Andy Publes on Leadership and Customer-First Culture at Caterpillar

00:00:00 Josh Lowrey: Welcome to the Energy Pipeline Podcast, sponsored by Cat, powered by Upright Digital. My name is Josh Lowry. We are here in the BA back in 2026 in the praying Audi, uh, praying Associates podcast studio. For the first time all year, we have been literally around the world. I am solo today. My co-host Extraordinaires are no longer with us.

00:00:24 Josh Lowrey: The reason for that. Is I am the new host for the Cat Energy Pipeline podcast, which is a true honor. I'm really excited about this. Cat has had this podcast for many years, and our friends at OGGN did an awesome job with it. Upright Digital now has the honor of taking over this podcast for Cat, which we call Big Cat.

00:00:41 Josh Lowrey: There's lots of different cats out there, but this is the big boy. This is Cat. So. This is our first episode, and I'm gonna talk about this in a minute when I introduce the guest. But, uh, it's Valentine week of 2026, and I am joined by Andy Pueblos, director of Account Management for drilling and completion at Caterpillar.

00:01:01 Josh Lowrey: Welcome, Andy.

00:01:02 Andy Publes: Thank you, Josh. It's a pleasure meeting you. I'm, I'm thrilled to be here today.

00:01:05 Josh Lowrey: Well, thank you. This is exciting. As I kind of mentioned, this is our first episode, um, with Caterpillar. Um, and I, like I said, I. I'm excited because listen, there's only a couple of brands in the world that are Caterpillar and you've been there for 17 years, right?

00:01:22 Josh Lowrey: So you know the inside, the outside of what that company looks like. And when you're on the outside of Caterpillar, whether you're a supplier to them or just within the industry, the excellence that is Caterpillar is it's obvious. And when this opportunity came up for us, um. It, it, it's just an honor. So number one.

00:01:40 Josh Lowrey: Thank you Caterpillar. Thank you Caterpillar. I'm looking by the way, this is also, we are doing these on camera for the first time. So if you are used to listening to, um, these podcasts, the Energy Pipeline, just audio surprise, we're on camera now so you get to see Andy's pretty face. We'll, we'll show you the links below on how to go listen to these things.

00:01:58 Josh Lowrey: I dressed up 'cause it is Valentine's Week. Um, not day, but the week. I actually don't celebrate Valentine's Day 'cause I think it's a Hallmark holiday, but I like the color pink. So I wore my pink vest, my pink Nike shoes. These are pretty slick.

00:02:13 Andy Publes: They're not just pink shoes. They're Nike, Valentine's Edition.

00:02:18 Josh Lowrey: They've got a heart on it.

00:02:19 Andy Publes: That's right. That's right.

00:02:20 Josh Lowrey: They're a bit extreme. And I thought I was getting ready this morning. I'm like, this is the first Caterpillar. On camera podcast. Like I didn't wanna wear, you know, the cat yellow. I just thought that would be obnoxious. I was like, I'll wear pink. And that way people, they'll be like, what is this guy wearing?

00:02:38 Josh Lowrey: Is he, I gotta go check this podcast out. Right, right, right. So this is how we are. You're gonna, oh, and I have a black eye. Look at this black guy. This is a tough start for me. You should have, so you hear my congestion right now, I'm, I'm at the tail end of this winter congestion that's happening. I had a black eye for the last five days.

00:02:54 Josh Lowrey: From, from playing sports with my son, so like five days ago I had a black eye in congestion. I looked like I was in a fight. So this. Yeah, those

00:03:01 Andy Publes: are the worst.

00:03:02 Josh Lowrey: Yeah. Yeah. This has been a rough couple, but I look great today.

00:03:04 Andy Publes: A hundred percent.

00:03:05 Josh Lowrey: Thank you a hundred percent. Andy, you're gonna be

00:03:06 Andy Publes: a, you know, I

00:03:07 Josh Lowrey: great

00:03:07 Andy Publes: guest.

00:03:07 Andy Publes: I should have brought some Pink Cat apparel. We, we do have that. And, and, uh, maybe next time we'll do that.

00:03:12 Josh Lowrey: Is that for Breast Cancer Awareness Month?

00:03:15 Andy Publes: I believe so. Yeah. I believe so.

00:03:16 Josh Lowrey: You know what we're gonna do? We're gonna support Breast Cancer Awareness Month with cat. Let me know when that is. We will, I'll wear that that whole month.

00:03:22 Josh Lowrey: Every podcast I do, we will wear Pink Cat to kind of talk. I'm sure Cat is in every charity.

00:03:28 Andy Publes: That would be amazing. That would be amazing. Yeah.

Yeah.

00:03:30 Josh Lowrey: Well that's a great charity too, by the way. Yeah, that's, that's awareness that needs to be brought to that. There are, I mean, there's amazing advances that have been made in the last 50 years on that.

00:03:39 Josh Lowrey: And again, with cats megaphone that they have, I'm sure they do a lot of good for. Absolutely. Communities they involved in.

00:03:45 Andy Publes: Absolutely, absolutely, absolutely.

00:03:47 Josh Lowrey: Speaking of the communities they're involved in, Andy, your accent is not Texas. Where are you from? And, and give us a little background on you.

00:03:55 Andy Publes: Yeah, yeah, absolutely.

00:03:56 Andy Publes: So I was born in Cuba. Cuba. Cuba.

00:03:59 Josh Lowrey: Yeah,

00:03:59 Andy Publes: that's right. Um, as you can tell I'm

00:04:01 Josh Lowrey: fluent, but go ahead

00:04:03 Andy Publes: and move. Moved to, uh, United States in 2001. I was 15 years old. Uh, went straight into high school and then, uh, Michigan Tech up in the upper peninsula. So that was quite a change for me. I bet it was a few degrees difference than, uh, than Cuba.

00:04:18 Andy Publes: But, uh, got my electrical engineering degree and then as I was looking for a job, there were, Silicon Valley was, was hot at that time and a lot of people wanted to go into that space. And, um, I was looking around and, uh, saw Caterpillar and started really paying attention to what they do and the customers that they serve.

00:04:38 Andy Publes: And I was just an engineer looking for a challenge that I can go and, and throw my weight in. And, um, you know, looking at what Caterpillar does and, and the mission of solving the customer's toughest challenge really draw my attention. And it has been a wild ride in 17 years. I have worked in different industries.

00:04:58 Josh Lowrey: I was wondering

00:04:58 Andy Publes: Yeah, in the last six years I have, uh, been in oil and gas and I am fascinated by the whole operation of oil and gas and how. It fuels the world and people don't really know about it.

00:05:10 Josh Lowrey: Right. You know? So obviously if you're in manufacturing, um. The, the up upper peninsula.

00:05:18 Andy Publes: That's right. Oh yeah, that's exactly,

00:05:19 Josh Lowrey: yeah, so I, I'm from manufacturing, that's my background.

00:05:21 Josh Lowrey: So I've obviously worked in the whole, you know, that entire Rust belt area from Pennsylvania, Ohio, everywhere up there. Caterpillar is even bigger there. And they were huge. The industrial world is huge up there. Right. But they, they, there's not a machine shop. You go into that. Cat, they're not working with cat at some level.

00:05:38 Josh Lowrey: So I do remember that early 2000 transition where oil and gas companies kind of made their way up there. To start working with those machine shops. And then I remember when those companies really kind of made their way south, if you will. Right. So you, you mentioned you came out of, I'm assuming mid, early two thousands you came outta college.

