The PetroNerds Podcast

Recorded October 13, 2026

In episode 167 of the PetroNerds Podcast, Trisha Curtis, CEO of PetroNerds and host of the podcast, welcomes Tatiana Mitrova back to discuss diesel prices, wartime oil flows, and the growing importance of energy security. Tatiana is a Global Fellow at Columbia University’s Center on Global Energy Policy. Together, they examine how events in the Middle East, Russia and Ukraine, and China are shaping the availability and price of fuel around the world.

The discussion centers on a critical distinction: crude oil can continue reaching the market while diesel and other refined products remain constrained. Trisha and Tatiana explain how alternative pipelines, shipping arrangements, and rising production have supported crude supply, while refinery disruptions and export restrictions put pressure on finished fuels. They connect those pressures to Europe’s winter outlook, China’s influence over Asian fuel supplies, and the prices American consumers pay at the pump.

Trisha opens with an October 13 market snapshot, quoting WTI at $94.28 per barrel, Brent at $105.97, and the U.S. 10-year Treasury yield at 5.219%. She also highlights the gap between U.S. and European natural gas prices and the economic pressure of expensive energy and higher borrowing costs.

The conversation begins with the reported Houthi attacks on Saudi airports and questions about protecting critical infrastructure. Trisha and Tatiana discuss Saudi Arabia’s ability to maintain oil exports through Yanbu and its East West pipeline system, the case for expanding those routes, and how adapting to disrupted shipping is reducing Iran’s influence over crude flows through the Strait of Hormuz.

Tatiana explains why moving refined products through a disrupted shipping corridor presents a different challenge from moving crude. Refined product tankers generally carry smaller cargoes, making military escorts more demanding relative to the volume delivered. Trisha raises the possibility of greater allied involvement in protecting those shipments.

They connect those logistical constraints with Ukrainian attacks on Russian refineries, reduced Russian diesel exports, and limited room for additional U.S. refinery output. Tatiana explains how an adequately supplied, diesel-exporting United States can still experience high prices through its connection to the global market. Trisha also discusses diesel crack spreads, competition with jet fuel production, and seasonal demand from heating, freight, and agriculture.

China is central to their assessment of where additional refined products could come from. They discuss unused refining capacity, restrictions on product exports, and the distinction between capacity that exists and supply that Beijing allows onto the international market.

Trisha explains that China’s diesel export decisions are increasing its influence over fuel-importing neighbors and intensifying economic pressure on the United States, helping Iran, ahead of midterms.  Tatiana describes overlapping motives, beginning with China’s own energy security and stockpiling, followed by influence over neighboring countries and advantages over competitors.  While Russia, Iran, and China may have separate national interests, their cooperation serves shared objectives.

Trisha and Tatiana criticize European refinery closures and what they see as inadequate preparation for supply disruptions. Tatiana argues that Europe’s ability to pay a premium for diesel can leave poorer importing countries struggling to obtain fuel. The discussion extends to LNG competition, winter heating, fertilizer availability, and the possible consequences for food production.

Trisha connects Europe’s energy costs with fiscal pressure, political instability, and military vulnerability. Both stress the importance of maintaining the infrastructure needed to supply conventional fuels, which Europe has not done, and stress that these traditional fuels remain essential to the economy and will remain essential to the economy.

Tatiana examines the tension between commercial efficiency and preparedness. Extra inventories, idle capacity, and alternative transport routes cost money and may offer limited returns during normal conditions. During a disruption, those same investments can keep an economy functioning. Saudi Arabia’s alternative pipeline route is now running at full capacity and is being expanded.  The two consider how market economies can support the additional capacity and reserves needed for energy security.

Tatiana describes a war in which each side targets a different vulnerability. Russia attacks Ukrainian electricity and urban infrastructure, including water and sewage systems. Ukraine targets Russian refineries, fuel availability, and revenues from petroleum product exports. She expects continued pressure on those systems through winter and cautions against assuming that economic damage alone will end the war.

They examine the difference between a broad energy ceasefire and a narrower refinery ceasefire. Tatiana explains why protecting refineries while leaving Ukraine’s electricity and urban infrastructure exposed would offer very different benefits to the two sides. Trisha asks about Russia’s ability to escalate; Tatiana discusses the limits she sees in conventional military capacity and the risks surrounding nuclear escalation.

