houston-based software company. Gene Austin joined Houston-based Quorum Software last year at a time of rapid M&A activity.

The energy industry software solutions provider, which is a portfolio company of California-based private equity firm Thoma Bravo LLC since 2018, has big plans to continue the exponential growth with more acquisitions that diversify their portfolio of services and a Houston office expansion later this year. According to Austin, he expects this growth spurred by M&A activity to double Quorum's revenue of $200 million in the next 3 to 5 years.

"We are always thinking about how to best serve our customers," Austin says. "We've made millions of dollars of investments in our support organization and cloud team services that are foundational to reinvigorate innovation and help our customers see how the future can unfold for them." Read more.

Quorum Software is growing fast by adding to its suite of technology by making strategic acquisitions. Getty Images

Houston energy software company prepares to continue acquisition growth in 2020

M&A moves

A Houston software company specializing in cloud-based accounting and finance technology for oil and gas companies is growing at a rapid pace thanks to recent acquisitions.

Houston-based Quorum Software has grown its company over 100 employees last year, and Gene Austin, who was recently named CEO, says it's just the beginning.

The software solutions provider, which is a portfolio company of California-based private equity firm Thoma Bravo LLC since 2018, has big plans to continue the exponential growth with more acquisitions that diversify their portfolio of services and a Houston office expansion later this year.

According to Austin, he expects this growth spurred by M&A activity to double Quorum's revenue of $200 million in the next 3 to 5 years.

"We are always thinking about how to best serve our customers," Austin says. "We've made millions of dollars of investments in our support organization and cloud team services that are foundational to reinvigorate innovation and help our customers see how the future can unfold for them."

Courtesy of Quorum

Quorum is in the midst of a transformation into a software provider, focusing on cloud operations and digital software with significant acquisitions. Most recently, they launched OGsys on Demand, a cloud-based accounting software, after acquiring OGsys in August of 2019. The integration of OGsys expands the cloud-based capabilities for accounting products tailored for upstream medium-sized energy companies.

The launch was right on the heels of two other acquisitions that included Irving, Texas-based Archeio Technologies in June, a document classification smart search technology provider, and Pasadena, Texas-based Coastal Flow Measurement Inc. in March, a family of energy measurement services, one of which was Flow-Cal, a measurement data management software for oil and natural gas.

"Using innovation for us means not only acquiring new technologies but also investing in the right areas for our business and our current products," says Austin.

Quorum, who provides software solutions for a broad spectrum of energy companies' needs, from operations to accounting, plant management, and financial forecasting, began as a consulting firm more than 20 years ago. The company got its start with a customer-oriented structure for large oil and gas companies, known as enterprise organizations in the industry.

Eventually, the business transitioned to working with mid-size firms along with their larger set of clients. It was then when Quorum began to hear from clients their need for better accounting software that met the specific challenges of mid-size companies.

"Our products are designed to help our clients know much more about what's happening inside the business, making sure efficiency is possible," Austin tells InnovationMap. "We're doing that by using web applications that allow our clients to use mobile devices, that's a fairly new innovation in the energy world, we're trying to lead the way."

The focus on quick and efficient software technologies is reaping benefits for Quorum. Eighty percent of the largest oil and gas producers in the United States use Quorum, and its technology powers 80,000 miles of pipeline and that accounts for 80 percent of all-natural gas processed in the U.S.

"We believe because of the products we represent and the way we position our services, including our cloud-based accounting and financial application," Austin says. "We are well-positioned to help our clients do a great job of driving efficiency."

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NASA signs on latest tenant for new Exploration Park campus, now underway

space hub

Exploration Park, the 240-acre research and commercial institute at NASA's Johnson Space Center, is ready for launch.

Facilities at the property have broken ground, according to a recent episode of NASA's Houston We Have a Podcast, with a completion date targeted for Q4 2026.

The research park has also added Houston-based KBR to its list of tenants. According to a news release from the Greater Houston Partnership, the human spaceflight and aerospace services company will operate a 45,000-square-foot food innovation lab at Exploration Park. KBR will use the facility to focus on customized food systems, packaging and nutrition for the low Earth orbit economy.

“Exploration Park is designed for companies in the space ecosystem, such as KBR, to develop, produce, and deploy innovative new technologies that support space exploration and commerce,” Simon Shewmaker, head of development at ACMI Properties, the developer behind Exploration Park, said in the GHP release. “This project is moving expeditiously, and we’re thrilled to sign such an innovative partner in KBR, reflecting our shared commitment to building the essential infrastructure of tomorrow for the next generation of space innovators and explorers.”

NASA introduced the concept of a collaborative hub for academic, commercial and international partners focused on spaceflight in 2023. It signed leases with the American Center for Manufacturing and Innovation and the Texas A&M University System for the previously unused space at JSC last year.

“For more than 60 years, NASA Johnson has been the hub of human space exploration,” Vanessa Wyche, NASA Johnson Space Center Director, said in a statement at the time. “This Space Systems Campus will be a significant component within our objectives for a robust and durable space economy that will benefit not only the nation’s efforts to explore the Moon, Mars and the asteroids, but all of humanity as the benefits of space exploration research roll home to Earth.”

Texas A&M is developing the $200 million Texas A&M Space Institute, funded by the Texas Space Commission, at the center of the park. The facility broke ground last year and will focus on academic, government and commercial collaboration, as well as workforce training programs. ACMI is developing the facilities at Exploration Park.

Once completed, Exploration Park is expected to feature at least 20 build-to-suit facilities over at least 1.5 million square feet. It will offer research and development space, laboratories, clean rooms, office space and light manufacturing capabilities for the aerospace, robotics, life support systems, advanced manufacturing and artificial intelligence industries.