00:05:55 Andy Publes: That's right.

00:05:56 Josh Lowrey: And so what was your first entry into cat? Where did they put you first?

00:06:00 Andy Publes: Yeah, I, I actually interned in the Electric Power Division.

00:06:04 Josh Lowrey: Ah.

00:06:04 Andy Publes: So I got, I got to know quite a bit about power generation. And then after that I have a small stint in the locomotive business, which is something that is not well known.

00:06:14 Andy Publes: That, that Caterpillar has, has a precedent in that space. And then

00:06:17 Josh Lowrey: speaking of an industry that is wildly important that nobody really thinks about,

00:06:21 Andy Publes: right? Yeah, exactly. Exactly. And so after that, I spent 10 years working in Peoria, Illinois, and, um, I work in different engine systems for oil and gas, mining, construction industries, and just getting to work on like emissions related products like tier four.

00:06:39 Andy Publes: Mm-hmm. Um, but you know, as you mentioned in Peoria. It's not a matter of who do you work for, it's a matter of which building Correct. You work correct. So, no, it is, it is been fascinating to get, get a a, the breadth of the experiences that I had at Caterpillar and being able to understand, 'cause when we design a product, we spend a lot of time trying to understand how does that product helps the customer.

00:07:06 Andy Publes: And so it gave me an opportunity to really dive into the different industries. To really understand as I'm designing things, how can I make the life easier for, for, for the customer?

00:07:20 Josh Lowrey: You know, I'm, I, I, we're gonna get to the topics that we want to talk about, but I'm actually really curious. Customer focus is a huge deal,

00:07:28 Andy Publes: a hundred

00:07:28 Josh Lowrey: percent, especially in oil and gas.

00:07:29 Josh Lowrey: I feel like we're needy, needy people. And are, are all industries needy or is, or is oil and gas extra needy? And what I, do you understand what I mean by needy? I mean, do they want, I feel like oil and gas. Wants what they want right away. Are is, is locomotive, are they as, as pressurized, I don't know if that's the right word, either as oil and gas?

00:07:49 Andy Publes: Yeah. I, I get what you mean. You know, I, I think for us, the customer focus is whether we're drawn by the customer or we seek the customer. Um, that has been our North star as we think about designing products. Uh, I will say, and, and I think this is where you're get into in, in oil and gas, the cycles and the technology shift is, is so aggressive that, that, um, we require a different type of mindset in cut oil and gas because we have to adapt a lot faster to the customer needs.

00:08:22 Andy Publes: Where when you start thinking about mining and other industries, the, the technology shift cycles. Uh, takes a lot longer. And so we have a lot more opportunities to design products. Okay. And so, um, I I, I would say it's the same focus. It's just, when I say a wild ride, it is a wild ride in oil and gas. Right.

00:08:41 Andy Publes: And, and we certainly understand why the customers, uh, shift technologies. Uh, I see it more. We are at the top of the spear when it come to global technologies and uh, I would not want to change that at all.

00:08:54 Josh Lowrey: So you've been here since for six years.

00:08:56 Andy Publes: Yeah.

00:08:58 Josh Lowrey: So does that mean you came here in 19 or 2019 or 2020?

00:09:02 Josh Lowrey: Because either one of those sound terrible, if I'm being honest. Like a move to Houston for oil and gas.

00:09:07 Andy Publes: So I had two major move in my career.

00:09:09 Josh Lowrey: Okay?

00:09:10 Andy Publes: The first one was in, I joined Caterpillar in 2009 January, and that was the global meltdown. Perfect. And then, and then after that, I made the decision to move into oil and gas.

00:09:20 Andy Publes: And it was, uh, in January of 2020, so, oh my gosh, a few months after. It's negative $35 per barrel. And I'm thinking, you know, every time I move something like this happens. But, um, it, it was, it was very interesting to see Caterpillar's leadership through that process. Right? Um, and, and how we double down on customer focus because we knew that during that period our customers were gonna go through a hard time.

00:09:49 Andy Publes: And so we started getting really creative on how we can support them beyond the product.

00:09:55 Josh Lowrey: I, I do wanna dig into this for just a second, because me, I would think that memories 'cause your brand, had you just moved to Texas at that point then? Yes. January of 2020.

00:10:04 Andy Publes: No traffic on the way down from Peoria

00:10:06 Josh Lowrey: to, uh, that is unbelievable.

00:10:08 Josh Lowrey: So you just got here.

00:10:09 Andy Publes: Yep.

00:10:10 Josh Lowrey: And then obviously 2020 happens.

00:10:13 Andy Publes: Yes.

00:10:14 Josh Lowrey: And you are, you're immediately stay at home. And then the whole world. So then you have to watch your new industry, your new city. You are one, you're wearing your 100 year Caterpillar vest right now. So Caterpillar's not new. They've been through in a hundred years.

00:10:29 Josh Lowrey: They've seen literally everything.

00:10:31 Andy Publes: Right?

00:10:32 Josh Lowrey: Right. World War II's. They've seen it All right. Um, so you got to see calm management, I assume. And what did that look like from your, 'cause? I would imagine those are very fresh memories for you to be like, Hey, I'm gonna pay attention to what's going on right now.

00:10:50 Andy Publes: Yeah. And you say internally to Caterpillar.

00:10:52 Josh Lowrey: Right.

00:10:53 Andy Publes: You know, when I came in, uh, at that time, one of our leaders were John Shanahan, which I think you, you, you have met. And I remember being in a, in a big conference and, uh, internal. And we were talking about the dynamics and what is the world gonna look like moving forward.

00:11:09 Andy Publes: And that was one of my first time that I met John. And he goes up front and, and he said, Hey, this is a great opportunity for us to show leadership to our customers and help. So he's looking at these from a different lens. Of, of how do we step up and provide the leadership that our customers need when it comes to technology.

00:11:29 Andy Publes: And I, I, I just remember looking at him from afar and thinking that is a complete different world than everything else that is being said. Said, they're not saying that on tv. You know what I'm saying? Right. And so that, that was fascinating. And to me, I just started paying attention to that. And as I started navigating through that world.

00:11:45 Andy Publes: That, that he, that he created internally. It was just fascinating on the satisfaction that you get whenever you get to a customer, work on a solution that they need. And then after that they said, this is exactly how I can win in the business. And so to me it was just that calm leadership.

00:12:01 Josh Lowrey: Yeah.

00:12:02 Andy Publes: And, and, and seeing it as an opportunity that really made this job a lot of fun.

00:12:07 Josh Lowrey: You know, this, this is a good. Just kind of tangent here. I've never really asked people kind of what that, those first six to eight weeks of COVID looked like, right? Yeah, yeah, yeah,

00:12:21 Andy Publes: yeah.

00:12:21 Josh Lowrey: That's really, 'cause you know, I remember what ours felt like. Everybody remembers what their first eight, 10 weeks felt like and looked like, right?

00:12:27 Josh Lowrey: Whether it be fear. Movement, action, stagnant, whatever it was. And to hear somebody kind of calmly say, this is an opportunity. I wonder how many people actually said that in front of a bunch of people.

00:12:40 Andy Publes: It, it takes a lot. I mean, absolutely. You're, you're not just thinking about oil and gas. You're thinking about, there's people that you know that are.

