You're listening to the Oily Gas This Week podcast with Mark LaCour and Paige Wilson. This is the show for busy oil pros who quickly want to keep their finger on the pulse of the industry. You're listening to Oil & Gas This Week, brought to you by Cognite, AI for the industry. This is the show for busy oil pros who want to quickly keep their finger on the pulse of the industry.
And thanks for joining us for episode 370. Also, please save the date for Impact, which is Cognite's annual user conference happening October 13th through the 16th in Houston, Texas. Paige, last year we had such a great time at Impact. It was an incredible event. And the only way you get into that is to be a user. Not only is it cool, they have the coolest swag. They do have the coolest swag. And the only way to get in there is to be a user, which means you have to be a customer.
Cognites. And if you're not a customer Cognites, you should be. However, I think that you and I are going to be given a handful of free passes for people that are not customers that we'll be able to give away to some of our listeners. So listeners, stay tuned for that. It literally is an extremely rare opportunity and we're going to make it happen. Awesome. I'm excited. You know what else we're going to make happen? What?
We're going to help the poor unemployed in our industry. You and I have talked about this. The entire OG team has talked about this. And we just want to make a difference. You've heard me talk about the layoffs that are happening in our industry. It's different than any time before. So what we're going to do on this.
an experiment so this may change as in fact it probably will change as we go but if you're unemployed from the oil and gas industry or if you want an entry-level position oil and gas if you want to break in at our next mixer which is the end of this month the last thursday of this month in Houston, Texas, we're gonna allow people that are unemployed or they're looking for an entry-level position to get in our mixer for almost nothing, basically $5 instead of 30.
And then we're going to shoot some very short video. Basically, you selling yourself. We're going to coach you. And we're going to take those and give it to a whole suite of headhunters and recruiters that are looking to place people all around the world.
And they're going to use that video instead of your resume, which is to get you ahead of everybody else. So there'll be more details to come for that. We just know that here at OGGN, we want to make a difference. We want to move the needle. We want to help those that are unemployed or those that want to break into the industry. And we're going to do it.
Yeah. Speaking of doing stuff, we love reviews, but as my memory serves me right, I don't know if we've ever gotten a one-star review. Even our haters usually give us two stars. It's my fault. I don't think it's your fault. It's clearly my fault. No, no, no. It starts off with me. It starts with me. Geraldine Ford says that I'm unbearable.
and that I was asleep and I have a horrendous laugh. And I would assume that was probably the episode I was sick. And Mark is okay, not impressed, but the title of it is Poor Content. Hard to make sense out of it. Which, I mean, sounds to me like you don't know the industry. Well, Geraldine Ford, apologies that Pager's unbearable and that you're not impressed with me. No, don't apologize. No, I'm 100% apologizing. However...
There's 1,999,999 other people that disagree with you. Is that even a real number? We have 2 million people listening to the show. That's awesome. So anyway, thank you for the one-star review. Let's just get the news articles. Listen to my horrendous laugh. All right. First up, we have Petrobras gears up for offshore boom.
Yeah, love this. Always love the discoveries they've made in the last 50 years in Brazil. I'm a huge fan of Brazil. Huge fan of Petrobras. And Petrobras is a state-run oil company. They've had some challenges in the last decade or so. The recoverable hydrocarbons are a technology challenge. They're deep, very hard rock. The way to get them back to shore, it had to be a little bit different, so that's where the FPSOs come in.
And then back last year, at the end of last year, they had production dropped over 10%. However, they're preparing to do their next thing. They've trimmed their capital expenditures to $17 billion from $21 billion, but they're still throwing $111 billion into the mix for oil gas exploration over the next five years. That's a lot of money to be thrown. at EMP.
And the cool thing about this is they're having more support vessels, more FPSOs. So they're bringing the grand total up to 48, which is huge. And like I said, they're trying to increase production when it looks like they will absolutely do it. The other thing that's going on here. is it used to be that in Brazil, no other oil and gas company could actually...
work the hydrocarbons without having a joint venture with Petrobras. And they've changed some of those rules, which is actually good. Even though Shell and Equinor, Total, Reposol, and I think Exxon all have some type of joint ventures with Petrobras, they're also doing their own thing, which is...