The conversation turns to Russian hybrid operations, drones, and efforts to test European responses while avoiding direct confrontation with NATO. Tatiana argues that these activities can deepen political divisions and weaken support for Ukraine. Trisha and Tatiana also consider what China is learning from Russia’s wartime experience, particularly the rapid evolution of drone technology and battlefield tactics.

Trisha and Tatiana try to unpack the Russian diesel announcement and U.S. sanctions waiver on diesel. Both question how much additional fuel the announced volumes would bring to the market. Tatiana argues that similar quantities were already being exported, making the announcement more significant for market expectations than for the physical diesel balance.

They close with scenarios for de-escalation, improved access through the Strait of Hormuz, and additional oil and LNG supply. Tatiana sees scope for lower crude and LNG prices as supply expands and markets adapt, while remaining more cautious about diesel. Trisha agrees but also emphasizes the cumulative economic strain of sustained high energy prices and borrowing costs. Their closing discussion balances the energy system’s demonstrated adaptability with the risks of a prolonged period of expensive fuel.

Tatiana Mitrova is a Global Fellow at Columbia University’s Center on Global Energy Policy. Her work covers Russian and global energy markets, including production, transportation, demand, energy policy, pricing, and market restructuring.

Tatiana Mitrova at Columbia University

Episode 155: Iran, Russia, China, and Energy Security

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Recorded September 16, 2026, and October 7, 2026

In episode 166 of the PetroNerds Podcast, Trisha Curtis opens with an October 7, 2026 market update before sharing her September 16th, 2026 keynote conversation from the ROSA Energy Conference. The introduction connects diesel tightness, refining capacity, restricted Chinese refined-product exports, and changing Middle Eastern oil flows with rising global bond yields, debt, and the pressure of more expensive energy.

Trisha calls for more energy honesty: a clearer account of what is happening in the oil market, what refineries can supply, and what is driving electricity costs. She examines the difference between recovering crude flows and adequate supplies of finished fuels, while considering the financial and geopolitical risks surrounding those markets.

The keynote brings that discussion to tribal energy development and the future of American power. Joining remotely from Big Horn, Wyoming, Trisha speaks with Roger Fragua of the Tribal Energy Consortium and Dr. Buford Pollett of the University of Tulsa about attracting investment, developing Native energy resources, expanding reliable generation, and preparing the next generation of energy professionals.

In her October 7 market snapshot, Trisha quotes WTI at $89.57 per barrel and Brent at $101.93, drawing attention to the substantial difference between the benchmarks. She also discusses the gap between U.S. and European natural gas prices and the strain that expensive energy places on European economies.

Her macroeconomic assessment connects rising government bond yields, debt, mortgage affordability, inflation, and political uncertainty. She examines whether the financing demands of AI investment are adding to competition for capital and focuses on the combination of fiscal and energy pressures in France and elsewhere in Europe. Trisha raises concerns about mounting economic strain without making a recession forecast.

Trisha returns to the diesel discussion from episode 165, examining gasoline-diesel price differences and regional U.S. refinery utilization. She reviews activity in the Midwest, Rockies, Gulf Coast, West Coast, and East Coast, and argues that lost California refining capacity has reduced America’s ability to respond to a tight global product market.

She discusses French crude and diesel reserve releases as a potential source of temporary relief, along with the challenge of adjusting refinery output between jet fuel and diesel at the margin. The importance of diesel extends through freight, agriculture, rail, and heating, making refining capacity and product availability central to her assessment of energy security.

Trisha examines reported Chinese restrictions on refined-product exports for October and argues that China’s refining capacity gives it influence over fuel-importing countries in Asia. She interprets tighter exports as both a supply issue and a source of geopolitical leverage, including pressure connected to the Iran conflict and the Trump administration. Her focus is on how China’s export decisions can affect an already tight diesel market and the availability of fuel for buyers elsewhere.

Trisha describes geopolitical whiplash in oil-market coverage and discusses reports of recovering flows through the Strait of Hormuz. She distinguishes those reports from the separate question of whether Middle Eastern refineries and refined-product exports are recovering sufficiently to ease fuel shortages.

