Energy Bytes

By collide.Science Technology

Energy Bytes episodes

September 04 EP 85: Aarya Borele from Evardi Energy
Utilities are drowning in paperwork long before a repair crew ever leaves the yard. Aarya Borele, co-founder and CTO of Evardi Energy, walks John and Bobby through outage requests getting rejected a day out, FERC 881 pushing line ratings from seasonal to hourly, and why 95 percent accuracy is a failing grade when the lights are on the line. Also in here: the grid as cloud infrastructure, Griddy's flameout, and a 49ers conspiracy theory involving a substation.
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0:00 Agents, VMs and running everything at once
3:26 Back in the studio
4:34 What Evardi does
5:45 Uri and the incentive problem
10:28 When the ISO rejects your outage
12:35 How the grid actually works
15:02 FERC 881 and hourly line ratings
17:46 Where Evardi fits in
21:37 Blackouts in India and Kenya
25:28 The grid as cloud infrastructure
30:17 Griddy and the wholesale gamble
33:45 The stack, compliance and weather models
37:40 Accuracy in critical infrastructure
40:22 Jargon, bad data and context
45:56 Models, local hosting and token costs
55:29 The 49ers substation theory
57:13 Speed round
1:05:38 Physical AI and robot ducks
1:11:25 Paying attention in a granola world
1:14:09 The ask
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1 hr 17 min
August 13 EP 84: Ben Dickinson & Bryan Frantz from NexTier Completion Solutions
Everybody in oil and gas has been sitting on mountains of completions data and barely using it. Ben Dickinson and Bryan Frantz of NexTier Completion Solutions built the fix from the inside out, an end to end frac data platform made by the people running the pumps. John and Bobby get into why the closer you are to the equipment the closer you are to the truth, where frac data standards are headed, and whether efficiency has hit its ceiling. Plus AI coding and the hunt for a good Pittsburgh wing.
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0:00:00 - Back from summer break
0:00:41 - Trying to keep pace with AI
0:10:16 - Who NexTier is and where it came from
0:12:22 - Building an end to end frac data platform
0:15:17 - The industry's siloed data problem
0:20:39 - Agnostic architecture and one tool for everyone
0:26:44 - Borrowing solved problems from other industries
0:31:41 - The tech stack and starting greenfield
0:35:17 - Control systems and the job data schema
0:44:11 - Why frac data has no standard
0:47:08 - Fleet Stream and getting data to customers
0:53:23 - Has operational efficiency hit its ceiling
0:59:58 - How opinionated should the software be
1:03:08 - Physics vs data driven modeling
1:08:41 - The AI coding tools they use
1:10:35 - Western PA wings and pierogi
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1 hr 14 min
April 10 EP 83: Paul Brown from BDE Data
Paul Brown, Founder and Principal Engineer at BDE Data, joins John and Bobby all the way from Scotland for a conversation that covers a lot of ground. From his days as an international drilling engineer dodging pirates off the coast of West Africa to building WellSchematic.com and tackling the nightmare of digitizing 50-year-old multilingual well files, Paul is the rare person who speaks both languages fluently.
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Click here to view the episode transcript.

00:00 - Oil prices, energy costs, and life in Scotland vs Texas
01:50 - Paul's background and path from drilling to data
08:19 - WellSchematic.com and legacy well data as a service
10:52 - Drilling war stories: West Africa and the Falklands
15:00 - UK oil industry and energy policy
34:41 - Legacy well file digitization
38:06 - The PDF table extraction problem
42:22 - Open source models vs foundational models
44:31 - AI stack, data privacy, and cloud infrastructure
51:54 - AI's role in the upstream industry
56:04 - Getting tech adopted in the drilling world
59:06 - Coding journey: from PHP and Laravel to Python
1:02:22 - Advice for engineers getting into coding
1:09:38 - Programming languages and AI-assisted development
1:11:56 - Cursor and Claude Code
1:13:55 - Speed round: Scotland, whiskey, and cloud platforms
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1 hr 21 min
March 06 EP 82: John Ely, The Godfather of Frac
When you have 80 patents and a lifetime achievement award in hydraulic fracturing, you have seen some things. John William Ely, Founder of Ely and Associates Corp, and Jon Harper, Vice President of Sales and Marketing, talk frac history, pre-job diagnostics, the slick water revolution, geothermal, and why the industry keeps pumping the same thing and expecting different results.
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Click here to view the episode transcript.

