This week we had the great opportunity to visit with Todd Kantor , Founder, Managing Member and Portfolio Manager at Encompass Capital Advisors . Encompass is a highly regarded energy-focused investment firm, headquartered in New York. Today's discussion touched on a bit of everything including current investment trends, the team at Encompass, ESG, natural gas outlook, SPACs, the oil macro, Iran, and the energy transition investment space... just to name a few! Todd is a great friend of the firm...
May 12, 2021•59 min•Season 1Ep. 63
Texans have forever prided themselves on our hardworking, gritty and friendly nature. We were lucky enough to visit with Dick Weekley this week who embodies all of those qualities and more. Dick is a true champion for the State of Texas - as a Texas Business Hall of Fame honoree, a philanthropist with several Texas based organizations, and with the work he and the team at Texans for Lawsuit Reform (TLR) are doing to keep Texas the pro-business place it is. Today we heard the story of how he and ...
May 05, 2021•59 min•Season 1Ep. 62
Today we had the pleasure of hosting Bill Farris , Associate Laboratory Director for Innovation, Partnering, and Outreach at the National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL). In his role, Bill focuses on the NREL's partnership activity and accelerating commercialization and the transfer of laboratory technologies to the marketplace. He's worked on some pretty fascinating projects and we had a great time learning more about the NREL and their programs. The NREL is headquartered in Golden, Colorado...
Apr 28, 2021•58 min•Season 1Ep. 61
In honor of Earth Day, we are thrilled to bring you this special edition broadcast from the Houston Museum of Natural Science . Today we had the pleasure of visiting with two great guests. First, we had Nicole Temple , Vice President of Youth Education, to hear about Earth Day activities at the HMNS, as well as updates on some of their programs for the nearly 400,000 students that visit the museum annually. More information about the museum's "Celebration: Earth" program is linked here . If you'...
Apr 22, 2021•33 min
This week's session was truly remarkable. We had the honor of hosting the Salk Institute Harnessing Plants Initiative team comprised of some of the brightest minds working to mitigate climate change with perhaps the most genius idea since Jonas Salk's polio vaccine: harnessing the natural power of plants to rebalance our carbon cycle. The Harnessing Plants Initiative team includes: Wolfgang Busch, Ph.D. : Professor, Plant Molecular and Cellular Biology Laboratory, Hess Chair in Plant Science and...
Apr 21, 2021•1 hr 23 min•Season 1Ep. 60
Welcome to another week of COBT! For today's session, we took a trip offshore to visit with Erik Milito , President of the National Ocean Industries Association (NOIA). NOIA's mission is to advance and promote the interests of the offshore energy industry including both traditional and renewable energy resources. We had a great conversation all about the NOIA organization itself, life in Washington, D.C., the importance of the Gulf of Mexico, and the energy transition. It was a pleasure to speak...
Apr 14, 2021•1 hr 14 min•Season 1Ep. 59
We have cooked up a special weekend edition for you... featuring two areas of focus for us this week at TPH. Hopefully wherever you are it will be nice this weekend and you’ll find our discussion the perfect companion for a walk or a run. Then again, what goes better with a glass of wine than ESG and Solar inverters? :-) Craig Webster kicked us off today. Craig leads the ESG charge at TPH and joined to discuss O&G emissions data that he has been studying for the past few months. There are pr...
Apr 09, 2021•45 min
We had a super-unique and stimulating session today all about interactions between the energy industry, the media, public opinion and energy policy. We were lucky to be joined by two experts in the field: Jim Krane, Ph.D. , Author and Wallace S. Wilson Fellow for Energy Studies at Rice University's Baker Institute and Chris Tomlinson , Author and Business Columnist for the Houston Chronicle . With Jim and Chris's backgrounds, we were able to cover several topics including journalism, energy in t...
Apr 07, 2021•1 hr 2 min•Season 1Ep. 58
You never know who you might meet on the ski chairlift! As you'll hear, today we had the pleasure of hosting Terry Anderson , a great friend, author and scholar. Terry is the John and Jean De Nault Senior Fellow at Stanford University's Hoover Institution and is the author or editor of nearly 40 books. Terry is also a Bozeman Montana "FOL" - friend of Lance. Lance as in Lance Gilliland , Managing Director and Co-Head of Energy M&A at TPH. Together, we all had a great discussion around Terry'...
Mar 31, 2021•55 min•Season 1Ep. 57
We have all heard countries, states, cities and companies announce their plans to be somewhat or fully carbon neutral by 2030 or 2035 or 2050 or 2060... but the question remains, how are they... and how are we... going to really do that? For a Special Edition COBT this week, we were thrilled to visit with a great friend, Corby Robertson , to learn about the Carbon Neutral Coalition that is tackling this all important question. Surely significant carbon capture will play a meaningful role. We all...
