Chuck Yates Needs A Job

0:25 There we go. Peace out.

0:48 All right, lower expectations, it's not going to be that funny. You laugh once, that's it.

0:56 All right, so I checked into the hotel today and you know how you have to like sign a hundred things, you kind of have to initial a few things when you check it. Nobody ever reads that, right? I

1:07 had a little time today, I read it It turned out one of the clauses I initial allows Harold Ham to rifle through my room while I'm giving this speech.

1:18 What, too soon? Too soon? All right.

1:24 It might be two minute speech.

1:27 That actually reminds me of my favorite G Gordon Liddy story. So G Gordon Liddy, as most of y'all know, Watergate, and he was renowned as the only person that didn't speak, that didn't dime

1:41 somebody else out to get a lesser sentence. jail and all that. So I got to meet G. Gordon Liddy, I don't know, 20 years ago. And I said that, that was so cool. You stood by your principles.

1:52 You didn't dime anyone out. You were the lone gun that didn't do it. And he said, that is not true. And I said, really? And he goes, the Cubans that we hired to break in with us when they were

2:05 on the witness stand, the prosecutor said, which one of these people hired you? And all four of the Cubans to a T said, I don't know all those white guys look the same to me.

2:17 So anyway, real quick last thing, and then I'll actually speak. This was all Claire's doing. When you work with really wonderful people, they also have a tendency to have a snarky side. So she

2:29 sat around and has listened to my podcast, and she claims these are the things I say over and over again. If we took this away, I would never have a podcast. So I hate to say this I hate to

2:41 disappoint Dave. When somebody yells bingo, you're just going to be an idiot. There is not a prize tonight. But on Twitter, we got the cue code. I wouldn't do that until I'm done speaking,

2:53 please. Or else you'll start booing. And you can download the podcast. And thank you, Claire, for doing that. And yes, it was very funny.

3:02 So it was interesting. Brooke emails me and says, dude, you want to come speak to the petroleum alliance? He was immediately back with, are you sure you got the right chuck? And he said, yeah,

3:14 yeah, yeah, yeah. And I said, OK, great. What do you want me to talk about? And I kid you not. This is the email back. I want you to talk about failure. And I was like, what?

3:24 I kind of think I'm prominent businessman Chuck Yates, but OK, why don't you come talk about failure? So I email back. I guess you want to hear about prom night with Julie Sutton. Yeah, it

3:33 didn't go so good. But so I'm assuming you want me to talk about getting fired So, you know, given the self emulation I do every day on Twitter, why not? talk about me getting fired. So it was

3:44 April 27th, Zoom call, 'cause we're right in the middle of COVID, and CEO of Can't Andrew, someone's have a discussion. Sure, okay, that's not an unusual thing. Get on the phone call. Chuck,

3:57 we're letting you go. So anyway, okay. Mine goes to is, holy cow, I can finally travel. I can finally do all this stuff. Oh, I got my -

4:12 And of course, we're in the middle of quarantine. So I get stuck in my house in Richmond, Texas. So for the next month, I spend watching Oprah, eating bonbons, and negotiating a separation

4:27 agreement with a private equity firm. Now, obviously, they're non-disparaged clauses in there, as well as I would never want to speak ill of Caine. We had a wonderful 20 years together. I do

4:37 have to point out that clause seven, paragraph A, Three Little Eye does prohibit me from dropping a diss track. So there will be no rap album from Chuck Yates or Nimble Fatty coming. But like part

4:42 of this, getting fired is, you gotta tell

4:57 people, right? And so I've got three kids. I've got the three greatest kids on the planet and I'm sitting there going, all right, when do I tell them? 'Cause I don't know what's gonna happen. I

5:08 mean, I don't know if I'm telling them, oh, by the way, daddy's going to court, suing, daddy's, you know, gonna do this. I'm not gonna tell them for a while. And so anyway, just, you need

5:22 this backdrop so you understand my three children. We were at Urban Air Adventure, which is kind of a kid's mecca playground. We are in the room that has 400 trampolines in it and you jump from

5:36 trampoline to trampoline I see this big red thing in the middle leather. I think that this is a big pad. So I do a flip on it. It is wood that just has a piece of leather on top. Boom. I think I

5:51 have like torn my rotor cater cuff. I'm laying there, writhing in pain. And this describes my three kids to a tee. Charlie internalizes everything, is sitting there mortifying.

