C.O.B. Tuesday

We had a fantastic session today with Stan Miranda, Founder and Chairman of Partners Capital. Stan co-founded Partners Capital in 2001 with a goal to transform investment strategy. Today the company manages ~$45 billion of assets for endowments, foundations, institutions and private clients with seven offices across the globe. We covered a fascinating and broad range of topics, all centered around the practical investability of the energy transition. The foundation for the conversation was a report that Partners Capital published last spring, "Global Energy Transition Investment Framework." In our discussion, we touch on what Stan is observing in the public equity space, the private equity energy transition approach, aspects of the transition Stan is most optimistic and most worried about, the first Clean Tech investing experience, the gap between government subsidies and total sector capital needs, the Partners Capital investing view on China, and the energy transition investing dilemma Stan describes as "a vast ocean of opportunity and all we have are these little straws to get the tiny bit of opportunity out of it." We end with feedback Stan has received since releasing the report and his thoughts on what the energy landscape might look like in ten years. Thank you, Stan, for joining late from London and for sharing your insights with us all!  To start the show Mike Bradley reviewed commodity and energy market performance from the past week and briefly touched on the premarket NYSE trading glitch which halted trading in numerous names. He also highlighted that natural gas continued its recent pullback and risks E&Ps potentially pulling back activity. He indicated that the upcoming debt ceiling saga will continue to weigh on market sentiment and wrapped up by highlighting some key themes from the kick-off of oil service Q4 earnings. Jeff Tillery continued the earnings conversation and shared his observations on what investors are listening for in the next few weeks. Thanks to you all for your support and friendship!  

We are beyond excited to share this week's COBT as we had the opportunity to visit with the team at the National Fish and Wildlife Foundation (NFWF). Joining us for the session are Dr. Holly Bamford, Chief Conservation Officer, Dr. John Lamoreux, Director, Fish and Wildlife Conservation, and Kristen Byler, Senior Scientist, Marine Conservation. Since its inception in 1984, NFWF has collaborated with federal, corporate and individual partners to put over $7 billion to work with conservation projects across all 50 US states and US territories. We were delighted to visit with the team and talk about NFWF's mission to build partnerships and drive conservation efforts for current and future generations. To help orient the conversation, Dr. Bamford first shared background on the organization, it's fascinating history, and mission. From there, we discuss how the organization's partners are involved with each project and respective community, the diversity of their partnerships and projects and focus on "Getting Stuff Done," the link between nature and the energy sector including specific projects NFWF is working on with the energy industry, NFWF's involvement with carbon sequestration and associated challenges, the need for national standardization for carbon sequestration, three ways to invest in nature to sequester carbon, how individuals can get involved with NFWF, and much more. We had a hard time ending the discussion but wrapped with where Dr. Bamford, Dr. Lamoreux and Kristen see NFWF ten years from now. It was a great discussion and we are inspired by their eager spirit to "Do More Good In More Places." Mike Bradley kicked us off with a quick market update from the past week, flagging the possibility that natural gas companies may pull back on rig count and flagged a few upcoming events including PPI reporting, the World Economic Forum in Davos taking place this week, Chinese market activity, and the beginning of oilfield services Q4 results, with SLB first out of the chute. Jeff Tillery also joined for today's discussion as well as Nick Lance, Veriten's Nature-Based Solutions Project Lead. We look forward to following NFWF's projects and progress over the coming years! Thanks to you all. Let's keep 2023 rolling!