Great. Now, here we say that these are the deep salt layers. What a lot of people understand, I am by no means a geologist, no hate mail from the rock nerds. But the reason these reservoirs are a little bit different is these hydrocarbons are deposited.
Then a salt layer was deposited on top of the reservoir. So you have to actually drill through the salt layer. The cool thing about the salt layer is it's impermeable. It's a very unique geology. It takes very specialized technology and equipment to actually get into those hydrocarbons. But I'm loving what... what they're doing over there. And if you listen to me for any length of time of talk about having a Brazilian Portuguese
oil and gas podcast on our OGN network. And I had a lot of people reach out last time I talked about it and want to help us do that. However, I struggled to find a sponsor. Well, I have a company. Are we going? Because I finally get to meet my online friend if we're going. Two things. I have a company that's actually flying here from Brazil to meet with me to sponsor this Brazilian podcast. That's so cool.
And yes, Paige, if we get this show sponsored, we'll at least be in Rio. A lot of cool stuff going here. Like I said, big fan of Brazil, big fan of Petrobras. Looking forward to watching them grow their production. Awesome. All right. Alberta budgets for deficit this year. So this is interesting. She threw this in here. Not super concerned about the state's budget.
Although they are running a deficit, and it's the last year they didn't. They had a surplus. It's crazy. They went from a surplus of $6 billion to a deficit of almost $6 billion, almost the exact same number. I think it's $5.2 billion is the deficit. However, all that's based upon oil. The U.S. imports a lot of heavy crude from the oil sands because our refineries love it. The other place we can get as close by is Venezuela, but we had a waiver.
That was in place while Chevron was bringing those heavy crude from Venezuela to the U.S. to our refineries. That waiver has since expired. So one of the few places we can still get this heavy crude is from Canada. However, our current administration is back on the tariff wagon.
That's just the perception of tariffs happening has affected the price of crude. And the amount of production from all stands wasn't what they thought it would be. And there's a whole bunch of reasons for that. A lot of it's infrastructure. Some of it's from the environmentalists. Some of it's from the Canadian zone. government. But that lack of production is the reason they're running a deficit.
They're one of the biggest trading partners and we need that heavy crude for our refineries. However, our current administration is doing the song and dance of negotiation. I do think it's funny when a lot of people think that what they see Trump and his team do in public. the news is actually really what's going on. It's not. Almost all of that's negotiation tactics.
It's going to be interesting to see where this goes. But the truth is, there's really no alternative for the Canadian heavy crude for the U.S. refiners. I mean, there's other places we can get it. It just doesn't make economic sense. Unless we open up Venezuela, this is our one shot to get that heavy crude.
I suspect that Alberta will continue to run this deficit for the rest of this year. I think if things go the way I think they're going to, though, I think they're going to be back to running a bit of a surplus in 2026. By 2027, I think they'll be running a really big surplus if their own government lets... oil gas industry do what it needs to do yeah oh and if anybody hears something crunchy and stompy or whatever our security dog is eating a pig here wait let me clarify that
For all your pet pig lovers, he did not kill the pig and eat in a pig ear. It is a treat that we buy for him when he does a good job of protecting the OGG and assets. So I don't want you to think he's killing pigs. He says we like he buys them or something.
Which, by the way, if you're subscribed to our Sunday update, you saw a picture of Tucker, our security team. Oh, you got a whole spiel from Tucker, apparently. Okay, next up, we have OPEC Plus rethinking oil production ramp up after Trump complications. Boy, this gets deep. And I'm trying not to let it get too deep because this is our new show.
Basically, OPEC is still looking to figure out what it wants to do with the second quarter oil production plans. We have the dichotomy that we always have, which is Saudi Arabia, who's like the conservative version of OPEC. And then you have the UAE.
which is like the more liberal version. So Saudi Arabia always wants to be very conservative on production, even if it hurts their own income. And the UAE just wants to turn it wide open, step on the gas because they want to make as much money as possible. We'll see who wins. But this disconnect. has to do with what President Trump and his team is asking him. He's asking him to ramp up production to bring the price of crude down. And he says that will stop the war between Russia and Ukraine.
