WATCH the video on Substack by clicking the play button above or on YouTube (here).

STREAM audio only on Apple Podcasts (here), Spotify (here), or your favorite podcast player app.

DOWNLOAD a pdf of the slide deck by clicking the blue Download button below.

We are going to go back to the future this week to discuss the seemingly verboten topic of “sustainability.” Believe it or not, it is actually one of the most asked for topics at the various industry, board and management meetings we have spoken at this Fall. It’s never the first question and usually comes towards the end when a brave sole that likely works in this area asks “where do you think the topic of sustainability is headed?” As with everything we do, our focus is on how energy companies should think about the topic with a view toward the decade ahead—not today, not just the next 2.5 years, but what will stand the test time and the inevitable pendulum swings from what investors and politicians claim they want.

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Subscribe to Super-Spiked to receive all content via email.

* Veriten: You can also subscribe to Super-Spiked content via the Veriten website (here) and receive Veriten’s flagship COBT video podcast.

* YouTube channel for video only: You can subscribe directly to the video feed of

Super-Spiked Videopods on my YouTube channel Super-Spiked by Arjun Murti.

* Apple Podcasts, Spotify for audio only. You can subscribe directly to the audio only feed on Apple Podcasts, Spotify or your favorite podcast player app. The podcast is simply the audio for the YouTube videos.

📜 Credits

* Intro & Outro music: Wolf Hoffman: Concerto for 2 Cellos in G Minor, Rv 531: I. Allegro Moderato.

* This episode of Super-Spiked Videopods was edited and produced by Veriten Productions.

⚖️Disclaimer

I certify that these are my personal, strongly held views at the time of this post. My views are my own and not attributable to any affiliation, past or present. This is not an investment newsletter and there is no financial advice explicitly or implicitly provided here. My views can and will change in the future as warranted by updated analyses and developments. Some of my comments are made in jest for entertainment purposes; I sincerely mean no offense to anyone that takes issue.

WATCH the video on Substack by clicking the play button above or on YouTube (here).

STREAM audio only on Apple Podcasts (here), Spotify (here), or your favorite podcast player app.

We are in the midst of another heavy travel stretch so it’s going to be a short video this week. Three quick topics this week: (1) Takeaways from the recent energy outlooks that have been published? (2) Contrarian views on recent data points; (3) Why we think the current oil glut debate misses the bigger picture.

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* All Content: If you subscribe to Super-Spiked via email, you will receive all content to your inbox and it is also all on the Super-Spiked website. I have been aiming to publish about once a week, usually on Saturday.

Subscribe to Super-Spiked to receive all content directly via email.

* Veriten: You can also subscribe to Super-Spiked content via the Veriten website (here) and receive Veriten’s flagship COBT video podcast.

* YouTube channel for video only: You can subscribe directly to the video feed of

Super-Spiked Videopods on my YouTube channel Super-Spiked by Arjun Murti.

* Apple Podcasts, Spotify for audio only. You can subscribe directly to the audio only feed on Apple Podcasts, Spotify or your favorite podcast player app. The podcast is simply the audio for the YouTube videos.

📜 Credits

* Intro & Outro music: Wolf Hoffman: Concerto for 2 Cellos in G Minor, Rv 531: I. Allegro Moderato.

* This episode of Super-Spiked Videopods was edited and produced by Veriten Productions.

⚖️Disclaimer

I certify that these are my personal, strongly held views at the time of this post. My views are my own and not attributable to any affiliation, past or present. This is not an investment newsletter and there is no financial advice explicitly or implicitly provided here. My views can and will change in the future as warranted by updated analyses and developments. Some of my comments are made in jest for entertainment purposes; I sincerely mean no offense to anyone that takes issue.

WATCH the video on Substack by clicking the play button above or on YouTube (here).

STREAM audio only on Apple Podcasts (here), Spotify (here), or your favorite podcast player app.

DOWNLOAD a pdf of the slide deck by clicking the blue Download button below.

For the past month or so we have been pushing back on the “oil glut” narrative and the pervasive oil gloom that has existed really since Liberation Day in early April of this year, which coincided with news of an accelerated unwind of OPEC quota cuts. Another week has gone by. We are now nearly at the end of September and firmly in the post summer, pre-winter “shoulder months” period for refinery runs that in prior periods of weak balances has seen crude soften. At least through the September 24th recording date of this video, crude oil prices are hanging in there around the mid-$60s.

