3 Podcasters Walk in a Bar Episode 37
Highlights of the podcast:
04:06 – Financial difficulties faced by wind companies and potential government intervention
04:43 – Exploration of how government policies and narratives around energy transitions are impacting various industries
11:55 – Observations on recent fluctuations in oil prices
16:41 – Concerns and discussions about the SPR
21:17 – Reflections on recent election outcomes
With 3 unique personalities, backgrounds, and one horrible team sense of humor, it makes for fun talks around the energy markets.
David Blackmon is a Forbes author and currently writes Energy Absurdities of the Day. He has several active podcasts with ….. His industry leadership is evident, but a dry, calm way of expressing himself adds a different twist.
R.T. Trevillon is the podcast host of The Crude Truth filmed in Fort Worth Texas and runs an oil and gas E&P company. Pecos Country Operating has been in business for ….years and has a constant commitment to all of their stakeholders and is actively working in this oil and gas market.
Stu Turley is the co-podcast host of the Energy News Beat Podcast. While Stu is a legend in his own mind, [email protected]
David Blackmon LinkedIn
The Crude Truth with Rey Trevino
Rey Trevino LinkedIn
Energy Transition Weekly Conversation
David Blackmon LinkedIn
Irina Slav LinkedIn
Armando Cavanha LinkedIn
Follow Stuart On LinkedIn and Twitter
If you have any questions, please reach out to us. We want to answer all questions, and if you have what it takes to be a podcast host and you want your show reach out.
Also, sponsor slots are available. There is excellent reach with the four podcasts.
David Blackmon LinkedIn
The Crude Truth with Rey Trevino
Rey Trevino LinkedIn
Stu Turley LinkedIn
Video Transcription edited for grammar. We disavow any errors unless they make us look better or smarter.
3 Podcasters Walk in a Bar Episode 37
Stuart Turley [00:00:14] Hello, everybody. Do you have that Uncle? My engineer, Eddie, had a Christmas vacation when he walks into the bar and he goes, Hey, these three guys walk into a bar and everybody in your family digs for carpet because they know an embarrassing joke is about to happen. I am. No, the other two guys. Those three guys that walk into a bar. My name’s Stu Turley, president, CEO of the Sandstone Group. This is the three podcasters, and the other two podcasters are legends in their own mind. I’ve got David Blackmon coming around the corner. David is a Substack author. He is the podcast host for the Energy Transition and the energy question. And that’s going through their roof. How are you?
David Blackmon [00:00:58] Oh, I’m just thrilled to be here, man. It’s just another beautiful day in Texas.
Stuart Turley [00:01:03] Could you be a little more disingenuous with that? I’m thrilled to be here.
David Blackmon [00:01:07] I am.
Stuart Turley [00:01:08] Holy smokes. We got to meet at the bar, man.
David Blackmon [00:01:11] Yeah, absolutely. absolutely.
Stuart Turley [00:01:14] All right. And then we have from he is a big dog over there. Paces operating. He is. Pecos operating big dog. No, wait a minute. He is the Crude Truth podcast host, a legend also in his own mind, Rey Trevino. And I mean, this guy is an animal. Welcome, RT.
Rey Treviño [00:01:40] So thank you for having me back on. I’m excited about it. Stu David, I hope everybody’s having a wonderful week as we get ready to kick off the holiday season, as I like to say.
Stuart Turley [00:01:51] Oh my gosh, I don’t even have I don’t have any Christmas shopping done. Oh, I never do either.
Rey Treviño [00:01:58] All my all my deejay holiday fans out there all know what that was about. Don’t you worry.
Stuart Turley [00:02:04] Oh. Okay. That went right by both okay. And I was like, Whoa, I do that. But it not for my podcast listeners. I would knock my hat clean off. I got a ten gallon hat.
Rey Treviño [00:02:17] Yes, you do. Hey. Hey, Stu, Before we even get started, I want to just do a shout out to David Blackmon. I just released a wonderful episode of The Crude Truth with the wonderful, true environmental Savior.
Stuart Turley [00:02:32] Yes,.
Rey Treviño [00:02:32] Megan Lap. And I mean, David is one that introduced us. So I just got to say thank you so much to David Blackmon for that right there.
David Blackmon [00:02:41] So now you’re telling tales. Stu’s going to correct you on that?
Stuart Turley [00:02:50] Megan is a rock star and she has been on all three of our podcasts. And I’ll tell you.
David Blackmon [00:02:55] Stu, Stu have the first contact with her. Let’s give credit where credit’s due.