There's a lot of truth to that, quite frankly. And it's probably OPEC's best interest with our new presidential administration to worry more about the U.S. as a partner than Russia as a partner. And then, of course, the wild card is, of course, China and all of this. consumer of global oil.
It's going to be really interesting what happens. OPEC hasn't responded, and it doesn't appear like they can respond anytime soon. But President Trump's recent decisions, the global tariffs, sanctions on Iran, Russia, and Venezuela, and then the fact that he loves the oil and gas industry, drill, baby, drill.
that OPEC is taken in to figure out what decision they're going to make. I suspect they're not going to go up or down. And I suspect that crude prices globally will take a little slight dip, but not as much as President Trump wants them to happen. Although it's very much in the realm of possibilities that they listen to President Trump and they increase production. And if so, Russia is not going to afford to do anything. We'll keep an eye on this.
Yep, okay. Texas Railroad Commission announces significant milestone in Texas energy sector. Yeah, this is a good one. So basically, if you don't know this, in Texas, the body that regulates oil and gas industry is the Railroad Commission. There's a long history, Gula, if you're not familiar with it, or if it sounds weird. To us, it sounds normal, but to people outside of Texas, it does sound weird.
Anyway, the Texas Road Commission has issued its first permit for a deep geopressurized geothermal well. Now, this is located outside of San Antonio. I want to talk a little bit about this technology. If you read through this, I'll talk about how...
This is a three megawatt geopressure geothermal system energy storage facility. This article makes it sound like they're generating electricity from the actual geothermal. Let's be very clear here. Geothermal is awesome, but to generate electricity from geothermal, it needs to be...
high temperature geothermal. It has to be hot enough to actually turn to water, to steam naturally. And that steam runs through a turbine and everything else after that's normal, right? Turbine generates electricity, blah, blah, blah.
This is not what this is. This well isn't hot enough. And actually in Texas, unless you drill really deep, you can't get to high temperature to produce electricity directly. So even though this article makes it sound like it's producing electricity, think of it like a battery.
So what they're doing is they're injecting water when it's cheap into this old well. There's enough heat there to turn that water into steam and they'll let it store and let it build up pressure. And when the price of electricity goes up, which here in Texas is right.
After everybody gets home, everybody turns on the air-conditioned washing machine TVs. That's when electricity goes up and the price goes up. They'll then take that pressurized steam, run it through a turbine, and let it generate electricity, which will then increase the amount of electricity on the grid, which will then lower the cost. or at least keep them going too high. However, it's three megawatts. Now that sounds like a lot.
That's roughly here in Texas, probably about 800 homes. A sizable portion, but not an enormous amount of electricity. Although this is the first one we've ever done. I do like the fact that they're using old oil and gas wells to store.
energy in a steam pressurized environment to later turn into electricity i'd like to see more of that sort of stuff happening the other thing about these lower temperature geothermal is you use it to heat stuff it's used a lot for greenhouses it's used a lot for farming things like chickens
And even your house or if you had a swim pool, you could use that low temperature geothermal to heat all that. And that way you're not having to use electricity. It is interesting that the Texas Railroad Commission is anticipating issuing more of these permits for geothermal wells this year. We need to hit...
Joe, who's our rock doc. I was just about to, I was like, oh, he's got to be jumping for joy. Yeah, he's a huge geothermal fan. He's also a PhD in geophysics. We need to ask him, what does it look like the future of Texas for low temperature geothermal? I would not be surprised, Paige. We lead the country in oil and gas production. We lead the country in wind production. Next year, we'll lead the production in solar energy as well.
How cool would it be if somewhere down the road we also leave the country in geothermal? That'd be really convenient for him. Well, it'd be good for all of us. So it's going to be interesting to see where this thing goes. We're going to keep an eye on this. We're also going to keep an eye on the Texas Railroad Commission on how they're handled.