Welcome to another week of COBT! Today we had the pleasure of visiting with Josh Freed, Senior Vice President of the Climate and Energy Program at Third Way. Headquartered in Washington, D.C., Third Way is a public policy think tank with a global presence focused on advocating for policies that represent modern center-left ideas. Josh is the founder of the organization's clean energy and climate program, which launched in 2009, and oversees strategy to accelerate policy in the US and Europe to create energy that is clean, affordable, secure and reliable.  To help frame the discussion, Josh first provides background on the Energy and Climate team at Third Way and their focus on ensuring the conversation around clean energy includes every technology that could help with decarbonization. From there, we touch on the organization's presence in Washington, their centrist ideology, the current state of pragmatism in Washington and areas for bipartisan support, permitting reform and the importance of a can-do spirit. We also discussed technologies that Josh and his team are working on including sustainable aviation fuel and carbon management technologies, Josh's view on the future of natural gas, addressing transmission issues, Josh's view on the biggest areas of opportunity for classic energy companies and what he says is the transformative challenge of the 21st century, and more. We wrap with Josh's view on the energy mix in ten years. We greatly enjoyed the fulsome discussion! The Veriten team kicked off the show: Mike Bradley shared his thoughts around Thursday's December CPI print and key themes from the recent Goldman Sachs Global Energy and Clean Technology Conference. He also highlighted the Fed's statement on climate change, proposals in New York to ban natural gas heating and appliances in the state, and flagged the upcoming World Economic Forum Meeting in Davos as well as OFS earnings kicking off in two weeks. Brett Rampal shared interesting data from the Energy Information Agency on their predictions for 2024 and noted we can expect lots of regulatory engagement in 2023 for nuclear projects around the world. Thanks to Josh for a fantastic discussion and thanks to you all for your support and friendship! 

Happy 2023 to you all! Welcome to the first COBT of the year featuring Danny Rice, incoming CEO of NET Power. Danny has a remarkable perspective from which he could discuss many of the issues and opportunities in today's energy world. He has seen and accomplished much... former CEO of Rice Energy, investing in and then selling Archaea Energy to BP, his experience on the EQT board, former Whiting Petroleum board member, and now the next CEO of NET Power, just to hit a few of the highlights. As you will hear in the conversation, we drew on all of his experience to discuss a wide range of great energy topics. The theme of our discussion today was around what Danny referred to as the energy trifecta... reliable, clean, and affordable. Danny and his brothers have made a career in and around natural gas and we certainly spent a good amount of time on gas as the decarbonizing weapon of the future. What was particularly new here was the topic of NET Power and the company's unique technology that has the potential to create emission free natural gas-driven power. "Zero emission natural gas" is obviously very compelling. We dig into the details and do our best to explore all the implications and angles. We joked going in that this episode should be our first two-hour COBT and there is no question we could have gone that long. But don't worry, we kept it to our usual hour. And it was really a fantastic hour! Mike Bradley kicked us off with a review of the red on Tuesday's screen, a look back at last year, some preview of the next three to six months, and finally a longer range outlook. Jeff Tillery shared his views on returns and the much-improved upstream business model. Todd Scruggs also joined for the robust discussion with Danny. What a great way to kick off the year. We can't thank Danny enough and hope you get a chance to enjoy this one in its entirety. All the best for an incredible year from all of us at Team Veriten! 

While we can't believe that 2022 is coming to an end, we were thrilled to visit with Dr. Francisco Monaldi for 2022's final COBT episode all about Venezuela and Latin America's energy scene. Dr. Monaldi is a Fellow in Latin American Energy Policy, the Director of the Latin America Energy Program and a Lecturer in Energy Economics at Rice University's Baker Institute for Public Policy. Dr. Monaldi is extremely knowledgeable of the region, it's history, challenges and opportunities, and we thoroughly enjoyed our discussion. To begin, Dr. Monaldi walked us through a presentation outlining the history of Venezuela's economic standing, the rise and fall of political leaders and their impact on the country's economy, public sector deficit, the history of the Venezuelan oil industry, and forecasted Venezuelan output up to 2050. It was a fantastic overview to launch our conversation covering the current conditions in Venezuela from a humanitarian standpoint, the relationship between Venezuela and Russia, the recent Chevron license and additional opportunities, geopolitical implications for the next President of Venezuela, investments and developments in Guyana and Suriname, energy observations for Latin America, the time and scale of investment required to drive Venezuelan recovery in production, Dr. Monaldi's view of the energy picture in Latin America in ten years, and much more. We are greatly appreciative of Dr. Monaldi for sharing his time and expertise with us all. To kick us off,  Mike Bradley noted movement in US natural gas prices in anticipation of the impending polar vortex, the EU approval to cap gas prices, and flagged an important current copper mining issue in Panama.  Colin Fenton took a look back at 2022 market conditions and shared key themes along with an outlook for 2023.  Today's COBT is our last for the year. We will return on Wednesday, January 4th with the first episode of 2023 and until then, we wish you all a Merry Christmas, a Happy Hanukkah, and a Happy New Year!!