She considers reported changes in Saudi Arabia’s east-west pipeline and Yanbu operations, Saudi crude pricing, and the implications for physical oil flows. Her assessment also includes emergency-stock drawdowns, continuing attacks in the Middle East, Russia’s attacks on Ukrainian energy infrastructure, and Ukrainian strikes on Russian refineries. She connects those risks with the importance of maintaining refining capacity at home.

In the keynote, Trisha shares the story behind her work: a third-generation oil and gas upbringing in Colorado and Wyoming, a father and grandfather who pumped wells, and the work ethic that carried her through college, graduate school in London, and a one-way move to Washington, D.C. She recalls studying the early shale boom, North Dakota production, Canadian oil sands, and the transportation constraints that shaped the WTI-Brent price relationship. Those experiences helped build her approach to connecting activity in the field with markets and geopolitics.

The discussion turns to the practical meaning of energy sovereignty. Roger describes the obstacles tribal nations face when trying to develop their own resources, including lengthy federal approval processes, and discusses the Southern Ute Indian Tribe’s Tribal Energy Resource Agreement. Trisha urges resource owners to build a clear investment case around their assets, commercial terms, infrastructure, and expected returns.

She argues that leaders need to look beyond the immediate market cycle and make decisions with a five- to ten-year perspective. For tribes with oil, natural gas, coal, and other resources, she sees an opportunity to generate revenue, support their communities, and attract investment by explaining both the resource and the enduring need for it.

Trisha challenges explanations that attribute rising electricity bills primarily to AI and data centers. She argues that utility capital spending, policy choices, and changes in the generation mix deserve much closer attention. Her criticism of wind and solar centers on the cost burden to consumers, the variability and the transmission, integration, and backup requirements with adding them to the grid.

The discussion focuses on residential customers and the costs they ultimately bear. Trisha calls for closer scrutiny of utility investment decisions and makes the case for dependable generation from natural gas, coal, and nuclear power.

The keynote broadens into a discussion of America’s ability to build and maintain pipelines, power plants, refineries, and transmission. Trisha links reliable electricity with manufacturing and defense readiness, drawing on the role of the U.S. industrial base during World War II.

She contrasts U.S. construction and permitting challenges with China’s investment in refining, coal, nuclear power, and mineral processing. Her concern extends beyond who owns mineral deposits to who can process the materials and manufacture the products that industry and national defense require.

Audience questions bring the discussion to Wyoming’s nuclear development and the need to replace retiring energy professionals. Trisha supports expanding nuclear power, highlighting its high capacity factor while acknowledging the time, cost, and permitting challenges involved in bringing new projects into service.

In response to a question from Arvin Trujillo about the shortage of younger Native professionals entering the industry, she calls for greater investment in engineering, mining, mineral processing, and the trades. She challenges companies and universities to give students a clearer understanding of energy careers and the work required to produce hard and traditional fuels and materials the economy uses like oil, natural gas, and coal.  

Trisha remains positive about long-term oil and natural gas demand, while emphasizing that production must continually attract investment. She discusses U.S. supply potential, LNG exports, and the pipeline constraints that limit the ability to move more natural gas from the Marcellus. She also considers how Chinese crude stockpiling affects the interpretation of oil demand.

Permitting reform runs throughout the conversation. Trisha stresses that expanding supply requires approvals for the entire system, including wells, pipelines, compression, and power infrastructure, and that projects must remain commercially viable across changing commodity prices.

The closing questions explore partnerships among municipalities, data centers, and energy developers, including behind-the-meter generation that supplies power at or near the customer. Trisha discusses natural gas generation, diesel backup, and the search for behind the meter alternatives using natural gas where utility service is constrained.

She closes by encouraging tribal resource owners to consider continued oil and gas development and opportunities to build reliable generation, including a coal-fired power plant where the resource and commercial circumstances support it. She emphasizes proximity to demand, existing infrastructure, and grid connections. Throughout the keynote, her focus is on turning resource advantages into investment, useful energy, and lasting economic opportunity.