This is new. It's a different type of permit. And we need to make sure that no matter what happens, that the Texas Railway Commission, even the geothermal well, is making sure the public is safe, the environment is safe. They're pretty good about that.
They are. And there's stuff in place whenever the time comes, if they need to decommission that geothermal well, that the money's already there to do that. But since this is the first time we do it, it's a bit of an experiment. I actually think it's cool. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Okay, next up, crude suffers worst months since September.
Speaking of our current U.S. president, his tariff threats and his escalation of those threats basically have caused investors to like, eh, don't know what's going to happen in the future. So the price of WTI has dropped not a lot. percent down to $70 a barrel, three and a half to four percent. It could be so much worse. Yeah, it could be much worse. However.
Trump is back again talking about the levies on imports of Canada and Mexico, and he's this time really threatening to pull the trigger. Last time he threatened this, both presidents gave in. They brought troops to the border. However, Trump is not happy. And if you don't know, bottom line.
Our current administration thinks there's a lot of illegal, dangerous drugs coming into the U.S., both from our northern border in Canada and our southern border in Mexico. And he's asking those presidents of those two countries to help with that. The first time he asked.
They spent some money and they got some troops on the border. He's now come back and said that wasn't enough and that there's going to be more tariffs that are going to be imposed, or he's going to actually really impose the tariffs if they can't get their act right. Not a usual story we cover about. drugs affecting the price of oil, but it is in this case. And it's going to be interesting to see
Who blinks first? I think both Mexico and Canada know that the writing's on the wall. And I also think that if you really want to do the right thing, help us control this problem. I know the root of the problem is the buyers in the U.S., quite frankly, and there's no way you can stop that.
However, I do think we could probably tighten up on the border some more. So we'll see where this thing goes. Couldn't hurt. Also really interested to see what he's going to do with his threatened tariffs on China. The tariffs on China are less than what he's threatened with Canada and Mexico. But the China thing, I think.
is the more longer-term true threat. I think this thing with Canada and Mexico, once again, is just a negotiation tactic. And quite frankly, I think he's a negotiation tactic. He's going to move the needle. He's going to get what he wants. Well, speaking of that, Trump says Canada-Mexico tariffs to take effect adds new China duty. Yeah. Wait, wait, roll right in this. I didn't even realize you were cycling into it.
And this is exactly what I was talking about earlier. President Trump paused the tariffs on Canada and Mexico that he talked about on February 3rd for a month. Both those countries' leaders announced new border security measures, but now President Trump is saying it wasn't good enough. This past Thursday, he said that
that our neighbors are still allowing drugs to enter the U.S. at high and unacceptable levels. He's asking them to put more effort into stopping the drug flow between our northern border and our southern border.
All of this rattled financial markets, including the oil and gas market, right? Hydrocarbons are one of the true global commodities. Let's see where this thing goes. I actually like some of what he's doing. And I do know it rattles the financial markets. It's a bit of uncertainty, which is... Investors and buyers and traders hate uncertainty.
But you know what? After February 3rd's first go-around with, say, Canada, the Canadian president authorized a $901 million plan to add more Border Patrol to the U.S., including helicopters. And then Mexico agreed to send... 10,000 National Guard troops, right? So he moved the needle. He's just trying to move it more, and I think he will. Okay, next up. ERCOT board approves moving ahead to finalize Centerpoint Energy's emergency generation proposal.
It's interesting you put that in here since at first glance it has nothing to do with oil and gas. Right. You read through here, it's the Texas ERCOT, which controls our deregulated energy industry. But you go through here and you see what's going on. Basically, one of the problems is we don't have enough reserve generation capacity. The bottom line is they're building three large generation units that CenterPoint will install on their grid. It's interesting how they're paying.
for it so centerpoint is not actually paying for it out of its reserves out of its bank account what they're actually doing is what was going to be a reduction in electrical bills they're not going to reduce and they're going to allow that delta to pay for this which i am totally fine with
don't mind that my bill is not being reduced by 10 cents a month if we can build three redundant generation units for the grid itself. And you go, well, what does that have to do with oil and gas? You want to guess?
