Chuck Yates Needs A Job

0:20 Hey everybody, welcome to Chuck Yates needs a job, the podcast from Darwin, Australia.

0:27 And to be fair, till about six weeks ago, I didn't even know Darwin, Australia even existed, but we're cool enough to be hosted by Stephanie Berlin Energy Club of the Northern Territory.

0:42 Yeah, take executive office off.

0:44 Nice.

0:45 Thanks for having us.

0:45 No worries.

0:46 Thank you for joining us So I don't even know where to start.

0:50 But tell me everything I need to know about Australia, the energy business here, the Northern Territory.

0:55 Wow. This is crazy.

0:56 Let's start off with just the Northern Territory.

0:56 Well, first of all, tell you about Energy Club.

0:56 So Energy Club NT, we're an industry association that connects energy sector across Northern Territory.

0:56 We're basically funded or supported by industry as well as government, but I guess our main objective is to

1:05 connect.

1:19 energy industry across the Northern Territory.

1:21 And we do that everywhere from our operators, explorers down to the supply chain of anyone that services the energy sector.

1:33 So, did you start this?

1:35 No, I didn't.

1:35 It was actually my predecessor, Sonia Harvey, who's now working with Empire Energy.

1:41 She started this club in 2015.

1:46 So, next year will be our 10th birthday Nice.

1:50 So, how did you get involved with it?

1:52 So, I've been a member of the Energy Club since it started.

1:57 Back in 2015, I think I'm like the 100 member, I think.

2:02 So, I was there back in the early days, and I've always just always been involved in the Energy Club.

2:09 And after

2:11 COVID, time had kind of moved on I think I was ready for something different and got tapped on the shoulder and invited to my hat in the ring for the CEO role, which I wasn't expecting, but I got

2:23 the role.

2:23 So someone saw something in me that I obviously really didn't see in myself.

2:28 And overnight I became the Chief Executive Officer of Energy Cloud NT. Exactly.

2:33 Do you have like walk up music and stuff, pump and circumstance?

2:37 You know, I really want to start doing that at our events.

2:40 And tonight you might see a little bit of that because I think it's really, you know, I think it's that, you know, good to have that vibe in our industry dinners that we hold quite often.

2:50 So what does the club do?

2:51 Like, what are we doing tonight?

2:53 So what we're doing tonight is our July industry dinner.

2:57 So we have key industry dinners throughout the year where we invite a main speaker to come and talk about project opportunities, stories of, you know, basically where they're from, what they do

3:12 It's essentially sharing information, that's what we're all about, is sharing information around the energy sector and the Northern Territory as well as all of us.

3:19 opportunities and any projects that are coming forward.

3:23 So really exciting, really excited to be hosting Brian Sheffield.

3:27 This will be a second time we've had Brian, he's got an amazing story.

3:31 You know, sickles always suck.

3:32 Do they?

3:32 The second room is always worse than the first.

3:36 I don't know.

3:36 I don't know.

3:36 Brian's a great speaker.

3:38 We were pleased to have him this time last year, probably a little bit later in July, but a great speaker.

3:44 Everyone was really excited to hear from him So looking forward to hearing from him again tonight.

3:49 Yeah, that's gonna be cool.

3:51 That is gonna be cool.

3:53 We've been tagging along with Brian for about the last week, so we've been all through the Northern Territory.

3:59 We've learned way more about the beetaloo basin than we ever thought we would have.

4:04 No, that's pretty exciting.

4:07 How was your trip to the beetaloo?

4:09 It was long.

4:10 It was

4:12 very arid, very dry, very dusty It looked like West Texas as well, Phil.

4:20 You know, my tennis pro when I grew up was Australian.

4:23 And he used to always say that Texans and the Australians are kind of kindred spirits.

4:28 Yeah.

4:29 So yeah, I'd have it.

4:30 I agree, I agree, especially the Territorians.

4:33 Exactly, so, okay, so tell everybody what the Northern Territory is.

4:40 So the Northern Territory is, I guess as, if we're talking to people in the United States, we're a state of Australia, but we're actually not a state, we're a territory.

4:50 So we do operate a little bit differently to what a state would in Australia.

4:55 We have two territories in Australia.

4:57 We have the Australian capital territory and the Northern Territory.

5:00 I won't go too much into the, I guess the political side behind it and all that, 'cause I'm actually not 100 sure.

5:06 So we do things differently here in the territory.

5:09 We're probably a little bit more laid back than the norm.

5:12 I come from Sydney, Australia.

5:15 Very busy, very bustling place and the territory is decided.