This week we check-in on where traditional energy stands in terms of growth and profitability, which are the drivers of absolute and relative equity performance. As we have previously noted, the biggest challenge the sector faces is not unfavorable narratives from leading macro agencies or environmental activists, but a now nearly 2-year period of EPS underperformance and a softening in profitability metrics.

Our two key messages this week are (1) we believe we are now much closer to the trough of what we think has been a 2-2.5-year mini-downcycle following peak oil prices seen immediately after the start of the Russia-Ukraine War in 2022. and (2) As a result of where current profitability is and where we think it is headed in coming years, Energy should close the gap between its current discounted 3% market cap weighting in favor of its 5% earnings weighting in the S&P 500.

It remains our view that 2020 marked the bottom of a structural downcycle that began in 2008 and that 2025 will ultimately prove to be year 5 of a structurally better period for profitability that we expect to last through at least the end of this decade. We reiterate our long-standing call that the energy sector will return to a market cap weighting in the S&P 500 closer to its historic 8%-10% range.

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* All Content: If you subscribe to Super-Spiked via email, you will receive all content to your inbox and it is also all on the Super-Spiked website. I have been aiming to publish about once a week, usually on Saturday.

Subscribe to Super-Spiked to receive all content via email. Also available at https://veriten.com.

* Veriten: You can also subscribe to Super-Spiked content via the Veriten website (here) and receive Veriten’s flagship COBT video podcast.

* YouTube channel for video only: You can subscribe directly to the video feed of

Super-Spiked Videopods on my YouTube channel Super-Spiked by Arjun Murti.

* Apple Podcasts, Spotify for audio only. You can subscribe directly to the audio only feed on Apple Podcasts, Spotify or your favorite podcast player app. The podcast is simply the audio for the YouTube videos.

📜 Credits

* Intro & Outro music: Wolf Hoffman: Concerto for 2 Cellos in G Minor, Rv 531: I. Allegro Moderato.

* This episode of Super-Spiked Videopods was edited and produced by Veriten Productions.

⚖️Disclaimer

I certify that these are my personal, strongly held views at the time of this post. My views are my own and not attributable to any affiliation, past or present. This is not an investment newsletter and there is no financial advice explicitly or implicitly provided here. My views can and will change in the future as warranted by updated analyses and developments. Some of my comments are made in jest for entertainment purposes; I sincerely mean no offense to anyone that takes issue.

WATCH the video on Substack by clicking the play button above or on YouTube (here).

STREAM audio only on Apple Podcasts (here), Spotify (here), or your favorite podcast player app.

We have started a heavy Fall travel schedule, with our annual talk at the Oxford Energy Seminar last week and a corporate event in the Rocky Mountains this past week. We wanted to provide a trio of “long-takes” that are jumping out at us: (1) a burst in energy policy rationality and normalization that is being seen from three areas that were previously all in in "The Energy Transition"--California, Canada, and the IEA. (2) we continue to see mounting evidence that fears of an "oil glut" are way overdone, though we likely still need to get through potential shoulder month, seasonal softness over the next 4-8 weeks. Regardless, we believe we are in a bottoming phase for oil-leveraged energy equities which have been very out of favor. (3) A reminder that it is the outlook for returns and growth, not “peak demand” or “oil glut” narratives the IEA or Street analysts, that will drive energy equities.

🔔 4 Ways to Subscribe

* All Content: If you subscribe to Super-Spiked via email, you will receive all content to your inbox and it is also all on the Super-Spiked website. I have been aiming to publish about once a week, usually on Saturday.

Subscribe to Super-Spiked to receive all content directly via email.

* Veriten: You can also subscribe to Super-Spiked content via the Veriten website (here) and receive Veriten’s flagship COBT video podcast.

* YouTube channel for video only: You can subscribe directly to the video feed of Super-Spiked Videopods on my YouTube channel Super-Spiked by Arjun Murti.

* Apple Podcasts, Spotify for audio only. You can subscribe directly to the audio only feed on Apple Podcasts, Spotify or your favorite podcast player app. The podcast is simply the audio for the YouTube videos.

📜 Credits

* Intro & Outro music: Wolf Hoffman: Concerto for 2 Cellos in G Minor, Rv 531: I. Allegro Moderato.

* This episode of Super-Spiked Videopods was edited and produced by Veriten Productions.

