Recorded on July 25, 2025 and August 3, 2025

Episode 137 of the PetroNerds podcast is a heavy hitting energy dense China focussed special.

Trisha Curtis, CEO of PetroNerds and host of the PetroNerds podcast, sits down with Jason Isaac, CEO of the American Energy Institute to discuss China, energy and power generation, and energy security and national security.

This podcast was prompted by a question Trisha and Jason received when recording a livestream on the Big Beautiful Bill. Someone asked if they could talk more about the US energy industry in the context of national security and energy security and China’s rising power and military threat. In this Fliparoo podcast, Jason acts as the host and asks Trisha a series of questions that allow her to dive into the competition between the US and China and lay out the framework and importance of energy in this imperative head to head battle.

Before getting started, Trisha updates listeners on everything happening in the oil market and the economy with a fresh introduction covering the recent OPEC output increase, Russia’s provocative tweets, and the Fed.

Trisha and Jason then cover everything from the Chinese grid and power generation to the US grid and power generation, the use of power generation in manufacturing military equipment, Europe’s supposed increase in military spending, Shell’s pulling out of a sustainability group, Chevron’s purchase of Hess, and US shale productivity. Trisha specifically gets into US national security and the link to energy security, Chinese energy consumption, US power generation and consumption, Chinese power generation, Chinese oil demand, and how competing head to head with China means competing head to head with China on energy.

Two great takeaway quotes from Trisha Curtis: “Energy is everything in global competition” and “Shell is waking up to the reality of energy.”

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Recorded on June 11, 2025

Episode 136 of the PetroNerds podcast is a heavy-hitting midstream special with Howard Energy Partners. Your host, Trisha Curtis, CEO of PetroNerds, is joined by Mike Howard, CEO of Howard Energy Partners.

The two discuss the current oil and gas market, natural gas and midstream, and what it takes to get something built. They get into Mike’s career in the midstream and the progression of natural gas, and the shale revolution. Howard Energy Partners gathers and processes natural gas from the Marcellus to the Permian to the Eagle Ford. Mike talks about the business of infrastructure and being a long term diversified midstream company that takes energy products and brings them to the consumer. Trisha gets a little nerdy on the Eagle Ford and varying geology and API gravity shifts from oil to natural gas along the play.

They shift into talking about the macro, the long term, and national security, as well as the short term and current natural gas prices. Trisha asks Mike to talk about “peak shale.” They also talk about education and the need for education in energy in and outside of the energy market. Trisha asks Mike to talk about how he translates market realities into actually building things in a market and society that does not want to build infrastructure. Trisha and Mike cover all of this and much more folks.

Take a listen and share with your colleagues and friends.

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Recorded on July 1, 2025

Happy 4th of July PetroNerds listeners!

Episode 135 of the PetroNerds podcast is your 4th of July special and hot off the press.

Trisha Curtis, host of the PetroNerds podcast and CEO of PetroNerds, walks listeners through oil prices, supply and demand, geopolitics, the US’ Big Beautiful Bill, and much more in 37 minutes. She gets into $65 oil prices and what is happening with both supply and demand on the back of hot wars, Iran, and so much geopolitical risk and reality.

She talks about “peak shale” and a forthcoming paper she has coming out with the Peterson G. Foundation. Trisha also talks about the Big Beautiful Bill and the wind and solar subsidies that are crippling the US taxpayer, the US consumer, and US businesses and manufacturing. She discusses US exceptionalism and what is really happening in the US economy vs. the stock market.

While Trisha is concerned about the economy and inflation and what is happening under the hood, she explains why the US is truly exceptional due to its deep, transparent, and liquid markets, from oil to treasuries. Trisha also discusses what she calls the “hanging in there” economy or the “hanging in there” consumer. She gets into inflation, employment, and immigration and the average hourly work week.

This is another PetroNerds showstopper folks.

Please listen, leave reviews on YouTube, Apple, or anywhere you listen to this podcast. And book Trisha to speak at your company or next industry event. https://petronerds.com/contact

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Recorded June 20, 2025 and April 10, 2025

Episode 134 of the PetroNerds podcast is a true PetroNerds special and an incredible deep dive into geopolitics, the economy, and what it all means for the oil and gas industry. Trisha Curtis, CEO of PetroNerds and host of the PetroNerds podcast, front-loads this podcast with a fresh market update focusing on Iran and oil prices.

