C.O.B. Tuesday

We had a fantastic session today about a topic we have been curious about for some time: the ties between the energy and farming/food sectors. To help us dig in, we had the pleasure of hosting Greg Horstmeier, Editor-in-Chief, and Russ Quinn, Staff Reporter, with The Progressive Farmer magazine. Greg has an extensive career in agricultural journalism with a focus on crops, chemicals, and technolog...

We had a global discussion today centered around China with Gabe Collins, Baker Botts Fellow in Energy & Environmental Regulatory Affairs at Rice University's Baker Institute for Public Policy. Gabe has a fascinating background and is a Senior Visiting Research Fellow at The Oxford Institute for Energy Studies and also the Co-Founder of China SignPost. He is a Permian Basin native, an exp...

We were honored and delighted to host Doug Terreson today. Doug is the Chief Investment Officer of Jubilee Investments and a Board Member of Phillips 66. While difficult to summarize Doug's distinguished career in Wall Street research, he has served as the Head of Global Research for over 25 years between Evercore ISI, ISI, and Morgan Stanley. During this time, he made several big calls which...

Dr. Andrew Latham, Vice Present Global Exploration at Wood Mackenzie, joined us today to talk through recent happenings in the global upstream oil & gas exploration market. The punchline is there is more happening than you might think. Andrew has more than 25 years of experience in technical and commercial aspects of exploration including assisting majors and independent companies in strategy...

We are always delighted to hear from young people in energy and today's COBT session was a fantastic experience. This week's primary speaker is a longstanding friend and former COBT guest, Dr. Steven Koonin. Dr. Koonin is a Professor at the Stern School of Business at NYU, Nonresident Senior Fellow at AEI and the Author of "Unsettled." Prior to joining NYU, he served as the Und...

Today we welcomed an old friend, Adam Waterous, to COBT and had a sweeping energy conversation reflective of his 30+ years in energy transactions, financings, investing, and strategy. Adam founded Waterous in 1991, stayed through 2017, and then began Waterous Energy Fund. As you will hear in the discussion, Adam has phenomenal historical perspective, a unique framework for the world from here, and...

Today’s discussion with Ryan Panchadsaram (senior technical advisor to John Doerr, Chair of Kleiner Perkins) explored a range of topics spanning from VC investing, the tech VC world partnering with the existing energy community to achieve scaled energy solutions, and the climate action plan that was the focus of "Speed and Scale" (which Ryan co-authored).  Ryan's technical backgroun...

Today we took on the challenge of unpacking the SEC's proposed climate disclosure rules and their potential implications. To help us do so, we had a panel of experienced leaders in the space join for a lively discussion that we hope will provide clarity and understanding. Our panel today includes Travis Wofford, Chair of the Corporate Department in Houston and Vice Chair of the Global M&A...

We are amped up for this week's feature session on power with ERCOT. With us today is Brad Jones, Interim President and Chief Executive Officer, and our good friend and former COBT guest Bill Flores, Vice-Chair and Independent Board Member. As a brief introduction, Brad has a 30+ year career in the electricity industry optimizing electricity businesses as well as designing electricity markets...

We have a stellar dynamic duo for this week's session. Our good friends Mark Viviano, Head of Public Equities, and Megan Hays, Managing Director, with Kimmeridge Energy visited us for an engaging and insightful discussion. Mark's investing career has spanned over 17+ years in portfolio management and research analysis on companies in the energy sector, primarily focused on E&Ps and n...

This was undoubtedly a big week for us in Houston with CERAWeek in full force. The conference brought many friends (old and new) to town and that allowed us to really get caught up on so many things. This morning, Nancy Jacobson (CEO) and Margaret White (Senior Advisor) came to our offices and we had a fabulous discussion. If you aren't familiar with NO LABELS, they are a nonprofit organizati...

In addition to a jam-packed CERAWeek full of content, news flow and interesting perspectives, EQT, led by Toby Rice, released its impactful plan of “Unleashing US LNG – The Largest Green Initiative on the Planet.”  The 56-page slide deck outlines the ambition to quadruple US LNG capacity by 2030 (what it would take on the upstream, midstream and downstream side) and importantly the global environm...