⚖️Disclaimer

I certify that these are my personal, strongly held views at the time of this post. My views are my own and not attributable to any affiliation, past or present. This is not an investment newsletter and there is no financial advice explicitly or implicitly provided here. My views can and will change in the future as warranted by updated analyses and developments. Some of my comments are made in jest for entertainment purposes; I sincerely mean no offense to anyone that takes issue.

WATCH the video on Substack by clicking the play button above or on YouTube (here).

STREAM audio only on Apple Podcasts (here), Spotify (here), or your favorite podcast player app.

As all of you that have been watching our video podcasts or reading our posts over the years by now surely know, our focus at Super-Spiked and at Veriten has been on the long-term outlook for the energy sector, not the shorter-term oil price guessing game. But in recent weeks, we have not been able to resist weighing in on what we think is an excessively bearish consensus view of oil prices—the perceived massive oil glut—that has been weighing heavily on energy equity sentiment since the early April so-called "Liberation Day" tariff announcements that coincided with OPEC+ accelerating the unwind of a series of voluntary production cuts. That double whammy has driven an overwhelming consensus sentiment to be bearish oil demand while also assuming a surge in both non-OPEC and OPEC crude supply would drive oil prices to $50 or lower in 2025.

But we are now 5.5 months past that early April bearish shift, and crude oil prices, at least so far, are proving far more resilient than expected even as OPEC+ has made incremental moves to unwind production cuts. Last week in a written post (here), we linked the excessive bearish near-term sentiment to a similar overhang that exists on the long-term oil view, where there is still a lingering let's call it a "net zero world" overhang that crude oil demand will peak in coming years or at best have minimal growth. We have observed that using OPEC Research analyses, rather than the IEA as a baseline, shows far less cyclical or structural crude oil oversupply. Yes, there is a still some softness that might be expected for coming months, but nothing like the "oil glut" that everyone fears.

This week we follow up on last week's written post on this topic to set the record straight on a couple of items, address pushbacks to our pushback to anti-oil and gas macro biases in short-term analyses, and raise some new points on the near- and long-term oil macro outlook. There are 4 major areas we will discuss: (1) how we are thinking about OPEC+'s quota unwind; (2) China oil demand; (3) the role of US shale going forward; and (4) is there any chance the oil glut bears could still be proven correct.

🔔 4 Ways to Subscribe

* All Content: If you subscribe to Super-Spiked via email, you will receive all content to your inbox and it is also all on the Super-Spiked website. I have been aiming to publish about once a week, usually on Saturday.

Subscribe to Super-Spiked to receive all content via email. Also available at https://veriten.com.

* Veriten: You can also subscribe to Super-Spiked content via the Veriten website (here) and receive Veriten’s flagship COBT video podcast.

* YouTube channel for video only: You can subscribe directly to the video feed of

Super-Spiked Videopods on my YouTube channel Super-Spiked by Arjun Murti.

* Apple Podcasts, Spotify for audio only. You can subscribe directly to the audio only feed on Apple Podcasts, Spotify or your favorite podcast player app. The podcast is simply the audio for the YouTube videos.

📜 Credits

* Intro & Outro music: Wolf Hoffman: Concerto for 2 Cellos in G Minor, Rv 531: I. Allegro Moderato.

* This episode of Super-Spiked Videopods was edited and produced by Veriten Productions.

⚖️Disclaimer

I certify that these are my personal, strongly held views at the time of this post. My views are my own and not attributable to any affiliation, past or present. This is not an investment newsletter and there is no financial advice explicitly or implicitly provided here. My views can and will change in the future as warranted by updated analyses and developments. Some of my comments are made in jest for entertainment purposes; I sincerely mean no offense to anyone that takes issue.

WATCH the video on Substack by clicking the play button above or on YouTube (here).

STREAM audio only on Apple Podcasts (here), Spotify (here), or your favorite podcast player app.

We have a bonus Super-Spiked video podcast on a week we were not expecting to publish due to a college drop off. But last weekend we couldn’t resist digging into trying to understand why crude oil prices have been far more resilient in the face of unexpected OPEC quota increases and a seemingly lackluster economic backdrop. Our punchline is that while we agree there is risk of oil price softness in the back-half of this year and early 2026, underlying crude oil supply/demand balances are not anywhere near as oversupplied as consensus fears. We believe fears of a crash and potential extended bear market are way overdone. We are also gaining confidence that by the time we get to 2H2026 and 2027, oil price risk shifts more meaningfully to the upside.