In the introduction of this podcast, Trisha discusses oil prices and Iran, the Federal Reserve and interest rates, and the economy and oil prices.

The body of the podcast is Trisha’s keynote fireside chat with Todd Hoffman at Montana Tech’s annual symposium. Todd Hoffman is the head of the Petroleum Engineering Department at Montana Tech in Butte, Montana. He sits down with Trisha to discuss oil prices, the Trump Administration, tariffs, China, Iran, Russia, and everything in between.

They get into Trisha’s background and business, the health of the economy and the consumer, China’s product dumping and the state of the Chinese economy, what Drill Baby Drill actually means, the Strategic Petroleum Reserve (SPR), Europe’s exposure to China, Venezuelan sanctions, and a whole lot more. This is another must listen to the episode you are going to want to download, listen to again, and share with your colleagues and friends. Reach out to PetroNerds directly at https://petronerds.com/ and the PetroNerds Contact Us page at https://petronerds.com/contact/.

And please take a look at Trisha’s recent opinion piece in the Washington Times on China, tariffs, and energy. This article and oped is part of Trisha’s work as the CEO of PetroNerds and the economist for the American Energy Institute. https://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2025/jun/9/us-china-competition-hinges-energy/

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Recorded on June 9, 2025 and April 1, 2025

Episode 133 of the PetroNerds podcast is another PetroNerdy special and the first stop on the PetroNerds university tour. Trisha Curtis, CEO of PetroNerds and host of the PetroNerds podcast, is at the Colorado School of Mines in a fireside chat. She is joined by her host, Morgan Bazilian, Director of the Payne Institute at Colorado School of Mines.

In this one-hour conversation, Morgan covers a range of questions with Trisha, ranging from inflation and the state of the economy to oil prices and the health of the oil and gas industry. He asks questions and Trisha get into politics, Administrations, policies, and China.

There are a few areas that go unaddressed in this conversation. Trisha Curtis introduces this podcast with a short and fresh introduction on oil prices at $65 a barrel. She discusses Iran, Russia’s ambitions in Ukraine, and talks with China all driving up oil prices. Trisha Curtis is recording from Newcastle, Wyoming. This is another heavy hitter you are going to want to listen to and pass along to your colleagues and friends!

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Recorded on April 29, 2025

Episode 132 of the PetroNerds podcast is a true PetroNerdy special and the first PetroNerds podcast with a focus on nuclear energy.

Trisha Curtis, CEO of PetroNerds and host of the PetroNerds podcast, is joined by guest Doug Sandridge, Senior Vice President of Fulcrum Energy Capital Funds. He is also the founder of Oil and Gas Executives for nuclear. Trisha and Doug open this podcast talking about oil prices and the state of the oil and gas industry and then dive into the topic of nuclear power and energy.

They cover an overview of nuclear power in the US and the world, Doug’s interest in nuclear as an oil and gas executive, and a lot in between. Trisha and Doug talk about China, the Middle East, active nuclear plants in the US, and saving plants vs. building new nuclear plants. They talk about the difficulty in building new nuclear plants and why as well as the current optimism and momentum around nuclear energy. They discuss the role of nuclear energy and power and the need for affordable reliable energy.

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Recorded on May 7, 2025 and January 16, 2025

Episode 131 of the PetroNerds podcast is a true PetroNerds special. This podcast is the lecture Trisha Curtis gave at the Eisenhower School for National Security and Resource Strategy on January 23, 2025.

In this lecture Trisha explains that energy is power, literally and figuratively, and she spends time putting energy in the context of geopolitics getting into the weeds on the US, China, and Russia.

This introduction is special in and of itself. Trisha explains what is happening in oil prices and why they are oversold and gets into OPEC output increases and why this actually makes sense right now. In this heavy hitting geopolitical lecture Trisha covers Iran, Saudi Arabia, demand for power generation, energy realities and geopolitics, coal, natural gas, and oil, and net zero being a fantasy. She discusses US energy leverage and dominance that has not been leaned into and used, energy implications for auto manufacturing and military capacity, ammunition supply, implications for the global economy of traditional fuels, getting real on the energy transition, lack of information in the market place and the lack of appropriately evaluating traditional fuels.