6:06 Sarah, my middle child, who will run the world one day

6:12 We don't know that yet. But she will run the world one day. She immediately jumps into action. Charlie, talk to dad. Dad, I'm gonna go get the manager. I'm gonna get you an ice pack. Do you

6:23 need me to call an ambulance? So she marches off. My baby girl, Kelly, looks at me and says, Daddy, does this mean I have to stop jumping? And so, those are my three kids. So with that as a

6:35 backdrop, we're about three weeks into negotiating the

6:40 separation agreement. I kind of figured out that I've just given up, so it's gonna be fine. There will be no lawsuit. Everything's gonna be great. So I decided to tell the kids. So we're driving

6:52 to the ice cream store, 'cause Richmond, Texas has the greatest ice cream on the planet. So we're driving there and I go, all right, kids, dad has some news. Cain Anderson has fired me. So I

7:04 look in the mirror immediately. Charlie, internalizing, mortified Charlie, you're not gonna have to drop out of college. So I get, I hear an exhale in the back seat. Ah, okay. Kelly

7:18 immediately pipes up, Daddy, does this mean we can't have ice cream? I'm like, no, we can go have ice cream, it'll be fine. My daughter, Sarah, is sitting there and she's reading all this and

7:28 she's very, very smart. And what you need to know as a backdrop is the joke, my nickname has always been prominent businessman Chuck Yates It's because I'm really lucky that I have multiple

7:40 musicians that are friends. And they'll let me go on tour. I'll be their roadie. I'll carry guitars and picks and amps and all that good stuff. And I go out on tour with them. And I've always had

7:52 the joke that if the tour bus crashes, the plane goes down, it's going to be Thomas Rhett and nine other people die in a plane wreck. And so what I've asked Claire to do is if that should happen,

8:07 she has to call every entertainment outlet, news outlet, and Americans say it wasn't just Thomas Rhett, it was Thomas Rhett and prominent businessman Chuck Yeh died in this crash. So that's always

8:17 been the running joke. One of my musician friends made me a little nameplate for my desk and so I'm like, this is great. So anyway, I turn to Sarah, I go, Sarah, you all right? And she goes,

8:27 yeah, daddy, I just have one thing. What's that, sweetie? And she goes, I really don't think we can call you prominent businessman Chuck Yehates anymore now that you've been fired.

8:37 So this 15 year old who takes all her shots About 1 mortifies me, 99 is my loins produced this. This is amazing. It gets even worse. So one of my dear friends of some musician is Jule. Who will

8:53 save your soul? You were meant for me like dear friend. And so anyway, 15 year old Sarah has become fascinated with my dating habits. I'm now five years post divorce. So we're driving along and

9:07 she goes, Dad, I need to know. Did you and Jule ever date? And I said, no, sweetie, we never have. We're just friends. Sarah goes, oh, so you messed that up too. It gets - it gets worse.

9:22 It gets worse. So I kind of laugh. And I said, well, you know Jule. She really likes her swaggy macho athlete type guys, right? Sarah goes, but your peloton just doesn't match up. Oh, wow.

9:36 So that is - I give you a backdrop and I periodically here tonight, and this is serious message number one. It is with incredible regret that I get up here and tell you these stories about my

9:49 children because I don't know why the hell it took me losing my job to fully engage with my kids when I come home. I mean, I came home and I worried about what the hell is Lenormen doing during that?

10:02 Well, you know, what the hell is Lenormen doing with this? You know, but I truly didn't focus on my children until I had nothing else to do. That is the greatest joy you guys will ever have. And

10:15 if there's one thing you can take away from this tonight, please go home, turn work off, turn your spouse off for that matter, 'cause I'm sure they're a pain in the rear too. Turn that off and go

10:27 focus on your kids. You will not regret the amazing to see them grow. So now

10:38 we're about four weeks out of me getting fired. and the words kind of leaking out, right? So the Wall Street Journal calls. And anyway, I do have that going for me. It appeared in the Wall

10:49 Street Journal that I got a Chuck Gates who's left the firm. You know, I mean, code word for God is but fired, right? And so anyway, it pops out on the Wall Street Journal and that of course

11:00 leads to Twitter. I don't know how many of you folks are on Twitter. I don't know how many of you folks know about energy for next Twitter, but that was a 72

11:11 hours It was unbelievable. I'll just read several of the tweets. Somebody said, what's such a big deal about Yates getting fired, someone tweeted back. Well, he was voted the most likely in the

11:22 energy business to be found in a bathtub full of ice without a kidney.

