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This is the second issue of Profiles in Leadership, a series of interviews with senior executives in the Office of Fossil Energy (FE). In this edition we talk to Dr. Julio Friedmann, Principal Deputy Assistant Secretary for Fossil Energy.

Paula Gant, Deputy Assistant Secretary for the Office of Oil and Gas in the Energy Department's Office of Fossil Energy, discusses challenges posed by the new abundance of fossil fuels made possible by the hydraulic fracturing boom.

The Energy Department supports President Obama's Power Africa initiative, partnering with African governments to develop energy resources. Assistant Secretary Chris Smith recently went to Africa as part of this effort.

Christopher Smith, Assistant Secretary for Fossil Energy, shares his perspective on the work of the Office of Fossil Energy in this Profile in Leadership.

The Department of Energy Office of Fossil Energy is continuing to develop a better understanding of scientific questions associated with the production, treatment, and rail transportation of crude oils, including Bakken crude oil. To support this effort, the DOE - in collaboration with the Department of Transportation’s Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration (PHMSA) will focus on the portion of the effort described in the Crude Oil Characteristics Sampling, Analysis and Experiment (SAE) Plan. The work contained in this SAE plan is intended to fill knowledge gaps based on recommendations on research needed to improve understanding of transport-critical crude oil and especially tight crude oil properties from the Literature Survey of Crude Oil Properties Relevant to Handling and Fire Safety in Transport recently completed by Sandia National Laboratory.

The Strategic Petroleum Reserve or SPR is an emergency stockpile of oil located in salt caverns in Texas and Louisiana Gulf Coasts. Learn more about the SPR, how it came to be and what it does in our latest timeline.

A consortium led by the Energy Department's National Energy Technology Laboratory (NETL) will implement a process to monitor unconventional gas production at a test site near Morgantown, WV. The goal is to develop ways to increase efficiency and reduce environmental impacts.

A project that uses lasers to monitor carbon dioxide (CO2) is being analyzed as part of the U.S. Department of Energy’s (DOE) drive to improve greenhouse gas-monitoring abilities at CO2 storage sites. The project is managed by the DOE Office of Fossil Energy’s National Energy Technology Laboratory (NETL).

The U.S. Department of Energy’s National Energy Technology Laboratory (NETL) has issued two licenses involving its Arc Position Sensing (APS) technology to KW Associates LLC, an Oregon-based company founded by the technology’s inventors.

Barbara Kutchko, a researcher at the National Energy Technology Lab, tells us about how she got interested in science, the ways her research is influencing important decisions in real-time and what she hates about toy stores.