Petroleum Alliance of Oklahoma's Brook Simmons is excited about the energy industry's future

Optimism and a stoic ability to plan for the future are key attributes of oil and gas executives.

Brook A. Simmons, who became the president of the Petroleum Alliance of Oklahoma on May 1, can’t wait to see what they come up with next.

Over the years, he has watched the energy industry in Oklahoma and the nation experience several significant collapses in the 1980s, in 1997, in 2001, 2008, only to rebound stronger than before.

He expects nothing less today.

Simmons said energy industry executives across Oklahoma and the nation have proven time and again they can adapt their businesses to address whatever challenges they have faced.

“We have seen this sort of cataclysmic drop before,” Simmons said. “But one of the untold stories, I think, is that the U.S. shale revolution really drove the nation’s economic recovery from 2008 until 2014.

"We will recover from this again, and we already have seen what many people think was the bottom,” Simmons said, noting demand for refined products already is rebounding.

Simmons started his career three decades ago as a journalist before working for U.S. Sen. Don Nickles and then a U.S. representative from Kentucky through 2004.

Simmons served as the Oklahoma Independent Petroleum Association’s federal lobbyist from 2008-2015, then worked on local, state and federal government issues for Encana (now known as Ovintiv).

Beyond that, he served on the executive committee of the board of directors for the Oklahoma Oil & Gas Association from 2015-2019 and helped merge it with the OIPA to become the Petroleum Alliance of Oklahoma.

Before returning home to Oklahoma this year, Simmons briefly represented private clients on federal issues in Washington, D.C.

Simmons currently serves on the board of directors for the Domestic Energy Producers Alliance.

Previously, he served on boards for the Western Energy Alliance, the North Dakota Petroleum Council, Royalty Owners & Producers Educational Coalition (ROPE), and the Utah Petroleum Association.

He also served on Utah Governor Gary Herbert’s Energy Advisory Council and, for a time, served as a spokesman for the American Sportfishing Association.

David D. Le Norman, the petroleum alliance’s chairman, noted Simmons is a perfect fit to lead the alliance into the future.

“It is fitting that he is coming home to Oklahoma in order to oversee the organization where he has such deep roots,” Le Norman said.

Simmons grew up in Ardmore as his father, an agronomist, worked at the Noble Foundation. An uncle, meanwhile, made his living working as part of the state’s energy industry.

Simmons said he learned early on that Oklahoma’s energy industry is a vital economic driver to the state and its residents, adding it remains so today, given that it generated a third of the state’s economic output in 2018.

Oklahomans earned $36.8 billion from oil and gas in 2018, with mineral owners receiving $30.4 billion in royalty payments since 2003.

“Those are the drivers in every other sector of Oklahoma’s economy,” Simmons said. We see it on Main Street, in professional and business services, in leisure and hospitality, in construction, manufacturing, transportation and financial activities. We see it ripple across the entire realm. The oil and gas sector is Oklahoma’s life blood.”

As for the current crisis, Simmons said that too will pass.

“The industry will look different once we emerge from this, but I guarantee you there will be new businesses, products, services and efficiencies that will be created as a result of this crisis, and we will be preparing for what I like to call the next chapter in our extraordinary story.

“That’s exciting.”