We are so excited to share today's episode featuring Malcolm Woolf, President and CEO of the National Hydropower Association (NHA). The NHA represents over 300 member-companies including public and investor-owned utilities, independent power producers, developers, equipment and service providers, and other groups interested in advancing America's hydropower industry. Together, NHA members own and operate approximately 85% of the waterpower generating capacity in the US. We were thrilled to visit with Malcolm and hear more about the work he and his team are doing to advocate for hydropower. In our conversation, Malcolm kicked off with an overview of the hydropower industry and its important role in stabilizing the grid, the different types of power sources (classic large dams, run-of-river, pumped storage and marine energy), the current opportunities for expanding hydropower, an overview of pumped storage technologies, permitting issues and the need for funding to address the existing fleet, the pros and cons of the IRA for hydro, common misconceptions of hydropower, the hydropower industry's biggest pain points, Malcolm's perspective on hydropower and the manufacturing sector, on-site hydropower applications, global hydropower usage, efforts to engage with communities that have historically shown concern about hydropower, dam safety and maintenance, offshore technology, scale and efficiency for hydro technologies, and the various types of NHA member companies. We end with Malcolm's ten-year vision for hydropower. We were so excited to finally be spending some time on this very important clean energy resource. Thanks very much Malcolm for joining! In our upfront discussion, Mike Bradley shared an update on PPI and CPI prices compared to October and highlighted volatility in crude oil price, movement in WTI pricing, and notable events from the past week including California gas prices and Denbury's recent CCUS update. Colin Fenton provided a read-through on liquidity in global markets and the relative responses to the incoming inflation, labor, and manufacturing data across precious metals, equity indices, oil and gas, and fixed income instruments. He also walked us through the latest data on the slump in U.S. gasoline consumption and what it likely portends for a broader drop in global liquids demand in 2023. Brett Rampal also joined the crew to discuss the recent US fusion energy milestone and give key context around what it means for the promise of fusion power. Thanks to you all! 

We are excited to bring you this Special Edition on a topic that we find quite important: Iran. To help us discuss Iran's energy scene, we had the pleasure of connecting with Dr. Iman Nasseri, Managing Director, Middle East with Facts Global Energy (FGE). Dr. Nasseri joined us from Dubai and has an extensive background in energy economics, Middle East oil research, and Middle East gas/LNG coverage. As you will hear, we cover Iran's energy market and also touch on the current political landscape. To start the conversation, Dr. Nasseri provides some quick color on his background and FGE including their analytical and consulting practices. We then dive into an extensive discussion on the Iran nuclear deal and implications for oil production and the impact of sanctions, oil export revenue for Iran's government, the current status of the nuclear deal and how conditions have changed with the Russian/Ukraine war, Iran's relationship with Venezuela, dynamics with OPEC, Iran's refined product market over the next few years, Iranian crude, economic and political stress in Iran, FGE's projections for gas demand, and much more. We wrap with Dr. Nasseri's view on what Iran will look like in the next ten years. Mike Bradley and Colin Fenton also joined for our global discussion. If you're interested in additional reading, Dr. Nasseri has shared FGE's report titled, "What If the Iranian Uprising Brings Down the Islamic Republic?" Thanks to all of you for your friendship and support! 

