Energy Council Investor Series Podcast

Randy Newcomer, Managing Partner, Founder & Chief Executive Officer & Scott Rice, Managing Partner, COO at Riverbend Energy Group join the latest episode of the Energy Council’s Investor Series Podcast.

During the episode, Randy & Scott share their views on the current fundraising environment, current goals for LPs and what they believe are the best investment strategies to achieve those goals. They share the successes that Riverbend have enjoyed through its non-op strategy, delve into the benefits of pursuing a non-op strategy and explain why this might be attractive to LPs. Finally, they discuss where the real energy investment opportunities exist for the next few year on the private side, across both the traditional energy and energy transition space.

Erik Belz, Head of Private Equity at Engine No.1, shares transformative insights on this Episode of the Investor Series Podcast, clarifying the strategic motivations behind their proxy battle with ExxonMobil to advocate for a resilient energy model amid sector volatility. Belz emphasizes the need to reshape the industry's narrative for attracting vital energy transition investments and explores Engine No.1's approach to leveraging the current capital outflow to unveil new investment opportunities.

Tune in to this episode to dive deeper into Erik's vision for a sustainable energy future and the essential strategic shifts to achieve it.

Alan Smith, President & CEO at Rockcliff Energy, joins the Investor Series Podcast to talk about the impact that the collapse of natural gas prices will have on A&D in 2023 & beyond and what it will take to spur consolidation.

In relation to this, he shares his thoughts on companies’ growth & monetization strategies in a world where investors are asking management teams to prioritize cash flow over growth. Alan also addresses how much capital will be required to fuel growth of the U.S. natural gas market, as well as what the industry must do to win the support needed to get the critical infrastructure in place to bring low-carbon natural gas to market as quickly as possible.

Andrew Dittmar, Director, and Phillip Dunning, Director of Product Management at Enverus, bring their expertise to the Investor Series Podcast, discussing their insightful projections for Oil & Gas / commodity prices in 2023. Within this episode, they share their views around what will be the key drivers behind deal activity in 2023 and how companies that are essentially shale players grow moving forward.

They also expand on who and what is driving investment in the minerals sector, the potential for M&A activity in minerals and royalties space to expand given the highly fragmented nature of mineral and royalty ownership, and the ability of public mineral owners to maintain their attractiveness as yield investments.

Sarah Bratton Hughes, Head of Sustainable Investing at American Century Investments, joins the Investor Series Podcast series to share her contrarian view on the energy industry from a sustainable investing perspective. In her perspective, Texas is 'Misunderstood' when it comes to ESG, and fund companies (along with the world more broadly) need Texas' cooperation for the world to decarbonize fully.

She also talks about the importance of being invested in and engaged with energy companies, outlining the consequences that divestment can lead to, and explains what companies need to do to ensure investors understand an energy company's long-term strategy surrounding the energy transition.

Wil VanLoh, Founder & CEO of Quantum Energy Partners, joins the Investor Podcast series to talk about where he sees the most attractive risk-adjusted returns within the energy sector, and why LPs should consider the energy sector a long-term investment opportunity following years of under-investment as it begins to demonstrate a sustained period of improved performance. Wil tackles a number of the most pressing topics in the industry, ranging from cheap, clean and reliable US natural gas and LNG being the most powerful tools in the world for rapid decarbonization, to the role that different forms of energy are going to play in the energy transition. He also addresses how achieving Net Zero emissions is going to be a multi-decade regulatory, technology and economic challenge which will require decarbonization of the entire energy system.

Joel Riddle, Managing Director & CEO of Tamboran Resources joins the latest edition of the Investor Podcast Series to talk about Tamboran’s recent acquisition of Origin Energy’s Betaloo basin assets and the opportunity they saw in this to improve domestic energy security in Australia. He also highlights how the Betaloo basins can help to provide reliable, low carbon gas to Asian & European markets as both regions seek to replace Russian gas supply. Afterwards, Joel discusses the opportunities that Tamboran and its investors saw to bring proven US shale technologies and expertise to Australia, alongside their potential to transform both the local economy and energy supply.

