As the oil and gas industry enters the Spring Conference and Committee Meeting season, there is a resounding energy industry focus on education, training, evaluation alignment, evaluation effectiveness, and efficiency for all levels of employees throughout the industry. Evidence of this focus can be found in the API Recommended Practices and Related Examinations for RP 1169 Pipeline Inspectors and RP 1173 Safety Management systems.

In addition to recommended practices, PHMSA (Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration) currently has a Notice of Proposed Rulemaking before Congress (NPRM). The NPRM Volume 80, Number 132 released on July 10, 2015 includes increased requirements for qualification training. NRPM 192.805 proposal states "(9) Provide training to ensure that any individual performing a covered task has the necessary knowledge, skills, and abilities to perform that task in a manner that ensures the safety and integrity of the operator's pipeline facilities". Additionally, NRPM 192.805 (10) includes a provision for additional training when procedures change and (11) requires the establishment of requirements to be an evaluator including necessary training.

Throughout the decades of global oil production, various OPEC initiatives have been successful at stabilizing the market and balancing oil prices. Although Saudi Arabia and Russia have begun similar actions today, those actions have new obstacles to success. These obstacles include the Texas, Oklahoma, and North Dakota shales.

In 1902, the Lufkin Foundry and Machine Company was a pioneer in industrializing Angelina County. Lufkin Foundry and Machine Company began as a machine shop to repair sawmill machinery then expanded to manufacture sawmill machinery.

By the 1920s, Lufkin Foundry and Machine had entered into the oil field machinery industry by developing an oil-well pump unit for Humble Oil Company (later becoming Exxon Company, U.S.A.). This expansion contributed to exponential growth resulting in branch offices opening in New York, Los Angeles, Houston, and Tulsa by 1925.