11:30 In honor of Chuck Yates, I'm going to wear my ripped jeans tonight and get really drunk and stumble around the room

11:38 This, I'm just gonna have to straight out read. the tweet, 'cause I can't do it just as a camera. So, Weddy Ford, God bless whoever Weddy Ford is, 999 of the people on Twitter are anonymous,

11:52 they make up names. Weddy Ford tweeted out, Yeats is a goofball, but he's not a dick like much of in Cap or Quantum, and not fundamentally that had I going So. EMG or Apollo like incompetent

11:60 completely or for me Riverstone like dishonest.

12:07 I got that going for me So

12:11 at one point, and I'm sitting here laughing at this 'cause as you can tell, I'm somewhat self-deprecating, I'm sitting here laughing at this, of course, multiple mentions of Jule, you know,

12:23 sitting around listening to Jule, thinking of Chuck tonight. So Jule at one point jumps on to, unbeknownst to me, jumps on to Twitter and tweets back, All right guys, this has been a lot of fun.

12:36 Make fun of Chuck. And of course, that just exploded,

12:41 So the tweet that came out following that was, there are two types of people on energy finance Twitter. There are the people that go, holy cow, Jewell actually acknowledged us. And then there are

12:54 the people that are Jewell stalkers, and the Venn diagram is Chuck Yates. So,

13:04 that said, that's 72 hours of Twitter making fun of me I do, it does remind me though of my favorite bum Phillips story. So, bum Phillips had footballers and Oilers, great guy. Back in the 70s,

13:19 the Oilers are going to play the last game of the season. They're playing the Green Bay Packers in Green Bay. The Oilers win, they're in the playoffs, they lose, they're not in the playoffs. And

13:31 I don't know if you guys remember this any old Oilers fan, but the Oilers used to have a kicker that was literally batshit crazy named Tony French. He was a Hungarian soccer player. So Tony Fritch

13:42 the week before decides he needs his contract renegotiated. So he's negotiating with the GM, Lad Herzog, he's like, I need my contract.

13:53 The plane's supposed to take off Friday at noon. Tony Fritch is nowhere to be found. So this is back in the day where there aren't 35 guys kicking every day ready to just step in and you sign

14:05 someone, Lad Herzog, I don't have a kicker So he's calling around feverishly, they land in Wisconsin. The next morning comes to Bum Phillips, he says, I found a guy. He kicked in a community

14:18 college. He actually went to training camp with the three years in a row. I talked to the general manager there, they said, Yeah, one year he almost made it. And his agent says he's been kicking

14:32 every day and he's in the best shape of his life. So Bum Phillips says, All right, get him out there It's snowing in Green Bay. Kenny Stabler and Dave Casper are drunk up in the stands, dancing

14:45 around with their shirts off, and bum Phillips is having a tryout for a kicker. So he comes out there and bum goes, all right, son, let's see what you got. Let's kick an extra point. The snap

14:55 goes back, the ball goes down, boot shanks it to the left. All right, son, show me 30 yard field goal. The snap goes back, the ball goes down, they got kicks it again, shanks it again to the

15:07 left Bum Phillips says, all right, let's try a 40 yard field goal. Snap goes back, ball goes down, got kicks it, shanks it again to the left. Bum Phillips says, I've seen enough. He walks

15:21 over to the guy, he said, all right, son, you're my and win me the game tomorrow, slaps him on the ass and says, let's go do this. So fast forward, here's the game. 46 seconds left in the

15:32 game. Oilers are down 12 to 10 It's fourth down in 11, it would be a 46-yard field goal. Phillips calls time out. He walks over the guy, I told you yesterday you were my guy. I told you you were

15:47 gonna win me the game, slap some on the ass, get out there and win me the game. The guy goes out there, snap goes back, ball goes down, boots it, straight through the uprights. The Oilers win

15:59 the game, they go to the playoffs. So the press conference afterwards, they're sitting there and they're talking to this guy. They're like, how did you do this? You've never kicked in a regular

16:09 season game You've only kicked in the preseason. How'd you do? The guy goes, I know it's only been 24 years yesterday. And Coach Phillips just showed such confidence in me. He told me I was his

16:22 guy. I felt like he was my father and I was not going to let that man down. I put my head down. I focused and I kicked the ball. Great. And they turned to Coach Phillips. How'd you know that he

16:36 was the guy?