Recorded: September 20, 2026

In episode 165 of the PetroNerds Podcast, Trisha Curtis, CEO of PetroNerds and host of the PetroNerds podcast, examines $100 barrel oil, diesel above $6 a gallon, and why banning U.S. diesel exports will not work. She connects the Federal Reserve’s rate increase with persistent energy inflation, explains the refining economics behind her opposition to export restrictions, and analyzes China’s renewed crude purchasing and the threats to Saudi Arabia’s Yanbu East–West pipeline. The episode explores how global disruptions reach American consumers—and why continued production, refining, and trade are essential to energy security. 

Trisha begins with the relationship between energy prices, inflation, and interest rates. She questions how effectively the Federal Reserve can address an inflation problem driven partly by oil-market disruptions and explains why higher borrowing costs could slow other parts of the economy without resolving the underlying energy constraints. Her concern is not simply that oil has reached $100 a barrel. It is the persistence of elevated oil, gasoline, and diesel prices, combined with expensive mortgages, that could increasingly weigh on consumers and economic activity. She is not calling for a recession, but she explains why her assessment of the economic risks has evolved as the conflict has continued. 

Diesel is central to that discussion. Trisha looks beyond the cost of filling a pickup truck to its role in freight, rail transportation, construction, agriculture, and heating. She discusses the gasoline and diesel demand figures she is watching and the potential for sustained diesel-price increases to work their way through the wider economy. The question is both how much consumers are paying today and how long businesses can absorb higher fuel costs before passing them along.

The core of the episode is why banning diesel exports will not work. She walks listeners through the basic mechanics of refining: a barrel of crude produces multiple products, not a single fuel that policymakers can isolate without consequences. Different crude qualities and refinery configurations affect the product mix, but gasoline, diesel, and jet fuel remain connected through the economics of processing the barrel. Restricting diesel exports could weaken refining margins and reduce the incentive to process crude, undermining fuel supply rather than delivering price relief. 

Trisha discusses U.S. commercial petroleum inventories separately from Strategic Petroleum Reserve drawdowns and credits the refining sector’s response with helping maintain supplies during the conflict. She also explains why U.S. crude imports and exports are not contradictory: the country produces light, sweet crude while sophisticated Gulf Coast refineries are equipped to process heavier barrels, including Canadian oil-sands crude. Preserving trade flows supports the production and refining system rather than detracting from American energy security. 

Natural gas provides another example of the importance of market access. Trisha contrasts low Henry Hub prices with much higher European natural-gas prices and discusses competition between Europe and Asia for LNG. Continued LNG exports are important both for sustaining and growing U.S. natural gas production and for maintaining America’s credibility as an international supplier. She warns against allowing the diesel-export debate to become a broader justification for restricting crude oil, refined products, or LNG (liquefied natural gas). 

The conversation then turns to China. Building on the previous PetroNerds episode with Jason Isaac, Trisha distinguishes crude imports, stockpiling, and end-user consumption. She examines the increase in Chinese crude purchases and challenges the explanation that attractive refining margins alone account for China’s return to the market. China’s inventory position, purchasing decisions, and management of refined-product exports provide geopolitical leverage. 

Saudi Arabia’s East–West pipeline and the Red Sea export route form the episode’s final major focus. Trisha explains why the route to Yanbu has been an essential outlet during the conflict and examines the reported attacks, including drone activity originating in Iraq. She distinguishes damage to pumping infrastructure from damage to the underground pipeline itself and discusses the importance of repairs, restored flows, port logistics, storage, and tanker availability. She also considers the implications of disrupted Saudi crude deliveries to Europe. 

Trisha closes by bringing the discussion back to the global refined-product market, including attacks on Russian refineries and Russian diesel-export restrictions. American consumers are exposed to price increases caused by disruptions across an interconnected international system, but they have supply security. Restricting U.S. exports would not remove those pressures and could compromise the production, refining incentives, and trading relationships that help sustain supply. The answer: understand how the entire barrel and the global market work—do not assume that turning off one export stream will solve the problem.

Recorded September 1, 2026

China’s reported crude-oil imports have fallen sharply—but Chinese oil demand has not collapsed.

In this China-focused special, Trisha Curtis is joined by friend, colleague, and returning guest Jason Isaac to examine what conventional oil-market analysis may be missing. They begin with WTI near $91 per barrel, Brent around $95, and a global market that has proven far more adaptable than predictions of $150 or $200 oil suggested. Despite the conflict involving Iran and disruptions around the Strait of Hormuz, crude continues to move through pipelines, alternative ports, shuttle-vessel arrangements, and rapidly changing trade routes. 