5:19 great place to come when you, I guess, want to see change.

5:22 It is quiet.

5:23 It is quiet, but when I say quiet, there's not as much as what a city has to offer, but it certainly is a different place to grow up, have raise your kids, get a job, get amazing jobs here in

5:38 the territory chunk.

5:39 There we go.

5:43 I should have brought my resume.

5:44 There's a job for everyone and the opportunities are endless.

5:46 And if you want to do something with yourself, the territory is just the place to be.

5:51 So what's energy like here?

5:52 What do y'all do?

5:53 Do you have oil and gas, LNG? Here we go.

5:56 Yeah.

5:57 So LNG, oil and gas, we are seeing some developments around carbon capture and storage as well as hydrogen.

6:05 We're also seeing developments in solar farms as well.

6:10 So some cable are one of our members and they're building a, I'll probably don't quote me,

6:17 large scale, or just say large scale, I won't go into megawatts and gigawatts because I might stuff that one up.

6:21 But

6:23 a very large scale.

6:24 I can't ever get electricity right.

6:25 I'm always kilowatts, gigawatts, megawatts.

6:28 What was it?

6:29 There's a huge difference, but I don't want to quiet anything that might get me into trouble.

6:33 But a large scale solar farm, which will contribute to powering middle arm, which middle arm is another massive project that's going to very much support the resources sector in the Northern

6:46 Territory once it comes online.

6:48 So, wild facts I have learned while I've been here, the Northern Territory geographically is twice as big as the state of Texas.

6:60 And I'm looking at the map up there, but I'm just trying to say.

7:04 Yeah, so Texas is basically over there.

7:07 And of the lower 48 states, Texas is the largest state.

7:12 Alaska is our biggest state up there, but half of its eyes soon it's going to melt one day.

7:17 But anyway, so the Northern Territories, twice the geographic size, Texas has maybe 27, 28 million people.

7:25 Wow. What's the population of Northern Territory?

7:28 Oh, again, I should have got my facts straight.

7:30 I think it's about 120, 000 in Darwin.

7:32 I heard 250.

7:34 In Darwin.

7:34 And that Darwin.

7:36 So probably across Northern Territory as a whole, you're probably right, 200, 000.

7:38 And that Darwin's like 150 of it.

7:41 Yep, yep, yep.

7:43 Oh my God, that's crazy And yeah, it's a very remote and regional area.

7:49 It is.

7:50 The other wild thing that I didn't know before I got here is Darwin was actually the site of the second worst bombing attack in World War II and the Pacific theater behind - Bigger than Pearl Harbor.

8:05 I was actually bigger than Pearl Harbor.

8:07 A lot bigger than Pearl Harbor.

8:07 Yeah, but it doesn't get any, you know, it's quite sad.

8:10 I learned all about Pearl Harbor at school I even went to Pearl Harbor and learnt so much about it and hardly knew anything.

8:17 about the Darwin bombing, and when I learned about it, it just blew me away.

8:22 This harbor out here is massive, bigger than a Sydney harbor.

8:27 And you can only imagine the devastation it would have had on the people around this part of.

8:32 And so was it.

8:33 I mean, the Australian forces were just.

8:36 This was a big base, and that's why it got bombed.

8:40 Well, it's the top of Australia, so it would have been the first point of contact for the Japanese Okay.

8:47 Gotcha.

8:48 Yep. The other one, the other one, because I went and walked along.

8:53 I heard it never got used, but during the war, they actually built a strategic reserve to hold oil by drilling into the rock.

9:03 Yes. Is that true?

9:05 Yes. Yes, it's true.

9:06 So if you get time, head down to the

9:11 esplanade at the waterfront there, there's the old oil tunnels that you can go through.

9:15 that they built where they used to wheel the oil through.

9:19 So there is actually old oil stations down near the convention centre.

9:25 I don't know if they're tanks and that's

9:28 where they used to.

9:30 They drilled a hole through the tunnel, through the rock of the waterfront there and that's where they used to pull their carts down full of oil.

9:39 I heard it was a mechanical engineering feat like just above anything.

9:45 Possibly.

9:46 I have it and to be honest I'm speaking about going.

9:49 I've never been to it myself but I should go down there.

9:52 I love war history although it upsets me sometimes but I still love it and I really should take the time to go and see what's in my own backyard.

9:59 Yeah you know it's been interesting.

10:01 I've been dating a British lady for over a couple years now and I was you know the height of Yankee arrogance right oh America came into World War II. We beat the Germans and.

10:14 you know, saved you guys.

10:14 I went when I was over in London to Churchill's war bank, war room, where he was basically prosecuting the war underground, 'cause they were getting bombed every night.