Since these things have to run and they have to be reliable and they have to be cheap, you want to guess what they're going to run on? Natural gas. Nice. So in kind of a weird twist of fate, natural gas generation is saving the day in Texas. It's allowing us to fill in the gaps in the grid. extremely quickly and cost-effective. So if there's other parts of the US that struggle keeping their grid up, you may want to look at more natural gas generation capacity. Right on.
Oh, this is great. Trump says he wants Keystone XL pipeline to be built. And I'm sure he does. Right. It's not going to happen. It doesn't make fiscal sense. The Keystone Pipeline, if you don't remember, I don't know how you could not remember, was an infrastructure project that basically would bring the heavy crude from Canada down to the Gulf Coast where all the refineries are here in the U.S. Everybody wanted it.
It's the safest way to move that crude. That crude is going to be moved no matter what. Back then, a lot was done in rail and in trucks, which is dangerous for the environment as cost. It's dangerous for the people to have to man all that stuff. Well, the Keystone Pipeline became a political...
argument stopping block instead of just a simple infrastructure. This is during the Biden administration. Well, it was Obama and the Biden administration. It got killed. And the company that was putting together TC Energy. Was it Obama? I thought it was Trump's first.
They were all mixed up. It was all, okay. Because over a long period of time. All right. But it was Biden who revoked the very last permit for the last stretch of the project. Yeah, the moment he got in office, right? Yeah, the moment he got in office. Anyway, the owner of this project, TC Energy, has since spun off their pipeline.
They also went to court with the federal government. I don't know where that went, suing for the loss of that project, which I agree, they should sue the U.S. for that. That's ridiculous. Yeah, I'll look into that. When this first started, which I think was back in 2007 or 2008, and now, that constraint has been filled by other pipeline companies. Nobody has built a single pipeline like Keystone would have been between Canada and the Gulf Coast of the U.S. However, a bunch of other pipelines...
companies saw that constraint. They built or they shifted pipelines around. They formed a joint venture. So now you can move that heavy Canadian crude from Canada to the Gulf Coast in other pipelines, not the Keystone pipeline. Now it travels multiple pipelines, but since that
constraint has been lessened. The financial drivers aren't there to actually build, to fund Keystone. Now, I'm sorry, it's just too late. I know our current administration wants to build it. It is an infrastructure project. It would be helpful, but the constraint is- And it'd also be a lot of jobs. would also be a lot of jobs as well. We'll see where this thing goes. When TC Energy spun off their pipeline division, we actually talked about this in episodes.
maybe close to a year ago, the new company that owns the pipeline is called Southbow. So the Southbow spokesman said, we're continuing to engage with customers, develop options to increase Canadian oil supplies to meet growing demand. However, we're looking to recover more than 15 billion from the U S government. for the cancellation of those Keystone projects. Actually, I guess they're still in court since they're still trying to recover $15 billion.
We'll see where this thing goes. I don't think it's going to be built. It doesn't make fiscal sense, which is a shame. I think if Trump wants a big win in the public, especially around stuff like this. Here, look at making it safer and more politically stable for big companies to build refineries in the U.S.
pipelines are the ability to move stuff around. We've gotten a good handle on it. However, like I said, this was originally a infrastructure project. Some reason became a political thing and it just. destroyed because of politics. I would like to see the U.S. government make TC Energy whole on the amount of money they lost on this. Yeah, for sure. Oh, and probably could pay for it with all the cuts that Elon Musk is making.
I'm going to get an email on that one. Get blocked by another family member. Okay, so we were wrong on net zero. BP boss admits. So I'm not going to say, where'd you hear this first? We all know where you heard it first. I think this is great.
