Let’s Talk Energy and try to understand how AI might be used to future proof the grid and what bumps we could encounter along the way.

Regulators and utilities worldwide are sounding the alarm about the impact of data centers on the stability of the electricity grid. But the same compute that is straining our power system can also improve efficiency and access diverse sources of power more easily. That efficiency, however, could result in more complex and critical decisions relying on AI, rather than on human judgment, potentially inviting questions about safety and cybersecurity.

Can AI alleviate the need for more physical grid infrastructure and defray some of the expense needed to make the system fit for the future?

How can a growing role for AI in grid management improve reliability, and how should we think about the threats from digital hiccups or malicious cyberattacks on our critical infrastructure?

And how is Microsoft looking at the potential for its own data centers to at least support – if not enhance – the way grids function today?

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Let’s Talk Energy is a Rystad Energy Production.   

Let’s Talk Energy and look at the growing resurgence in oil and gas exploration. Starting in the 20-teens, many oil companies began cutting exploration budgets and letting go or reassigning the people behind that work. The shift was driven by efficiency gains and the rise of vast US shale fields, but also pressure from investors and the uncertainty over the long-term demand for oil. Now, however, oil demand is expected to remain resilient, shale fields are showing their limits and investors are asking companies whether they are finding enough barrels to maintain their cash returns, exploration is back in vogue. But rebuilding an exploration portfolio doesn’t happen overnight and the industry as a whole is finding less oil and making fewer large discoveries than it used to each year.   

How has the exploration business evolved over Tracey’s career and what defines a successful wildcat today? 

How is APA Corporation, which kept exploring when others did not, looking at its prospects in places as diverse as Suriname, Uruguay, Egypt, and the Permian? 

Can new technology and new ideas help the industry break out of its discovery drought? 

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Let’s Talk Energy is a Rystad Energy Production.   

Join us for our annual Summits in Singapore, Houston and London: https://rystad.info/4vj3TTe

Let’s Talk Energy and examine how, despite being an intensely competitive business, oil and gas is also a team sport. Companies frequently partner with others to gain access to new resources, spread risk and add specialized expertise.  

For years, there was a standard playbook for how different types of companies – big Western supermajors or giant national oil companies and everyone in between – would think about who they would partner with, where they would do it and why.  

Now that playbook is changing, driven by trends as diverse as rising geopolitical competition, more resilient oil and gas demand, increasing capabilities among national oil companies and demands from public investors that public players turn a tidy profit, even in tough times.  

How are the needs and abilities of national oil companies and Western players changing as they evolve? 

Is the war in the Middle East shifting the calculus of the region’s national oil companies when it comes to bringing in outside investors or its attractiveness to international players?  

Finally, what does this mean for how companies think about pairing up to secure not just the reserves they need but also the ability to produce them? 

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Let’s Talk Energy is a Rystad Energy Production.   

Let’s Talk Energy and dig into the companies that are drilling, fracking and producing oil and gas in the US shale plays. Oil and gas companies working onshore US are cautiously increasing activity to bring on more production, incentivized by the currently high prices for oil. While the price outlook remains highly fluid, the continued conflict in the Middle East and the need to refill the resulting 1-billion-barrel deficit in global storage levels is giving CEO’s confidence to marginally increase production. But, as many listeners know, oil companies don’t drill wells, hook them into pipelines, or do many of the other things that are needed to get oil and gas flowing out of the ground – they pay oilfield service companies to do that work.  

How much more equipment is needed in the market to meet projected demand from US shale players?  

What are the pinch points that could limit the ability of oilfield service companies or make it more expensive for operators to ramp up production?  

How have changes in the sector, including past consolidation and ongoing diversification into work outside the oil and gas industry, on things like data centers, changed dynamics in the market?  

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Let’s Talk Energy is a Rystad Energy Production.   

Join us for our annual Summits in Singapore, Houston and London: https://rystad.info/3SfZuBC  

Let’s Talk Energy and assess the possible long-term impacts of the war in the Middle East. The conflict has brought the geopolitics of energy and near-term market disruptions into sharp focus, as the world struggles with higher oil and natural gas prices and tighter supplies overall.  

But underlying fundamentals, which pointed to growing oversupply in both oil and, to a lesser extent, gas markets, persist despite war-driven distortions.  

And while no one can predict how long it could take for the US and Iran to reach an agreement to resolve the war, the two sides continue to negotiate and – at times – say they are making progress. 

How long could the war-driven shortages and price inflation that we see today persist after the US and Iran reach some sort of agreement to end the conflict and fully re-open the Strait of Hormuz? 

What changes to energy trade flows or policies could be more lasting and what shifts might be less durable as countries and markets digest this shock and steel themselves against future ones? 

Which factors will be most important to watch to determine how the world ultimately recovers from a massive shock to the energy system? 

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Let’s Talk Energy is a Rystad Energy Production.   

