There is an exercise in B-school where two groups are given a mandate: you must negotiate over an orange to get the life saving medicine it provides for your team without resorting to cutting it in half. Turns out it’s possible. One team needs the juice and the other team needs the peel, but the only way to discover that is to collaborate. Imagine that! Unfortunately, most teams lose the challenge as they resort to 0 sum negotiation, or “I...

If people weren’t locked in their homes for 2 months; if we had sports to watch; if the media would stop showing videos of behavior inciting other behavior; if we spent as much time and resources “contact tracing” people who turn violent during protests instead treating the whole country like they had the Black Plague, maybe we wouldn’t have riots. Oh, yeah. And how about arrest the other 3 officers that for some reason didn’t intervene during 9 minutes. PS. Open...

Rules, consistency, fairness and respect. 4 principles that keep a society functioning. Expectations for what happens when you encounter other actors in the play of life set out how you respond in a situation. If those enacting the rules interpret their powers differently, confusion reigns and society breaks down. Clearly, the death of George Floyd is a travesty and miscarriage of the responsibilities of those we trust to protect the serve. And, when you add that almost every person in...

n the #mergecdevmerge sweepstakes, after bondholders in CDEV didn’t love the proposed debt conversion and how the benefits accrued to Riverstone, already the largest owner in the equity, Riverstone increased their equity ownership in the company. With 0 rigs and 0 frac fleets running, CDEV is the perfect example of a ZombieCo. The question will be- who’s equity do they take in the merger OR does Riverstone take them private to provide optionality and control? Not investment advice, just asking...

Hosted by The Petroleum Alliance of Oklahoma, in the eighth Morning Fuel webinar, David joins Chairman David Le Norman and Ethan House with EnergyNet to give an optimistic approach to looking at future opportunities in the energy industry.

When I say “your career is a river”, what I mean is it’s a journey. You jump in at the same time as a whole bunch of other people and start. Some start swimming aggressively, some really miss college and a small group say “F this”, climb out and go look for another headwater. Along the way, you meet people who will ultimately turn out to change the course of your career. Bosses who tell you to calm down and...

A lot of people ask me: what can I do to prepare myself for the coming transition in the nature and structure of oil and gas in North America? Love yourself. In February 2012, I had the essence of my core ripped out because my entire identity was built around my career. Losing that meant losing my self worth and all the things around me, which I had ignored for years- friends, family, exercise, mindfulness- were all that I had...

In this #hottakeoftheday podcast episode, I am joined by Michael Teague of Adamantine Energy as part of his discussions on “Looking ahead of the curve”.  Timely and topical as we move through the Covid crisis and start anticipating how the world will continue to change and evolve.  If you didn’t see it, here is an article introducing the concepts and in our discussion we deep dive (the next installment in the series will go out on June 4th) I really...

In the play Hamlet, the namesake character struggles with a choice: “to be, or not to be.”  Today, many are struggling with an iteration of that question.  In the context of the play’s version, let me say this: love yourself.  Love your family and friends. And as my father always says “there IS a better card on top.”  Also, here are two numbers you should keep. 1-800-273-TALK and 303-253-0707. At one, you will find a trained counselor and at...

If you accept that there is an agenda behind every piece of journalism (except mine, obviously), it changes the mindset while reading. So, when Bloomberg releases a piece called “Stealth Bailout Shovels Millions to Oil Companies”, one should start by recalling the former Presidential Candidate’s views on fossil fuels.   In the article, it says that Oxy, a favorite whipping boy of the press because Carl Icahn has a vested interest in seeing management beat up to advance his position, is...