The central focus is China. Trisha argues that the dramatic reduction in Chinese imports should not be interpreted as an overnight transition from oil to electric vehicles or renewable energy. Instead, it reflects years of aggressive stockpiling, increased domestic production, lower refinery throughput, overbuilt refining capacity, continued refined-product exports, and additional crude entering through pipelines and other land routes that are difficult to track.

China imported more than 13 million barrels per day in December 2025. Imports then fell from approximately 12.5 million barrels per day in February 2026 to 11.76 million in March, 9.3 million in April, below 8 million in May, and just over 7 million barrels per day in June. Trisha’s argument is that a material portion of the earlier volume was never end-user consumption—it was inventory accumulation. She estimates that China’s total petroleum stocks could be several times larger than commonly cited public estimates. 

The conversation then expands into U.S. crude and refined-product exports, China’s growing influence in the oil market, the Strategic Petroleum Reserve, Venezuela’s production potential, the importance of the rule of law, U.S. shale growth, natural-gas infrastructure, and the growing burden of electricity and transmission costs on American residential consumers.

This is a wide-ranging discussion about oil-market intelligence, national energy security, geopolitical leverage, and the fundamental difference between possessing energy resources and having the infrastructure, political stability, and industrial capacity required to use them.

Recorded August 20th, 2026 and August 11th, 2026

In this special crossover episode of the PetroNerds Podcast, Trisha Curtis, CEO of PetroNerds and host of the PetroNerds podcast, sits down with energy analysts David Blackmon and Stu Turley for a wide-ranging discussion about oil prices, record U.S. production, global energy security, refining constraints, strategic petroleum inventories, and the geopolitical transformation of global oil flows.

Major conflicts and disruptions are hitting nearly every part of the global petroleum system. Iranian and Russian barrels are moving through alternative trading networks. Tankers and energy infrastructure are under attack. The Red Sea remains vulnerable. Russian refineries have been targeted. The Strait of Hormuz continues to sit at the center of the global energy-security debate.

Yet the oil market has not experienced the sustained price shock that many analysts expected.

Why?

Trisha explains that the answer begins with the strength of U.S. oil production, particularly the Permian Basin, but it does not end there. Global oil markets have adapted through alternative supply routes, pipeline systems, inventory draws, changes in tanker movements, refinery adjustments, and the continued availability of U.S. crude oil and petroleum-product exports.

The conversation also examines an increasingly important distinction: a stable benchmark oil price does not necessarily mean that the physical oil market is calm. Stress can appear in tanker rates, war-risk insurance, crude differentials, delivery premiums, refinery margins, inventories, and regional gasoline and diesel prices without being fully reflected in headline WTI or Brent prices.

This episode was originally recorded as a crossover discussion with David Blackmon and Stu Turley and is presented here as PetroNerds Podcast Episode 163.

The PetroNerds Podcast, hosted by Trisha Curtis, delivers in-depth analysis of crude oil, natural gas, shale production, energy economics, geopolitics, technology, and global commodity markets.

PetroNerds goes beyond headlines and market narratives to examine the production data, infrastructure, economics, policies, and geopolitical forces shaping the energy industry.

Recorded Friday, July 10, 2026

In Episode 162 of the PetroNerds Podcast, Trisha Curtis, CEO of PetroNerds and Host of the PetroNerds Podcast, welcomes Doug Sandridge back to the show for a wide-ranging, unapologetically PetroNerdy conversation about nuclear power, electricity demand, energy security, and the global race for reliable energy. Doug is Senior Vice President of Fulcrum Energy Capital Funds, founder of Oil & Gas Executives for Nuclear Energy, an energy educator, and an adjunct instructor at the University of Oklahoma. This is Doug’s second PetroNerds appearance, following Episode 132, Oil and Nuclear, recorded in April 2025.

Trisha opens with the July 10 market backdrop: WTI at $71.58 per barrel, Brent at $76.04, Henry Hub natural gas at $2.94 per MMBtu, and the 10-year Treasury yield at 4.561 percent. Against that backdrop of geopolitical conflict, lower-than-expected oil prices, and rising borrowing costs, Trisha and Doug turn to the state of nuclear power in the United States. 