00:12:46 Andy Publes: You're losing. Right, right,

00:12:47 Josh Lowrey: right.

00:12:48 Andy Publes: You don't know what the world is gonna look like and so to be laser focused on the customer and say, this is what we're gonna go do. Yeah. To me that was fascinating.

00:12:55 Josh Lowrey: Yeah, that is. That's really a cool story. Yeah. That's really interesting. Well, you don't get to a hundred years by panicking.

00:13:02 Andy Publes: That's right.

00:13:03 Josh Lowrey: You know? That's cool. Alright. Well, I mean, this is your Caterpillar. People are so organized.

00:13:10 Andy Publes: Oh yeah.

00:13:11 Josh Lowrey: Oh my gosh. They like,

00:13:13 Andy Publes: oh, our marketing department is is world class.

00:13:15 Josh Lowrey: World. They're world. I had lunch with 'em the other day as we were planning some stuff, and I, I think they were like, oh boy, this Josh guy might screw up our entire plan.

00:13:24 Josh Lowrey: They, they, they sent us my notes. I'm like, all right, let's, let me check my notes real quick.

00:13:29 Andy Publes: I love this dynamic though.

00:13:30 Josh Lowrey: Yeah, it's gonna be great. Let's wing it. And I told 'em that. I said, they were showing me what they hadn't planned, had in store, and I said. Oh boy. I said, have you guys listened to anything I've ever done?

00:13:40 Josh Lowrey: It's gonna be, it's gonna be great.

00:13:42 Andy Publes: That's right. This could be my last podcast. Yeah, that's right. Let's, let's, let's make that happen.

00:13:47 Josh Lowrey: No, it's gonna be awesome. Um, so one of the things that we do want to talk about is, as we were talking off air, is. You know, everybody knows Cat. There is any number of products and services that we can talk about and what, what I don't like to do, and I know people don't want to hear it and whatever is, but we do want to talk about and we, what is the thing or things that Caterpillar, that you guys work on that changes somebody's life that's making somebody, like you said, let's focus on technology.

00:14:16 Josh Lowrey: Let's, this is an opportunity. What are you guys working on? Right now. And by the way, you just got promoted.

00:14:23 Andy Publes: Uh, yes. Yes.

00:14:24 Josh Lowrey: By the way, let's go. I want to, I've pushed past that pretty quickly. That wasn't in my notes by the way. I figured that out. No, that's pretty

00:14:30 Andy Publes: fresh.

00:14:30 Josh Lowrey: That's

00:14:30 Andy Publes: pretty fresh announced. Uh, I, we say two, three days ago.

00:14:33 Josh Lowrey: Oh, look at this. That's pretty fresh breaking news. Yeah,

00:14:35 Andy Publes: yeah, yeah.

00:14:35 Josh Lowrey: But I mean, so like you have a new role. Um, you were the drilling completions product manager, now you're the director of account management for drilling and completion. So like, you have a new role, but what is, like, what are you gonna be focusing on in 2026 that you think is exciting that people need to know about?

00:14:50 Andy Publes: Yeah, yeah, yeah. Um, you know, I, since I joined oil and gas, I was in engineering then, then I move into strategy and the product manager role is really focused on what are the technologies that we need to develop in five and 10 years. As I move into this new role, my focus on customer doubles down, I'm now focusing on specifically the accounts and making sure that we have alignment with our customers.

00:15:16 Andy Publes: Mm-hmm. And so for us. Uh, power generation is a big thing. I mean, if you even think about our traditional service provider, their focus in power generation, um, we have our, uh, gas mechanical system that is revolutionizing the frack operation by being able to burn a hundred percent gas. We have our, uh, drilling dual fuel.

00:15:39 Andy Publes: That, that is really a step change. That is something that at some point later on I would love to talk about. Okay. And then we have our SPM business. Where we're really doubling down on how do we help our customer per, uh, run a safe operation by having technology in place to let them do automation and, and remove people from the danger zones of, of, of a rat of pack.

00:16:02 Andy Publes: Yeah.

00:16:03 Josh Lowrey: Well, so I could talk SPM the rest of the podcast. I mean, that was where my background is. Forgings fluid and forgings. Okay. So like that's, you know, I would love to talk about that just because I feel like that's. My bread and butter background. But is, is that where the technology is going or is it more power?

00:16:21 Josh Lowrey: Like I, I know you guys have your your DGB Gen two right now. That's right. I feel like that is the hotter, not to believe me. My favorite thing in the world are fluids. But I mean, I just feel like the power side of things is every time you turn on the news.

00:16:37 Andy Publes: That's incredible.

00:16:38 Josh Lowrey: It is. It's incredible. That's all they're talking about ai.

00:16:41 Josh Lowrey: Is AI a bubble? And the second thing is, how are we gonna power all this? Right? And I know there's different levels of it, but how are you guys involved in that? And is the, is the DGB part of this world of powering everything?

00:16:51 Andy Publes: Yeah. Yeah. When we think about, as we talk to the customer, when we think about power generation, it, it's not just power generation, it is burning a hundred percent gas.

00:17:02 Andy Publes: And so. Um, a, a lot of, a lot of demand comes into with our gas engines and technologies, and one of the things that Caterpillar has is not just a, a wide range of product from like small gen sets to our two, three megawatts, but then you start having, you start talking about solar turbines that can go up to 35 megawatts and, and, and beyond.

00:17:27 Andy Publes: And so that, that give us the opportunity to sit with our customers and said, what, what are you trying to achieve for these data centers or this production powered opportunity? And then we can rightsize the operation based on all of the widgets that we have. Um, but, but that world is, is fascinating. Um, it's, it's, um, the demand is incredible and, and we're trying to show the same leadership that I talk about during, uh, during COVID just trying to show that leadership.

00:17:56 Andy Publes: And, and help our customers with their needs. 'cause a lot of times the question is, yeah, I need power for this data center. But there is a lot of other things that we need to talk about. What does that power looks like? What are the transients that you're gonna need?

00:18:09 Josh Lowrey: Mm-hmm.

00:18:10 Andy Publes: Are you gonna need a battery? Or is, is a, is a recipient engine or a solar turbine enough?

00:18:14 Andy Publes: And so those are the things that we're doing with our customers to help them understand, if you think about a frac, traditional, frac company, um, getting into this type of space. Uh, there is a lot to learn about the electric power world and, uh, with oil and gas and our electric power division that have done this for years, we can sit with our customers and really help them make that transition.

00:18:41 Josh Lowrey: Well, you, you bring up, you said something a couple minutes ago, you said you were on the strategy team.

00:18:45 Andy Publes: Yeah.

00:18:45 Josh Lowrey: And your job there was to think about things that are five to 10 years out. I remember when Kat brought SPM, and even before that, how Kat started buying. Um. You know, they were the, what's the local one here?

00:19:02 Josh Lowrey: Um, um,

00:19:04 Andy Publes: Blackhorse

00:19:05 Josh Lowrey: Black Horse. Yeah. Yeah. So, sorry. It was coming to my, like, I remember thinking like, why are they buying that? You know, and then there was the, the combination of working with your, um, your, uh, not agents, but I, you don't, you guys don't call 'em agents, um, but like Mustang Cat for instance, right?

00:19:21 Josh Lowrey: Yeah. Yeah. That to me is a definite fi like that didn't happen overnight.

