Oil & Gas Journal ReEnterprised

North America's oil supply outlook is entering a new phase. According to Enverus' latest long-term analysis, US shale is "aging, not broken."

In this episode of the Oil & Gas Journal ReEnterprised podcast, Mikaila Adams speaks with Dane Gregoris, managing director at Enverus Intelligence Research, about the data behind the firm's outlook for North American oil production.

The discussion explores:

Gregoris explains why Enverus expects US production to remain relatively stable over the next decade, what rising marginal supply costs could mean for markets, and how the North American energy landscape may evolve as the industry's most productive shale resources mature.

spotfire.com/industry/Energy

In this Insights episode of the Oil & Gas Journal ReEnterprised podcast, downstream editor and lead reporter Robert Brelsford concludes the conversation on process safety management with Joe Barnes, principal of Barnes’ Engineering Consultants and a veteran oil and gas operations, maintenance, reliability, and major-projects leader with more than 30 years of industry experience.

Barnes outlines five priorities for senior leaders and plant managers: maintaining strong operating procedures and management-of-change practices; routinely auditing lockout/tagout procedures; providing effective operator and supervisor training; and preventing deferred maintenance, particularly on critical equipment. He also emphasizes the importance of leadership visibility in the field, encouraging executives and plant managers to regularly engage with operating personnel and understand the condition of equipment and processes firsthand.

During the conversation, Robert and Joe examine the tension between profitability, market pressures, and the investments required to operate safely. Barnes explains why strong financial performance should support investment in equipment, maintenance, training, and people rather than encourage short-term decisions that could increase risk. He also discusses how management should evaluate efficiency measures, staffing changes, maintenance deferrals, turnaround modifications, and capital reductions while keeping process and personal safety central to decision-making.

The two consider how facilities can demonstrate that process safety systems are working in practice through dedicated internal audits, periodic third-party reviews, corrective-action follow-through, and the use of real-world incident scenarios in operator training. Barnes explains how investigation findings can be converted into case-based exercises that help workers recognize hazards, assess risks, and develop the right responses before returning to the field. He also recommends reviewing procedures, emergency-response plans, and process hazards periodically to help ensure they remain current and effective.

Robert and Joe further explore how leaders can create an environment in which employees and contractors feel comfortable reporting weak signals, near misses, and other bad news. Barnes argues that management must investigate reported concerns, respond visibly, and demonstrate that risk identification leads to action. He outlines immediate steps for strengthening process safety culture, including communicating clear and unwavering expectations, protecting critical maintenance, auditing what matters, rewarding the right behaviors, and improving workers’ understanding of process limits.

Barnes closes by emphasizing the importance of visible and consistent leadership, stronger communication of lessons between facilities, and treating process safety as a core operating requirement rather than a temporary investment. He also discusses the role of Barnes’ Engineering Consultants in developing training modules based on major incidents and offers a final reminder that technology and artificial intelligence can improve operations, but human care, judgment, and decision-making remain essential to preventing major incidents.

Elevating process safety above short-term profits ensures sustainable, long-term resilience, Joe Barnes, Barnes’ Engineering Consultants.

Joe Barnes is principal of Barnes’ Engineering Consultants and a veteran oil and gas operations, maintenance, reliability, and major-projects leader with more than 30 years of industry experience. Barnes can be reached on his business mobile at (713) 392-7301.

Editor's Note: This is Part II of a two-part conversation. Check here for Part I. 

Editor's Note: The conversation is broken down into two episodes. Listen today to Part I and stay tuned for Part II. 

In this Insights episode of the Oil & Gas Journal ReEnterprised podcast, downstream editor and lead reporter Robert Brelsford talks with Joe Barnes, principal of Barnes’ Engineering Consultants and a veteran oil and gas operations, maintenance, reliability, and major-projects leader with more than 30 years of industry experience.

Barnes, who spent roughly half of his career in refining and half in exploration and production, discusses why process safety management must remain a central concern for everyone working in oil and gas—not only safety professionals. Drawing on his experience with a major refinery accident and the aftermath of a separate major offshore incident, Barnes explains why good intentions are not enough to prevent major incidents, particularly in times when the potential for high margins could tempt operator’s into promoting maximized production over execution of maintenance on processing and production installations to ensure safe and reliable operations.

During the conversation, Robert and Joe examine recurring root causes identified through Barnes’ review of process-safety incidents dating back to the mid-1980s, including absence of  leadership, poor communication, inadequate risk identification and mitigation, aging equipment, deferred maintenance, workforce turnover, and the loss of experienced personnel. They also discuss why the industry has sometimes failed to consistently share and apply lessons from previous incidents, particularly when investigation findings are not widely accessible.

The two consider the difference between personal safety and process safety metrics, the warning signs that preceded the 2005 BP Texas City refinery explosion, and the role of management of change (MOC) in evaluating staffing, maintenance, turnaround, efficiency, and capital-reduction decisions. Barnes also outlines the questions boards and executive leaders should be asking to ensure that process safety remains a business priority across economic cycles.

Robert and Joe further explore how refineries can use past incident scenarios as practical training tools, strengthen external oversight and auditing, encourage employees and contractors to report weak signals and near misses, and build a process-safety culture that rewards risk identification and mitigation. Barnes closes with recommendations for protecting critical maintenance, communicating expectations clearly, auditing what matters, and keeping people at the center of process safety decision-making.

Offshore energy infrastructure faces an increasingly complex mix of cyber and physical security threats as digitalization, remote operations, and geopolitical tensions reshape the risk landscape.