Doug describes the nuclear industry as a duck that appears nearly stationary above the water while paddling furiously underneath. Although material growth in U.S. nuclear generation has yet to appear in the national electricity data, policy changes, regulatory work, pilot projects, supply-chain investments, plant-life extensions, and reactor demonstrations are creating the foundation for future growth. The two discuss the Department of Energy’s Reactor Pilot Program and the four advanced reactor demonstrations that reached criticality by July 4, 2026—while emphasizing that achieving criticality is an important technology milestone, not the same thing as commercial electricity generation. 

The conversation then turns to the lowest-hanging fruit in American nuclear energy: protecting the reactors already operating and restarting plants that were closed for economic or political reasons. Trisha and Doug examine the fight over Diablo Canyon in California, the importance of long-term operating certainty for fuel procurement and capital investment, and the broader consequences of removing reliable baseload generation before replacement power is available. 

They also discuss the planned restart of the former Three Mile Island Unit 1—now the Crane Clean Energy Center—under a long-term power-purchase agreement with Microsoft; the effort to restart the Palisades nuclear plant in Michigan; and the construction of TerraPower’s Natrium advanced reactor project near Kemmerer, Wyoming. These projects demonstrate how rising power demand from artificial intelligence, data centers, manufacturing, and the broader economy is changing the economics of existing and new nuclear generation. 

Doug explains that large AP1000 reactors, small modular reactors, and microreactors will not all serve the same markets or arrive on the same timetable. Reactor restarts and life extensions can affect the grid first. Small and advanced reactors may begin adding incremental generation later this decade, while a meaningful wave of large-reactor generation will take considerably longer. Trisha compares the nuclear timeline to the shale revolution: major energy-system changes require years of investment, infrastructure construction, market development, and operational learning before they become clearly visible in national data. 

A central theme of the episode is that natural gas is not merely a temporary bridge to nuclear power. Nuclear developers need natural-gas generation to serve customers during the years between signing a power contract and bringing a reactor online. But with U.S. electricity demand growing, Doug argues that those gas plants are unlikely to be retired when the nuclear plants arrive. Instead, nuclear will be added to the system alongside natural gas and, where policymakers allow it, coal. This is not an energy transition based on substitution. It is an era of energy addition.

Trisha and Doug then take the conversation global. They examine France’s nuclear fleet, Germany’s decision to close highly productive reactors, Belgium’s attempt to preserve its plants, nuclear development in Eastern Europe, the United Kingdom’s difficult energy position, and the relationship between energy costs and European deindustrialization. They contrast Europe’s political and industrial challenges with China’s long-term strategy of building coal, nuclear, transmission, manufacturing capacity, and energy redundancy simultaneously. 

The episode closes with a discussion of the full-system cost of electricity. Wind and solar may appear inexpensive when evaluated only at the point of generation, but the grid must also pay for backup generation, transmission, balancing, storage, and duplicate capacity. Trisha and Doug discuss the consequences of these policies in California, Germany, and Colorado, including rising consumer electricity costs, coal-plant closures, restrictions on oil and gas development, and eliminating reliable generation. 

This episode is ultimately about much more than nuclear power. It is about energy literacy, industrial capacity, economic competitiveness, national security, and the need for abundant, affordable, reliable, and redundant energy.

Recorded July 26 and July 9, 2026

In Episode 161 of the PetroNerds Podcast, Trisha Curtis, CEO of PetroNerds and host of the PetroNerds Podcast, is joined by Stu Turley of Energy News Beat for a wide-ranging discussion on the intersection of energy markets, geopolitics, and national security.

The conversation begins with escalating tensions involving Iran and the strategic importance of the Strait of Hormuz. Trisha and Stu examine attacks on energy infrastructure and shipping, discussing whether Iran’s actions reflect growing leverage or increasing desperation. They also explore how expanding export infrastructure in Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates is reducing dependence on one of the world’s most important maritime chokepoints.

The discussion then shifts to the Strategic Petroleum Reserve and the contrasting energy strategies of the United States and China. While America remains the world’s leading producer of oil and natural gas—with crude production nearing 14 million barrels per day and natural gas output approaching 136 billion cubic feet per day—China continues investing heavily in energy stockpiles, coal-fired generation, and synthetic fuel production to strengthen its long-term energy resilience.

