Today we had the pleasure of hosting the Independent Petroleum Association of America (IPAA) for an oil and gas focused discussion. Joining us are Steve Pruett, Chairman of the Board, and Dan Naatz, COO and EVP. Steve and Dan are in Houston for NAPE, which almost all of you are probably familiar with, but for those of you who are not, the conference is gathering 8,000 plus people this year to talk oil and gas overall and oil and gas dealmaking in particular. To understand more about what's happening at NAPE. 

The IPAA was formed in 1929 by President Hoover and is headquartered in Washington, representing over 6,000 member companies and over 4 million oil and gas jobs spread over 33 states. These member companies account for over 80% of US oil production and 90% of US natural gas production. While oil and gas provides so much of the energy in today's world, we are often talking to the "new" providers of energy and so we very much enjoyed our "back to basics" oil and gas focused conversation with the IPAA. Some of the topics we covered include current activity in Washington, the focus on improving the permitting process (for all energy flavors), Steve's background and journey to the IPAA, the IPAA's current key areas they're working on, Dan's observations on his 20-year history at the IPAA, this year's outlook for NAPE and key themes, the makeup of the IPAA member community, and much more. 

As you will hear, the US faces some very important critical choices in the next 3-4 years that will determine how healthy it's oil and gas industry is a decade from now. 

Mike Bradley kicked us off with an update on year-to-date activity in equity and commodity markets, flagging the continued move lower in natural gas prices and a few reasons why natural gas levered equities have decoupled from the commodity. He also highlighted key upcoming events including Wednesday's Fed meeting and an OPEC meeting as well as EU sanctions on Russian products that go into effect on February 5th, and the potential upside implications for global product prices, especially mogas. 

We had great fun with Steve and Dan in the studio and hope you enjoy the conversation as much as we did. Thanks to you all!