Today we had the pleasure of hosting Rich Powell in the studio. Rich Powell is the CEO of ClearPath, a non-profit organization headquartered in Washington dedicated to developing and advancing smart energy policies. We are always eager to connect with pragmatic, balanced, solutions-oriented people and were delighted to visit with Rich.  Rich first helps frame our discussion with background on ClearPath's mission and focus areas, their pulse on the developing world's access to energy and how much development there is left to do to, Rich's observations on the evolution of the climate debate since ClearPath was founded eight years ago, the promising future for nuclear energy with bipartisan support, ClearPath's involvement with the Energy Act of 2020, the process for permitting clean energy projects and how pipelines are fundamental, the footprint of prime energy demand, additional opportunities for bipartisan energy policies, the centrist community in Washington, Rich's observations on young people's energy opinions, his takeaways from attending COP 27, decarbonization priorities, the goal to find new technologies that wouldn't need to be subsidized or mandated, and more. We had a hard time ending the discussion and can't thank Rich enough for joining. Mike Bradley hit on three key points for the week including this past weekend's OPEC meeting, the EU's sanctions package starting on December 5th, and potential market reactions to new US PPI data, scheduled for release on Friday. Colin Fenton shared an update on U.S. shale output in the context of overall U.S. liquids and gas production growth. We hope you enjoy the conversation as much as we did! Thanks to you all. 

Today we welcomed back our good friend Tisha Schuller, Founder and CEO of Adamantine Energy. Tisha first appeared on COBT in March of 2021 and we're thrilled to visit with her just a few weeks after she's published her latest book, "Real Decarbonization: How Oil and Gas Companies Are Seizing the Low-Carbon Future." Tisha is based out of Denver and was previously the President and CEO of the Colorado Oil & Gas Association before founding Adamantine Energy, where she and her team provide thought leadership to energy businesses. We had lots of fun digging into the core themes of the book! In our conversation, Tisha first shares the inspiration behind writing "Real Decarbonization" including the disconnect between public perceptions around decarbonization and reality. We then dive into the importance of understanding the opposing community's perspective and the shift to focus on building things rather than opposing them, Tisha's call for action to create "unconventional engagements," navigating greenwashing, how CEOs are driving decarbonization, the four strategic decarbonization paths as described in Tisha's book, how the IRA has affected traditional paradigms of opposing conservatives and liberals, personal evolution and shifting industry pride, differences in decarbonization goals for public and private companies, the definition of decarbonized, and much more. We had a hard time wrapping the discussion and ended with Tisha's view for the energy world in ten years. It was a whopper of a conversation! The Veriten crew started the show: Mike Bradley focused on the move/volatility in crude oil markets as well as the handful of dynamics (China lockdowns, upcoming OPEC Meeting & EU Russian Price-Caps) that are driving volatility and have plunged Brent and WTI crude oil time spreads into contango. He also noted the 12-month WTI crude oil strip and energy equities have been decoupling over the past few months due to investor's comfort with higher future "normalized" prices, continued significant return OF capital and strict capex discipline even in the midst of high commodity prices. Colin Fenton trained the spotlight on precious metals. Advances in silver and gold prices are suddenly building momentum, as investors flee crypto markets and look nervously at USD weakness and other signs that central bankers will not have the stomach to squash inflation expectations. Mar-23 CMX silver ($21.41 per troy ounce) has gained 22% since its recent low in early September, and Feb-23 CMX gold ($1762 per troy oz) is now priced about 8% higher than at its recent low on November 3, 2022. Each price is far below its all-time high in either nominal or real terms.Thanks to you all for your friendship and support!

Thanksgiving is such an awesome holiday... great food, family, relaxation. It's got it all! One thing we have been struck by... and I think it was most striking during COVID, is that the energy world NEVER STOPS and that's what makes all of this possible. Because energy people are out there working on this day, for the third year in a row we have an episode that introduces you to them. As you will hear, today's show features Brock Schmidt from North Dakota, Brad Okland from Fort Worth, and Nick Heddings from Williamsport PA. These three guys and their teams are working today! Not to ruin the surprise, but towards the end the guys also reveal their favorite Thanksgiving dish. Great stuff!A few special thank yous are in order:- To all of you for your support- To the Caterpillar team for helping us find Brock, Brad and Nick and letting them join us on the show- To energy workers everywhere, especially today, who are out there making it happen for all of us!- To the fun people at Schatz. During the show, Brock says there is a truck stop in North Dakota which has some awesome pies and such. Well, we found them and now you know too! I would be remiss if I didn't also thank the fun and growing team at Veriten. You are a wonderful bunch and make coming to work fun every day!Happy Thanksgiving to you all!