Stuart Turley [00:03:00] Credit is due is off of LinkedIn. And I just want to say that to you, to guys, our three podcasts are going nuts in three different markets in the energy space. It is really bizarre. And so when you take a look at if you’re an industry expert and you want to talk about energy between an emp operator, a Oklahoma State graduate globe and then you have David, who is an a world renowned author, the three of us have different reach and wide different reach. So it is great fun to have everybody on our three different podcasts.
David Blackmon [00:03:40] Really is.
Stuart Turley [00:03:41] All right.
Rey Treviño [00:03:43] So, you know, I’ve just heard on the blog that she’s been able to really champion true environmental awareness. You know, we got people out there. I’m not going to mention any names of people from Germany or Austria that are claiming to be these entities where the greenies understand how important oil and gas is, but also how dangerous offshore wind. So what?
Stuart Turley [00:04:12] A David with him mentioning Germany in the green weenies over there. You want to kick us off to your energy absurdity today? It was an absolutely a hoot.
David Blackmon [00:04:22] Yeah. So two weeks ago I wrote a wrote a story at the Daily Caller warning everyone that we’re about to start seeing a wave of bailouts for the big offshore wind companies in the US, Germany, the UK. And on Thursday evening, or really Friday morning in Germany. The German government announced the first such bailout of a $16 billion deal with Siemens. Siemens AG, I think is what they call their offshore wind unit. And, you know, this is a company that’s been an industrial force in Germany for well over a century and has been had to be bailed out. I don’t know how many times before. So that’s kind of a habit of the German government. And they gotten themselves in financial difficulties. They can’t finance their production lines of these big wind turbines on their own. And so the German government’s going to have to bail them out with low interest loan guarantees that the banks won’t finance. And, you know, so that’s just the first example. As I said in the piece I wrote, Germany has been the germination point of every all whole energy related idea for the last 30 years. And so it’s only appropriate that they kick off this latest awful idea of bailing out the wind companies.
Stuart Turley [00:05:50] And then that’s.
David Blackmon [00:05:52] Yeah, but it’s to be to be expected. And we can expect Democrats here in the United States and liberals over in the UK to take exactly the same actions as their own wind industry begins to fail. As as we see with Orsted, I think Orsted the biggest wind developer globally, a Danish company that used to be an oil and gas company and a highly profitable one. But now they’ve gone into the wind business and they’re trending very transparently, trending towards bankruptcy. And so they’re going to have to be bailed out by multiple countries as well.
Stuart Turley [00:06:30] Hey, let me ask you this, guys. As the narrative. We saw this last month when the UK Prime minister says, eh, we need to kind of push out for just a little bit. He didn’t even want to cancel the energy transition. Remember this, David? He just kind of goes, We’re going to delay it five years. We talked about it on the podcast. I mean, the heads were exploding and that triggered all of these. It seems like that was the catalyst.
David Blackmon [00:07:01] Yeah. Dominoes have been falling, haven’t they?
Stuart Turley [00:07:04] They have. And then the wind, the wind bids going off. David and RT that you guys have covered on your subject, all these things are triggering. And David, you called this one, right? I think the more the green narrative is failing, the more they’re going to go wild on their policies. And we’re about to see some even more devastation. Because when a wolf is in the corner, they go nuts. And I think they’re now realizing the only reason for a a not transition is to take the country a global economy down. Speaking of conspiracy theories, I mean it it’s the only reason.
David Blackmon [00:07:50] Yeah. And you’re going to see similar things happening with the heavy industry, too. Ford and GM are losing their shirts on all their electric vehicle segments, and they’re going to start selling moves to bail out those companies, too. Because, you know, the thing is, when you look at what’s happening with U.S. automakers, what they’re what they’re doing is responding to government subsidies and government mandates. The government is driving them into non profitability. It’s all very foreseeable. It’s all inevitable. And you’re going to pay for it. Folks, if you keep voting for these Democrats, you’re going to keep paying for these things. This is inevitable. It’s not a gas.
Rey Treviño [00:08:34] You know, with that being said, David, do you see that once again that we could actually have our government bail out the auto industry again just because all these that are going on in all this socially?
David Blackmon [00:08:47] Absolutely. And China’s beginning to flood the Western world now with these cheap electric vehicles that are just as high quality. The Chinese have figured out the formula and they’re able to mass produce them in such quantities that they can now export them all over the world. And they’re going to crowd the domestic automakers out of the business into bankruptcy. And the federal government, as long as it’s run by Democrats, is going to have the impulse of trying to bail those companies out. And so that’s where we’re going to head. It’s the easiest thing to predict in the world. And You know.