The main points of difference in our more constructive outlook are (1) to disaggregate black crude oil from the more widely reported and followed overall liquids figures; and (2) to give greater consideration to OPEC Research’s Monthly Oil Market Report versus the more broadly used equivalent report (Oil Market Report) from the IEA. Over the past month, we have published several posts (here, here, and here) that have examined the long-term outlook from various macro forecasting agencies, consultants, and oil companies. We conclude OPEC Research leads the pack on being most realistic and pragmatic and was least impacted by “net zero / energy transition” madness of the prior 4-5 years. That doesn’t mean they are necessarily better at short-term supply/demand balances, but we don’t think they should be entirely ignored or dismissed either.

As a reminder, at Super-Spiked and Veriten, our focus is on the long-term outlook for energy markets and companies. We have zero interest in joining the short-term oil price guessing game that the Street and others tend to focus on. But in this case, the prevailing bearish narrative around crude oil is so pronounced and at odds with what we are seeing, we thought it worth commenting.

It remains our view that prudent risk management suggests oil companies and investors should always be prepared for the potential to have a “normal” trough, which we would describe as low $50s for a 12-month period. Our message today is not to ignore that long-standing advice. But rather to recognize that sentiment is likely way too bearish and that medium- and longer-term risks are skewed toward better outcomes than consensus narratives suggest.

Exhibit 1: Underlying “black crude oil” balances using OPEC’s MOMR appears significantly less bearish than implied “liquids” oversupply using IEA OMR balances

Source: IEA, OPEC, Veriten.

🔔 4 Ways to Subscribe

* All Content: If you subscribe to Super-Spiked via email, you will receive all content to your inbox and it is also all on the Super-Spiked website. I have been aiming to publish about once a week, usually on Saturday.

Subscribe to Super-Spiked to receive all content via email. Also available at https://veriten.com.

* Veriten: You can also subscribe to Super-Spiked content via the Veriten website (here) and receive Veriten’s flagship COBT video podcast.

* YouTube channel for video only: You can subscribe directly to the video feed of

Super-Spiked Videopods on my YouTube channel Super-Spiked by Arjun Murti.

* Apple Podcasts, Spotify for audio only. You can subscribe directly to the audio only feed on Apple Podcasts, Spotify or your favorite podcast player app. The podcast is simply the audio for the YouTube videos.

📜 Credits

* Intro & Outro music: Wolf Hoffman: Concerto for 2 Cellos in G Minor, Rv 531: I. Allegro Moderato.

* This episode of Super-Spiked Videopods was edited and produced by Veriten Productions.

⚖️Disclaimer

I certify that these are my personal, strongly held views at the time of this post. My views are my own and not attributable to any affiliation, past or present. This is not an investment newsletter and there is no financial advice explicitly or implicitly provided here. My views can and will change in the future as warranted by updated analyses and developments. Some of my comments are made in jest for entertainment purposes; I sincerely mean no offense to anyone that takes issue.

WATCH the video on Substack by clicking the play button above or on YouTube (here).

STREAM audio only on Apple Podcasts (here), Spotify (here), or your favorite podcast player app.

DOWNLOAD a pdf of the slide deck by clicking the blue Download button below.

This week we extend our “Obliterating Peak Oil Demand” series to take on other mainstream macro narratives with a focus on natural gas. We have to admit, it did not even cross our mind that the outlook for global gas demand was anything other than continued growth for the foreseeable future. In fact, there are a number of high-profile macro forecasters projecting a permanent peak in global natural gas demand by as soon as 2030 and in some cases the mid-2030s. This, in our view, is pure insanity. We will take the over, and in fact the way over, that global natural gas demand will grow for many, many decades into the future.

Perhaps we were lulled into a false sense of presumed natural gas growth optimism based on what we think is a broad-based acceptance of US natural gas growth due to LNG export expansion and now AI-driven power demand growth. But we are realizing that a positive view of US growth is not necessarily extending to a positive view on global natural gas growth for some of the major macro forecasting agencies.

The final topic we discuss this week is a warning to ignore energy macro forecasters that merely tweak prior "transition" assumptions by pushing them slightly out in time. It was an article in the Financial Times this past week that caught our attention on this front and we would strongly encourage energy executives, investors, and board members to simply ignore and pushback on energy macro outlooks that are not grounded in energy's natural hierarchy of needs, which acknowledges that energy availability and reliability is all everyone everywhere cares about. Macro forecasts that prioritize counting carbon should not be the basis for how to think about capital allocation.