Mar 26, 2021•54 min
Today was really fun! We got the chance to spend an hour with Brian Sullivan, host of CNBC's "Worldwide Exchange" and a great friend of the firm. Brian has over 20 years of financial journalism and television experience, including serving as an anchor at Fox Business News as well as a producer, reporter and anchor for Bloomberg Television. He is also a Senior National Correspondent for the network. Brian has been sitting in one of the most interesting chairs in the world over the last year. The ...
Mar 24, 2021•1 hr•Season 1Ep. 56
This week the TPH Research Team came out with a "macro" hydrogen piece. Entitled "Jack of All Trades or a Master of None?" the report stares into the future and examines the prospects for all colors of hydrogen. Today we had a walkthrough with our team to learn more. In today's Special Edition, you'll hear Matt Portillo and Jordan McNiven provide some of the highlights and answer a few of our questions. If you are interested in the full report, please reach out to your TPH representative to lear...
Mar 19, 2021•40 min
With baseball opening day right around the corner (April 1), we've dubbed today an "energy doubleheader!" We started with a discussion about this year's CERAWeek conference. We were so pleased to be joined by Dr. Atul Arya, Senior Vice President and Chief Energy Strategist at IHS Markit to speak to the conference's highlights and top themes. With everything from Biden, SPACs, the Energy Transition, and the ever changing future of oil and gas on their minds, over 19,000 attendees gathered virtual...
Mar 17, 2021•57 min•Season 1Ep. 55
Welcome to another edition of COBT! This week we were thrilled to be joined by Tisha Schuller, Founding Principal of Adamantine Energy and Author of "The Gamechanger's Playbook: How Oil & Gas Leaders Thrive in an Era of Continuous Disruption" to discuss a number of energy and environmental related topics. Tisha's experience includes environmental consulting, company advocacy, policy, politics, and academia. You can find her podcast, "Energy Thinks," linked here. We had a fantastic discussion...
Mar 10, 2021•54 min•Season 1Ep. 54
For the last few weeks, we have been asking ourselves "what do all these US energy policy decisions (especially Keystone) look like from the Canadian vantage point?" We set out to find a guest that could help us feed that curiosity. Wow did we score! We found Alex Pourbaix, President and Chief Executive Officer of Cenovus Energy, headquartered in Calgary. Alex was great and gave us an update on how Cenovus is doing as well as their current areas of focus. We of course asked him for his Canadian ...
Mar 03, 2021•59 min•Season 1Ep. 53
Today we bring you a special edition to lift your spirits and your weekend out of this world! In fact, toward Mars, where the Perseverance rover has made a spectacular landing on the red planet in pursuit of new science. Leading our virtual mission from his post at Caltech is our good friend, John Grotzinger. John is a professor of geology and geobiology, and the division chair for Geological and Planetary Sciences, at that esteemed university. Prior to moving to Caltech in 2005, he spent 18 yea...
Feb 26, 2021•38 min
We have been looking forward to today's session for awhile now! We were so pleased to be joined by Susan Waller, Executive Director of Natural Allies for Clean Energy, and Mike DuHaime, Partner with Mercury Public Affairs, to discuss their efforts to change the conversation around natural gas. Natural Allies for Clean Energy advocates for a clean energy future that begins with affordable and reliable natural gas. Susan and Mike shared background on Natural Allies, their current projects, and how...
Feb 24, 2021•1 hr 4 min•Season 1Ep. 52
First and foremost, we hope you and your loved ones are safe and warm during this winter storm that is affecting nearly 25 states. We had several topics to discuss in today's session, starting with a power (or lack of power) update and explanation of the power systems in Texas by Jordan McNiven and George O'Leary from the TPH Research team. To expand on current conditions in the field, we were so pleased to be joined by David Adams, Senior Vice President of North America Business Transforma...
Feb 17, 2021•1 hr 3 min•Season 1Ep. 51
You may already be familiar with the topic of today's show: ranked choice voting (also known as instant runoff voting). We were thrilled to be joined by two experts on the topic, Harriet Wasserstrum, Co-Founder and Chair of Ranked Choice Voting for Texas, along with Mark Jones, Ph.D., Fellow in Political Science and Chair in Latin American Studies for Rice University's Baker Institute. Harriet walked us through a summary of how ranked choice voting works and how it is currently being used. "Rank...
Feb 10, 2021•58 min•Season 1Ep. 50
Today's show was all about President Biden's recent executive order to "pause" oil and gas leasing on federal land. To help us discuss the scope of the order and how it's going to affect oil and gas, now and in the future, we were thrilled to be joined by two key ambassadors of the oil and gas community: Kathleen Sgamma, President of the Western Energy Alliance Ryan Flynn, President & CEO of the New Mexico Oil & Gas Association Both of these organizations seek to represent oil and gas co...