Stuart Turley [00:09:24] David.
David Blackmon [00:09:25] I wish I wish Vegas would give odds on it. So I go play some bets.
Stuart Turley [00:09:29] Let me ask both of you. Let me ask both of you this, because I see it last year. I was on the phone or the podcast with Ben been saying, as I even said, there’s going to be a great awakening as back in 2020 to a great awakening in 2023. We’re seeing that great awakening coming around the corner. People are getting tired of 1% of the world’s population controlling all of these people. And so I think that with the EVs, people are backing off and not just buying them anymore. Do you see, RT, that.
Rey Treviño [00:10:11] I’m sitting here at a black rifle? Know they’re. No, they’re definitely not a sponsor of the show. But I saw one of those for lightning sitting out here this morning, and I would’ve thought this was the last place I’d see one of those for lightning. So this is a great awakening. And I think this is more just people kind of stretching just a little bit and barely waking up right now. You know, the automakers are obviously too big to fail. I get that. I understand it. I’m not for it, but I understand it. But these wind farms that we may have to bail out here in America one day, they’re not too big to fail. What that boils down to is other people have invested in things that have interests that may or may not in the government maybe, maybe not go through. And they need to make sure that they recoup their investment dollars on these all these wind farms here in America that are not producing enough energy. And here we are. All three or most of us here are in the great state of Texas right now. You know, David and I are and we produce the most wind energy in America, and yet it still doesn’t do any good. And by the way, we also produce most oil in America. Go figure.
Stuart Turley [00:11:24] Just as an EMP operator, David, he just happened to throw that out there.
David Blackmon [00:11:27] Well, yeah. And well, he should. Yes.
Rey Treviño [00:11:33] Well, you know, speaking of oil, I’ll lead into it, guys. Here we are on a wonderful Friday. And oil this week dropped down to three month lows at about $74 barrel. And I don’t want a free production meeting. You know, David said it the best way that right now we have zero fear in oil speculation. I mean, here we are. There’s actually a true war in the Middle East right now and oil prices are going down, for goodness sakes. I mean, as I said last week on the show, and this is, I think, the true calm before the storm and seeing high oil prices, but I got no proof.
David Blackmon [00:12:12] It could be. You know, it’s phenomenal that it’s all happening as as demand continues to rise. You know, if if demand was actually falling globally, then you could see a justification for the price drop. But demand is continuing to go up. Even in China, where we keep seeing all these stories about China’s economy failing and demand for everything just keeps rising in the Chinese economy, including for oil. So I don’t know what’s happening in the markets, but the absence of any fear premium at all is pretty extraordinary given what’s happening around the world.
Stuart Turley [00:12:53] You know, David, I want to ask both of your opinion on this. Michael and I covered this last night on our podcast or the other night. The EIA had a server problem again with their data and they had that last year and it came out when they had a server data problem. They were manipulating the data for political reasons and that was through. So we had another server problem and the API came out and the API came out and gave us instead of a 300, 300 million, 300 bear 300,000 barrel draw. They had a increase of a couple million barrels, you know, increase in supply. Then you add in these other things going on. Now they say they can’t figure it out. I have privy some very large investment houses and they were all standing around scratching their heads on these calls. And we’re all sitting there going, something is going on. And I’m not going to tell my sources something’s going on. And I’m telling you right now, our government is making this up. I don’t have the exact data chip that it happened on, but I’m not the one calling for it. These big folks up in Wall Street are calling for it and they’re going, something’s afoot.
Rey Treviño [00:14:30] I’ll say this. I would mind try to see what some of our listeners have to say about the oil prices being low and, you know, kind of what their ideas are, because that’s really all it is right now that we have or ideas on why, you know, prices continue to be low when Russia, a majority, a major oil producer, is at war with Iran. And in the Middle East right now, you’ve got literally the heart of the Middle East at war. And everybody is just should be on pins and needles right now. And we’re not as far as the price of oil goes. So, again, I’ve said it last week. I mean, everybody, you know, stock up on their gasoline while they can, you know, buy next and make a little bit here and there. So I don’t know.
David Blackmon [00:15:11] That’s definitely a good time to fill up. Gas prices have gone down $0.30 a gallon, what, in the last three weeks, I think. So, you know, it cost less to fill up now at least. And. And, you know, so for consumers, it’s all good leading into Christmas and the market’s been manipulated. Maybe that’s why to to help boost consumer spending for the Christmas time.