10:16 And just what the

10:31 British went through in terms of being bombed, fighting back, and all new found respect.

10:38 And the Australians made huge contributions to World War II as well So the

10:45 Yankee is trying to show some humbledness

10:50 on that front.

10:52 So what's

10:54 the LNG

10:56 stuff up here?

10:56 I mean, are these facilities at export LNG? Yes, absolutely.

11:01 So we've got the Santos Darwin LNG facility out at the middle arm out there.

11:07 And we've also got the impacts LNG facility So the Santa DLNG facility is, well, it's coming to depletion now, but was receiving gas from Bayouanden, which is just towards East Timor, as you go

11:26 north of Northern Territory.

11:29 So that was the processing, that's what it is, the processing plant there.

11:33 And then impacts LNG, receive their gas from this

11:41 FPSO, which is out more towards the west of Australia.

11:46 So yeah, big exports of LNG coming from Darwin, massive contributions to the economy, jobs, it's awesome.

11:56 So DLNG

12:01 going through some changes at the moment.

12:03 So the end of

12:07 life for Bayouandenfield and we'll be soon going, moving online, to the Barossa gas station.

12:14 which is more north of Australia and heading more towards East Timor again.

12:19 So do we have capacity when our beat-a-loop basin comes in like a howitzer to export LNG from there?

12:27 Yes, well I believe tambourine resources do have some land allocated at the middle arm precinct to have a LNG plant there too But we certainly do have the room and the means.

12:43 However, if we're pumping lots of gas, I think we've got to hurry up and start building some more pipelines and facilities.

12:49 It's been wild as Ryan's been talking up, how much cheaper it

12:55 is to get LNG from Australia to Southeast Asia and Japan than from the United States.

13:03 It's 40 cheaper.

13:05 What?

13:07 Well there you go So we're in competition with each other now or?

13:10 Well, you know, I mean we're in LNG. barrel gets on a ship.

13:15 Yeah, they're all competing with each other and, you know, time to market is ultimately money.

13:21 Absolutely.

13:22 Yeah.

13:23 Yeah, absolutely.

13:24 It's going to be very exciting when the Beetleoo comes online.

13:26 That's for sure.

13:28 Yeah.

13:28 No,

13:30 it's, you know, it's crazy.

13:32 So we've been hearing all these stories about the Beetleoo.

13:38 They drilled, so Origin originally owned it at one point and they drilled a well and the casing got stuck.

13:47 So they just left the wellboard there through the wet season for, you know, six to nine months.

13:53 And then they come back and they somehow get a piece of casing into the hole somehow.

13:60 And they were able to get it producing.

14:03 And it made a million, it made one million cubic feet a gas a day once, you know, and for about 90 straight.

14:14 And when they actually ran a log on it, it was, you know, the, the heel of the, of the lateral is the only thing contributing, but it's, it's, if, if they hadn't have produced it, you

14:28 wouldn't know whether there's gas or not there.

14:30 No, that's right.

14:31 So it's got all those great stories of the, the other great story we heard about that well is they were literally literally drilling it And they shot a log and literally within 24 hours decided which

14:47 formation to go horizontal in.

14:49 I mean, most of the time, right, you're plotting that well in advance.

14:52 We're going to go here.

14:55 Screw it.

14:55 That one.

14:57 That amazing.

14:59 Yeah.

14:60 Yeah.

14:60 Yeah.

15:01 I'm sure that environmentally environmental approvals will sort before they did anything like

15:09 that

15:11 I don't

15:15 know what he's gonna watch it.

15:17 I don't know.

15:18 After tonight, after our big party.

15:20 Yes.

15:22 Yes. After our big party.

15:24 It's a big, big one.

15:25 All right.

15:26 So what else do I need to know about the energy business in Australia?

15:30 Well, there's lots to know, but I'm just a little bit core of God And we come dump this on your big party day.

15:36 Yeah, I know.

15:40 Yeah, that's okay.

15:42 I mean, look, there's a lot of exciting things.

15:45 You know, I think we, you know, energy club and tea, we represent members across the whole energy sector.

15:52 We're not just about all about oil and gas.

15:56 Gas is the transitional fuel.

15:59 It's the fuel of the future It's cleaner than coal, and it's going to certainly help us go through this transition.

16:06 So, you

16:09 know, where, obviously big supporters of the gas industry, but also as well, we have our renewables partners with exciting projects that are really gonna, you know, as a collective, the energy

16:20 sector are really going to meet our net zero targets and offer a better, cleaner future when it comes to energy.

