College of Natural and Behavioral Sciences Speaker Series Features President of Shell Pipeline Company

Mark Hurley, president of Shell Pipeline Company, LP, was the featured speaker at the fourth Distinguished Speakers Series luncheon presented by the College of Natural and Behavioral Sciences (NBS) at California State University, Dominguez Hills in the Loker Student Union on April 14.

Shell Pipeline Company is a subsidiary of Shell Oil Products U.S. and one of the largest petroleum pipeline transportation companies in the nation. More than two billion gallons of crude oil and refined products move annually through thousands of miles of pipelines and via tanker truck transport across 21 states. The company manages more than 1,200 miles of offshore pipelines, 600 miles of onshore pipelines, and more than 10 terminals throughout the Gulf of Mexico.

Hurley’s talk, which was titled “The Energy Supply Chain,” focused on many issues currently facing Shell and the oil industry, including renewable fuels, domestic energy security, the role of the Los Angeles Basin in the industry, particularly the company’s Carson facility.

“L.A. is by far the biggest gasoline market in the world,” Hurley said. “Carson Refinery is one of the few facilities where fuels can come into the L.A. Basin through the harbor, get into our distribution network, and to your [local gas] stations. We want to expand this facility... to provide jobs and a lot of revenue for the community.”

The local angle of Hurley’s talk was reflective of NBS Dean Charles Hohm’s vision for the speaker series as an informative forum on issues important to the campus and its surrounding community.

“We wanted [these events] to reflect what’s going on in our college,” said Hohm. “With Dr. (Rod) Hay’s (professor of earth sciences and associate dean) interest in sustainability and our new master’s degree in environmental science, [renewable energy] is going to be an increasingly important part of our college.”

In attendance were many CSU Dominguez Hills students, faculty and staff, as well as community members, such as senior participants in the Osher Lifelong Learning program, a learning-in-retirement community administrated through the College of Extended and International Education. Hohm says that he is proud of the interest in the speaker series beyond the campus.

“It’s good for the students,” he said. “But it’s good for everybody. One of the reasons we started it was to get the word out about our faculty and our college.”

The Distinguished Speakers Series luncheon is presented once each semester. Past distinguished speakers have included Kenneth Trevett, former CEO of Los Angeles Biomedical Research Institute, Gilbert Ivey, chief administrative officer for the Metropolitan Water District of Southern California, and UC Irvine sociologist and immigration scholar Rubén G. Rumbaut.

The event was sponsored by Shell Oil and Schools Federal Credit Union.

For more information on NBS, click here.

- Amy Bentley-Smith and Joanie Harmon