Stuart Turley [00:15:35] The look as this from both of you guys that are experts and I’m just a wannabe. So that’s why I want to hang with you guys more in the barn. Kind of like get your knowledge. But John Denver, when I he was he and I were growing up together. He he grew up and I’d sit there and watch him play his guitar. We all want to play football. And he’d just kind of wander off. And he was weird. He made a lot more money than I ever did. But do you remember in the 70s when he went back and he had a Irsay the oil crisis, he got in trouble because in Aspen he had a big gasoline tank under his house. And he was he was hoarding gasoline during the embargo. And here he is a big environmentalist. And I’m there’s a real story to this. But anyway. So well.
David Blackmon [00:16:30] He’s a smart environmentalist.
Stuart Turley [00:16:33] I thought he was a cool dude. I enjoyed my last conversation with him was pretty cool. But anyway, so when we sit back and kind of go, what are your thoughts on the SPR? Because now the Biden administration this past week said they’re going to start putting bids out for the SPR. They released David, and I think you’ve talked about this. I believe it was 318 million barrels they released out of the SPR. They said, oh, we’re buying back. We bought. Four million. And for our podcast listeners, I’m leaning into the mike like Biden. Four million and I use my you know, they released 318 million I heard the other day and I’m trying to verify this, that with our salt domes and our store natural storage, where a lot of this is is coming apart because those domes, when they are stored, the oil stored there, they they deteriorate. So we’re we may not even be able to fill it back up to where it was. I don’t I’m having to go fact check that.
David Blackmon [00:17:42] I have no idea. Sounds like we’re going to be using some pretty salty oil here soon, huh? So the walls are crumbling into the oil that’s left in there because of the lack of pressure.
Stuart Turley [00:17:52] Yeah, Which means what? Yeah. Whatever’s there is may be really unusable. So I’m trying to go fact check this.
David Blackmon [00:18:01] Well, that wouldn’t be good.
Stuart Turley [00:18:03] No. And just means what little left is like, You know, that’s like trying to have you ever spill coffee on your keyboard, and then you try to go get a paper towel That is a cheap one from one of those bathrooms. That does not it’s not a bounty picker upper. And you try to spill that around and all it does move your coffee around. No, that’s exactly what they’re going to try to do. And they get the rest of that oil out of the SPR. It’s not going to be available.
David Blackmon [00:18:32] Well with the price of West Texas Intermediate. As we sit here today, I think it’s down at the upper end of their price range for refilling the SPR. So maybe they’ll actually do it a little bit. We can always hope, but I doubt it. I doubt that any of that sincere. But we’ll see. You know, maybe they are sincere about it this time.
Stuart Turley [00:18:53] I don’t know that. Our press secretary for the White House. Whatever, John. What? I don’t think she can spell SVR.
Rey Treviño [00:19:04] Though that that’s in the balance, too. But I do think that she’s the petroleum reserve does need to be refilled. But unfortunately, right now, we just again, we have an administration that’s not seeing that as an urgency. And again, the price of oil shows that it’s not an urgency right now as well. So, you know, hopefully we can get it filled up, but filling it up less than 1%, that that doesn’t do anything for us now.
Stuart Turley [00:19:30] So it’s kind of fun.
David Blackmon [00:19:32] It’s not fun. It’s not fun at all. You know, it’s a it’s a tremendous abuse of of a national security tool that the president engaged in in 2022 for purely political reasons. And, you know, it’s it’s just one of many ways that this administration shows it doesn’t really care about energy security or national security. And that’s a dangerous thing for all of us.
Stuart Turley [00:19:59] Oh, RT, what were you going to say before David so rudely ignored you?
David Blackmon [00:20:03] I had to demagogue a little bit, so go ahead, RT.
Rey Treviño [00:20:06] No, no, I think you said it perfectly. And, you know, but you do mention 2022. Here we are. We had elections this week, and, you know, Democrats won across the nation again this week. So there’s a lot going on. I think we have a generation that has been brainwashed. I know that. I’ve seen it firsthand where people go to college and they come back completely different. And it is just a shame that we’re at this point in the world. I believe in sharing. Sharing is caring. But that doesn’t also mean that I need to be able to share everything that I have in my wallet with everybody. You know, we all work hard. And, you know, I think that your do you work the more you get out of it. You know, I do believe in luck, but I also believe luck also needs a lot of hard work. So, you know, it’s just crazy the way we saw these elections roll here this past week. By November 2023, price economics was not on the table for some weird reason. And our economy sucks right now. You know, our inflation is so horrific. And the price of gasoline here we are celebrating. It’s down $0.30. Let’s all be honest, it was a dollar less and worst day on Election Day 2020. So, you know, here we are celebrating. We’re down $0.30 when it was a dollar more down with the previous administration.