00:19:28 Andy Publes: Right, right,

00:19:28 Josh Lowrey: right. And so the way you're talking about servicing these clients, like you weren't thinking about data centers the way we are today. I maybe you were May, was Kat thinking about this kinda stuff. 'cause it feels like you're moving very quickly in these to react to customers needs today.

00:19:41 Josh Lowrey: But these decisions were made five and 10 years ago. Like these plans were made to where we actually have what you need now because of decisions that were made five and 10 years ago.

00:19:50 Andy Publes: Yeah. I, I would say data centers snuck up on everybody. Okay. Um, I, I wouldn't say that we were thinking about, especially not the magnitude of, of the needs, but we, we were thinking about LNG, we were thinking about the, the uses of gas.

00:20:05 Andy Publes: You know, it's fascinating. If you look back at the history of ca, how, you know, let's just, let's just say frack, you know, we created a, a, a 1500 horsepower. Diesel engine, and then everybody else came up to that and then, you know, we just put more and more power to the engine, but then after that we make it, we made a strategic decision to move towards a dual fuel.

00:20:26 Andy Publes: Mm-hmm. And, and that really was very proactive where we developed a solution even before the market really thought that they needed it. Um, and, and he help us, uh, uh, provide that, that type of solution to, to our customers. Uh, ahead of time.

00:20:46 Josh Lowrey: You know, I always hear these tier two engines are, and I hate to say it like this, but like that's it's older technology.

00:20:52 Andy Publes: Yeah.

00:20:53 Josh Lowrey: And, but you guys are able to retrofit these. Now

00:20:59 Andy Publes: we, we take a lot of pride on what happens after we sell an engine to a customer. And, and we take a lot of responsibility to make sure that throughout the lifecycle of that engine, there is value to the customer. And so this example of the two or two drilling, it's is near to my heart because, and dear to my heart, because we sat down with the drillers and we asked, what are your challenges?

00:21:23 Andy Publes: And it is the same thing that you always hear, you know, uptime at that time. They say, we need, we need to burn gas.

00:21:30 Josh Lowrey: Yeah.

00:21:31 Andy Publes: Um, and, and we need to be able to, uh, run this operation without a lot of interruption. And so we could have gone and said, Hey, we have a hundred percent natural gas.

00:21:39 Josh Lowrey: Just to be clear, when you say we need to burn gas, you're talking about we need to burn field gas.

00:21:43 Andy Publes: Field gas, yes. Yes. Just

00:21:44 Josh Lowrey: right off there. Gas,

00:21:45 Andy Publes: field gas. That's a great observation. That's right. And, and so at that time. They, they wanted to do all these, but the engines that they bought many years ago, they're still running. And so it doesn't make a lot of sense to go and Right. Buy new equipment, a lot of capital.

00:21:59 Andy Publes: Right. And, and so for us it was, it was the challenge of how do we update these units to the latest and greatest technology without having the customer having to spend a lot of capital on it. And so we design, designed this technology and it allows you to burn. You know, we have seen up to 85% diesel displacement, uh, on average is about 70% diesel displacement.

00:22:27 Andy Publes: And the thing is, you can update an entire rig.

00:22:29 Josh Lowrey: That is a massive savings.

00:22:31 Andy Publes: It is. It is. And you can update an entire rig for the capital that you would need to buy a brand new gas engine.

00:22:39 Josh Lowrey: Say that again. Say that to me one more time.

00:22:42 Andy Publes: So, the cost of upgrading four, which is typically what they have in a, in a rig.

00:22:47 Andy Publes: The capital of updating four. Okay. Diesel engines to dual fuel

00:22:53 Josh Lowrey: Okay.

00:22:53 Andy Publes: Is about the same as the cost of buying a brand new gas engine.

00:23:00 Josh Lowrey: Okay. So, and uh, this, and this is called a Dynamic Gas Blending Gen two kit. That's its formal name, right?

00:23:06 Andy Publes: That's right, that's right.

00:23:07 Josh Lowrey: And just DGB Gen Kit two.

00:23:09 Andy Publes: That's right,

00:23:09 Josh Lowrey: that's right.

00:23:10 Josh Lowrey: Gen two kit. Well that seems pretty cost savings.

00:23:16 Andy Publes: It did. Yeah.

00:23:17 Josh Lowrey: Okay.

00:23:18 Andy Publes: And, and, and it's fascinating because, you know,

00:23:20 Josh Lowrey: you said, said all real quick, these, these guys have lots of this sitting on the ground, and I'm sure they're looking at it going, I don't wanna throw that away.

00:23:25 Andy Publes: Right, right, right.

00:23:27 Josh Lowrey: Like, I've, I, I got this passed by my board last year.

00:23:31 Andy Publes: Right.

00:23:31 Josh Lowrey: And I don't wanna look like I've just chunked this and I have to buy all new engines again.

00:23:36 Andy Publes: Right.

00:23:36 Josh Lowrey: Okay.

00:23:37 Andy Publes: Right. And, and it's, it's the customer back approach. Right. I could go there and sell a gas engine

00:23:42 Josh Lowrey: mm-hmm.

00:23:43 Andy Publes: Or even make a new widget that has dual fuel. But what the customer needed was just a kit.

00:23:49 Andy Publes: And the thing that that is interesting to me is, you know, I talked about the diesel displacement. The 70% on average dual field technologies have been around for a while, right? But, but these technologies are what I call bolt on. You have a diesel engine and then you bolt on some technologies to the diesel engine.

00:24:06 Andy Publes: And you're essentially running a diesel engine with some gas in it, just

00:24:09 Josh Lowrey: plug and play type

00:24:10 Andy Publes: thing. That's right. This is a transformation, I call this a transformation of the engine. This is really transforming our diesel engine into truly a dual fuel engine. And the reason why that was important is because in drilling you have tripping, you have drilling, and so it's very transient.

00:24:27 Andy Publes: And so burning gas during transient is one of the most difficult things to do, and that's what our ENG engineering team was able to do. And that was really what. Drove the high diesel displacement, uh, performance.

00:24:41 Josh Lowrey: And how long does it take to both these things on, I mean, it has to go into the shop for how long?

00:24:47 Andy Publes: Uh, typically, uh, less, less than a week. So typically,

00:24:51 Josh Lowrey: my goodness,

00:24:51 Andy Publes: you bring it in during an overhaul and then you bring in your diesel, you get a, a dual fuel. But complimentary to that, we also develop a reman dual fuel solution. So if you need something faster. You turn in a a diesel engine and right away you get your reman diesel, diesel's just ready to go, ready to go.

00:25:13 Josh Lowrey: See, this is the benefit of working with, you know, we have a phrase that tier one companies like to work with tier one companies. And, and it's like you can't, with all respect to, and I look, I'm an an entrepreneur and I'm a small time company or whatever, and there's things we can do today that we couldn't do 10 years ago.

00:25:29 Andy Publes: Right?

00:25:30 Josh Lowrey: But it takes capital. And it takes, like, you have to be willing to sit on capital for a while. Uh, caterpillar has capital and they have history, and you know, obviously business cases dictate everything, but what you're describing is. Once again, a 100 year philosophy that we know this is gonna work, we know the customer needs this, he can't, or she can't move forward without this.

00:25:56 Josh Lowrey: Let's put this here and they're gonna use this at some point.

00:25:58 Andy Publes: Right.

00:25:58 Josh Lowrey: Okay.