Trisha explains why America’s energy abundance extends far beyond production. Refining capacity, pipeline infrastructure, LNG exports, petrochemicals, and manufacturing all contribute to a competitive advantage that supports economic growth while enhancing U.S. influence around the world.

China’s approach provides a sharp contrast. The episode examines Beijing’s continued expansion of coal generation and coal-to-liquids projects as part of a broader strategy to reduce dependence on imported oil and prepare for future geopolitical disruptions. Rather than viewing these investments individually, Trisha and Stu discuss how they fit into China’s long-term planning for energy security.

The conversation also explores Europe’s evolving energy landscape, including the consequences of reducing domestic coal, nuclear, and oil and gas production while increasing reliance on imported LNG. Trisha and Stu discuss how higher energy costs and declining industrial competitiveness complicate Europe’s efforts to expand defense spending and strengthen economic resilience.

The episode concludes with a discussion on electricity markets, grid reliability, ESG and net-zero policies, American manufacturing, NATO, emerging trade relationships, and the growing strategic importance of LNG in global energy markets.

The overarching theme is one that has become increasingly clear: energy security is national security. Countries that prioritize reliable, affordable, and scalable energy systems will be better positioned to support economic growth, strengthen national defense, and maintain geopolitical influence in an increasingly competitive world.

Listen to the full conversation and subscribe to the PetroNerds Podcast for additional market analysis, geopolitical insights, and expert commentary on the forces shaping global energy.

Recorded: July 9, 2026

In this post–Fourth of July episode of the PetroNerds Podcast, Trisha Curtis, CEO of PetroNerds and host of the PetroNerds Podcast, welcomes Hon. Jason Isaac back to the show for a wide-ranging discussion about global oil markets, geopolitical risk, American energy security, and the policies shaping energy affordability and reliability.

Trisha begins with a market snapshot—WTI near $72 per barrel, Brent around $76 per barrel, and Henry Hub natural gas near $3 per MMBtu—before examining the renewed conflict involving Iran. Trisha and Jason discuss attacks on ships and military installations, continued crude movements through and around the Strait of Hormuz, U.S. vessel escorts, ship-to-ship transfers, trucking, and the growing pipeline infrastructure that could steadily reduce Iran’s leverage over global oil flows.

The conversation then expands to Russia’s shadow tanker fleet, Ukrainian attacks on vessels and refining infrastructure, Venezuelan and Iranian crude exports, and India’s growing role in refining Russian oil. Trisha explains why disrupting individual tankers and refineries matters, while cautioning that Russia still has multiple ways to move crude and obtain refined products.

Trisha and Jason also break down the coordinated release from the Strategic Petroleum Reserve, emphasizing the difference between an exchange and an outright sale. They discuss the relationship between SPR drawdowns, U.S. crude exports, oil prices, and the eventual need to replenish strategic inventories.

China is another major focus. Trisha challenges conventional estimates of Chinese oil demand and argues that China’s ability to reduce imports may reflect years of aggressive stockpiling rather than a sudden drawdown of its reserves. They explore China’s refined-product exports, its economic slowdown, its energy relationship with Russia, and the enormous influence Beijing continues to exercise across global energy markets.

In the second half, the conversation turns to energy development in Africa, international financing, the World Bank, the U.S. Export-Import Bank, European energy policy, air-conditioning access, climate modeling, fuel taxes, climate litigation, the Texas power grid, Permian Basin natural gas, flaring restrictions, transmission spending, and the cost of integrating intermittent generation.

Throughout the episode, Trisha and Jason make the case that abundant, affordable, and reliable energy is essential to economic development, national security, and human flourishing. Prepared from the supplied episode transcript. 

Recorded: June 21, 2026

In Episode 159 of the PetroNerds Podcast, Trisha Curtis, CEO of PetroNerds and host of the PetroNerds Podcast, delivers a wide-ranging market update on oil, natural gas, geopolitics, China, strategic petroleum reserves, inflation, and monetary policy.