Trisha also covers the onerous regulations and aggressive green policies in Europe and their lack of participation in AI, their deindustrialization, and their inability to defend themselves. Trisha gets into oil prices, the health of the US and global economy, the role of natural gas prices and the impact to hurting US manufacturing, resiliency of US shale, natural gas prices and US oil and gas production, OPEC spare capacity and global spare capacity and Saudi production.

She further discusses Germany’s unhealthy economy, stagflation, high electricity prices, rising unemployment, and increasing manufacturing capacity sitting idle, and their exposure to China, the SPR and the actual use cases for it and selling off, Ford and CATL, climate change and the techolongs of wind, solar, and batteries in extreme temperatures, She covers the importance of infrastructure and pipelines, the US leaving the Paris Climate Accords, the US exporting more LNG and increasing global energy security, Chinese auto dumping and undercutting global manufacturing, and China’s fictitious GDP growth.

Trisha spends a lot of time in the Q&A talking about electricity, wind and solar, Chinese coal and competition, the US SPR and refilling it, US shale and execution during and coming out of COVID, longer laterals and less wells and less rigs, global primary energy consumption, AI and electricity demand, Chris Wright, LNG, and America being open for business.

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Recorded on April 24, 2025 and March 18, 2025

Episode 130 of the PetroNerds podcast is the show stopping jam packed talk Trisha Curtis gave at the Houston Producers Forum on March 18th, 2025. Do not worry, she gets you up to speed on oil prices with a short introduction to this heavy hitting talk. Trisha discusses oil prices being oversold and the 10 year yield in the introduction.

At the Houston Producers Forum talk Trisha covers oil prices and what is driving oil prices, geopolitical volatility, natural gas prices, Chris Wright’s leadership in Washington, CERA week capitulation and “peak shale” talk, coal, wind and solar power, China, the IEA and Fatih Birol, tariffs and the de minimis rule, Mexico and Vietnam, the Chinese economy and global oil demand, inflation and the weakened consumer, DeepSeek, and Chinese industrial electricity consumption.

Trisha further covers geopolitics including Iran, Russia, Ukraine, and China, economic uncertainty and tariffs, and the health of the consumer, energy is everything, and US oil and gas production dominance. And yes, she does this all in 40 minutes.

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Recorded on April 2, 2025 and January 16, 2025

Episode 129 of the PetroNerds podcast a heavy hitting round the world tour on tariffs, geopolitics, and volatility.

This is the energy dense talk Trisha Curtis gave to the Denver Association of Petroleum Landmen on January 16th, 2025 titled “Outlook for 2025: Optimistic Uncertainty Mixed with Volatility” at the Denver Earth Resources Library. Trisha opens this podcast with a quick take on Chinese tariffs announced on April 2nd and US competition with China.

In this presentation Trisha gets into the run up in oil prices in the first two weeks of January, sanctions on Russia, the Fed and inflation, geopolitics, the US economy, and the global macro economy.

While Trisha is optimistic about Chris Wright and potential energy policies in the US, she is less certain about the health of the US economy and the US consumer and she is outright concerned about the global economy.

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Recorded on March 17, 2025 and March 19, 2025

Episode 128 of the PetroNerds podcast is an exceptionally timely jam-packed market update on the economy and the health of the US consumer. This a St. Patrick’s Day special and Trisha Curtis, CEO of PetroNerds, gets into the color of Kohl’s earnings call talking about pressure on discretionary spending for lower income consumers, Costco’s earnings call talking about pressure on the higher income consumer, and the major airlines talking about changes in consumer sentiment and shifts in flying.

She talks about the Federal Reserve’s commentary on the US economy, growth, and unemployment. She discusses inflation and the impact of lasting inflation on the consumer, the average hourly work week, and what is happening under the hood in employment. Trisha also discusses President Trump and the Secretary of Treasury’s comments on recession vs. a pullback in the stock market, jobs cuts in DC from the government to contractors, tariffs, oil prices, and geopolitics.

PetroNerds and Trisha Curtis are NOT advising on stocks or investments in any form.

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