16:39 He's the only freaking kicker for 500 miles. And I tell that story to bring up kind of second serious point. Never underestimate the ability of a slap on the ass and saying, you're my guy to

16:54 motivate someone. I mean that seriously, 'cause I was kind of at a point, I think this was a couple of months after getting fired and I was having a lot of fun. I was relieved that I wasn't under

17:04 so much stress, but no question self-doubt creeps in. I mean you're sitting there going, Man, my track record was pretty good, blah, blah, blah, but it creeps in and all that. And on Twitter,

17:16 two guys, landman life, land mannery, reached out and said, Hey, we're having a happy hour tonight. We're gonna be on a Zoom call, you wanna join us. And I said, Sure. So I wound up on a

17:27 happy hour, seven, I think none of them were older than 30 landmen and we had a beer And I wound up having two beers at night and chatting with them about. life and putting up cattle guards and all

17:40 and those might be the two best beers I ever had in my life and a small simple gesture of just hey you want to grab a beer and then an awful lot we're all looking for just a little bit of acceptance

17:53 and don't underestimate that so I'm not sure it made up for the whole kidney joke but anyway Twitter did redeem itself.

18:03 Third serious thing I'll say tonight. And this is gonna sound weird but it is true.

18:12 In a weird sort of way when you get publicly fired and the like you do get to find out who exactly your friends are. You figure out who like Chuck Yates you get to figure out who like the managing

18:27 director at Kane Anderson. There are people I have traveled the globe with sat around and had late and shared lots of endomet secrets with in that I literally have not heard from to this day. Got

18:43 fired, nothing. Not a hey, I'm doing, whatever, nothing. There was a young guy at Kane Anderson that went to work for us. He'd been working for us for about a year. The next

18:55 idea of what to do in this situation, I just felt like I needed to call you. And I just want you to know I'm thinking about you and I wish I had something great to say. And I said, you know,

19:05 that's awesome. That is great I really appreciate you calling in the like. Because I think we all would think that when we get fired, we're going to have our Rudy moment. Everybody's going to come

19:18 turn in there, Jersey, and stuff. And you get the practic help. All right, you didn't have to laugh that loud. Come on, man. And

19:25 so you kind of think maybe I'll get a Rudy moment. Jerry McGuire, at least he got to take the fish, right? And

19:34 she quit with him.

19:37 So practically, you know, particularly when oil is at minus 37, you're not going to get that in all. But here's the one thing I will tell you about that. I clearly know who my friends are today.

19:49 Dave Lenorman is like, God damn, you look like shit, but please come on my webinar so I know Dave's my buddy, and all that. But here's the one thing I want to tell you that I think is really

20:01 important that I want you to take with you The people I suspected that wouldn't call me, they're the ones that didn't call me. The people that I suspected were going to call me, they called. So

20:13 you know who those people are in your life, and it's totally okay for you to get rid of the people.

20:21 What are we doing here? We had a technical glitch here, so you missed a minute or two of the speech. Where I go from this is talking about friends, but then I transition into, is energy

20:33 technology The next investing bubble, my answer is yes. If you don't, you're going to underperform, right? If this takes off because bubbles go up until they come down. So you got two choices.

20:45 You can play it in a way that's kind of beta. Maybe I'll play pressure pedals, services related to this. Or you can roll the dice and say, I'm going to figure out the best alpha folks in there,

20:57 because some people are going to make a lot of money off this. But at the end of the day, if you avoid energy transition as an investor and you do it for two years, You're gonna be a former CIO.

21:09 You will miss that and you will miss your benchmark.