00:25:59 Andy Publes: Right, right. And and it's also, and, and something that I wanted to hun as well is also Caterpillar's ability to look at a customer need and then look at the broad portfolio. And see technologies in other areas of Caterpillar and bringing in into oil and gas.

00:26:16 Andy Publes: And we have done that time and time again.

00:26:18 Josh Lowrey: Yeah.

00:26:18 Andy Publes: And we have been successful at at at that as well. Um, but, but it all starts with the customer and under really understanding what they need.

00:26:26 Josh Lowrey: So your perfect marketing people sent me something and I'm just kind of reading this real quick. Uh, I don't know if they want me to use their name, so I'm not gonna use their name of the company, but it says, um, you know, one of your customers in real, in field deployment, they saw dramatic fuel savings, 65% average fuel displacement over 4,500 hours.

00:26:45 Josh Lowrey: Peak displacement, 75%. And then this is an interesting step, 95,000 gallons

00:26:51 Andy Publes: isn't that amazing

00:26:52 Josh Lowrey: of, I wonder what the cost of that really is. I mean, people, you could put money to that 95,000 gallons of diesel on a single rig.

00:27:01 Andy Publes: That's amazing, isn't it?

00:27:03 Josh Lowrey: Saved?

00:27:04 Andy Publes: That's right, that's right.

00:27:05 Josh Lowrey: There's a dollar figure to that.

00:27:07 Andy Publes: Oh yeah.

00:27:07 Josh Lowrey: And I bet you it's less, I I would love to know what that is. And it says this was achieved using natural gas from field gas, CNG or, or CNG as the primary fuel source directly lowering fuel expense and emissions. So everybody, you know, we have that other podcast. Um, energy transition. Everybody thought energy transit transition was just gonna be this thing where you turned off gas and oil.

00:27:30 Josh Lowrey: And you turned on whatever. And that's, that was crazy to think that number one, 'cause really we're in an energy expansion world, not energy.

00:27:37 Andy Publes: Right?

00:27:37 Josh Lowrey: Yeah.

00:27:38 Andy Publes: Right.

00:27:38 Josh Lowrey: And what I learned through doing that and still learning through doing that podcast is energy transition, is it's actually getting, it's doing things like this,

00:27:48 Andy Publes: right,

00:27:48 Josh Lowrey: right, right.

00:27:48 Josh Lowrey: Like that is a 95,000 gallons of diesel money savings, emission savings. Like those are, that's also a fuel truck that doesn't have to roll in and be on the road. Safety, not a fuel truck. That's a lot of fuel trucks, right? That have to come in there and refuel. And that's a person, and that's a, a fuel a fire potential.

00:28:10 Josh Lowrey: I mean, those are like, you just start going through the down the line. What does that actually look like? To displace 95,000 gallons of diesel fuel,

00:28:18 Andy Publes: the real ripple effect.

00:28:19 Josh Lowrey: Right. It's huge. Yeah. Yeah. It's absolutely huge. And those are the things where you, me, you said this, I dunno if you said this on air or off air, but like people don't really understand just how many moving parts there are with oil and gas and energy, like what that really means to the, to their, to the real world.

00:28:33 Andy Publes: Yeah. I spend, I spent most of 2021 in the field and it was because I wanted to immerse myself. Right? Yeah. I'm not a guy that has been here for 30 years. Right. So. And it was just massive. I mean, in 2021, I remember just sitting there waiting for sand and how important sand is, right? I mean, and I sat there for hours Yes.

00:28:54 Andy Publes: Waiting for sand, right? Uh, and so it, it's just fascinating. But one thing that you touched on that I wanted to expand is when we look at our product portfolio, one of the guidelines that we have is we wanna make the next product be. Have less emissions than the prior product. And with the tier 2D GB kit, um, you can actually reduce, based on how you run it, you can reduce your emission, your CO2 E by up to 45%.

00:29:26 Andy Publes: And that's an incredible number when you think about how many wells, how much it takes to get that. It's one. Right. That's right. That's one. That's right. And, and it all comes down to the word transformation of the engine. Um, when you burn gas. Through an engine to a diesel engine. Um, you're essentially running, uh, uh, putting as much gas, but not all of the gas makes it to the power.

00:29:51 Andy Publes: Some of it actually gets released into the environment 'cause he's a diesel engine. You guys should

00:29:55 Josh Lowrey: see this guy. He's got his phone ring and he's, he's

00:29:57 Andy Publes: trying to multitask. He

00:29:58 Josh Lowrey: keep talking. You didn't even miss a beat. I'm the only one. You're smooth and you're gonna kill this role. Keep going.

00:30:03 Andy Publes: It's the Apple Watch.

00:30:03 Andy Publes: I love it. It's

00:30:04 Josh Lowrey: just

00:30:05 Andy Publes: a stud. Um, but, but, um, with, with the, with the DGB kit that we have. It's actually what we call port injected. So we are actually injecting the gas into the combustion chamber and controlling every aspect of it. So every ounce is getting burned,

00:30:21 Josh Lowrey: right?

00:30:22 Andy Publes: And so you get more efficiency out of the engine and you get less unburned methane coming out of the engine.

00:30:28 Andy Publes: So it, it's a great story from an emissions as well as a economically standpoint.

00:30:35 Josh Lowrey: I mean, what do I wanna talk about? Thi this is the kind of notes, this is phenomenal. I wish I was this organized. I mean, there's so much stuff to talk. How do, so you said you spent the year of 21 in the field. If I am listening to this podcast and I'm a customer and I'm like, I like this, I like Andy, I wanna see some of this in action.

00:30:55 Josh Lowrey: How do I do that? How do I go pay attention to what you are talking about? How, how do I call you? Obviously, um, does Kat have a, I'm sure they have a fancy. A presentation, but do you have, are, do you go out on field tours? Do you have your own facility that you guys are showing people this, like how do, how can you put this in someone's, not hand necessarily, but where are you showing your engineer customers, your CEO customers, that this is real, this isn't just theory.

00:31:24 Andy Publes: Yeah,

00:31:24 Josh Lowrey: yeah, yeah.

00:31:25 Andy Publes: No, that's a great question. There's multiple avenues. I mean, the low hanging fruits contact me. We would love to have a conversation. We have our website, but we also have. Um, are you gonna,

00:31:36 Josh Lowrey: you're gonna be at Thrive in a couple weeks?

00:31:37 Andy Publes: Yeah. Yeah. Okay. Love to, uh, connect. We, we also bring our customers to our factories so that they can see the operation, they can see what it takes.

00:31:48 Andy Publes: We have done demos. We leverage a lot of our dealers to show our equipment. Um, and so there is different, it all depends on what the, the customer wants to see. We, we have even taken them to operations that are not even related to oil and gas so they can go see the technology Yeah. That we could deploy.

00:32:05 Andy Publes: And so, you know, it's all about thinking outside of the box and, and you know, if I take somebody to, I'm just gonna say a mining site, uh, because there is a specific technology that I want to talk about with somebody that. Has that forward thinking, uh, attitude, right? Um, we can do that. So there, there's many ways to do it, but it all starts with a conversation.

00:32:26 Andy Publes: I have a, a brilliant account management team that are always waiting for, um, customers come in and, and want to have a conversation about technologies. And then after that we introduced him to the world of Caterpillar engineering. Which is really the bread and butter. I was

00:32:42 Josh Lowrey: gonna say, I'm sure it's some somewhat over some people's heads.