Their current CEO, Murray Archnisklis, said the company's net zero strategy has been overtaken by events including the coronavirus pandemic, the Ukraine war, and changing government policies. He said that in 2020, we made some bold strategic changes accelerating to the energy transition.
by progressively reducing our hydrocarbon business. Basically, if you read through this, at the very, toward the end, he goes, optimism for a fast transition was misplaced and we went too far too fast. Bottom line is,
Well, he doesn't listen to the podcast. Bottom line is that they made a huge mistake. They took a gamble and shifted their investments into renewables. Once again, please, every time I say anything about renewables, I get hate mail. Stop it. I love renewables. All energy has its place.
All energy is important. However, BP took an educated risk and decided to move resources and renewables before their competitors did in hopes of grabbing a lot of market share. And unfortunately for them, it was a bad business move. lost a lot of money, whereas their competitors, especially Exxon Chevron, kept most of their investments in their traditional hydrocarbon business and literally just passed them up like they're sitting still. We're going to have to see what happens with this.
I'm really interested with a lot of the financial going on in BP right now. Every time I look into what's going on with them and I look at what their current leadership team is trying to do, they're cutting their renewable investments a lot. They're actually increasing their investments in their hardcore business. They put a lot of money in exploration and production, especially exploration.
I think it's just too late. And I think there's going to be a merger between them and Shell. This is the second time I've said this, right? It won't be until next year that I'll actually predict it. But when I look at things like a free cash flow and the returns, what their balance sheet looks like.
They made a mistake and they can come back from, they have come back from it, but I just think in order for them to be competitive, they need to be bigger. And the only way they can get bigger is they need to.
buy or merge with somebody. And I think the obvious choice is Shell. We'll see where this thing goes. I love their new leadership team over there doing really good stuff. They also have a sense of humor if you follow them on social media. Yeah, they really do. I've never thought a BP has had a sense of humor, but they do. Okay, last one. Trump signs executive order on plastic drinking straws. A couple of thoughts here. So first thing is, I have to be honest. I love this. It's stupid.
It is stupid. We don't need an executive order. It's stupid that he has to do an executive order. Well, you and I, unfortunately, because we travel a lot, have had to deal with paper drinking straws and they're worthless. And let me tell you why, it's come to the point where I bring my own straw, especially if we're going to California. Yeah, that's how bad it's gotten. I want the CO2 output.
is of the extra weight of you carrying straws on airplanes. I wonder how that balances it from a net zero point of view. Anyway. It's ridiculous. A couple things, though. When you think of plastic waste, because this article talks a lot about plastic waste, there's a couple of things I want to talk about that you need to understand.
You hear about the piles of plastic that's in our world's oceans that basically formed like a plastic island. In China, man. You know how much of that plastic that's in that pile in our oceans comes from the U.S.? Hardly any of it. Less than 1%. Yeah, I believe that. Most of it comes from China and Africa because they don't have garbage infrastructure. We do. Our plastic ends up in landfills and people go, that's horrible. Is it?
So let's take a water bottle. Kind of started there. Well, let's take a plastic water bottle, an aluminum water bottle, and a glass water bottle. Let's put them in the same landfill. Okay. The plastic water bottle takes 100 to 400 years to decompose. That's a long time, right? Yeah. The aluminum water bottle takes 10,000 to 15,000 years to decompose. That's not even in the same year. No. It's plastic. The glass one, 800 to maybe a million years to decompose, right? Yeah.
When you look at stuff decomposed in our landfills, plastics are actually better than glass or aluminum. And I know people are going to give me all kinds of statistics here. I'm just telling you people, plastics break down to their fun little components. If they're designed right, they can break down fast, usually by ultraviolet radiation or sometimes by oxidation.
If they're not designed right, they do stick around for a long time. But our plastics are not ended up in our world's oceans and our plastics are ended up in landfills where they decompose in a safe manner. Now, this executive order. Well, here's the other thing, Mark. The straws are made of plastic. Right. What are the cups made out of? Plastic. Yeah. And well, sometimes the cups are made out of styrofoam, which is actually...
Much harder to recycle than plastic. In fact, if you're one of those people who have a recycle bin, read the instructions. They usually won't take styrofoam because it's so hard to recycle. You actually told me that. That's right. Anyway, we have a bunch of global treaties around the world to help deal with this plastic waste in our world's oceans. We don't contribute to it. Europe really doesn't either. Like I said, we used to.
