Energy students attend Gulf Coast Energy Forum

More than a dozen Master of Management in Energy students learned the latest in natural gas marketing, consumption and production trends and networked with industry professionals at the 7^th annual Gulf Coast Energy Forum. The event took place Oct. 13-15 at the Westin Hotel in New Orleans.

The Gulf Coast Energy Forum is one of six annual LDC gas events presented by Access Intelligence to explore key issues and connect professionals in the major natural gas market regions across North America.

Eric Smith, professor of practice and associate director of the Tulane Energy Institute, was one of this year’s panelists, and he arranged for students to get free registration to the forum.

“The biggest benefit to students was that those attending included virtually everyone interested in buying, selling and transporting natural gas and LNG,” Smith says. “So the networking opportunities were prolific.”

Smith moderated a panel on efforts to educate students to meet the employment goals of the state and region. Joining Smith were a panel of Tulane-related experts that included:

• Lacy McManus (MBA ’15), development officer in charge of FUEL, an NSF-funded program managed by LSU with support from Tulane and other Louisiana educational institutions that is working to increase energy literacy in Louisiana.
   
• Laura Beauchamp (BSM ’00, MBA ’04), adjunct professor at the Tulane Energy Institute and a vice president with Entergy Louisiana, who is managing Entergy’s efforts supporting Meta’s construction of a multi-billion dollar data center in Richland Parish, Louisiana.
   
• John Foreman, COO of an oilfield and industrial service company and instructor in energy trading at the Freeman School.
   
• Frederic Sourgens, at Tulane law professor of director of the Tulane Energy Law Center.
   
• Jordan Tinsley, attorney and vice president of development at ENFRA, the pioneering energy-as-a-service-company that partnered with Tulane in 2022 to optimize the university’s energy consumption. Tinsely is also one of 22 ENFRA personnel engaged in a noncredit education program, jointly organized by ENFRA and the Freeman School, that is designed to broaden the institutional knowledge base of ENFRA, which now encompasses university and health care clients in 17 states. Tinsely also recently completed a first of a kind project designed to optimize power consumption at the Clinton Presidential library and several proximate state government buildings in Little Rock, Arkansas.

“When the organizers called and asked if we could put together a panel to discuss energy education outreach in Louisiana that supports the $70 billion growth in new energy project spending coming to Louisiana, I thought it would be a great opportunity to highlight the work we’re doing at Freeman,” Smith said. “Each of the panelists is actively involved with energy education in Louisiana, and each has a strong connection to Tulane. We also discussed complementary efforts taking place at other Louisiana universities as well as at our junior colleges and our science oriented high schools.”