Before we dig in, two reminders. If you are listening to this on Spotify or Apple Podcasts, there is a corresponding video you can find on YouTube (here), Substack (here), or Veriten’s website (here). And second, this will be our final Super-Spiked of the summer. We will return after Labor Day.

Exhibit 1: We do not agree with energy macro forecasting groups that are calling for a peak in global gas demand by 2030 or 2035

Source: Energy Institute, IEA, OPEC, Veriten.

Exhibit 2: We do not agree with the projected sharp slowdown in global gas consumption growth made by some leading energy macro forecasters

Source: Energy Institute, IEA, OPEC, Veriten.

Peak natural gas even more non-sensical than oil

* The idea that global natural gas demand will peak, or even slow, by 2030 is even more far-fetched than the oil debate.

* Global power demand expected to grow at a healthy clip.

* 24x7x365 requirement supports base-load natural gas, coal, nuclear.

* Geothermal, while worth studying, is still unproven at scale; hydro is niche.

* Solar + batteries will grow in areas with high solar radiation. Wind is also location specific.

* Natural gas does need to compete on overall price/cost economics with alternatives.

* Access to capital matters in natural gas, which lacks the mega caps seen in the oil value chain.

Don’t fall for “delayed transition” narratives

* There is now broad-based recognition that the “easy energy transition”” is a bad joke that has adverse societal consequences.

* Our Obliterating Peak Oil Demand series, which we have extended to coal and natural gas, illustrates the absurdity.

* The mindset that everyone deserves to be energy rich is gaining in acceptance.

* What to watch: (1) With upcoming high profile energy outlooks, watch for “delayed transition” language, which is a cop out. (2) If you are a corporate executive, board member, or investor, don’t fall for it in making capital allocation decisions.

Exhibit 3: Don’t fall for “delayed transition” narratives

Source: Financial Times.

⚡️ On A Personal Note: Summer Reading List

🔔 4 Ways to Subscribe

* All Content: If you subscribe to Super-Spiked via email, you will receive all content to your inbox and it is also all on the Super-Spiked website. I have been aiming to publish about once a week, usually on Saturday.

Subscribe to Super-Spiked to receive all content via email. Also available at https://veriten.com.

* Veriten: You can also subscribe to Super-Spiked content via the Veriten website (here) and receive Veriten’s flagship COBT video podcast.

* YouTube channel for video only: You can subscribe directly to the video feed of

Super-Spiked Videopods on my YouTube channel Super-Spiked by Arjun Murti.

* Apple Podcasts, Spotify for audio only. You can subscribe directly to the audio only feed on Apple Podcasts, Spotify or your favorite podcast player app. The podcast is simply the audio for the YouTube videos.

📜 Credits

* Intro & Outro music: Wolf Hoffman: Concerto for 2 Cellos in G Minor, Rv 531: I. Allegro Moderato.

* This episode of Super-Spiked Videopods was edited and produced by Veriten Productions.

⚖️Disclaimer

I certify that these are my personal, strongly held views at the time of this post. My views are my own and not attributable to any affiliation, past or present. This is not an investment newsletter and there is no financial advice explicitly or implicitly provided here. My views can and will change in the future as warranted by updated analyses and developments. Some of my comments are made in jest for entertainment purposes; I sincerely mean no offense to anyone that takes issue.

WATCH the video on Substack by clicking the play button above or on YouTube (here).

STREAM audio only on Apple Podcasts (here), Spotify (here), or your favorite podcast player app.

Last week we did a check-in on how the answers to the tactical questions for 2025 we posed back in January were faring (here). This week we go through our Big Themes for 2025 which we had also highlighted back in January (here). We look at what’s in and what’s out through the lens of macro frameworks, public policy implications, and finally corporate strategy and energy sub-sector outlooks. We will publish our final summer Super-Spiked next week before taking a 2-week hiatus until after Labor Day.

BIG THEMES FOR 2025

* Energy scenario normalization

* Power surge: This generation’s super-cycle

* Energy sources and technologies

MACRO FRAMEWORK IMPLICATIONS

* Net Zero and “The Energy Transition” are out. Energy policies that will drive GDP growth and meeting energy’s natural hierarchy of needs are in.