00:32:48 Josh Lowrey: It's gotta be some of the smartest engineering out there.

00:32:50 Andy Publes: Yeah, I mean I, if it was fascinating when I was in engineering and just being able to work with some of the most brilliant people in the world and you know, you said it, we we're a, you know, fortune 500 company and towards the top right. And that attracts a lot of.

00:33:07 Andy Publes: A lot of talent.

00:33:08 Josh Lowrey: Right.

00:33:08 Andy Publes: You know, and I remember early on in my career talking to the Bolt guy and this is is a guy that knows Bolt and being working on bolts for 30 years. Right.

00:33:17 Josh Lowrey: That's his thing.

00:33:18 Andy Publes: And man, he can talk to you about Bolt. That's right. And so, you know, if you start thinking about that within the Caterpillar, I call it mothership.

00:33:27 Josh Lowrey: Sure.

00:33:28 Andy Publes: It's just fascinating of all of the creativity that we can do. But, but we're always focused on making sure that we're not just creating widget, right. Or engineering for the sake of engineering. We, we gotta start with understanding the application, understanding the customer needs.

00:33:44 Josh Lowrey: You know, the Bolt guy, I actually, I person, just so you know, as I mentioned, I'm from the manufacturing world.

00:33:53 Josh Lowrey: Yeah. And the whole, the original podcast that we have is Oil Fill 360. And the reason that we started that podcast was because. I'm from the world of forgings, closed eye, open eye, et cetera. And I've met the proverbial bolt guy before, right? Yes. And he's also the machine shop guy, and he's the heat treat guy, and he's the, um, you know, he's the, he's the guy that nobody ever pays attention to, but he makes sure that.

00:34:26 Josh Lowrey: The quality and attention to detail and his absolutely is perfect. Absolutely. And I bet you his shop and his section of the shop that Hammer has, has a tape around it where that hammer goes every day. Yeah. And it never leaves its spot. And if it does, it goes right back to it. And when you tour, I would imagine, 'cause I've, I've, I've actually toured some of the cat plants as well.

00:34:45 Josh Lowrey: There isn't a bolt out of place. And you know, those are the types of people that. You know, you remember the old Chevy commercial where The Heartbeat of America.

00:34:54 Andy Publes: Oh,

00:34:54 Josh Lowrey: yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. That commercial came out in the eighties, whatever it was. And then you go visit the shops you're talking about, and you meet the Bolt guy and the bolt guy.

00:35:05 Josh Lowrey: You make it, you realize that the heartbeat of America is that manufacturing like Caterpillar is a, it's a phenomenal story. It, it just is. I mean, that's why we're so honored to have to do this with Cat. Thank you. Yeah, thank you. I mean, it really is, it's just awesome because like that guy. And, and girl. I mean, I've, I've been, I've worked these people for 25 years.

00:35:24 Josh Lowrey: They don't get enough attention.

00:35:25 Andy Publes: Yes.

00:35:26 Josh Lowrey: You know, they just don't, and I really hope that, I'm glad you brought up the bold guy.

00:35:31 Andy Publes: Yes.

00:35:31 Josh Lowrey: Seriously.

00:35:32 Andy Publes: Well, and it's connecting, part, part of my journey through Caterpillar is connecting the bold guy or gal

00:35:40 Josh Lowrey: Yes.

00:35:40 Andy Publes: To the customer because it's vice versa to Absolutely.

00:35:43 Andy Publes: It's vice versa. It's, it's the JF Kennedy story of the bold guy. Say, no, you're not just creating bold. You know, in the case of JF Kennedy, you're putting somebody in the moon, right? Absolutely. The guy that absolutely was cleaning floor. Absolutely. And it's the same thing that we want to do at Caterpillar and we continue to do, is making sure that that person understand the impact that they have on the customer's operation.

00:36:01 Josh Lowrey: These notes. Are ridiculous. And I mean that in the right way. They're so excellently done. This is, this is the same kind of excellence that the bolt person done that the same type of diesel fuel reduction has done. Thank you. Yeah. That like this is, and look, I'm not, this is not a CAT commercial. It's not, there's other really great companies out there too.

00:36:20 Josh Lowrey: There really are. And um, but if you're not doing things the right way, if you're not focused on this, if you're not zoned in, you don't even get the callback.

00:36:27 Andy Publes: Right.

00:36:27 Josh Lowrey: You just don't get the callback.

00:36:29 Andy Publes: Right.

00:36:29 Josh Lowrey: Right, right. So, you know, you, you have a. I, I do have a couple more questions, but I just wanna focus on like the, the minutiae of the bolt is what gets us here.

00:36:40 Andy Publes: Oh yeah. A hundred percent.

00:36:41 Josh Lowrey: And I don't want that. Maybe I'm just, just, I'm loyal to the bolt person.

00:36:44 Andy Publes: A hundred percent.

00:36:45 Josh Lowrey: So

00:36:45 Andy Publes: a hundred percent. Yeah. Well, and it's, it, I mean, you, you can create a great widget, but can you create 10,000 of them? That's the other thing.

00:36:53 Josh Lowrey: Great. Que Great point, man. Great point. So kind of going.

00:36:57 Josh Lowrey: Slightly bypassing the bolt minutia to any of these tech. What, what oil and gas calls technology. The world doesn't call technology, right? The world calls technology, ai, and, you know, just, just different kinds of computer and such. Like, is that a world that you touch very often in your, are you having to, to put more computer technologies and, and I, I do wanna use the word technologies instead of computer tech.

00:37:23 Josh Lowrey: It, it, ot. Is that something that you are having to, to be more involved with in what you do on a daily basis? 'cause your customers are demanding it. Are they asking for more of that?

00:37:34 Andy Publes: Yeah, it, it's that, that is an interesting space because I think one of the areas that I'm very proud of to be part of this industry is just how quickly our customers innovate in that space, in digital space.

00:37:46 Andy Publes: Right. Okay. Digital, that's the word I'm looking for. And so for us is, is understanding how we fit within that digital, digital ecosystem. Um, and you know, if you think about SPM. There is a lot of automation that we can do in that space. Right. And, and move away from the dumb iron. And, and that's something that we have doubled down on and we have really put a lot of emphasis in.

00:38:07 Andy Publes: When you think about the engine itself, it's fascinating. It, it's, to me, I don't know that I need to create a great website for somebody to go look at data on the engine, but it's about getting the bulk person going back to that and, and helping them. Understand how important it is to tell the customer when an engine is about to have an event.

00:38:29 Andy Publes: Exactly. Preventative. So proactive, predictive reliability. Right, right. So that's where we wanna put our efforts on because that's where we think that we have the right to win in that space and provide value to the customer, but by saying, Hey, you have this asset now, how can we make help? You get more out of this asset and, and asset number one, you might be able to extend it a little bit more.

00:38:52 Andy Publes: Asset number two, you have to have a, a, a, a touch point earlier, right? But, but that helps a lot to the operation. But that is one of the most difficult things to do because it's not just about being able to predict a failure. You have to understand the context of the operation to know whether the engine is truly failing or there is something else going on.

00:39:15 Josh Lowrey: So you've brought up SPM I've, I've avoided this to the very end because, like I said, I, I would've consumed the whole,

00:39:22 Andy Publes: so

00:39:23 Josh Lowrey: I'm from Fort Worth. That's where I grew up.

00:39:25 Andy Publes: I go there often.