21:15 So, kind of the last thing I'll sort of close on, and I'm going to try to say this in such a way that I don't sound like a prick, and

21:26 it's going to be hard. So, maybe with that sensitivity, I do think one of the important things that's happened to me in terms of going through this, getting fired, is I had the blessing of being

21:42 able to price what freedom is worth to me. And I can't tell you enough that that is an important endeavor for you to do if you ever get the chance to do it. It is really a minute. You may find out

21:58 freedom sucks. You may not like Oprah. You may not like bonbons. You may not like sitting on the front porch, watching the cat try to catch a rat. You may not like any of that, which means go

22:11 back to work great. You may be. find out that that stuff is the best stuff on the planet. And fortunately, I'm in a spot. My kids are going to be able to go to college if I don't go back to work

22:22 and all that. But I will tell you, I discovered, at least with me, I like the toys, I don't need the toys. The toys are now gone. And

22:32 I believe in this and all sincerity. I will move back in with my parents before I get another job. 'Cause freedom is actually the greatest thing in the world I had no idea how much stress I was

22:44 under. I kind of give the analogy, my mom had hip replacement surgery about seven or eight years ago. And I went and saw her the next day, I'm like, Mom, how you doing? She goes, Well,

22:55 obviously I hurt. I was kind of splayed open yesterday and they ripped a bone out. I'm like, Yeah, that's not good. And she goes, But, despite that, I had no idea the chronic arthritis and

23:08 just how bad it hurt every day, and that's gone I actually feel really good, and that is. what I felt about stress, and that's gone. And so, if I want to sit around every day and make worthless

23:22 podcasts where I send pizzas to some girl that's on a blind date, it's so much better than having to deal with toxic relationships and all that. So if you get a chance to price freedom in your life,

23:35 please do. May not be worth it to you, but you may like it. The other thing I will say to you to that end, if you're an employer, give your employees time off so that they can go price freedom

23:49 because it's the right thing to do. They need to have the clarity. They need to have no responsibility hanging off them. But I will tell you the creativity that goes on in my mind now with business

23:60 situations is pretty amazing. It's because the stress is gone. And so I'm not making any money from this. I'm doing unemployment all wrong. I'm really busy I have a huge burn rate, I'm not making

24:11 any money, but I have a, come up with a lot of great stuff and help folks. And you would benefit from that if you did that for your employees. I don't know what the right answer is, because I've

24:22 never really been a CEO on anything. I'm sure I'd screw it up. But every two years, given somebody three months off, every three years, four months off, I don't know what the right answer is,

24:34 but it's something you really ought to consider, because you will benefit from it greatly. And the last thing I'll say, and I'm happy to talk questions unless the Harold Hamget got me thrown off

24:43 stage, is a really cool thing I got to do this week, and I went to Clarksdale, Mississippi. And I don't know if you guys know that. That's the home of the blues.

24:56 I've been there. It was amazing. You

25:00 know, so I went down where Muddy Waters' house was and all the likes, because I've got a buddy that throws a blues festival down there. So I got to do that I get to get to the ground zero blues

25:12 club. owned by Morgan Freeman. I got to see Morgan Freeman, which was, which was really cool and the like, but sort of the pinnacle of that whole, I went to the crossroads where, I went to the

25:25 crossroads where Robert Johnson sold his soul to the devil so he could become the greatest guitar player, et cetera. So I did all that, but the coolest thing I got to see, and this is what I want

25:34 to close with because it was, it was really cool. I got to meet James Meredith. James Meredith was the first black to go to Old Miss. And literally, he had been in the Air Force for seven years.

25:48 He heard Kennedy's speech about ask not what you can do for yourself, what you can do for your country. And he said the thing he could do was to go to Old Miss. He's, he had been turned down for

25:59 admissions twice, even though Air Force, Great Grades, sued, got into Old Miss and went. Classes he had to take by himself. No white student would take a class with him. He went through all

26:12 this. He organized a march from basically Old Miss to Memphis, which is, I don't know, 200 miles. Day two into that march, he got shot and had to go to the hospital. Civil rights leaders came

26:26 and were finishing the march. He came back before the march was ended, literally on crutches to finish the march and go in there. That dude's a badass. And so anyway, I got to meet him and I got

26:40 to go up to him and I said, Hey man, I just want to pay my respects. I go, I think what you did is amazing. You really changed the world. You made it a better place. 81 years old, James

26:51 Meredith said, Well boy, you better come join me because I'm still working on it and I need help. And I thought that was a great response. So with that, yep, bingo, exactly, exactly. So with

27:03 that, I appreciate you guys having me. Thank you so much

27:23 How long do you think before?