* Solving for everyone on Earth someday becoming energy rich is in. Assuming people will choose to stay poor is out.

* OPEC Research is in. Energy macro agencies and oil companies that were driven by “net zero” narratives are out (for now).

What to watch:

* BP Energy Outlook (Sep), IEA WEO (Oct)

* Africa’s significant TAM (total address market): Up to 60 million b/d of desired oil demand versus 5 million b/d today

POLICY IMPLICATIONS

* Energy policy that drives long-term affordability, reliability, and security are in. Policies that start with counting CO2 are out.

* IRA is out. Meeting AI demand is in.

* Some of the above is in. All of the above was never in.

* Regions that are long energy resource should all be in, but some are still out (California) or not sufficiently in (Canada).

What to watch:

* US natural gas midstream infrastructure

* Canada oil and natural gas export infrastructure

* Reliability, affordability reforms in California, Western Europe

CORPORATE IMPLACATIONS

* Companies exposed to power value chain are in. Natural gas is in. Oil value chain is still out.

* Solar + batteries are still in. Wind is out.

* Nuclear is in. “Green” hydrogen is out. Geothermal hoping to be in.

* IPPs are in. SMID oils (E&P, OFS) are out, though SMID OFS diversifying into power are in.

* Companies driving new technology development in regions that are short energy resource are in…

* …Companies that exist to exploit rich-world government subsidies in the name of CO2 accounting are out.

🔔 4 Ways to Subscribe

* All Content: If you subscribe to Super-Spiked via email, you will receive all content to your inbox and it is also all on the Super-Spiked website. I have been aiming to publish about once a week, usually on Saturday.

Subscribe to Super-Spiked to receive all content via email. Also available at https://veriten.com.

* Veriten: You can now also subscribe to Super-Spiked content via the Veriten website (here) and also receive Veriten’s flagship COBT video podcast.

* YouTube channel for video only: You can subscribe directly to the video feed of

Super-Spiked Videopods on my YouTube channel Super-Spiked by Arjun Murti.

* Apple Podcasts, Spotify for audio only. You can subscribe directly to the audio only feed on Apple Podcasts, Spotify or your favorite podcast player app. The podcast is simply the audio for the YouTube videos.

⚖️Disclaimer

I certify that these are my personal, strongly held views at the time of this post. My views are my own and not attributable to any affiliation, past or present. This is not an investment newsletter and there is no financial advice explicitly or implicitly provided here. My views can and will change in the future as warranted by updated analyses and developments. Some of my comments are made in jest for entertainment purposes; I sincerely mean no offense to anyone that takes issue.

📜 Credits

* Intro & Outro music: Wolf Hoffman: Concerto for 2 Cellos in G Minor, Rv 531: I. Allegro Moderato.

* This episode of Super-Spiked Videopods was edited and produced by Veriten Productions.

WATCH the video on Substack by clicking the play button above or on YouTube (here).

STREAM audio only on Apple Podcasts (here), Spotify (here), or your favorite podcast player app.

This week we check-in on how our “Top 10 Tactical Questions for 2025” published on January 25, 2025 (here) are faring.

MACRO ORIENTED

(1) Will energy’s S&P weighting increase in 2025?

Original answer: Yes.

Mid-year progress: Wrong so far, but narrative discussed is on-track.

(2) Will we see energy outlooks from high-profile organizations stop treating “net zero” as if it were the defining issue?

Original answer: Change is coming, but will take time and we’ll get wishy washy language in 2025.

Mid-year progress: This is on-track to happen more quickly than we anticipated.

(3) Can oil become great again in 2025?

Original answer: No, Super Vol not super-cycle remains our view.

Mid-year progress: Correct so far.

GEOPOLITICS & POLICY

(4) Will the IRA be repealed, reformed, or left alone?

Original answer: Reformed.

Mid-year progress: Probably we are technically correct in that the IRA was not repealed, but it was so meaningfully gutted that it very much feels like it was repealed.

(5) Will Trump make the Arctic great going forward?

Original answer: Yes.

Mid-year progress: Trump Administration is giving the Alaska/Arctic appropriate attention.

SUB-SECTOR OUTLOOKS

(6) Will power-exposed sectors lead the way in 2025?

Original answer: Yes.

Mid-year progress: Correct so far.

(7) What new technology area are you watching more closely to break-out in 2025?