00:39:26 Josh Lowrey: Isn't it great? It is. Fourth is a great town. So we sold, I, we still sell. I'm in, I'm still in the fluid end. Yeah. Raw material frack business, um, steel business.

00:39:36 Josh Lowrey: And we, we sell fluid ends. And you wanna talk about what technology has done to a fluid end itself. I will never forget, I had a conversation with a guy, call it 2000, maybe 14, 13. 14. Okay. And he said. If you can get me 900 hours on my fluid ends, I'll give you all of my business and I, and that was the goal.

00:40:00 Josh Lowrey: Like at that time, 500 hours was about the number. Right? Right, right. Think about that today.

00:40:05 Andy Publes: Right?

00:40:05 Josh Lowrey: If I told you right now I was gonna get you 900 hours, you would say, thank you. Get outta my office. That's right. You wouldn't even let me in the office. That's right. And it is incredible. The technology developments that have happened in that space, whether it be steel, you know, all the different manufacturing processes, but really it's the predictive failures that have happened, right?

00:40:25 Josh Lowrey: Like they know what's gonna happen, they take a look at it. There's sensors all over the place. That and, and because CAT can control really everything on the pad site there from. Like the whole setup,

00:40:37 Andy Publes: right?

00:40:37 Josh Lowrey: The engine, the fluid in the frack, the, the frame, all of it. I would imagine you are getting lots of hours on these frack pumps and fluid ins.

00:40:48 Josh Lowrey: I don't know your exact numbers, but that, I would say, I would think that's a huge value add for your customers.

00:40:54 Andy Publes: It, it has, it has definitely been a journey for us.

00:40:57 Josh Lowrey: Yeah.

00:40:57 Andy Publes: Uh, and I'll touch on a couple of things. I think as we evolve in our technologies in SPM. So thus, the. Operation.

00:41:05 Josh Lowrey: Sure.

00:41:05 Andy Publes: And so, you know, it's not just catching up to what the customer needs, but the customer needs are evolving.

00:41:11 Andy Publes: So, you know, yeah. You may have a great product that is 2000, 2,500 out, but now they need 3000 horsepower. Right. And so that has been a great journey. But you touched on something that is very important to us. We, SPN for us is so important because we wanna be able to provide our customer. Power to wellhead solutions and not just components.

00:41:37 Andy Publes: And, and part of this journey is around grabbing the great minds of SPM and putting them together in the room with the great minds of Caterpillar and making a step change in the industry. And I'm very excited about where SPM is going good because there's a lot of things that I can't talk about today, but, but we have some revolutionary things going on.

00:41:58 Andy Publes: That that is, is hoping to hit the market here towards the end of the year or next year. That I think for us, it's gonna start moving the needle towards the excellence that you see from Caterpillar. Sure. We also want to have from, from SPM in all aspects, and I was referring to power end and fluid ends, but there is also a lot of great things that we're doing in the automation space.

00:42:20 Andy Publes: Okay. And, and the flow iron. That we're very excited about. And so again, for us is how, how do we, how do we get the application expertise and those engineers and really getting them with the people, the bulk person, right? And, and really getting them to start thinking about, you know, the strategy is not to have the latest widget in LinkedIn.

00:42:43 Andy Publes: The strategy is to move the needle like we do on the power side. I totally agree with that. You know what I'm saying? Yes, absolutely. I mean, can you imagine a world in the future where. At the same time as you're doing an overhaul on an engine, you're also doing an overhaul on the pump that the pump lasts that long.

00:42:57 Josh Lowrey: Well,

00:42:58 Andy Publes: I don't like it. I'm not saying that's gonna happen, but

00:42:59 Josh Lowrey: I don't like it that much. 'cause you've, my, my frack business isn't what it used to be. But I'd like to go back to the 500 hours. Yeah,

00:43:05 Andy Publes: yeah, yeah, yeah.

00:43:06 Josh Lowrey: No, I'm joking. But, uh, no, listen, that's where we're going. This is where we're going, right? Yes.

00:43:11 Josh Lowrey: Right. And this is, and it's good for everybody. It's good for the consumer. Ultimately the consumer's, the one that wants cleaner air, lower electric bills, more power that when they want to turn that switch, the power comes on.

00:43:23 Andy Publes: Right.

00:43:23 Josh Lowrey: That's, I'll never forget I was in, uh, Brazil. And I was with one of the, it was a phenomenal trip.

00:43:29 Josh Lowrey: I don't mean a name drop, but I was with the president of their NBC sports down there.

00:43:35 Andy Publes: Oh, you have to, yeah, you have to name drop.

00:43:37 Josh Lowrey: That's, that's a big deal. It makes the story. It's a, it's a cool story. So we were in their penthouse in, in Brazil and what is it? Epon Beach down there and phenomenal, beautiful setup.

00:43:50 Josh Lowrey: And you're just looking at this going, this is unbelievable. And they both speak perfect English. I think his wife grew up in Panama, so, okay. It was just a, it was a great setup. And I said, this is incredible. And she goes, yeah, it's great. And she goes, but it makes you really, she goes, America's really great too.

00:44:06 Josh Lowrey: And I went, okay. Like, I don't know, this seems pretty great. And she said, you know, the thing about America. Is when you hit that light switch, you know the power's coming on.

00:44:19 Andy Publes: You're expected.

00:44:19 Josh Lowrey: Yes.

00:44:20 Andy Publes: Yes.

00:44:20 Josh Lowrey: And she says here, when you hit the light switch, it doesn't come on every time and you don't know when it's gonna come back on.

00:44:27 Josh Lowrey: And she says, and I'm thinking to myself, this is one of the nicest buildings, if not the nicest building in the entire region. These people can do whatever they want. They can private jet the second they want to anywhere they want to go. And I thought. That is an interesting mindset of how, how much we take for granted that that light switch just clicks on.

00:44:45 Andy Publes: Right, right, right.

00:44:46 Josh Lowrey: You know, and when what you're describing these efficiencies, they just make sure they continue to keep that light switch. Coming on. People don't realize that the bolt guy and the 3000 hour guy, the 3000 horsepower, like those little widgets add up to that light switch

00:45:06 Andy Publes: Right.

00:45:06 Josh Lowrey: Coming on every single time.

00:45:08 Josh Lowrey: Right. And how important that is.

00:45:09 Andy Publes: A hundred percent.

00:45:10 Josh Lowrey: A hundred percent. It's, it's incredible.

00:45:11 Andy Publes: Yeah.

00:45:12 Josh Lowrey: And then, oh, oh, by the way, the hundreds of thousands of, or hundreds and thousands of jobs, actually, hundreds of thousands of jobs really. That come along with both direct and indirect oil and gas and, and industrial related jobs.

00:45:23 Josh Lowrey: It's just phenomenal. It's a phenomenal industry that we serve.

00:45:26 Andy Publes: Well, and I think to that, I mean, I got goosebumps by the way, just sharing that story, but you know, when we think about data centers and ai, we need fuel.

00:45:36 Josh Lowrey: Oh yeah.

00:45:38 Andy Publes: Right. So how

00:45:38 Josh Lowrey: am I gonna send my tiktoks,

00:45:39 Andy Publes: right? That's right, that's right. Yeah. I mean, we we're, I joke with my kids, they're generating an AI image and then I'm telling them like, we probably just fired up two gen sets to do this.

