The Railroad Commission of Texas has named Gilbert Herrera the new Critical Infrastructure Division Director of Administrative Compliance, the agency said in a Nov. 2 news release.
Herrera previously served as the division’s director of field operations. According to the release, he has extensive experience protecting the reliability and resilience of Texas natural gas infrastructure, including supporting the flow of natural gas to power generation facilities and helping ensure regulatory compliance and operational preparedness.
In his new role, the agency said, Herrera will focus on strengthening oversight of the natural gas supply chain, ensuring compliance with critical infrastructure designations and other regulatory requirements, overseeing Emergency Operations Plans, and improving the accuracy and reliability of data used to evaluate critical natural gas infrastructure.
The Critical Infrastructure Division was formed in response to Winter Storm Uri in 2021. The commission said Herrera has played a vital role in its development, helping establish the processes, procedures, training and operational frameworks the division uses. The release said his work helps prepare critical natural gas infrastructure in Texas for extreme weather through an inspection program, coordination with industry and other stakeholders, and the identification of vulnerabilities that could affect the reliability of the natural gas supply.
Herrera joined the commission in 2018 and has held several leadership and engineering positions, according to the agency. As regional director, he established and led a new regional division responsible for field inspections and regulatory compliance within the Critical Infrastructure Division. He also served as Houston’s well plugging manager, where the release said he was involved in numerous challenging well plugging projects, including high-pressure and high-temperature wells, hydrogen sulfide operations and high-consequence well control events.
Before joining the commission, Herrera worked as an engineer at SLB, where the agency said he supervised field crews and conducted well integrity operations across the Permian Basin. He holds a bachelor’s degree in mechanical engineering from the University of Oklahoma and has completed executive and managerial leadership programs at the Texas McCombs School of Business, according to the release.
The Railroad Commission, established in 1891, is the state’s oldest regulatory agency, and the commission said it has jurisdiction over the oil and gas industry, alternative fuels safety, natural gas utilities, surface mining and intrastate pipelines.