16:28 I mean, we've rolled over in the United States and have been reducing emissions and it was all for swapping out natural gas for coal.

16:36 Yeah And it's 60 better.

16:40 Yeah.

16:41 Yeah, well, see Northern Territory is already at the forefront.

16:43 All of our power stations are all powered by natural gas, not by coal, unlike some of the other Australian states, or other states in Australia.

16:51 We are basically our jurisdiction, we're self-sufficient.

16:55 We don't rely on

16:58 other states to deliver our gas.

16:60 We're all very self-sufficient in our own backyard, but all our power stations are powered by

17:06 natural gas.

17:08 You know what else was crazy that.

17:11 I learned about is the Australian government is the only government to put a ban in place on fracking wells and then lift that ban.

17:24 Really?

17:24 It's never happened anywhere else.

17:27 Is that the Australian government?

17:29 Was it the Australian government?

17:31 Yeah, possibly.

17:31 So, but the Northern Territory government was the one that put the meritorium on the fracking in the Northern Territory.

17:37 So, we did, I think if that was about six years or, I don't know, it was a significant amount of time.

17:43 Right.

17:44 And then, basically, it sat through, you know, an inquiry process and then these recommendations came out of the inquiry, which have all been approved by a government to move forward.

17:55 And now it's back online.

17:56 So, it could be the Northern Territory government.

17:58 That was it then.

17:59 It's the only government on the planet to have ever reinstated.

18:03 It doesn't surprise me, but I won't go into too much detail on that either, because it's making me work on it.

18:08 We've got the state of New York.

18:10 in America that's still banning it and you look around the world.

18:14 But yeah, kudos to you guys.

18:17 Yeah, well, yeah, great import by the government itself and also industry as well to get to where we are now.

18:24 The politics kind of the same as in the United States, you have environmentalist protesting.

18:30 Don't worry ever.

18:33 Don't worry ever.

18:35 Yes, we do.

18:36 Yes, we do have some people who are foreign very much against, too.

18:41 And these people that are against do make life pretty hard for industry and progress in general.

18:49 Have y'all had any luck in terms of changing public opinion in the favor of energy?

18:58 Because we have not done a very good job in the United States.

19:01 Quite frankly, we just suck at it.

19:03 Yeah.

19:04 Look, I think industry of,

19:09 social licence to ensure that, you know, anyone that's operating in the Northern Territory maintains that social licence and shares information with community.

19:17 So, as persuading,

19:19 I guess, or changing perceptions of the gas industry has been quite hard and it is something that we could do better as well as as a collective and that's industry that's also government the

19:31 regulators to come together and and start building that community knowledge because misinformation in this town is terrible, really terrible.

19:39 So,

19:43 we do work, there's a few of us in some industry associations like the Energy Club, but they operate in mining

19:53 and also Australian energy producers.

19:53 We work together pretty hard to, you know, address what these, you know, misconceptions are and what we could do better out in the community to, you know, share this information and educate.

20:04 I think that's what it comes down to is education and sharing the correct.

20:09 scientific information, not the craft that you

20:14 see on TikTok and Facebook.

20:15 You know, because at the end of the day the bottom line is when you as a society stop burning wood and dung in your house for heat and for cooking and you start burning hydrocarbons and using

20:28 electricity, your life expectancy doubles.

20:28 Correct.

20:28 Yeah.

20:28 And so

20:32 does

20:34 the pollution levels.

20:36 You know, burning rubbish and dung

20:41 is not helpful.

20:43 I've been done more than you.

20:43 So yeah, I think, you know, even if all just to change, and I just, I'm reading a book at the

20:52 moment for liberty energy actually, from liberty energy.

20:55 Yeah, Chris, right.

20:56 It was a nice job.

20:57 Yeah, about, you know, about the energy poverty situation.

21:02 It's interesting read.

21:03 And I think, you know, just removing, removing that and even just transitioning to gas.

21:08 So it's, or are you a massive change in itself?

21:11 Yeah.

21:11 Huge change.

21:13 'Cause I truly believe this and I'm, you know, slipping a lot, but I'll be serious for just a second.

21:20 If we the Western world

21:24 go to Africa and Southeast Asia

21:32 and we say guys, you don't get to use cheap coal, you don't get to use natural gas, you're gonna have to use solar and wind to power your economies.

21:39 I let them eat cake.

21:41 Wars start over stuff like this.

21:44 I mean, that is not gonna be an acceptable outcome.

21:48 And so.

21:49 Not, yeah, that's right.

21:50 That's why gas is the transitional field, in my opinion.