It's CERAWeek in Houston and we are thrilled to be back in person visiting with great minds in the energy universe. We have a special guest and good friend joining us for this week's session: Arjun Murti, Author of Super-Spiked, Board Member and PE Senior Advisor. Arjun is a seasoned energy expert and has spent his 30-year career researching and analyzing global energy markets. We had mu...

We are thrilled to have Martin Lovegrove, Co-Founder and Executive Chairman of Kirk Lovegrove & Company join us today. Martin has a wealth of knowledge and experience around strategic advisory, acquisitions, and divestitures with 50 years in the global oil and gas business. In his career, he has advised 120+ clients on over 500 mandates and has developed four independent successful advisory co...

On this special "Twosday," we had the fortune of welcoming back two special guests for a discussion centered on Russia and the Ukraine and all the potential reverberations from the current conflict. Our first guest is Dr. Angela Stent, Senior Fellow at Brookings and one of the world's leading specialists on the Former Soviet Union, Russia, and Russia's relations with the West....

Today was another special day here as we had the pleasure of visiting with Senator Dan Sullivan of Alaska. We first met Senator Sullivan when he was Alaska's Commissioner of the Department of Natural Resources. He is now in his second Senate term and is especially focused on helping the people of his State, promoting global security, advancing coherent US energy policy, and as you will hear,...

Today we had an absolutely stellar guest for our COBT discussion, Howard Newman. Howard's career in energy and financial services has included 15 years at Pine Brook Partners, 22 at Warburg Pincus, 10 at Morgan Stanley, and over 45 board roles. His knowledge and perspective are difficult to match and his friendship with us is something we are most lucky to have. As you will hear in the discus...

We are deeply honored that our first Veriten COBT guest is Secretary James A. Baker, III. A native Houstonian, Secretary Baker is one of the most accomplished and insightful leaders in the past 50 years of American history. It is undoubtedly difficult to neatly summarize Secretary Baker's accomplishments and contributions to the country and to the world. Mr. Baker served as White House Chief...

For our first COBT episode of 2022, we had the great pleasure of hosting Rob West, Founder and Lead Analyst at Thunder Said Energy. With the ongoing crisis in European gas markets and the tense uncertainties over Russian troop deployments along Ukraine's border, it was rather fitting that Rob joined us live from Estonia for our global energy and energy transition discussion.  Rob shared the b...

While we can't believe we are reaching the end of 2021, today we had a fantastic visit with Carolyn Hansard, Senior Director - Energy, Natural Resources, and Infrastructure, from the Teacher Retirement System ("TRS") of Texas to complete an amazing year of COBT guests. Carolyn's background includes 9 years at TRS and 17 years at Merrill Lynch in London, Tokyo, and New York. She...

Today we had the pleasure of hosting Amy Myers Jaffe, Research Professor and Managing Director of the Climate Policy Lab at the Tufts University Fletcher School. Amy has taught energy policy, business, and sustainability courses at several distinguished universities and recently published "Energy's Digital Future: Harnessing Innovation for American Resilience and National Security."...

We are in the middle of an eventful energy news week and are very excited to dig in with all of you for this week's session. We are so pleased to welcome back our good friend Alexander Zaslavsky, Horizon Client Access, to share his expertise in Russian geopolitics and help us understand the current state of energy in Russia and its outlying countries. Oh yes, and one more thing, to help us un...

We had the pleasure of hosting Lior Frenkel, CEO and Co-Founder of Waterfall Security for today's informative session about cybersecurity and energy. Lior has over 20 years of experience with hardware and software research and development and his knowledge in the industry is unparalleled. We had an engaging and eye-opening conversation about cybersecurity threats and Waterfall's unidirec...

First of all, a heartfelt Happy Thanksgiving to you all! We all have much to be thankful for and here at TPH/COBT, we are particularly thankful for your friendship.  Last year on Thanksgiving, we gambled and did something that was not only fun but ended up being pretty popular. We did a video featuring energy professionals working on Thanksgiving Day. We were lucky enough to get representation fro...

Today we had some great learning... or we should say "relearning." We had a great visit with Jerry McHugh of "San Juan IQ" - a monthly webcast hosted by Jerry where everything that’s happening in the San Juan basin is discussed. Jerry is a long-time veteran of the basin and has been CEO of San Juan Resources since 1990. As you will hear, we covered a ton of territory with Jerry...