From Oil and Gas Investor Editor-in-Chief: We’ve Got This

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Longtime readers probably noticed a few changes to our staff in the past couple of years, what with retirements and the sad, untimely passing of editor-in-chief Steve Toon in October. These changes can bring a bit of uncertainty, but they offer new opportunities as well. Let’s seize them.

Readers and editors alike may also be wondering about the future of the oil and gas industry and thus, of this magazine, what with the advent of ESG issues and capital pressures, the great debate on the energy transition and the role traditional oil and gas will play in the years to come.

Have no fear: The industry will be here, and so will we. We plan to cover the changes, whatever they entail, just as we have done for 40 years. We’ll offer CEOs, bankers, analysts, up-and-comers and others a forum for expressing their take on it all— their hopes, concerns and plans. In print, online video or during one of our conferences, we’ll be looking for the story. What is the opportunity, the challenge, the solution? Where is the colorful anecdote?

In such a volatile business, oil prices will always careen from negatives to $100/bbl and above. Presidential decisions will continue to make no sense. Congress will always demand to know why oil prices are so high. We can watch in dismay as OPEC decisions roil markets, for good or bad.

It’s all part of an irrational script with no real director other than Mr. Market, and it’s been that way for decades.

But, says the U.S. industry, and Oil and Gas Investor adds, “Hey, we’ve got this—if you let us rip.”

A couple of recent IPOs have shown that the industry always turns over a new leaf. Reinvention is its middle name. These were not SPACs, mind you; these were regular offerings that show us the strength of the industry to constantly renew itself. High praise and admiration are due for the people who make it hum day in and day out. They are always creating, always coming up with a work-around, always jumping through hoops.

As for me, this is my last column in this space, as I want to slow down and not jump through quite as many hoops. I’ll write some articles though because the industry still fascinates me.

I’ve been writing about oil and gas since the early 1980s, first while living in Williston, N.D.; then from Midland, Texas; then Denver, and finally, from Houston. And now, from an unlikely place, you might think: New Hampshire. Alas, it’s pretty hard, if not impossible, to get a natural gas pipeline or power line built through here. Consumers will soon find out to their dismay the verities of that when their energy bills soar.

I cannot thank enough the many friends and acquaintances I’ve met through the years while working here at Hart Energy. So many people have been big supporters of the entire staff.

Thank you to everyone who answered our frantic calls for info, who agreed to speak at our events or who took us out to the rigs and platforms. I’ve been fortunate to have traveled to the North Sea (too cold), offshore Equatorial Guinea (too hot), to China (too fascinating) and many other locations. I’ve been hosted in so many swanky offices in Houston, Dallas, New York, London, Aberdeen and Midland. I say this with deep gratitude, not to brag.

I’ve eaten barbeque with rig hands on location, our plates perched on the hood of a Ford pickup. By the way, the hard hats and safety gloves never did fit me right. The earpieces never stayed in either, so yes, I did hear the diesels roar. Then too, I sat in the 3D room that envelops us in a wondrous subsurface world.

And, because I’ve heard so many corporate presentations, I can promise you this: Everyone has the lowest-cost production, best-in-class operation and returns, yet the most undervalued stock.

I also know this: The oil and gas industry will survive and thrive for many years to come, while doing so alongside other energy sources. The gap is widening between rising energy demand and the spending needed to satisfy that, while the decline of old reservoirs continues unabated. It adds up to a ton of opportunities ripe for the taking.

“… demand is not following the net-zero trajectory,” Morgan Stanley’s Martijn Rats told Bloomberg. “Demand will be above 100 million barrels a day for the rest of the 2020s, but on the supply side, we’re not going to produce that with current investment levels.” So, there’s more work to do.

Oil and Gas Investor, of which I am so proud to have played a role, also has more work to do. It will be here, trying to make sense of all this and bringing the color of the oil patch to you each month.

Stay safe, drill more, best wishes and thanks a million.