0:00 - Intro and guest backgrounds
3:25 - John William Ely's origin story
7:45 - Offshore blowout and well control in the Middle East
11:25 - How fracturing has evolved over 50 years
19:30 - The slick water revolution and where we went wrong
27:40 - Pre-job diagnostics and what operators overlook
36:55 - Geothermal applications and completions challenges
43:50 - Parent-child well interaction and offset communication
47:00 - Refracing and diversion
54:15 - Increasing recovery factor
1:06:35 - Longer laterals, U-turn wells, and land-driven decisions
1:12:35 - Knowledge gaps in the next generation of engineers
1:25:20 - The untapped tight conventional opportunity
1:30:02 - Advice for young engineers entering the industry
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1 hr 35 min
February 27 EP 81: Deren, Dagen and Josh from Firm App
Owner relations in oil and gas has been shoved in a corner forever, basically a "here's your check, don't call me" situation, and Deren Boyd, Dagen Boyd, and Josh Wright, co-founders of Firm App, are building the platform to fix that. These three started in oilfield safety software with iScout, got acquired by KPA, and now they're tackling the massive gap between operators and their surface and mineral owners with AI-powered multichannel communication. We're talking voice agents with adjustable accents, auto-responding emails, chat widgets that actually work, and an owner-facing app that puts payment info and well data in people's pockets. Plus the OKC crew gives their take on Devon and Expand relocating and what that means for the city.
Click here to watch a video of this episode.
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Collide is the community where oil & gas professionals connect, share insights, and solve real-world problems together. No noise. No fluff. Just the discussions that move our industry forward.
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Click here to view the episode transcript.

0:00 Devon and Expand leaving OKC, what it means on the ground
4:42 What is owner relations and why has it been ignored
7:18 Timing and the generational shift driving tech adoption
10:10 How operators have been duct-taping owner relations together
12:05 The owner-facing app and multichannel approach
14:38 AI voice agents, email auto-response, and chatbot workflows
18:15 Building and rebuilding AI architecture every six months
21:29 Under the hood on voice AI, latency, and conversation nuance
26:37 School districts, 10,000 page websites, and unexpected use cases
34:58 The iScout origin story and oilfield safety software
42:17 Getting thrown in the penalty box and winning work back with data
46:13 Revenue statements, vendor portals, and what owners actually ask about
52:24 NAPE plans and the land community
54:48 Business model and implementation timeline
55:58 NIL, college athletics, and the dumpster fire
1:04:36 Dev tools, Claude Code, and the future of SaaS
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1 hr 10 min
February 20 EP 80: Kayla Ball from SensorUp
Bobby Neelon and John Kalfayan sit down with Kayla Ball to break down why the methane compliance space is stuck in the trough of disillusionment, how she ended up cleaning up Petra's flat file nightmare at IHS, and why vibe coding with Claude feels like training your own replacement. They dig into sensor data chaos across ops teams, why public data companies should be worried, the wild difference between building lovable prototypes versus commercial deployments with SOC2 governance, and how AI is forcing everyone to confront the fact that humans shouldn't be entering data into anything anymore.
Click here to watch a video of this episode.
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Collide is the community where oil & gas professionals connect, share insights, and solve real-world problems together. No noise. No fluff. Just the discussions that move our industry forward.
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Click here to view the episode transcript.

0:00 - Devon and Chesapeake leaving Oklahoma City
4:50 - What SensorUp actually does beyond sensors
11:40 - Methane space challenges and compliance markets
18:30 - Why standardizing sensor data is so hard
26:40 - Getting into product management from geology
32:45 - AI automating regulatory workflows and field inspections
38:50 - Vibe coding prototypes versus productizing for enterprises
45:15 - Public data moat questions for IHS and Enverus
52:30 - Duck Lake and licensing components over custom dev
58:15 - Product management changing with Claude Code
1:04:40 - Data problems holding back AI adoption
1:11:20 - Speed round on youth sports complexes and baseball
1:22:40 - Hot takes and wrapping up
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1 hr 25 min
February 13 EP 79: Hussein Shel from AWS
Hussein Shel, CTO and head of business development for energy and utilities at Amazon Web Services, joins Bobby and John to talk about his journey from Chevron engineer to cloud technology leader. They explore how AI coding tools are changing the game for energy companies, why the barrier to entry for building apps has never been lower, and what it means when your reservoir engineer can now spin up their own solutions in minutes instead of months. Hussein shares why he thinks we're only scratching the surface of what's possible when you combine domain expertise with modern AI tools, discusses the cultural shifts needed for energy companies to move fast, and explains why he's both excited about AI's potential and concerned about its massive energy demands.
If you’re into energy tech, you’re in the right place. John and Bobby have built a deep catalog of conversations with the minds modernizing energy inside companies like AWS, Snowflake, Devon Energy, and more. Listen to the full library on Apple Podcasts and Spotify, or watch at https://collide.io/community.
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Collide is the community where oil & gas professionals connect, share insights, and solve real-world problems together. No noise. No fluff. Just the discussions that move our industry forward.
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Click here to view the episode transcript.