21:56 So it's, yeah, but I mean, it's even just to do to offer, even if we were to go to those places and offer wind and solar, There's so much infrastructure behind that that needs to happen.

22:08 well, you know, who's going to build those wind farms, who's got how those solar panels going to get built, they need critical minerals to make those to make those machine, what do you call it?

22:21 The technology or the

22:23 infrastructure for that?

22:26 And also, you know,

22:29 it's going to need, they're hard to hard to obey industries as well.

22:32 So where's the power going to come from?

22:34 It's not going to come from the solar panels we're trying to build.

22:38 It's going to come from gas.

22:40 Yeah, no, that's.

22:42 So it's a vicious cycle.

22:44 And the only people we can blame is our ancestors and ourselves.

22:48 We're the ones that put ourselves in this position.

22:51 So we will need to work together to get through it.

22:53 Yeah, as far as I'm concerned.

22:55 Okay, so tonight, yes, what do I need to know about?

22:58 Because you're gonna let me talk for what eight minutes?

23:01 Eight minutes.

23:01 You're gonna let me talk for eight minutes.

23:02 Yes. What do I need to know?

23:05 Sorry, let me cut you off there real quick.

23:08 Last time I spoke to the Petroleum Alliance of Oklahoma, they had a lunch in 500 people, award t-shirts that said IP and pools.

23:19 Can I wear that tonight?

23:21 Cuss word on my shirt or not?

23:23 P, P is not a cuss word.

23:26 No, I have t-shirts with cuss words all over.

23:28 Oh, okay.

23:29 All right, well, look, it's completely up to you.

23:32 I

23:35 mean, I think - You see, I see you on yourself, I'm pleased I invite Chuck or can

23:40 we get the mic?

23:41 All right, so what I need to know.

23:43 Okay, so I mean, look, so the audience's government industry stakeholders, members, and we have a couple other stakeholders from Darwin attending.

23:56 Darwin's a pretty laid-back place, so I think they might see a bit of humor in IP and pools, and most of us have a pool in our backyard 'cause it is pretty hot here.

24:07 quite laid back.

24:08 But you know, everyone's there to hear the great story of the beataloo and the progress that it's going to, you know, to make for the territory.

24:16 But I think you will definitely throw

24:19 an awesome break, break in there, to come the different different to the norm.

24:24 Well, Stephanie, you were cool to come on.

24:26 This was fun.

24:27 Yeah, thank you.

24:27 I'm like having a blast running around Australia.

24:30 This is great.

24:31 Yep. Yep. Yeah.

24:32 Have you had any time to do anything exciting around around Darwin?

24:36 Why have they in here?

24:37 I went down and saw the war memorial.

24:40 Oh, you did?

24:41 Yeah, I went walked by that took some pictures.

24:43 That was pretty powerful.

24:44 Yeah.

24:45 Powerful stuff.

24:46 Dinner last night was good.

24:47 Yes. We had Greek food.

24:48 Yes. Of all things.

24:49 Yes. Yeah.

24:50 It was.

24:51 It was really.

24:52 And I pumped into you there as well.

24:53 I know you were to you were two tables over and we were just how small Darwin is.

24:56 I've heard

24:59 rumors of tonight after after this big thing.

25:04 There might be a bar.

25:05 That's gonna host all of us, is this true?

25:08 Yes, yes there is, yeah, yeah.

25:12 I'm looking forward, thanks for coming on, this was cool.

25:16 No worries, thank you.

25:18 Hey, if folks wanna learn more about the club, website, stuff, how do they

25:29 find it?

25:29 wwwenergyclubntcomau.

25:30 Nice, all right, we'll see you tonight.

25:32 Yes, thank you Chuck, looking forward to having you

25:37 And now onto our major sponsors and representative delivering a speech on behalf of Digital Wildcatters.

25:43 Chuck Yates is a self-proclaimed towering giant of the energy business.

25:49 Chuck hosts two podcasts, the most influential and popular energy podcast on the planet, Chuck Yates needs a job.

25:57 And Digital Wildcatters, the BDE show, a weekly wrap up of all things energy for people who think Jim Kramer sucks.

26:05 After graduating McNamara in the land,

26:09 Lord did he like to party from Rice University with a

26:15 BA in Political Science and MBA in Finance and plenty of BS, Chuck joins the Houston Office of Stevens, the Little Rock Arkansas Investment Bank where he's joined to do well, but not well enough to

26:25 get promoted to Little Rock.

26:27 After figuring out he was a really crappy investment banker, he moved to the principal side of the business for a private equity firm who will not be named, where he felt not much better.