A couple hundred years ago, our trash ended up in the oceans as well. We fixed that. We have the infrastructure where garbage is picked up at your house. It's brought to some facility. Something is done with it, whether it's burned or put in a landfill or whatever. Emerging countries like China and Africa don't have that infrastructure, but they have plastic bags and plastic cups. They have modern conveniences, but when they go to throw it away, there's no...
truck that shows up in front of their house to haul it off anywhere there's no landfill to bring it to there's no incineration it ends up in garbage bags that get dumped in back of like pickup trucks and those get dumped outside the city and when it rains all that stuff washes into streams it ends up in rivers and natural
ends up in ocean. That's how the plastics end up there. So if you're really worried about plastic contamination or world environment, spend some time and money to help the Africans and Chinese develop their garbage infrastructure and all that stuff will just go away. Okay. Is that it? Mm-hmm. Paige, do you want to learn how AI is already being used to improve troubleshooting, fieldwork, turnarounds, and more? Sure.
If you do, don't miss Cognite's Industrial Data and AI Conference, where users drive the content and conversations. Learn more about Cognite and get important details before the conference sells out at cognite.com forward slash OG podcast. And I want to give a shout out to Gabe. who's our main contact at Cognite.
He spent the time to go to their webmaster and made it remove that EN part. Oh, thank God. Thank you, Gabe. So now our listeners have a chance of remembering the URL, which is cognite.com forward slash OG podcast. However, it's just easier going to show notes. Click on the link.
Go check them out. And stay tuned for us giving away some free passes. This is the best user conference I've ever been to in my entire life. And I said that before Cognite became a sponsor. So look forward to us giving away some of those tickets. Also, I look forward to our two newsletters, which are finally...
coming out again. If you missed this Sunday update, you missed Tucker, head of our security team, explaining what he likes to do on his side. He even has a political persuasion, and I agree with him. Also, we have our monthly oil and gas events newsletter. And no hate mail on that. He's anti-squirrel is what Mark's saying. Well, now we get hate mail from the pro-squirrel people, maybe even the squirrels themselves.
Silence. I'm not even responding to that. Sign up for two newsletters. Our new marketing team is doing a great job putting those things out there. Thanks, Daniel. Thanks, Daniel. Weekly recount. Where are we? So we are at 593 in the United States, up one, up four in Canada at 248, down four internationally at 905. These are numbers. Merchandise. We are the number one all-gast merchandise store on the planet. You know what's funny, Paige? We had a run recently for mugs.
We haven't sold a lot of mugs. All of a sudden, people have been buying mugs. I don't know why. Thank you for whoever's buying the mugs. Oh, I did see some of that earlier. Yeah. But anyway, all kinds of stuff. I don't know anybody who doesn't like a good mug, though. Yeah, and we have the best mugs. Anyway, we've got some new merch coming. We're reviewing for the merch store. Okay, what you can while you can. Yeah.
Also, probably last show you heard me talk about all the keynotes I'm doing. I still have space in my calendar for 2025. So if you want me to come deliver a keynote, do some education, have a little bit of fun, reach out, happy to share the details. First Friday Q&A I think was the last show we did.
did so you should know the drill basically we answer listeners questions and the goal is to help educate our audiences not to stump page and i if you'd like to leave a question first friday q a go to the oggn.com go to oil gas this week there's a place to leave it there also you can hit us up at any
of our social. One of the new things that's starting to happen though, is that we're starting to get, I guess people are being super efficient. We're starting to get reviews with questions in it. Oh, that's different. It is different. So for the people that are doing that, that's fine. Just know that.
We may not read your review if it's more of a question and wait for it to be in First Friday Q&A. Or if it's less of a question, more of a review, we'll read it in the review section. But we may not put the question in First Friday Q&A. So it's up to you if you want to be mentioned there or not. Guess it's time to get out of here, huh? Yeah, it sure is. Remember, folks, do great work, pay it forward, and we will see you next time.
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