In Episode 26 of The Energy Question, David Blackmon interviews Armand Paradis, the founder, and CEO of energy technology and intelligence firm ComboCurve.
In just 3 years since its founding, ComboCurve has grown to over 170 employees serving over 250 companies. The company's goal is to every energy professional’s life easier and more transparent by using and refining data from a broad variety of sources into forecasting tools that enable them to identify and deal with risks before they happen.
Armand is a brilliant and very entertaining guest who brings a wealth of real information to the table.
Enjoy.
The Energy Question Episode 22 - Armand Pradis
David Blackman [00:00:03] And. And hey, welcome to the energy question with David Blackman. I'm your host, David Blackman. And my very special guest today is Armand Paradise, the CEO and founder of Combo Curve, an energy analytics, that analytics firm based in Houston, correct?
Armand Pradis [00:00:26] Yes, sir.
David Blackman [00:00:27] Yeah. Well, thank you so much for doing the show. I really appreciate it. Before we get started with the Q&A about your business, just tell me a little bit about your background and how you came to, you know, have the idea of creating this company.
Armand Pradis [00:00:45] Absolutely. So, David, thank you so much for having me and I really appreciate your time. So, yeah, all my career has been in the energy industry. All my education has been in the energy industry as well. So, um, I graduated from the University of Louisiana and then I started to work for a small operator for five years or so and, and I learned all aspects of running an oil company from studying all the logs and the subsurface and the reservoir and, well, data and all the way to go into the field during the operations and working with the rec hands and the designing drilling and workover programs.
Armand Pradis [00:01:27] So, um, so I did that for roughly five years and, and then I decided to move to Houston and basically working for larger operators and learning how they run in their business. And I started to work for Statoil back then or Equinor right now. This is 2014.
David Blackman [00:01:49] Yeah.
Armand Pradis [00:01:50] So, um, so, and, and then, so I started to work for and Marcellus and Utica. So then we had roughly 3000 wells and operated and non-operated and, and in what I realize is the sheer amount of capital that we are spending every day on the, on the lot of non-op wells and a lot of operated wells. And, and this was happening during the like. This was the only shale boom. So every operators were spending money like crazy just keep drilling.
Armand Pradis [00:02:23] And what I realize is like we are spending capital but we don't have enough analysis behind it in a lot of cases. And the back then was very justifiable because the operators were learning they had access to a lot of capital and it was good times always roughly 100 and that's your gas was roughly around four bucks three or four bucks.
Armand Pradis [00:02:50] So they were making money and even immediate cash. Well, wasn't it was able to pay for itself and make some additional return. And but what I saw was something that is not sustainable in the long run. And a lot of it was due to using a lot of outdated and archaic software.
Armand Pradis [00:03:11] And so running an energy company is very complicated so you're making very big decisions every day, very expensive decisions, very CapEx, heavy decisions, and that you're dealing with and a lot of decisions that is not tangible. You drill and well 10,000 feet below the ground dealing with high-pressure environment depleted. Well, interference, fracking, you know, it just it was just complicated.
Armand Pradis [00:03:42] So and that was when I saw those, uh, when I saw those, the way that we were making a lot of these capital decisions, it just gave me an idea that this process needs to be materially improved to make better decisions longer. So yeah, that was the whole idea. That's why the whole idea behind Comicon started back then.
David Blackman [00:04:03] So tell me, tell me what the concept behind Combo Curve is for our readers, our readers, our viewers. Sorry, I'm used to writing stuff. You know, just tell us what the basic concept behind combo curve is.
Armand Pradis [00:04:19] Combo Curve. So any company, any companies involved in the energy space, they need to figure out how much reserves they have, how much production to have. So an oil company makes oil and gas and they sell oil and gas and that's how they make money, obviously. So.
Armand Pradis [00:04:37] So to predict how much oil and gas they're going to produce next month, next year, next year's next 50 years, and figuring out the cash flow associated with those volumes, you need to do forecasting and economics. So production forecasting and economics.
Armand Pradis [00:04:57] So that's what Comcast sells at its core. And but it requires a lot of bells and whistles around the to have a comprehensive solution. So so that's what Combo Curve allows you to do, basically forecasting your oil and gas production and performing detailed economics. And recently we advance to GSI or carbon forecasting as well. Just another way of forecasting and make that integrated with the rest of the forecasting to make a more comprehensive asset valuation.
David Blackman [00:05:31] Yeah. And this is becoming, you know, as, as you say, the the industry itself, as time moves ahead in not just the industry itself, but the whole environment around it with regulations and ESG and energy transition and, you know, all these other considerations, everything is becoming increasingly complex, really almost every day. Every day.
David Blackman [00:05:57] And when you're running these companies, it becomes so critical, even more important, right, to have up-to-date data, up to up to date analytical tools to to to use that data properly. Right. I mean, I you know, I was just talking with a fellow I knew way back in the 1990 who told me an anecdote about Exxon Mobil down in South Texas.
David Blackman [00:06:25] Another company had drilled a very prolific natural gas well on acreage adjacent to their acreage. And six months went by before Exxon even knew that well had been drilling completed. And the company estimated that that lack of knowledge about that cost them almost a quarter of $1,000,000,000 before they realized what was happening right next door. And so it's stories like that. I mean, that's a that's a real outlier kind of story. But, you know, it's there's a thousand anecdotes like that in the oil patch.
Armand Pradis [00:07:02] Absolutely. And, you know, again, every day we're drilling a sheer number of wells and very expensive wells, and the amount of data only increases exponentially. And however, a lot of software that we're using to make a lot of financial decisions, it was designed 30, 40 years ago. Right. And they cannot even handle that amount of data. And they are not designed for that detailed analysis.
Armand Pradis [00:07:28] So it just tells you that technology vividly lacks. And like from when I opened up some of those offers and the first day and I figured, man, I might traveling back in time. So this just doesn't make sense. And I guess it was it was that big of a shock to me that why are we even using this? It just is so difficult.
David Blackman [00:07:52] Yeah,.
Armand Pradis [00:07:52] So, so combo stone. And into this day and age, this is not appropriate to keep using these tools. So especially when you're making multimillion-dollar, multibillion-dollar decisions and you need to have access to best and top technology to make those decisions.
Armand Pradis [00:08:09] So yeah, I'm 100% and I'm not surprised and this is not a lot of those anecdotes exist every day because of the lack of technology. The technologies are very behind and is very hard evidence. There's plenty of room to build in the energy space.
David Blackman [00:08:28] Yeah. And your company has grown pretty rapidly, right? I didn't. I read that you have 170 employees now. Is that is that the number I saw?
[00:08:37] 150 getting we have roughly we have roughly ten or 15 positions open, so we are not too far from under 70. So so yeah, we are officially the fastest growing energy technology company in the world. And there we grew to 250, 450 personnel in just two years and have just released in our product and we released that in May 2020 during the height of the COVID.
Armand Pradis [00:09:04] So and then of yeah, it was the craziest time to release any product and the negative oil prices and everything.
David Blackman [00:09:13] Yeah.
Armand Pradis [00:09:15] Yeah it was tough times but in the course of a. One-half years brought roughly 300 companies using our products. And if some companies from one match up to two companies like Exxon level, so very large. Operator.
Armand Pradis [00:09:30] So we have the full spectrum and, and all types of clients within the energy space and the subsectors like from banks or banks, auditors and operators, mental shops and consultants and all using complex.
David Blackman [00:09:48] That's amazing. You also have this data integration tool that I'm very interested in learning about. Combo sync.
Armand Pradis [00:09:55] Yeah,.
David Blackman [00:09:56] That and you're able to build connections into compa...