26:39 But as anyone who has spent more than 30 seconds with Chuck Yates knows he did the legendary Silver Hill deal.

26:48 Chuck once won a bet from Superman where the loser had to wear his pants on the outside

26:55 Despite all of these achievements in the post-COVID spring of 2020, Chuck was shitcanned from his gig as managing partner but did make it to the Wall Street Journal so at least he had that going for

27:06 him.

27:07 Please everyone make him feel welcome as he joins us on stage Chuck yet.

27:13 Give it up for Stephanie this is a fucking awesome party!

27:21 Stephanie actually recorded a podcast with me today at 1130 and the look of terror in her eyes, given that she's trying to pull this off tonight and I'm sitting there making her do a podcast.

27:35 Kudos.

27:36 One more big round of applause for Stephanie.

27:44 So, there was a preacher, and he had an 18-year-old son, and he had spent his whole life trying to raise his son well, and was really worried about his son's future.

27:55 What kind of man was he going to become?

27:58 So, he wanted to run a little test.

28:01 So, he went into his son's room, and on his son's dresser, he put some money down He figured if the kid would come in and take the money, maybe he'd be a businessman.

28:12 He put down a Playboy magazine.

28:15 He figured if his son came in and looked at the Playboy, he'd be a no-good degenerate flounderer, and he'd at least know.

28:23 He put down a bottle of Jack Daniels, and he sat there and goes, Well, if my son takes the Jack Daniels, it'd be a no-good alcoholic.

28:33 And then he put down a Bible, and he said, Maybe if he takes the Bible, he'll be a be a preacher to I can stand.

28:41 So the preacher goes and gets into the closet and kind of opens it up so you can see his son.

28:45 His son comes bounding into the room.

28:48 He sees the money, he grabs the money, he counts it, shoves it in his pocket.

28:53 He picks up the Playboy magazine, he leafs all through it, looks at the centerfold, shoves it under his arm.

29:01 He then takes the bottle of Jack Daniels and drinks the whole thing in one swig.

29:07 No, no, no, no Then puts the Bible under his arm and says, I'm gonna go conquer the world, and runs off.

29:15 The preacher looks and is sitting there in the closet, looks up to God and says, Oh Lord, help me, I'm raising a Texas oil man.

29:26 Now, I've now spent a week in the Northern Territory.

29:30 I think I can give that punchline is I'm raising an Aussie oil man too.

29:35 'Cause you guys seem like you're down with that too.

29:39 So Stephanie was saying, I ran a private equity fund for 20 years, and I did get fired in April of 2020.

29:45 It was great.

29:46 I got on a Zoom call, 'cause you know, we're in the middle of COVID, right?

29:51 And the CEO of the firm was like, Well, Chuck, we need to let you gobecause of performance.

29:56 And I was like, Well, is it minus 37?

29:59 And I'm pretty sure I didn't do that.

30:02 But anyway, sure guys, whatever you want to say.

30:06 So anyway, I got booted But the interesting thing, kind of on the reflection of that, the things we did when I was running the private equity fund is we did early stage assets.

30:20 I mean, we would go in and we would literally drill the first horizontal well, ever drilled in a county.

30:26 We would use slick water fracks where they'd never been used before.

30:32 One of our portfolio companies, Weiko actually set off the Bakken play, which is a big oil.

30:38 play in the north part of the United States,

30:43 we used to call our portfolio companies five guys in a rusty pickup truck, because they're very entrepreneurial and like so I had a front seat

30:53 to the American shale revolution and it was an amazing thing to watch and the one thing I want to bring to you guys is I have one, well I got tons of regrets, anyway, that's another thing, we'll

31:09 do that in therapy later, but I have tons of regrets, but I have one really big regret going through

31:18 the shale revolution and I want to say it now because you guys are about to go through something just amazing in the beat-a-loo Y'all are going to have a similar level of success, similar level of

31:30 dynamic change that we saw in the American shale revolution and I have one big regret.

31:37 And so I wanted to share it with you guys.

31:38 And I'm going to be serious for just a second.

31:42 I really wish we had been proud of what we did.

31:47 Think about it for just a second.

31:49 I mean, we literally doubled oil production in the United States after decades of decline.

31:56 Do you know how much easier it is to deal with OPEC when suddenly you have oil on your own?

32:03 It was a lot easier, right?

32:04 We literally changed geopolitical events in the world because of doubling oil.

32:10 We doubled natural gas production in the United States.

32:16 And the cheap energy that we provided to the US. economy literally changed lots.

32:25 I mean, we had an economic expansion from 2000 to today.