Toby Rice, President & CEO of EQT Corporation joins us to talk about the business resilience and competitive positioning of energy from a long-term perspective in order to win over and educate the generalist investor, linking this to how the industry must go about changing the negative narrative that has developed in recent years. He also details the opportunity to address global climate change by replacing international coal with affordable, reliable, clean American natural gas, according to EQT's 'Unleashing U.S. LNG as the Largest Green Initiative On The Planet'. Toby then speaks about the need to scale up infrastructure to take this gas to market, speaking with optimism about the bankability of these types of infrastructure projects.

Bobby Tudor, Retired Founder and CEO of Tudor, Pickering, Holt & Co., and currently CEO of Artemis Energy Partners, joins us to talk about how Houston can position itself as the energy capital of the world and the opportunity that it has to position itself as a leading partner in the energy transition as the world transitions to a low carbon future. Bobby also shares more about the work that he is doing as Chairman of the Houston Energy Transition Initiative, a consortium of Houston’s leading energy companies working to shape the region’s Energy Transition Strategy and the capital availability that he sees for Energy Transition and decarbonization projects.

We sat down with Diana Glassman, Director-Engagement, EOS at Federated Hermes to get her take on the opportunity that the current geopolitical environment presents to accelerate the diversification and decarbonisation of the global energy mix, particularly in Europe. Diana is a vocal advocate for methane emissions reductions and speaks about the need for the North American Oil & Gas industry to clean up its own backyard to align itself with climate goals and keep investors on side. She also speaks to the importance of radical data transparency to help to track, measure & report on progress.

Asha Mehta joins us to talk about Global Delta Capital’s quantitative approach to emerging markets and to share her experiences of being the first quantitative manager to become a signatory of the PRI. She also touches on how investors can leverage big data to drive change and develop data dashboards to provide investors with a clear understanding of the average weighted carbon intensity of assets across their portfolio and help them to map out their trajectory to net-zero

Published on 01 February 2022

Benjamin Colton, Global Head of Asset Stewardship – Voting & Engagement at State Street Global Advisors, joins us to talk about why the conversation around a transition to a lower carbon economy must be conducted with pragmatism rather than through a binary lens of brown vs. green. He also explains how State Street are approaching stewardship as one of the world’s largest institutional investors, as well as how they are going about analysing, managing and engaging on climate-related risk within their portfolio.

Episode Recorded on 18 January 2022

Published on 16th November 2021

Nouman Ahmad, CEO & Co-Founder at Validere joins the Investor Series Podcast to talk about the role of data in helping energy industry participants to achieve their energy transition objectives, and walks us through how Validere are building a data layer of inventory data for the oil and gas supply chain to help stakeholders to track, monitor and improve their operational, commercial & ESG-related performance.

He also shares some insights into Validere’s recent partnership with Xpansiv, Énergir & Pacific Canbriam Energy to facilitate the industry’s First Registered Responsibly Sourced Gas Agreement.

Episode Recorded on 29th September 2021

Published on 02 November 2021

Andrea Course, Venture Principal at Shell Ventures joins the Investor Series Podcast to talk about Shell Ventures, one of the first Oil & Gas corporate funds, and its role in identifying and investing in start-up companies that can help Shell both to meet its emissions reduction targets and to accelerate the energy & mobility transformation.

She explains what she considers to be the main opportunities and barriers that exist today when it comes to investment into and wide scale deployment of these decarbonisation technologies (particularly CCUS). She also shares her views on how greater diversity & inclusion in the boardroom can help companies to capitalise on the opportunities presented by the energy transition and successfully navigate the disruption that it brings with it.

Episode Recorded on 20th August 2021

Published on 09 September 2021

Nick Dell’Osso, Executive Vice President & Chief Financial Officer at Chesapeake Energy, joins us to talk about where the company stands today having emerged from Chapter 11 Bankruptcy earlier in 2021. During the episode, he explains how the industry is undergoing a structural change and describes how Chesapeake is positioning itself today to meet and deliver on investors’ ever evolving expectations and respond to the world’s changing energy needs. He also talks about the strides that Chesapeake is making as a first mover in the Certified Natural Gas markets and the importance of third party certification & monitoring of industry performance, as well as the key metrics that this performance should be measured against.