27:30 So basically the question is, we're driving up on investing, that's going to lead to higher prices because of lack of supply, how long will consumers

27:42 be willing to tolerate that pain? Dan Pickering and I had Dan on the last two podcasts, we did a two-part episode, we talked about it and we disagreed on this. So

27:53 let me, Dan's much smarter than I am, so let's give his answer first Dan basically said we got two problems in energy investing, we got the green problem, which is obviously all the stuff we've

28:05 been talking about, but the bigger problem is the red problem. We just lost a ton of money, right? So that's why investors won't give us any. As we make money for investors, they'll come back,

28:15 we'll give money, nothing cures high oil prices like high oil prices. It's a cycle, it's always been a cycle, this time is no different, boom. We're, and then boom, we'll start drilling wells

28:26 and everything's taken care of.

28:30 I hated this. I mean, like Dave used to walk into my office and say, or we'd have board meetings, Dave would say, This time it's different. I'd say, Oh, come on, Lenormence, never different.

28:39 You know, it's always a cycle on all this. I actually think this time's different. I literally, yes, now. I think we have been relegated to a place in this world, in the United States, where

28:54 we are literally gonna be regulated into death. I'm not rooting for this, trust me, energy loud, energy proud. I'm right there. I just think that's where we are. And I think unfortunately what

29:05 happens in that world is all of us

29:14 are gonna have high prices. So with our production, we're gonna make money. We're gonna do pretty well here over the little bit. But at the end of the day, all the new oil, it's gonna come out

29:21 of Russia. It's gonna come out of Saudi Arabia. It's gonna come out of Venezuela. A lot of places won't do it with the environmental protection. that we have, and so we haven't accomplished

29:32 anything, but killing a bunch of people in Texas and Oklahoma is unfortunately what's gonna happen.

29:52 When you say DSD.

30:21 No, I mean, that's a real question. And I think that kind of goes back to one of the things we screwed up as an industry. And it's interesting, an anonymous guy on Twitter who's named Blake

30:36 Street Bomber came on my podcast and Bomber's a mid 30s energy guy. He looked at me and he said, Chuck, hey, one of the things that my generation'snot gonna do is screw it up like you guys did.

30:47 And I was like, Hey, fair enough And I mean, he's right to that point. I mean, historically, when energy did really well, the rest of the economy stunk. And so the rest of the nation would be

30:59 in a recession. And so, you know, think that kind of '70s and '80s. And what did we do? Did we show sympathy? Did we knock 25 cents off oil gasoline prices? No, we printed up bumper stickers

31:12 that said, Freeze a Yankee, right? That whole TV show, Dance and Jerry Ewing. That was a documentary.

31:20 And so, we have just this massive PR problem 'cause we've literally done more for the planet than anything else over the last 200 years, except maybe vaccines, except maybe penicillin, right? And

31:34 we haven't gotten that story out. We decided, oh, you know what? We have frack fluid that is literally leading to all this cheap, abundant natural gas that's making the environment much better.

31:45 What are we gonna do? Let's not even tell anyone what's in it. Let's let them assume the worst I mean, it's water and sand, right? We all know that. I mean, the worst thing in it is the acid

31:56 that we drink every day in Diet Coke. I'm not saying that's good, but that was the worst thing in it. So I think we have potentially passed the point of no return to your point that nothing we do

32:07 is gonna be good enough, but it doesn't mean we don't try. I mean, we need to have diversified workforces. We need to be accepted for things than currently we are. Every chance we get to

32:22 highlight the fact that we've dropped emissions, we've captured carbon, we've reduced methane, we need to publish it. Folks out there to actually talk about the good things we've done and not be a

32:35 dick about it. And I hate to say it that way, but we all are. We all get on Twitter and we talk about, Oh, you couldn't even ride in your Tesla car because there's not enough plastic without me

32:45 Could we say it in a nice way? Is it too hard for us just to do that? So I think a lot to your point is exactly right, but it'd be really nice if we kind of were able to adopt the persona of Mr.

32:60 Rogers. Let's put on our sweater, tie our shoes and be really pleasant when we do it because we do have a massive PO.

33:12 Can I be any more of a buzzkill? Go ahead.

33:21 So the questions about Buddha Gate. Buddha Gate was a podcast I had back in November. And the whole podcast was a guy I've known for 15 years, named Greg Kane. I don't know if any of y'all know

33:36 Greg in here, but Greg is an old school landscape Greg jumps fences. He goes and takes photographs of the meter. He goes and bribes people at the coffee shop. When there's a truck of compressors

33:51 headed this way, he follows them into the bathroom. Where are you heading with those compressors? He's old school, right?

