Houston is the true world capital of oil extraction technology. Just about every major oil exploration company has a presence in Houston. For this oil drilling technology to be most efficient requires the constant development of new elastomers and their respective compounds that can withstand the extreme, harsh “down-hole” drilling environments of very high heat and pressures deep in the earth. This also means that most rubber companies marketing specialty rubber for this extreme environment are also present in Houston. This fact becomes very obvious when one attends the Energy Polymer Group (EPG) which is held in Houston in the Winter. (Also, the EPG meets in Dallas in the Spring and either Galveston or San Antonio in the Fall). Of all the rubber groups associated with the Rubber Division, ACS, based in Akron, the EPG almost always has the highest attendance of rubber professionals, usually between 200 to 350 participants. Also Houston has hosted the International Rubber Conference (IRC) and Rubber Division ACS Fall Meeting and Expo in 1983.
The oil exploration and extraction industry does not use nearly as much rubber as the tire industry, for example. However, the rubber it does use has to meet some very extreme specifications regarding oil resistance, very extreme temperatures, very high pressures, and have good aging resistance. Therefore, the knowledge base in the Houston area to do this is the best in the world. One of the largest conferences in the world, called the Offshore Technology Conference (OTC Houston), typically meets in Houston in May, sometimes having attendance exceeding 100,000. If you happen to be flying into Houston when the OTC is meeting, you might have a hard time finding available cars for rent!
Houston, Texas has a population of 2.3 million people, but its Metropolitan Statistical Area population is 6.6 million, ranking it the 5th largest in America. This city was named after General Sam Houston, who won the Battle of San Jacinto, in 1836. In 1894, Texas had its first major oil discovery. Soon after, Texas became the major oil producing state in America followed by Oklahoma and California. Houston benefited greatly from this Texas oil boom and the rest is history. Also, Houston entered the “Space Age” with the establishment of the “Manned Spacecraft Center” in 1961 which became the Lyndon B. Johnson Space Center in 1973.
The Houston area has many great universities such as the University of Houston, which has sometimes presented papers at the EPG meetings. University of Houston has an enrollment of over 40,000 students. Also there are other universities in the region such as Rice University, Baylor University, and Texas A & M.
The following are “points of interest” and “things to do” in Houston:
- Space Center Houston
- Houston Museum of Natural Science
- Battleship Texas State Historic Site
- Downtown Aquarium
- San Jacinto Battleground State Historic Site
- Galveston (50 miles from Houston)