Original answer: Autonomous driving.

Mid-year progress: The “robo taxi” market is nascent but starting to expand to more areas.

M&A

(8) Will we see an acceleration of O&G firms enter power markets and, if so, how?

Original answer: Yes and organic.

Mid-year progress: To be determined.

(9) Does the Venture Global IPO signal the tide is turning on energy sector capital formation?

Original answer: Yes.

Mid-year progress: Wrong so far.

(10) Will we see a surprising mega merger in energy?

Original answer: Yes.

Mid-year progress: Hasn’t happened yet.

🔔 4 Ways to Subscribe

* All Content: If you subscribe to Super-Spiked via email, you will receive all content to your inbox and it is also all on the Super-Spiked website. I have been aiming to publish about once a week, usually on Saturday.

Subscribe to Super-Spiked to receive all content via email. Also available at https://veriten.com.

* Veriten: You can now also subscribe to Super-Spiked content via the Veriten website (here) and also receive Veriten’s flagship COBT video podcast.

* YouTube channel for video only: You can subscribe directly to the video feed of

Super-Spiked Videopods on my YouTube channel Super-Spiked by Arjun Murti.

* Apple Podcasts, Spotify for audio only. You can subscribe directly to the audio only feed on Apple Podcasts, Spotify or your favorite podcast player app. The podcast is simply the audio for the YouTube videos.

⚖️Disclaimer

I certify that these are my personal, strongly held views at the time of this post. My views are my own and not attributable to any affiliation, past or present. This is not an investment newsletter and there is no financial advice explicitly or implicitly provided here. My views can and will change in the future as warranted by updated analyses and developments. Some of my comments are made in jest for entertainment purposes; I sincerely mean no offense to anyone that takes issue.

📜 Credits

* Intro & Outro music: Wolf Hoffman: Concerto for 2 Cellos in G Minor, Rv 531: I. Allegro Moderato.

* This episode of Super-Spiked Videopods was edited and produced by Veriten Productions.

WATCH the video on Substack by clicking the play button above or on YouTube (here).

STREAM audio only on Apple Podcasts (here), Spotify (here), or your favorite podcast player app.

DOWNLOAD a pdf of the slide deck by clicking the blue Download button below.

Last week we published a written post that took a fresh look at a long standing theme of ours “obliterating peak oil demand” (here). We dug into OPEC Research’s most recent World Oil Outlook report (here) to compare OPEC’s more optimistic view of long-term oil demand to more bearish forecasts from the IEA and frankly many other leading energy voices. Our own outlook is closely aligned with OPEC’s in recognizing the massive unmet energy needs of the other 7 billion people on Earth. The idea that anyone can know today that oil demand is going to permanently peak within the next decade is something we push back hard on. That post has sparked a number of questions, five of which we will aim to address today.

Our On A Personal Note this week remembers heavy metal pioneer Ozzy Osbourne, who passed away on July 21. I was fortunate to catch a Black Sabbath reunion tour in 2016.

🔔 4 Ways to Subscribe

* All Content: If you subscribe to Super-Spiked via email, you will receive all content to your inbox and it is also all on the Super-Spiked website. I have been aiming to publish about once a week, usually on Saturday.

Subscribe to Super-Spiked to receive all content via email. Also available at https://veriten.com..

* Veriten: You can now also subscribe to Super-Spiked content via the Veriten website (here) and also receive Veriten’s flagship COBT video podcast.

* YouTube channel for video only: You can subscribe directly to the video feed of

Super-Spiked Videopods on my YouTube channel Super-Spiked by Arjun Murti.

* Apple Podcasts, Spotify for audio only. You can subscribe directly to the audio only feed on Apple Podcasts, Spotify or your favorite podcast player app. The podcast is simply the audio for the YouTube videos.

⚖️Disclaimer

I certify that these are my personal, strongly held views at the time of this post. My views are my own and not attributable to any affiliation, past or present. This is not an investment newsletter and there is no financial advice explicitly or implicitly provided here. My views can and will change in the future as warranted by updated analyses and developments. Some of my comments are made in jest for entertainment purposes; I sincerely mean no offense to anyone that takes issue.

📜 Credits

* Intro & Outro music: Wolf Hoffman: Concerto for 2 Cellos in G Minor, Rv 531: I. Allegro Moderato.

* This episode of Super-Spiked Videopods was edited and produced by Veriten Productions.