ODESSA, Texas — If you live in the Permian Basin, there’s two things you hear about everyday: oil and gas.
"When you look at Midland-Odessa, you look at the Permian Basin, I mean, the decisions that we make every day out here, in the oil and gas industry affects the global economy," Cole Wardel, GM of Sales of Power System Division at Warren CAT said.
But once every two years, the rest of the world gets to hear about West Texas' oil and gas.
"The Permian Basin International Show is the largest onshore oil and gas trade show in the United States, or for that matter in the world," PBIOS President Larry Richards said. "It has become the epicenter of innovation, this area of our country for oil and gas technology. And this show is every other year; it's been here in Odessa, Texas since 1940."
Over 750 exhibitors from around the world right in these 25 acres of the Ector County Coliseum.
All of those oil minds-- right in little old Odessa.
"We have I think over 20 [exhibitors] from Canada, for example," Richards said. "But we also have them from India and China and Germany and the UK. But more importantly, we have attendees from all across the United States and all across the world. Because so much of the new technology on waste to drilling complete wells is being invented here in the Permian Basin in the last 10 years. We're drilling these wells in entirely new ways than we've ever done historically."
Wardell said it is so important for people, especially not from West Texas, to see what the oil and gas industry is all about.
"For us to be able to gather and to have people come in from outside of the Permian Basin," Wardel said. "Whether that be from other parts of Texas, other parts of the United States, outside of the United States as well. It's critical for them to see what's going on here because everything that we do within the industry every day, affects the international presence and the global platform that we live off of as far as for supplying our energy needs."
And if the Permian Basin is an expert in one thing: it’s oil.
"And so we're constantly having to innovate and design and engineer new solutions to be able to handle these beasts when they come in," Richards said. "And the rest of the world is now learning from the Permian, on where to go find these type of type shale formations and be able to produce efficiently out of them."
It gives local companies like Warren CAT the chance to show the world how they’re contributing to the ever-growing oil scene.
As well as potentially have companies from all over the world buy their technology.
"This year, we're excited because we have over 8000 square feet dedicated for Warren CAT and Caterpillar," Wardel said. "We've got a great partnership this year with Caterpillar and our involvement at the oil show really is for us just to continue to tell the story that we believe Warren CAT and Caterpillar is a great solution to the problems within the oil and gas industry that we can solve."
The show is also a way to show just how important the oil and gas industry is to not just West Texas, but to the planet.
"Where we are today we always need to make sure that we're communicating clearly, the role that the oil and gas industry plays each and every day around the globe," Wardel said. "And anytime that we get a chance to tell that story we need to tell that story and the Permian Basin Oil Show is a great example of telling that story."
And it all starts with the people.
"But I think that that we need to be proud as an industry of the standard of living that so many people are able to live because of what so many people here in the Permian Basin," Richards said. "They get up in the morning in the dark and go to work, and three quarters of them show back up that evening in the dark after they're done working. And they're doing it six days a week or more. And I'm incredibly proud of what they do. And we highlight those people here. This is a working man and woman show. We want people to show up in their coveralls and their steel toed boots and come look at all this new tech because they're providing the standard of living for all of us that we're all just thankful for."
While it’s called a show, this event is more of a showcase.
A showcase to the world of just how much grit the Permian Basin has.
The oil show opens Tuesday morning at 9:30 a.m. with an opening ceremony at the Ector County Coliseum and will run until Thursday from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. each day.
Admission is free but is limited to the oil and gas industry.
For more information, visit the PBIOS website.