32:31 That's probably unparalleled in world history because of the cheap energy that we provided.

32:37 And that's spread across the world.

32:39 And that's really important.

32:41 And we should have been proud of that.

32:43 We did a really, really good thing.

32:46 I don't give a shit what anyone says.

32:48 We did a really, really good thing.

32:51 And if we step back as energy people, not just watching the shale revolution, but just step back.

32:59 In 1950, literally 75 of the world's population lived in extreme poverty.

33:08 And that's2

33:10 a day of income or less,

33:13 75.

33:15 Any idea what it is today?

33:18 Guess is, how, what percent?

33:21 Somebody scream a number.

33:23 There, no, it's less than 10.

33:25 Less

33:27 than 10 of the world today lives in extreme poverty.

33:33 And that's because of everybody in this room It's because of the energy business.

33:37 It's because of the power of cheap energy, hydrocarbons,

33:43 that

33:45 basically allowed us to have economic growth because we could have machines do work for us that we used to have to do ourselves.

33:53 And we should be really, really proud of it.

33:55 There are seven billion people on the planet today that do not live in extreme poverty.

34:03 And all we hear from the media is, Oh, they suck, it's a horrible, what's so bad out of there?

34:09 If I own a newspaper, the headline today would read

34:14 133, 000 people today do not live in extreme poverty versus yesterday.

34:24 That is how quickly we are getting rid of extreme poverty on the planet.

34:29 And it's because of you guys It's because of energy, cheap energy powering the world.

34:36 So I really wish.

34:39 I had been proud going through

34:42 the shale revolution 'cause at the end of the day,

34:48 when you go from burning dung, I guess I can say shit, right?

34:54 In Australia, I can say shit.

34:55 Burning shit

34:57 and wood in your house for heat and for food, for cooking, sorry.

35:05 I've had three glasses, Champagne Give me a fourth and God knows what'll happen.

35:10 But

35:12 because we've gone from, when you go from shit, burning shit, burning wood to burning hydrocarbons, your life expectancy doubles.

35:23 And that's something we should all be really, really proud of.

35:26 I mean, we did that.

35:28 And so here's my ask of you guys.

35:32 My ask of you guys is when you're proud of something, what do you do?

35:36 when your kid wins a baseball game.

35:39 or I guess I should say cricket, right?

35:41 By the way, will somebody tonight explain cricket to me?

35:47 I mean, what it seems to me is it's like a three-day thing to go on a bender drinking.

35:52 Is that basically cricket?

35:54 Have I understood it?

35:56 Five days, holy shit.

35:58 All right, I'll be at the bar.

35:60 Somebody come explain it.

36:02 Okay, great, I wanna figure that out.

36:04 But when you're really proud of something, what do you do?

36:08 You tell that story, you put pictures up and that's what we as an industry don't do.

36:15 That's why the environmentalists win.

36:18 That's why the other side gets to dictate the narrative, right?

36:22 Because when you're in a vacuum, what happens?

36:24 Things expand.

36:26 And if we don't tell our stories, guess what?

36:28 We lose.

36:30 So the fact that the environmentalists beat us up all the time, I hate to be a dickhead right now, but I'm gonna go ahead and say it to you.

36:39 'cause we don't tell our stories.

36:40 So everybody in this room,

36:43 I want you to become a content creator.

36:47 I'm serious about this.

36:49 We all have an iPhone, don't we?

36:50 We all have a smartphone.

36:52 So we literally can create content.

36:55 And when you think about creating content,

37:00 you go, how do I start?

37:02 Not everyone's as charming as you are, Chuck, and can be a wonderful podcast host, you make great videos and all that.

37:09 Come on, man, it's my head, it works.

37:14 Start with documentation.

37:16 People really think what we do is cool.

37:19 I know you don't believe that, but literally, take your phone, turn it, this is a pro tip, turn it sideways so that it's 16 by nine as opposed to this way.

37:29 You do this way for TikTok, this way for

37:33 everything else.

37:34 But just document what you do The CEO of Digital Wildcatters Colin McGill.

37:39 Well, and made a TikTok video about how a drill bit works.

37:44 Two million people viewed that over two weeks.

37:47 And yeah, there were some comments about, oh, you're destroying the world with hydrocarbons, blah, blah, blah.

37:52 The vast majority of the content of the comments were, oh, shit, that's really cool.

37:58 I had no idea how that works.

37:60 So if we will all do this and we will all create content, the power of social media and the internet, literally means everybody on the planet can see this.

38:11 I mean, if you think about it, I'm from Houston, Texas.