David Blackmon [00:21:27] When you talk about luck. And my favorite football coach, Darrell Royal, witty, son of a gun from Oklahoma who came to Texas and coach there for 20 years had a famous saying about luck. Luck is what happens when preparation meets opportunity. So your point about working hard, creating luck was really well taken, and I think he was 100% right about that, actually. I think I put Stu, I think I put Stu to sleep with that one.
Stuart Turley [00:22:00] No, you didn’t. I was thinking, how can I think of something smart ass to say when it was really right on this.
David Blackmon [00:22:07] Most profound I was quoting somebody else. So it was fairly profound.
Stuart Turley [00:22:11] No. Hey, David, I just want to give a shout out to your writings on The Telegraph, The Daily Caller, your substack. Holy smokes, Batman. Do you sleep?
David Blackmon [00:22:22] I do, but I don’t sleep enough. I got to do something about that. I know I’m only getting 4 or 5 hours of sleep a night and I’m about noon. I’m pretty worn out.
Stuart Turley [00:22:32] I can imagine. So you crayons. I don’t know how you stay up in crayons, dude. You know, there’s no spell check in your crayons either, so I don’t know how. RT. What do you have coming around the corner this week, RT?
Rey Treviño [00:22:48] Oh, good. Got a lot of great episodes I want to get released here on The Crude Truths before the end of the year. Just kind of working out in the field, playing with the weather. November and December are always kind of rainy months out in the oil and gas here in North Texas. So I’m going to play the mud a little bit. I’m excited about that. Got some real good in the year Crude Truth episodes coming out. You know, got some great motivational people coming on, got some great economics individuals come on and even have a towards the end of the year. Dr. Ed Ireland, who’s Substack and LinkedIn,.
Stuart Turley [00:23:22] Nice
Rey Treviño [00:23:23] I know we’ve mentioned here before on the on three podcasters. I’ll have that one as well. But you know, with 2023 wrapping up, I just feel like we need a lot of positivity in the world right now. And so I’ve got several great positive interviews coming up and I’ve got another one with a great life coach named Kristy Kerns. And who would have ever thought that we need just, you know, people in our corner helping us out every day, you know, just helping us be more positive and motivation. So so just very excited about what’s coming around the corner.
Stuart Turley [00:23:55] David, what’s your number to give to her?
David Blackmon [00:24:00] Yeah, I could use that, actually. Let’s see here. I’ve got a podcast I just dropped with Jacki Daly, who’s fantastic, the host of the Jacki Daily Show. We’re talking about the RFK Junior campaign and why it’s a threat to the energy business and some other stuff which she’s really an expert on. Got Todd Royal talking about energy literacy and his efforts in that regard. That one’s going to come up next week. Paul Hick and I just interviewed he’s the editor in chief for The Telegraph over in London, really smart guy about energy and a lot of insight into what’s going on in the UK related to energy. So we’ve got a lot of good stuff coming. And then finally have an interview upcoming with Emily had an analyst that embarrass you just put out a great report about how the Barnett Shale that was such a big natural gas play here and North Texas is about to become the next big oil and gas play in the Permian. It extends all the way down there. The Barnett and the Woodford Shale both extend all the way out into the Permian, and it’s going to be the next big deal in the Permian Basin.
Stuart Turley [00:25:17] How cool is that? Yeah. Hey, I’ll tell you, I’m going to brag. Perhaps you guys are going to get the introduction for Steve Reese. He has his Reese Consulting has audited well over 5% of the natural gas in the US through his consulting firm, which is billions of. Cubic gas. And then he also has got a thing going on in the Germany for an LNG facility as well. So you guys are going to get teed up for that. And then also I’m getting to interview Mark Masters this afternoon. Mark, help Tucker and Rush and all these other guys get put together and Ingram. So that’s going to be a phone book out of this inner circle to him as well, too. So anyway, we got a lot of great interviewees coming around. Since there’s three lacking interviewers, we need all the good interviewees we can get.
David Blackmon [00:26:26] Exactly.
Stuart Turley [00:26:27] With that guy. Hey, this is the three podcasters walk into a bar and as always, reach out to any of us. We would love to hear from you. And as R.T. said just a minute ago, we want to hear what your thoughts were on that. Have a great one. We’ll see you guys next time.
David Blackmon [00:26:44] Adios.