Feb 03, 2021•1 hr•Season 1Ep. 49
Today we had the pleasure of hosting Robert Catell, Chairman of the Advanced Energy Research and Technology Center ("AERTC") at Stony Brook University (go Seawolves!). Bob was previously the Chairman and CEO of KeySpan Corporation, the former Brooklyn Union Gas. The AERTC's mission is to innovate energy research, education and technology deployment with a focus on efficiency, conservation, renewable energy and nanotechnology applications for new and novel sources of energy. Our discussion begins...
Jan 27, 2021•55 min•Season 1Ep. 48
We bring you a special weekend edition of COBT. Our focus is one of the key factors for the future of energy: electric vehicles and their place in the rapidly evolving outlook for the global automotive sector. Earlier this week TPH Research launched coverage on this critical sector with a comprehensive 85-page report. The assessment is an incredibly detailed, thoughtful, and readable piece on the outlook for EVs across more than a dozen countries and a dozen manufacturers, with a look at the kno...
Jan 22, 2021•1 hr 3 min
Welcome to another edition of COBT! There is no shortage of news this week with the inauguration of President Elect Joe Biden and his potential plans for executive orders in early days of his administration. We were pleased to be joined by Gregory Wrightstone, Executive Director at CO2 Coalition and Author of "Inconvenient Facts" to discuss a number of climate related topics. Another big topic is the possible Keystone XL Pipeline permit cancellation. Matt Taylor, Director of Research from TPH's ...
Jan 20, 2021•48 min•Season 1Ep. 47
We were delighted to visit with Jeffrey Harris, Founder of Global Reserve Group for this week's COBT session. Jeffrey is a fantastic guest, friend, and energy leader. As you all know, our goal is to host an open and intellectually honest conversation - Jeffrey was a fantastic contributor to that effort. Our TPH crew launched today's conversation: Mike Bradley provided a market update, Matt Portillo gave an update on TPH Research's gas upgrades and passed it to Jordan McNiven to cover TPH Researc...
Jan 13, 2021•1 hr 1 min•Season 1Ep. 46
We are pleased to bring you this "Special Edition" discussion with Bob Harvey, President and CEO of the Greater Houston Partnership ("GHP"). Joining Bob in today's discussion is TPH's own Bobby Tudor, who is also proudly GHP's Chairman. GHP is a unique pro-business, pro-community, All-Houston organization. Bob has been its leader for 8 years now and has seen energy ups and downs, Hurricane Harvey, and now COVID-19, just to name a few. With COVID-19 cases rising, but also with vaccinations rising...
Jan 12, 2021•54 min
For our first session of 2021, we were thrilled to welcome back an esteemed guest and great friend, Robert Bryce. Robert's experience includes being an acclaimed author, moviemaker, speaker, columnist, and much more. Today's focus was all about Saudi Arabia and Georgia. We also took a look back at 2020 and ended with our favorite energy moments of the year. Our TPH crew kicked off the discussion: Mike Bradley covered Saudi Arabia's production news and Matt Portillo discussed energy stock valuati...
Jan 06, 2021•1 hr 3 min•Season 1Ep. 45
In a year that witnessed the price of oil diving from $65 to below –$40 per barrel, we have also seen the price of bitcoin advance from $3,915 in March to a new all-time high above $28,365 this week. A host of extraordinary factors contributed to these outcomes. Our sense is the value drivers in digital assets remain far more mysterious for most observers. To help unpack what is going on in bitcoin and why, we are fortunate this week to be able to draw on the expertise of Daniel Masters. Danny i...
Dec 30, 2020•54 min•Season 1Ep. 44
We had the exciting opportunity to visit with Ryan Clancy to discuss the $900 billion COVID relief bill passed by the US Congress on Monday. Ryan is the Chief Strategist at No Labels, an organization at the spearhead of a non-partisan movement "to find common sense solutions to our toughest problems." No Labels and its liberal, moderate, and conservative partners in Congress played an instrumental part in breaking the logjam to deliver this long-needed relief. In the course of the conversation, ...
Dec 23, 2020•42 min•Season 1Ep. 43
Last week, an oilfield services company tried to buy logo apparel for all its employees. This was to be a holiday gift after a traumatic year. But the apparel’s manufacturer refused the order. We are told the apparel company did not want to “co-brand” with an oil and gas firm despite the fact most, if not all, of its own products are produced from hydrocarbon feedstocks sourced from the oil and gas industry. Similar incidents are becoming all too frequent. They reveal how far our society has dri...
Dec 17, 2020•23 min
We were thrilled to host this week's session with Dr. Kenneth Pollack, Resident Scholar at the American Enterprise Institute (AEI). Dr. Pollack has an incredibly impressive background on Middle Eastern and National Security Policy. His experience includes a tour of duty at the CIA, serving twice at the National Security Council, working for the Joint Chiefs, and writing 10 books on the Middle East. Talking with Dr. Pollack was not only unbelievably engaging but just honestly fun. His candor, goo...
Dec 16, 2020•1 hr 13 min•Season 1Ep. 42
