There’s a great deal of uncertainty in the oil business these days. When times are tough and margins are slim, oil producers find ways to trim costs wherever they can.

But, no matter how big or small your company is, there are only so many people you can lay off. There are only so many wells you can close down. Oil producers still need to produce oil. What they want to do is produce it more efficiently.

You’d think because we’ve doing this here in Acadiana – and around the world  – for a long time that by now we would have figured out all the cost-cutting methods of getting oil out of the ground. Well, apparently, we haven’t.

Peter Ricchiuti’s three guests on Out to Lunch today have each come up with new oil field innovations.

Josh Suttles is AIM Division Manager for Nacher Corporation, the inventor of a piece of equipment called The Flange Cuff. 

Aaron Broussard is a member of a Lafayette institution, Begnaud Manufacturing. At Begnaud Aaron has developed a product called Power Brush Machines.

Calvin Fabre is a Technical Debt Specialist – which is working on time, money, and effort spent in the future to pay off poor design decisions of the past – and at Envoc he’s the developer of an app called Spotter.

Josh, Aaron and Calvin describe how oilfield innovation is always in demand, in either a rising or sinking oil economy.

Photos at Cafe Vermilionville by Gwen Aucoin.