00:45:50 Andy Publes: That's right. You know? Uh, but no, I mean, I think when you think about they fired up two gen sets,

00:45:55 Josh Lowrey: keep going.

That's

00:45:56 Andy Publes: right. Yeah, that's right. Get him going. More images. Um, I think for us, the space that we play and, you know, I'm playing both in the. And the production power and, and the, and the frag world, but, and the drilling.

00:46:09 Andy Publes: But it, it's not just providing power to the data center, but the focus on oil and gas is also, we need more fuel because there's more demand. And so we play such a huge role. And the next generation, which is ai mm-hmm. Which is the data centers, which is all of these. Right. And, and a lot of focus is in power, but we need the fuel and, and saw those a lot of other countries around the world.

00:46:34 Josh Lowrey: Yeah. Uh, that's the other thing, right? I mean, we. Are by all, for all intents and purposes, everybody that's listening to this podcast is very, very rich. Like they just are. And when you go to somewhere that doesn't have everything you just described, then you realize how much they want it,

00:46:51 Andy Publes: right?

00:46:52 Josh Lowrey: And, you know, again, try try when the power doesn't come on.

00:46:57 Andy Publes: Right.

00:46:57 Josh Lowrey: And see how an annoying is the easy word to use.

00:47:01 Andy Publes: Yeah.

00:47:01 Josh Lowrey: Like what happens if you have a sick parent or a sick anything and you can't get power to the breathing machine. Like those, that's the stuff that we just, we forget about, that we take for granted. That is probably the better way to say it. Yeah.

00:47:12 Josh Lowrey: So yeah,

00:47:13 Andy Publes: Josh use this in Thursdays when I was young in Cuba. Tuesdays and Thursdays is no power.

00:47:20 Josh Lowrey: Really?

00:47:21 Andy Publes: Yeah. Yeah. That's you expected was See, I got

00:47:23 Josh Lowrey: goosebumps on that

00:47:23 Andy Publes: one. Yeah. Is crazy. Yeah. So what, what a four circle where now I'm working on an industry that enables that, that type of solutions to other parts of the world.

00:47:34 Andy Publes: Right? So it, I'm just talking about one country. There's many other countries where they have, you're right, they have that need.

00:47:42 Josh Lowrey: Well, listen, they, caterpillar knows what they're doing. Uh, hiring you 17 years ago promoting you getting this podcast, by the way. Great job, caterpillar. Getting this podcast going with us.

00:47:54 Josh Lowrey: I mean, these notes I paid attention to some of them. I paid attention to some. I loved it though. I loved it. Some of these things got questioned. Thank you for the notes. They were great. Um, is there anything else that you'd like to leave the audience with or do we just do the greatest job ever?

00:48:10 Andy Publes: I, I, I dunno about me, but you did a great job and I love the conversation.

00:48:14 Andy Publes: You're

00:48:14 Josh Lowrey: awesome by the way.

00:48:15 Andy Publes: Um, thank you. Thank you very much. I, I, I would say you hit on this, we, we spent last year really reminiscing about a hundred years at Caterpillar, and I got to see things that I, I didn't even see in my first 17 years, like photographs and videos and things like that. And. I am so excited about the new strategy that our CEO rolled out and the leadership team, because it is, it is really a blueprint of leveraging what made us get, get to a hundred years right, and go to another a hundred years.

00:48:51 Andy Publes: That's the way to go in, in a world that is changing. And, and the focus is, it's very simple and it actually stands for ca is customer excellence, customer back approach, advanced Technology leader. We talked about a lot of the technologies that we bring, and then transforming how we do things right? It's not changing, it's transforming.

00:49:11 Andy Publes: It's a step change. Love it on how we're doing it. So I'm so excited about that and so excited about continuing to work with the customers to understand what's next. And be there in the tough times And the good times.

00:49:24 Josh Lowrey: Well, is it Andres or Andy? Andy's.

00:49:28 Andy Publes: I get that question a lot.

00:49:29 Josh Lowrey: Yeah. So what was your, what was your given name at birth?

00:49:31 Andy Publes: It's Andy. I

00:49:32 Josh Lowrey: just, your parents said let's gringo it right away.

00:49:35 Andy Publes: It's Andy.

00:49:36 Josh Lowrey: Andy,

00:49:37 Andy Publes: yeah.

00:49:37 Josh Lowrey: Andy Puebla. Well, no.

00:49:40 Andy Publes: Yeah, you gotta remember, you gotta thread the min needle

00:49:42 Josh Lowrey: with my last name. I listen, I had a great Spanish two teacher flowers. She was, there you go. She was amazing. If you messed up. Your accents, your tilde, she would get on you.

00:49:52 Josh Lowrey: So, and

00:49:55 Andy Publes: I have not heard it that way in many years, I'll tell you that. That was excellent.

00:50:00 Josh Lowrey: Oh, this is great. This is great. I'm gonna, so just so you know, I, we had to have somebody in person for the launch. I was like, we can't do a video call. I, I'm just not any good. I get distracted. I'm, you know, whatever I need face-to-face.

00:50:12 Josh Lowrey: You were the perfect first guest. Thank you very much. Thank you for doing this. This is gonna be a phenomenal show. Caterpillar's gonna win. We're all gonna win from doing this a hundred percent. I would like you to come back. So you said you have something announced later in the year or early next year.

00:50:24 Josh Lowrey: Go up there and push SPM. Say, Hey, we gotta come back before the barbecue.

00:50:29 Andy Publes: Yeah, that's right.

00:50:30 Josh Lowrey: That's a great, that's November.

00:50:31 Andy Publes: That's right. That's right.

00:50:32 Josh Lowrey: So it gives you half the, A lot, a long time to get at least. Can we announce this by barbecue time?

00:50:39 Andy Publes: I'll go back and say, Hey, the podcast is already set, so we gotta

00:50:42 Josh Lowrey: align the product

00:50:42 Andy Publes: development.

00:50:43 Josh Lowrey: We are, this is on record. So Andy, thank you very much for your time. It's

00:50:48 Andy Publes: my pleasure.

00:50:50 Josh Lowrey: Thank you very much for your time. So this is actually on the Caterpillar website. Um, so go to caterpillar.com. Caterpillar oil and gas. It is listen to your podcasts. We're also gonna announce it and kind of push it through all of our social media channels under LinkedIn.

00:51:04 Josh Lowrey: So look up Upright Digital on LinkedIn. Look up Caterpillar oil and gas on LinkedIn. Um, you, you are, I'm assuming on LinkedIn as well. Yep. People get in touch with you. We're not gonna give out phone numbers. That's crazy. One of my partners one time gave out his sat. Satellite phone number. And I go, what are you doing?

00:51:20 Andy Publes: Oh yeah,

00:51:20 Josh Lowrey: that's, I go, this is the dumbest, it's like $8 a minute. You're an idiot. So we deleted that. So we're not gonna do that, but people will be able to get in touch with you. So we'll leave your information. If people wanna get in touch with you guys, that'd be

00:51:29 Andy Publes: fantastic.

00:51:30 Josh Lowrey: But this is great. So thank you very much for your time.

00:51:31 Josh Lowrey: Thank you. Thank you guys for tuning in. If you have any questions, give us a call at, uh, upright Digital. Caitlin stepped in our backup producer. Caitlin hated doing this, but she did. Thank you for stepping in today, Caitlyn.

00:51:41 Andy Publes: Thank you.