Recorded on 27th August 2021

Published on 14 July 2021

Brian Carey, Strategic Growth Director at Kongsberg Digital joins us to discuss the role of digitilisation and innovation in the Oil & Gas industry and how ESG will continue to shape and mould the sector. As a pioneer in the digital space Brian discusses how the organisation is well placed to support operators in the age of the Energy Transition and we discuss the role of technology in the future of Energy.

Be sure to tune in and contact the team either through the Energy Council or at this year’s World Energy Capital Assembly.

Published on 06 July 2021

Michael Rubio, General Manager, ESG and Sustainability at Chevron joins us to talk about Chevron’s approach towards ESG and the Energy Transition at a time of rising ESG headwinds. He explains how Oil & Gas companies can position themselves to ensure that they can continue to meet shareholder expectations and remain competitive as the world transitions to a low carbon economy. He also shares his thoughts on the growth potential of different low carbon business lines and the importance of ESG metrics in helping investors to measure and compare the performance of different industry players.

Recorded on 8th June 2021

Kris Pitta, Founder & CEO at Prudent Resources joins us to talk about his experience of building a business during a global pandemic and to discuss appetite for investment in small to mid-cap oil & gas companies as the industry is experiencing a sustained period of higher oil prices, and the opportunities that this could present for smaller independents like Prudent Resources who are looking to pursue growth strategies. He also talks about the ESG challenges that smaller independents face in light of rising ESG headwinds and how their approaches differ from larger independents and majors.

Episode recorded on 20 May 2021

18 May 2021

Cary Meadow, Executive Chairman and Ben Mendes, Director at Anvil Channel Energy Solutions describe the paradigm shift that they have seen in lenders’ appetites towards natural resources companies as a result of increasing regulatory restraints and rising ESG pressures. They join us to talk us through their strategy to fill the financing void in the market and provide small-to-mid cap Oil & Gas companies with access to capital, while providing desired risk-adjusted returns to their investors.

Please note that since recording this podcast, Boomerang Credit Fund has merged with Anvil Energy Partners to form Anvil Channel Energy Solutions and therefore any reference to Boomerang Credit Fund now refers to Anvil Channel Energy Solutions. The business combination will look to deploy up to $300,000,000 via a static pool lending facility for upstream oil and gas producers and will originate new issue facilities for borrowers seeking between $10,000,000 and $100,000,000 for refinancings, acquisitions and development of energy assets.

Episode recorded on 16th February 2021.

28 April 2021

Chris Leary, Investment Partner at Orion Energy Partners joins us to talk us through Orion’s approach towards environmentally innovative investing. Orion Energy Partners were founded back in 2015 with the aim of addressing the capital dislocation that existed in the middle market energy infrastructure space and are focused in particular on flexible direct lending into middle market private energy infrastructure businesses. Over the course of this episode, Chris explains more about what they consider to be environmentally innovative, walks us through some examples of environmentally innovative investments that Orion have made over the past year and how they have gone about repurposing existing infrastructure, and lays out some of the opportunities that Orion will be keeping an eye out for going forward across both the traditional and new energy sectors.

Episode recorded on 11 February 2021.

29 March 2021

Rusty Hutson Jr., Co-Founder & Chief Executive Officer at Diversified Gas & Oil, and Eric Williams, Chief Financial Officer, join us on the Investor Series Podcast. Rusty and Eric sit at the other end of the table to the investors that we usually have on the podcast. They bring their perspectives from a company that has successfully managed to raise capital in recent years, when so many others have struggled. Throughout the episode, Rusty & Eric delve deeper into Diversified Gas & Oil’s promotion onto the Main Market of the London Stock Exchange last year, and they talk us through their journey to becoming the third largest producer on the London Stock Exchange behind Shell and BP (at the time of recording). Episode recorded on 03 February 2021.

With over 30 years investment experience, Angelos Damaskos reviews the events of 2020 and analyses current markets to explain investor sentiment for 2021 in Oil and Gas. 