33:57 So Greg came into the Kane Anderson offices, call it 15 years ago. And Greg goes through titles so horrible in this world, Like, this guy inherits the ranch, but they designated the home. So

34:12 technically, the wife should have signed it. We can go get a signature from the wife, and we can hold Chesapeake up for a million dollars. Greg says, if you'll give me10 million, I can turn it

34:20 into 75. And I said, hey, Greg, I know you could do that. I actually believe that, 'cause I know we do title every day on acquisition. It sucks, so I get it.

34:34 Here's the issue I have, Greg, is I've been actually made a really nice life for myself by selling things to Chesapeake To XTO, to Floyd Wilson, you know? And if I start least busting those guys,

34:47 they're not gonna buy my companies anymore, and that's a really nice life I have. And I said, you know, Greg, you're good, you're smart, but you're kinda sleazy, and I just can't do that. And

34:58 Greg started crying, and I felt really bad about it. And he almost came and hugged me, and he was so grateful. He's like, I've been trying to raise institutional money for 20 years, and no one

35:08 would ever tell me a reason I thought I was stupid, I thought I was all that. I was like, no, I just, I built my life. And he totally got it. And so we became friends. So I've known Greg for

35:19 15 years. So I can tell you this. When it comes to Buddha Gate, Greg is claiming that EOG has the largest onshore discovery in the history of the United States. It's the Buddha. So I think kind

35:34 of Madison County and Texas And his whole evidence for this is that there is a massive infrastructure build going on in the Gulf Coast and pipelines coming down through. I know Greg well enough that

35:51 if Greg tells me I jumped the fence here, there was a 48-inch pipe being buried right here. It's not on the railroad commission map. Picture of it. He's not lying to me about that. I mean, I

36:03 know Greg well enough to do it And so Greg has spent seven, eight years studying all this.

36:11 is if the oil coming into the Gulf Coast is from the permit and this is the north route it comes down it should come down and it should use the same right away you just stack all the pipes on top of

36:24 each other right because it's just it's flowing. Well one the pipe actually scopes up and gets bigger as it moves through Madison County. Okay that's odd

36:38 happens and you know the same thing's true if it's coming from the big continent right if this is stack scoop building you know drilling and all this and this is just infrastructure built for that

36:49 again it should be on the same right away and theoretically you know it should at least say the same size or get smaller as it heads to the Gulf Coast it actually gets bigger so it comes through

36:58 Madison and it branches out and six pipelines go down and say gather back at about Cleveland, Texas and then they shoot over to the Gulf Coast. So on the basis of this, Greg is saying that not

37:11 right. I'll give him that. That doesn't sound right. I don't understand why they do that. Particularly after we've figured out we're probably not growing production anymore in the United States.

37:20 So if I'm a pipeline midstream company, why am I spending those dollars? So I'll give Greg that. So he has all this doc I've seen. He has jumped fences and taken pictures and the pictures are

37:32 paint because they're being jammed. He has talked to people driving compressors in the bathroom where they have said I cannot say that because it's national security. He's been told I cannot say

37:47 that. I've been sworn to secrecy. I've signed NDAs and the like. He's got a whole build. There's a big railroads intersect going on. I need to bring in frack. That's Greg's conclusion. Bring in

38:01 frack sand and the like. And so I can't explain it. That being said, Greg might be crazy. I mean, I love the God, but he might be. crazy. So I don't know if it's true. We had Treadstone in

38:15 there and that was the biggest the old cane had ever done and the like. So there is good rock in there. It is true that EOG asked for the biggest field exceptions ever for production limits in the

38:29 history of the state of Texas for their field. That being said, is EOG really allowing acreage to expire in there? If that is true, probably not. Is there 300 people would have to be in on this

38:43 conspiracy if it were true? Can 300 people keep their mouth shut? No. I don't think so. So the short answer is I don't know. I kind of felt like Greg had the right to tell his story. He actually

38:57 didn't let me talk during the podcast. It was kind of the easiest one I've ever done. I will say this, the amount of humor it inspired on Twitter. If you're on Twitter, just searchBudagate and

39:10 you can spend the next five days, laughing and coming up with all this. And then the final thing I'll say, which is absolutely crazy and may be unrelated, but I just dropped. EOG had three times

39:23 the trading volume in its stock and it's worth it ever had. So, I don't know. As I like to say, it is the most influential, most downloaded podcast in energy history.

39:36 Thank you.