In this Insights episode of the Oil & Gas Journal ReEnterprised podcast, OGJ Upstream Editor Alex Procyk discusses how offshore installations are becoming targets for ransomware attacks, navigation-system interference, supply-chain compromise, and physical sabotage.

There is a growing shift from opportunistic cybercrime toward state-linked and organized criminal actors seeking long-term access to critical infrastructure. As operational technology (OT) and information technology (IT) systems become more interconnected, attackers are increasingly exploiting remote access pathways to move from corporate networks into critical operational systems.

Traditional perimeter-based security models are proving inadequate for modern offshore operations and outlines emerging approaches such as cyber-informed engineering, OT-focused monitoring, micro-segmentation, defense-in-depth strategies, and integrated cyber-physical security frameworks designed to improve resilience across offshore platforms, vessels, ports, and subsea infrastructure. Cyber-informed engineering and OT-native security controls are emerging as key defensive strategies.

Offshore environments present unique security risks, Oil & Gas Journal, Members Only, Alex Procyk, Aug. 5, 2026.

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This episode is sponsored by Bishopric Industries.

What began as an oil and gas industry where workers relied on experience, instinct, and sometimes...luck...has evolved into one built on rigorous safety systems, risk management, and continuous improvement. In this Then & Now episode of the Oil & Gas ReEnterprised podcast, host Laura Bell-Hammer traces the history of safety in oil and gas, from the uncontrolled Spindletop blowout of 1901 and the invention of the blowout preventer to the structured health, safety, security, and environmental (HSE) programs that guide operations today.

Along the way, OGJ examines major events that reshaped the industry's approach to risk. From Piper Alpha and Texas City to Deepwater Horizon, each disaster exposed vulnerabilities that led to lasting changes in regulations, process safety management, offshore oversight, and industry standards. These lessons helped move safety beyond protecting equipment and toward protecting workers, communities, and critical infrastructure.

The episode also explores how technology is redefining safety and security in the modern energy sector. Smart PPE, predictive maintenance, real-time monitoring, and remote operations are helping identify risks before incidents occur. At the same time, growing digital connectivity has expanded the industry's focus to include cybersecurity, with events such as the Colonial Pipeline ransomware attack highlighting the connection between cyber threats and physical operations. 

In this Market Focus episode of the Oil & Gas Journal ReEnterprised podcast, Conglin Xu, managing editor, economics, talks with Dennis Kissler, senior vice-president of trading at BOK Financial to discuss what a lasting de-escalation in the Middle East might look like, how OPEC+ strategies might evolve, whether $80-plus crude moves US shale, and where dependence on Gulf chokepoints stands in the years ahead.

Dennis Kissler, senior vice-president of trading at BOK Financial, specializes in developing unique hedging strategies to assist producers as well as end users in minimizing energy market risk exposure. A registered commodity trading advisor (CTA), he has worked in the futures trading/hedging industry for more than 27 years, including 12 years as a floor trader/broker at the CME exchange, where he still owns a floor membership.

Kissler has worked for BOK Financial since 2007 helping to establish and grow the energy trade desk which now ranks among some of the largest regional trading/hedging desks in the US. He is a featured commentary provider for various news outlets including Bloomberg News, Reuters, Financial Times, Wall Street Journal, and CNBC.

Drawing on two recent Oil & Gas Journal commentaries, this Insights episode of the Oil & Gas Journal ReEnterprised podcast explores why Iraq is once again pursuing alternative pipeline routes through Syria and Türkiye, how expanded export options could strengthen the country's economic resilience, and why these developments matter not only for Iraq, but for global energy markets.

We also examine whether Iraq's growing development ambitions are beginning to diverge from the production constraints imposed by OPEC, and what that could mean for the organization and the broader oil industry.

The discussion incorporates recent reporting on Iraq's agreements with US companies and renewed efforts to revive westbound export infrastructure, placing today's headlines into a broader strategic context. Rather than focusing on day-to-day geopolitical developments, the episode takes a step back to consider the long-term implications for producers, investors, pipeline operators, and energy policymakers.

Hormuz closure emphasizes Iraq’s need for a second oil export route

Reassessing Iraq's OPEC membership in light of national development priorities

Iraq signs 48 deals with US companies during PM’s visit to Washington

Iraq eyes Türkiye, Syria pipeline to curb Strait of Hormuz reliance

The rapid expansion of AI data centers in West Texas is creating a major water demand challenge, prompting industry interest in treating and reusing the Permian basin’s vast volumes of produced water as a potential cooling-water source.

In this Insights episode of the Oil & Gas Journal ReEnterprised podcast, Alex Procyk, upstream editor, reviews the potential.  

Produced water is extremely saline—often far saltier than seawater—making conventional desalination expensive, but emerging technologies, including systems that use data-center waste heat to drive treatment processes, could improve economics while generating valuable byproducts such as lithium and other minerals. 

Large-scale adoption will depend on proving treatment costs at commercial scale, establishing clear permitting pathways, developing new business agreements between energy and data center operators, and effectively managing disposal and seismicity risks associated with concentrated waste streams.

Insights: Permian produced water needs someplace new to go - a discussion with Laura Capper (Part I), OGJ

Insights: Permian produced water needs someplace new to go - a discussion with Laura Capper (Part II), OGJ

Insights: Produced water in the Permian basin (Part I), OGJ

Insights: Produced water in the Permian basin (Part II), OGJ

Insights: What’s next for Permian basin electrification?, OGJ

The Permian’s Next Boom Has a Water Problem, Produced Water Society 

Ranchers are watching the data center boom with growing concern, AGDaily