Nick Volkmer, Vice President - GHG & Renewables, Enverus joins us on the Investor Series Podcast. ESG and GHG emissions are front and center for every CFO and CEO in the industry at the moment and Nick shares his insights on how Enverus is pulling together all of the available data and cleaning it up to inform the investment community.  During the episode, Nick walks through some of his team’s recent studies around GHG emissions and highlights the key trends & benchmarks that O&G Companies and Investors should be aware.

Recorded in H2 2020

Dan Pickering, Founder & Chief Investment Officer at Pickering Energy Partners, joins us to talk about Pickering Energy Partners’ spin off from Tudor, Pickering, Holt & Co. back in 2019 and how the firm remains bullish on Oil & Gas as they expect there to be a lot of transaction activity in the market as the current downcycle sorts itself out. During this episode, Dan walks us through where he sees potential for future upside, what types of opportunities he will be looking to target and how this fits into PEP’s strategy . Dan also explains why 2020, although being a difficult time to be an energy investor, is a great time to be building a business.

Recorded on 22nd October 2020

Avik Dey – Head of Energy & Resources at CPPIB, joins us to talk about the secular change that is taking place across the industry and how energy investors are having to learn to adapt their approach to a world that is fundamentally different today than what they have been used to in the past. He talks about the importance of sustainability and the ability to identify assets that allow investors to build a resilient portfolio that is able to withstand market volatilities and deliver returns over the mid to long-term. He outlines the 4 key themes that underpin CPPIB’s energy strategy, the importance of traditional energy moving forwards, and how to position yourself for growth as an energy investor in a world that is de-carbonising.

Recorded on 16th October 2020, Glenn Jacobson – Partner at Trilantic Capital Partners joins us to talk about the evolution of the energy investment landscape. The current downturn has seen an unprecedented exodus of capital from the Upstream E&P sector, and during this episode Glenn explains the reasons behind this and what investors will want to see from the Upstream E&P sector if Oil & Gas companies are to have any hope of attracting capital back to the space. Glenn also talks about the changing macroeconomic factors that investors will need to take into consideration when approaching the energy industry in a  post-COVID19 world and how the combination of changing global energy demand and increasingly competitive alternative energies is forcing investors to be far more selective about how and where they deploy their capital across the energy industry

Recorded on 13th October 2020, Mark Viviano – Head of Public Equities at Kimmeridge Energy joins us to talk about how he joined Kimmeridge Energy earlier this year to launch a dedicated activist fund focussed on reforming the public E&P sector after he had grown increasingly frustrated at how the E&P sector had become un-investable. Over the course of this episode, we explore what it will take to reform the public E&P sector and the importance of activism in bringing about the necessary changes

Tom Petrie returns to the podcast to discuss the upcoming US Presidential Elections on November 3rd and how a Trump vs Biden Presidency and Republican vs Democratic Senate will affect the Oil & Gas Industry moving forward.

Brian Thomas joins us from Prudential Private Capital. During the episode, Brian talks about how institutional investors like Prudential can provide capital for O&G companies in place of commercial banks who are pulling back on their lending through this downturn.

Tom Petrie joins us from Petrie Partners.  During the episode, Tom talks about the Rise of Putin, the US/China trade war, the competitiveness of US shale, and Middle Eastern geopolitics and how they have all played a part in creating the current state of affairs in the O&G Industry.

Recorded on April 29 2020

Ken Hersh, Retired CEO and Co-Founder of NGP joins us to discuss ESG, Geopolitics, Supply/Demand Dynamics, and Private Equity in a pre, current, and post COVID-19 world.

Recorded on 20 April 2020

Adam Waterous – CEO of Waterous Energy Fund joins us to discuss his theory of “Peak Permian”, which describes current US production levels as unsustainable and grossly uneconomic.  During the episode, Adam explains how the emergence of unconventional fracking technology has caused a structural shift in the oil & gas industry, thus leading to the destruction of M&A demand and a call for change in the industry’s current operating and investment models.  With the effects of COVID-19 & the Oil Price War in full force, Adam describes how his theory of “Peak Permian” is not only being validated but also sped up.