38:14 I'm a freakin' Darwin, talking to you guys.

38:17 And that's because

38:19 of the power of the internet.

38:23 So if we'll all do that, even if we get five likes, six likes on something, that's five or six likes we didn't have yesterday.

38:33 And so I want us all to become content creators I want us all to start with documentation.

38:38 If you spill oil, if you're out on a well site, you spill up, document how you cleaned it up.

38:43 People think that's really cool.

38:46 The one thing I have not created a piece of content on yet, but it's my favorite story.

38:52 So I'm working on this, so I'm gonna do this.

38:54 One day I get a phone call from one of the companies I'm invested in, it's the CEO, let's just call him Dave.

39:01 It's calling Dave Lenormen.

39:03 Dave calls me,

39:06 Dave calls me 'cause Chuck Man, we got sued yesterday.

39:09 And I went, Oh my God, what did we get sued for?

39:13 And he goes, Well, the landowner claimsthat I impregnated his prize pig.

39:21 And of course I couldn't help myself, some of my response was, Well, is it true?

39:27 So we don't necessarily have to do that content when we do these things.

39:32 But anyway, I want us all to create content 'Cause seriously.

39:36 We all need to be proud of what we're doing for the world.

39:39 So we're gonna do two things real quick.

39:42 One, big huge round of applause for you guys, for providing energy to the world.

39:47 So people don't live in poverty.

39:49 Give it up for yourselves.

39:59 It does suck that that was louder than the pop-loss for me coming up here, but okay, I'll get over it.

40:04 And then number two, can you play the video?

40:09 So this is literally if we do this stuff and we do it every day.

40:13 What's going on?

40:14 I heard the wildest rumor.

40:16 Yeah.

40:17 I heard big Texas oil man, Brian Sheffield, came here and tried to buy this place.

40:22 I don't know about that, right?

40:23 I told him to get gas off.

40:24 Yeah, he didn't give me money.

40:25 You wish, right?

40:25 I love Tim,

40:28 by the way, he's great.

40:29 Last thing

40:32 I'm

40:34 gonna say, and then I'm gonna sit down and shut up 'cause y'all all came to see Brian speak, not me.

40:40 One of the things we've done at Digital Wildcatters, we publish Tim podcasts, we do live events.

40:45 We'll bring an energy tech night to Darwin.

40:48 That's where we get a room like this.

40:50 We get four or five technology companies come up, give product demos.

40:53 We all drink too much beer.

40:55 Eat pizza.

40:56 And then we all vote with audience applause and the winner will get a wrestling belt.

41:01 So it's kind of like a WWE night, but it will be fun.

41:04 I'll work with Stephanie that will do it.

41:06 The other thing we've got, and there's a QR code for it, seriously go to our Knowledge Share app, Collide.

41:14 We've tried to build this as the community for the energy business.

41:18 We have a forum where people can talk to each other.

41:21 So think Twitter, LinkedIn and all that.

41:23 You guys in Australia, if you have stuff going on here, you got issues, go to Collide and say, hey, Texans, hey, Oklahomans, have y'all ever dealt with this shit?

41:34 Tell us about it.

41:35 So we can talk to each other.

41:37 We've got 20, 000 job listings on Collide.

41:41 So if you wanna come and get a new job, I'm not suggesting that, but come on over.

41:46 Check out the jobs.

41:48 We also have a video search engine So we actually used AI to train it, to watch all our videos.

41:56 We have a very, very good search engine.

41:58 It's very detailed.

42:00 And we've got over 3000 videos on energy, including all our podcasts.

42:05 We've got guys sitting there in their kitchen doing science experiments.

42:10 We have all sorts of stuff there.

42:12 I go down the rabbit hole at night and watch this stuff all day.

42:15 So love to have you guys playing around on that.

42:20 And then the other thing we've got, we call it tech companies We've got 125 energy tech companies that all have landing pages there.

42:28 They talk about their products.

42:29 If they did product demos for us, came on our podcast.

42:32 We've got links there.

42:33 That's really cool.

42:34 And then the other thing, the final thing we have is we have collide GPT. So at some point us podcast bros went, you know, we got a lot of cool content.

42:43 We should trade an AI language model on it.

42:46 So we did.

42:47 So if you mess around with chat GPT

42:50 and you ask it a question, If you ask collide, GPT and energy.

42:56 question, 80 of the time you'll get a much better answer because it's only trained on energy data and the like.

43:05 And so love to have you guys play around on Clyde.

43:08 And you guys have been a great audience.

43:10 This is fucking cool.

43:12 I love being in Australia.

43:15 Thanks, guys