Join us for our annual Summits in Singapore, Houston and London: https://rystad.info/3PEAT8X 

Has the war between the US and Iran changed the outlook for the upstream industry in the Middle East, and how long could it take to bring back shut production? 

How are countries around the Gulf pursuing options to bypass the Strait of Hormuz, and just how much oil and gas could find alternative ways to market? 

Will this experience change the way international and national oil companies from outside the region look at investment there as they seek to replenish their own dwindling reserves?   

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Let’s Talk Energy is a Rystad Energy Production.   

Join us for our annual Summits in Singapore, Houston and London: https://rystad.info/49X79uF

Let’s Talk Energy and dig into the increasingly contentious world of critical minerals. These materials, and particularly rare earth elements, have vaulted to the forefront of the growing intersection between energy and security, forcing the West to reckon with China’s almost complete dominance of a sector that is the building block for everything from renewable power generation and batteries to computer chips and radar systems. The US and many of its allies are trying to rapidly develop a viable alternative supply chain through a combination of industrial policy, trade diplomacy and innovation. While seen as a critical issue for both countries, the summit between China’s President Xi Jinping and US President Donald Trump resulted in no concrete advances in trade policy, leaving an uneasy truce between the two sides. 

How did China become so dominant in mining and processing critical minerals, particularly rare earth elements and how is it using this leverage? 

How can the West begin to close the gap and why are new approaches needed for non-Chinese companies to compete? 

What does a viable critical minerals industry in the West look like, and how long could it take to develop?  

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Let’s Talk Energy is a Rystad Energy Production.   

Join us for our annual Summits in Singapore, Houston and London: https://rystad.info/48VVL1M

Let’s Talk Energy and take the pulse of the aviation industry as it struggles to source enough fuel as the Middle East war dries up global supplies.   

Airlines are facing their biggest test since Covid. While Brent futures are up 70+% this year, jet fuel prices have doubled in Europe and risen 110% in Asia over 2025 averages.  

The situation caused the CEO of United Airlines to warn ticket prices could increase by about 20%. Lufthansa canceled 20,000 flights that it said were no longer profitable.  US budget carrier Spirit Airlines stopped flying altogether after declaring bankruptcy. And finally, Fatih Birol, head of the International Energy Agency (IEA), warned that Europe could start running out of jet fuel in as little as six weeks.   

How has the war hit jet fuel supplies, and why has the price squeeze been even worse for jet than for crude?  

How are refiners reacting to the shortage, and do high prices necessarily mean high margins for the sector?  

What can countries do – short of grounding flights – to manage this market and help consumers cope with the runup in prices?  

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Let’s Talk Energy is a Rystad Energy Production.   

This episode was recorded on Thursday, 30 April 2026.

Let’s Talk Energy and look at how oil-importing countries in Asia are coping with the loss of vital Middle East supply as benchmark prices hit four-year highs above $120. Following the start of the war in the Middle East, many refiners in Asia, who are the largest buyers of barrels transiting the Strait of Hormuz, have spent the two months scrambling to find alternative supplies and bidding up spot cargoes of certain grades. But, at least in one country, that is changing. Recently, China’s refiners have flipped their approach and are selling cargoes back into the market, as export curbs, price controls and price-sensitive consumers hurt the economics of turning the crude into fuel. The change comes at a time when so-called alternative supplies, including those from Russia and Iranian cargoes that had continued to transit until the most recent US blockade of Hormuz, come under increasing pressure. But first, we look at the dynamics surrounding the departure of the UAE from Opec+ and how it could impact the markets in the near-term and further into the future.  

How are major Asian importers finding the barrels they need at a price they can afford, while also shielding consumers from higher fuel costs? 

How has China’s strategic shift impacted both physical and futures markets and how might we expect that behavior to evolve?  

And will sanctions on one of China’s largest teapot refineries create a bidding war with Indian refiners over a limited available volume of Russian barrels.  

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Let’s Talk Energy is a Rystad Energy Production.   

Join us for our annual Summits in Singapore, Houston and London: https://rystad.info/4eNpspm  

Let’s Talk Energy with Datuk Bacho Pilong, Senior Vice President at Petronas and head of Malaysia Petroleum Management, the Southeast Asian nation’s upstream regulator. Malaysia is a long-time oil producer and is currently the world’s fifth-largest LNG exporter, providing crucial supply diversification for gas importers in the region. At the same time, the country’s own energy needs are growing rapidly as its economy matures, requiring new fields and further investment to keep both its domestic market and its international customers well supplied. Pilong’s task has taken on greater urgency following the war in the Middle East, which has caused energy importers, including Malaysia, to re-emphasize domestic supplies and has brought renewed interest from international companies looking to manage growing supply risks through greater geographic diversity in their portfolios.  

What are Malaysia’s goals for its upstream sector and what are its strategies to achieve them?  

How is the nation’s latest bid round progressing and what is the outlook for international investments?  

What will be the impact of the war in the Middle East on interest and activity in Malaysia’s upstream sector?  

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Let’s Talk Energy is a Rystad Energy Production.