September 13, 2016 – NGI’s Shale Daily
NatGas Industry Must Be Proactive About Messaging Problem, RBN Energy Analyst Says
By: Jeremiah Shelor
The natural gas industry needs to change its approach if it wants to fix its messaging problem, according to Richard Smead, RBN Energy LLC managing director of advisory services.
Speaking during the 28th Annual LDC Gas Forums Midcontinent Forum in Chicago Monday, Smead offered his thoughts on how the industry should be working to court public opinion. The U.S. presidential election may feature two candidates with high unfavorability ratings, but according to Smead, the natural gas industry has its own likability problem.
“It’s hard to hire people in the natural gas industry now because they don’t want to tell their relatives,” Smead said. “We’re the next hydrocarbon...now that they’ve taken down coal, we’ve got a lot of people after us, we have a lot of people after pipelines. They still have Keystone XL blood on their teeth...popularity is a challenge, and the industry has not necessarily done itself any favors a lot of times.”
In the effort to improve public perception, perfect execution across the value chain -- an area where companies have been making strides -- has to be the first priority, he said.
“For a long time [messaging] has been No. 1, that our job is to go out there and explain to all these people why they’re completely wrong, and then they’ll listen to us,” Smead said. “That hasn’t worked.” Messaging has “to follow performance that you can demonstrate and that other people are recognizing. It’s much better to have a clean story that’s also true first before you go out and start telling it.
Read the full story here: http://www.naturalgasintel.com/articles/107729-natgas-industry-must-be-proactive-about-messaging-problem-rbn-energy-analyst-says