00:00 - Welcome and introductions
03:14 - Early AI experiments and low-code tools
08:11 - Core principles that haven't changed
12:04 - Managing costs and governance
15:15 - Data access and shadow IT
17:16 - Building apps in weeks vs months
19:25 - Domain-specific foundation models
21:10 - AWS infrastructure and energy footprint
26:21 - Custom silicon and partnerships
29:11 - Current AI model landscape
33:36 - Enterprise adoption challenges
38:58 - Cultural change from the top
42:06 - Scoping problems and quick wins
46:16 - Legacy systems and technical debt
52:18 - Building AI-first energy companies
56:57 - Tech debt acceleration
1:00:04 - Speed round and favorite spots
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1 hr 7 min
December 23, 2025 Collide AI 2025 Wrapped Part 1: Why Forward Deployed Engineers Ship When AI Pilots Fail
Collide AI 2025 Wrapped Part 1 turns into a real talk on why forward deployed engineers win where AI pilots stall, with Michael Cortez, John, and Nick Smart swapping war stories from completions, geophysics, and the startup trenches while they map out how Collide Enterprise moves past basic chat tools into search plus workflows that actually hold up in the real world.
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Click here to view the episode transcript.

00:00 Setup and intros
00:45 Michael’s path and joining Collide
01:59 Nick’s background and role shift
03:08 Collide Enterprise vs community
04:16 Search, RAG, and workflow evolution
06:31 Why out of the box AI falls short
08:41 Time savings and real work focus
11:39 Single source of truth vision
13:16 Small teams scaling bigger assets
17:18 AI adoption vs past tech hype
19:26 Digital transformation missing link
20:20 Why FDEs make pilots work
23:36 Biggest learnings this year
31:52 What’s next in 2026
38:57 Bold predictions for 3 to 5 years
47:37 Fine tuned models teaser and wrap
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49 min
December 05, 2025 EP 78: Bruce Holman & Corey Scott from Energy Payables
Bruce Holman and Corey Scott showed up ready to blow up the idea that accounts payable has to be slow, messy, and stuck in the past. They walked us through how Energy Payables is flipping the script with a platform that actually makes sense for operators and vendors, think cleaner workflows, real transparency, and smart tech like AI doing the heavy lifting instead of some poor soul buried in spreadsheets. Between the stories from the field, the back-office chaos they’re fixing, and the vision they have for where oil and gas operations should be headed, this conversation feels like a peek at how the industry finally gets out of its own way and into something a whole lot more efficient.
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Click here to view the episode transcript.

00:00 - Intro
01:42 - EnergyLink Platform
08:37 - JIBLink Overview
14:15 - Understanding JIBs
18:10 - Vision for the Platform
20:57 - Evolution of Tech Stack
26:08 - Introduction to Energy Payables
28:18 - What is Energy Payables?
30:14 - Network Effects in Energy Sector
32:50 - Vendor Pain Points
38:15 - Energy Payables Pricing Model
40:25 - AI Impact on Energy Ogre
44:05 - AI for Normalizing Frac Data
47:43 - Data Extraction from PDFs
50:35 - Azure Cloud Solutions
52:07 - Introduction to DataFoundry
55:54 - Token Models Explained
58:12 - Overview of DuckDB
59:04 - Energy Payables API Insights
1:02:30 - Speed Round Discussion
1:06:44 - Contact Information
1:08:35 - Conclusion and Wrap Up
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1 hr 10 min
November 28, 2025 EP 77: Justin McBroom, Operations Data Specialist
Justin has a way of making the oilfield and the data world feel like they’ve always belonged together. He walked us through how he’s helped teams untangle messy workflows, clean up data quality issues, and actually make analytics useful instead of overwhelming. From his time at Marathon Oil to experimenting with tools like Snowflake and Alteryx, he’s all about boosting efficiency and giving people the confidence to make smarter decisions. We also ended up talking about where AI actually fits into oil and gas, not the hype, but the stuff that genuinely moves the needle.
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Click here to view the episode transcript.

00:00 - Intro
01:12 - Justin McBroom Introduction
05:29 - Data as a Strategic Asset
09:08 - Accessing Data Effectively
11:04 - Optimizing Spotfire Performance
14:30 - Common Pitfalls to Avoid
17:44 - Empowering Your Workforce
19:50 - Alteryx Virtual Query Builder Insights
27:38 - Justin’s 100+ Day Streak Achievement
29:37 - Analyzing Most Popular Posts
31:12 - Strategies for Successful Posts
33:55 - The Dynamics of Social Media Posting
37:18 - The Return of Vine
40:06 - Passionate Posts Discussion
46:02 - AI Designed for Success
50:29 - Recommendations for Companies
55:20 - Encouraging Tool Exploration
57:28 - Accountability in Work
1:06:06 - Speed Round Q&A
1:09:04 - Favorite Houston Restaurant Picks
1:09:31 - Tools Everyone Should Use
1:10:27 - How to Connect with Justin
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1 hr 13 min

About Energy Bytes

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Welcome to Energy Bytes with John Kalfayan and Bobby Neelon. Your essential guide to the intersection of data and energy. This podcast dives deep into the world of energy, shedding light on how data,…