With the $PE-$JAG transaction closing today, Denver has lost another E&P HQ.  This has nothing to do with regulations or the state rule making - this has to do with the fact that all the acreage in the U.S. worth owning is already owned. Unfortunately, as we read this week, with consolidation comes RIFs and many employees, through absolutely no fault or cause of their own, find themselves without a job. Which brings me to the topic of today’s post:...

David was invited to appear once again on Bloomberg's "Commodities Edge" with Alix Steel on Thursday, Jan. 9, 2020. Check it out here.

Source: Quillette, written by Joel Kotkin For much of the last 70 years, economic growth has lifted the quality of life in Europe, North America, and East Asia, providing social stability after the violent disruptions of World War II. Today, however, many of the world’s most influential leaders, even in the United States, reject the very notion that societies should improve material wealth and boost incomes given what they believe are more important environmental or social equity concerns. This sharp break...

It’s been a week since the Iranian pseudo-crisis began and if it were a rollercoaster at 6 Flags, everybody would have been throwing up, crying and asking for their mommy (or was that just me?). Nonetheless, the volatility, media inflammation and moment to moment marking of emotions (as the stock market does) can ensure that the forest is lost for the trees. In my posts this week, I had a few simple messages. Infrastructure attacks on supply (when it can...

Nick & Erin Williams, Down for a Cure Today on the podcast, we travel to the home of Nick and Erin Williams who share their #EverybodyElse moment that focused their course and changed their lives.  Their non profit, Down for a Cure was inspired by their sons, Jackson and Lincoln, both of which have cystic fibrosis, and Lincoln, their youngest, who was also born with Down syndrome.  We talk life, medicine, the village it takes, their middle son Brock and the...

It was only a matter of time until Iran (hot fact: the Persian empire until 1979) did what it promised to do over the weekend- which was to strike back at the United States in revenge for General Soleimani's death. The trouble with revenge is that at some point, somebody loses. Early reports (and no doubt these will evolve) are that no American's were injured and beyond the tweet (All is well!), there was nothing more coming from the...

I like spreadsheets, I'm not going to lie. Maybe that makes me a little weird or uncool and sure, it's true that I wrote a macro in Excel to ask a fellow engineer on a date in University but I like to think that just says I have skilz. (she said no). However, we can all agree that the best decisions are made in Excel and so it remains my go to and tool for the post...

When I say: "Regulatory risk"; "Blue state and the destination of emigrants"; "Environment activists"; "Great place to visit, horrible place to drill" what comes to mind? California? Possibly, but no, I'm talking about that other place. My home state. Colorado. From Proposition 112 that failed in 2018 and was rebooted (effectively) as Senate Bill 181 in 2019, setbacks, emissions, local control, and urban drilling have all made "Colorado" a scary word in oil and gas investing....

With all that is going on in Iraq and Iran over the weekend, it would be hard to focus on anything else but that’s exactly what we are going to do (for more on Iran, listen to the 10 minute “Hottakeover Your Commute” podcast, released every Sunday). Hedging!  The boring topic that no management team wants to talk about for fear of taking away levered upside. But first, we must lay out some assumptions: 2020 budget oil price: $55; Royalties:...

Show Notes: Major. Qassim Suleimani was killed in an airstrike. https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2013/09/30/the-shadow-commander Middle East geopolitics…. Your guess is as good as mine- defer to people who do THAT for a living. https://us11.campaign-archive.com/?u=de2bc41f8324e6955ef65e0c9&id=a8d843ea82 Iran:  interesting facts: Produced 2.15 MMBO per day in October which previous to sanctions imposed by the US was 3.8 MMBO/d. Domestic consumption for 81 million people Iraq 4.68 mmbo/d production in September. 38 million people Kuwait: 2.7 mmbo/d.  4.2 million people.  Saudi Arabia, 10 mmbo/d, 33 million people. Backwardation of the oil market: a nice piece on Twitter by @BrynneKKelly...