According to the GHP, Griffin Partners has also been selected to serve as the co-developer of Exploration Park. Gensler is leading the design and Walter P Moore is overseeing civil engineering.

Houston cleantech co. plans first-of-its-kind sustainable aviation fuel facility

coming soon

Houston-based Syzygy Plasmonics announced plans to develop what it calls the world's first electrified facility to convert biogas into sustainable aviation fuel (SAF).

The facility, known as NovaSAF 1, will be located in Durazno, Uruguay. It is expected to produce over 350,000 gallons of SAF annually, which would be considered “a breakthrough in cost-effective, scalable clean fuel,” according to the company.

"This is more than just a SAF plant; it's a new model for biogas economics," Trevor Best, CEO of Syzygy Plasmonics, said in a news release. "We're unlocking a global asset class of underutilized biogas sites and turning them into high-value clean fuel hubs without pipelines, costly gas separation, or subsidy dependence.”

The project is backed by long-term feedstock and site agreements with one of Uruguay's largest dairy and agri-energy operations, Estancias del Lago, while the permitting and equipment sourcing are ongoing alongside front-end engineering work led by Kent.

Syzygy says the project will result in a 50 percent higher SAF yield than conventional thermal biogas reforming pathways and will utilize both methane and CO2 naturally found in biogas as feedstocks, eliminating the need for expensive CO2 separation technologies and infrastructure. Additionally, the modular facility will be designed for easy replication in biogas-rich regions.

The new facility is expected to begin commercial operations in Q1 2027 and produce SAF with at least an 80 percent reduction in carbon intensity compared to Jet A fuel. The company says that once fully commercialized the facility will produce SAF at Jet-A fuel cost parity.

“We believe NovaSAF represents one of the few viable pathways to producing SAF at jet parity and successfully decarbonizing air travel,” Best added in the release.

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This article originally ran on EnergyCapital.

Houston company ranks No. 13 worldwide on Forbes Global 2000 list

World's Biggest Companies

More than 60 Texas-based companies appear on Forbes’ 2025 list of the world’s 2,000 biggest publicly traded companies, and nearly half come from Houston.

Among Texas companies whose stock is publicly traded, Spring-based ExxonMobil is the highest ranked at No. 13 globally.

Rounding out Texas’ top five are Houston-based Chevron (No. 30), Dallas-based AT&T (No. 35), Austin-based Oracle (No. 66), and Austin-based Tesla (No. 69).

Ranking first in the world is New York City-based J.P. Morgan Chase.

Forbes compiled this year’s Global 2000 list using data from FactSet Research to analyze the biggest public companies based on four metrics: sales, profit, assets, and market value.

“The annual Forbes Global 2000 list features the companies shaping today’s global markets and moving them worldwide,” said Hank Tucker, a staff writer at Forbes. “This year’s list showcases how despite a complex geopolitical landscape, globalization has continued to fuel decades of economic growth, with the world’s largest companies more than tripling in size across multiple measures in the past 20 years.”

The U.S. topped the list with 612 companies, followed by China with 317 and Japan with 180.

Here are the rest of the Texas-based companies in the Forbes 2000, grouped by the location of their headquarters and followed by their global ranking.

Houston area

  • ConocoPhillips (No. 105)
  • Phillips 66 (No. 276)
  • SLB (No. 296)
  • EOG Resources (No. 297)
  • Occidental Petroleum (No. 302)
  • Waste Management (No. 351)
  • Kinder Morgan (No. 370)
  • Hewlett Packard Enterprise (No. 379)
  • Baker Hughes (No. 403)
  • Cheniere Energy (No. 415)
  • Corebridge Financial (No. 424)
  • Sysco (No. 448)
  • Halliburton (No. 641)
  • Targa Resources (No. 651)
  • NRG Energy (No. 667)
  • Quanta Services (No. 722)
  • CenterPoint Energy (No. 783)
  • Coterra Energy (No. 1,138)
  • Crown Castle International (No. 1,146)
  • Westlake Corp. (No. 1,199)
  • APA Corp. (No. 1,467)
  • Comfort Systems USA (No. 1,629)
  • Group 1 Automotive (No. 1,653)
  • Talen Energy (No. 1,854)
  • Prosperity Bancshares (No. 1,855)
  • NOV (No. 1,980)

Austin area

  • Dell Technologies (No. 183)
  • Flex (No. 887)
  • Digital Realty Trust (No. 1,063)
  • CrowdStrike (No. 1,490)

Dallas-Fort Worth

  • Caterpillar (No. 118)
  • Charles Schwab (No. 124)
  • McKesson (No. 195)
  • D.R. Horton (No. 365)
  • Texas Instruments (No. 374)
  • Vistra Energy (No. 437)
  • CBRE (No. 582)
  • Kimberly-Clark (No. 639)
  • Tenet Healthcare (No. 691)
  • American Airlines (No. 834)
  • Southwest Airlines (No. 844)
  • Atmos Energy (No. 1,025)
  • Builders FirstSource (No. 1,039)
  • Copart (No. 1,062)
  • Fluor (No. 1,153)
  • Jacobs Solutions (1,232)
  • Globe Life (1,285)
  • AECOM (No. 1,371)
  • Lennox International (No. 1,486)
  • HF Sinclair (No. 1,532)
  • Invitation Homes (No. 1,603)
  • Celanese (No. 1,845)
  • Tyler Technologies (No. 1,942)

San Antonio

  • Valero Energy (No. 397)
  • Cullen/Frost Bankers (No. 1,560)

Midland

  • Diamondback Energy (No. 471)
  • Permian Resources (No. 1,762)
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A version of this article originally appeared on CultureMap.com.