Recorded on Father’s Day and ahead of America’s 250th Fourth of July celebration, the episode focuses on the U.S.-Iran memorandum of understanding, the Strait of Hormuz, global crude oil flows, China’s oil imports, and the Federal Reserve’s renewed emphasis on inflation. Trisha examines why oil prices moved lower despite heightened geopolitical tensions, how more crude continued reaching the market through Hormuz and alternative export routes, and why physical oil flows matter more than headlines.

A major theme throughout the episode is the disconnect between market sentiment and physical oil realities. Trisha walks listeners through the U.S.-Iran memorandum of understanding, disputed claims surrounding the Strait of Hormuz, and the market reaction to evolving events in the Middle East.

The conversation examines how Saudi Arabia’s East-West Pipeline and the UAE’s Fujairah pipeline provide critical export capacity outside the Strait of Hormuz, helping maintain crude flows during periods of disruption. Trisha also reviews Strategic Petroleum Reserve releases, U.S. crude exports, tanker traffic, and the importance of understanding actual barrel movements in a 100-million-barrel-per-day global oil market.

One of the central themes of the episode is China and its long-term energy-security strategy.

Trisha challenges the narrative that declining Chinese crude imports are solely the result of electric vehicle adoption. Instead, she examines China’s stockpiling activity, refinery runs, strategic reserves, domestic production, and energy-security priorities. The discussion highlights why understanding China remains critical to understanding global oil markets, particularly as Beijing balances economic challenges with long-term strategic planning.

The episode also explores the growing divide between the International Energy Agency and OPEC.

Trisha reviews the IEA’s June Oil Market Report and the possibility that restored production and normalized flows through the Strait of Hormuz could create a future supply overhang. She contrasts that outlook with OPEC’s World Oil Outlook 2026, which projects continued growth in global oil demand through 2050.

The discussion raises important questions about energy security, investment, and whether current market forecasts are adequately accounting for future demand growth. For a deeper look at why the IEA’s long-term outlook may underestimate the realities of today’s energy markets, read Trisha Curtis’ recent PJ Media analysis, “The IEA’s Energy Fantasy Meets the Iran War.”

In the second half of the podcast, Trisha shifts to macroeconomics and monetary policy.

She breaks down the June Federal Open Market Committee meeting, Chairman Kevin Warsh’s first press conference, inflation data, Treasury yields, housing, and the Federal Reserve’s balance sheet. Trisha also discusses the potential inflationary effects of rising investment in artificial intelligence infrastructure, semiconductors, data centers, and electricity demand.

The episode concludes with a broader discussion on inflation, energy prices, housing, and the economic forces likely to shape markets through the remainder of 2026.

Whether you’re an energy executive, investor, policymaker, or industry professional, Episode 159 provides a timely and data-driven examination of the forces shaping oil markets, inflation, energy security, and the global economy.

Recorded: Tuesday, May 12, 2026

In Episode 158 of the PetroNerds Podcast, Trisha Curtis, host of the PetroNerds Podcast and CEO of PetroNerdstakes, was on stage at the Society of Petroleum Engineers meeting at the Petroleum Club of Midland, Texas, for a wide-ranging discussion on oil markets, geopolitics, energy security, and the future of U.S. shale.

Recorded amid escalating tensions in the Middle East and renewed volatility in global energy markets, Trisha examines how rapidly evolving geopolitical events have exposed the gap between market sentiment and the realities of physical oil. Just months before oil prices surged back toward triple digits, many analysts and industry participants were focused on oversupply concerns, weak demand forecasts, and bearish outlooks for the energy sector.

Drawing on decades of market analysis, Trisha explains why investors, policymakers, and energy executives must remain humble when forecasting commodity markets and why understanding physical energy infrastructure matters more than ever.

A major focus of the discussion centers on Iran’s role in global oil markets and the strategic relationship between Iranian crude exports and Chinese demand.

Trisha explores how sanctioned barrels from Iran, Russia, and Venezuela contributed to perceptions of oversupply in global markets while simultaneously masking growing geopolitical risk. She argues that many market participants underestimated both the scale of Iranian production and China’s willingness to continue purchasing discounted crude.

The conversation also examines the strategic importance of the Strait of Hormuz, one of the world’s most critical energy chokepoints. While the strait remains essential to global oil flows, Trisha highlights how Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates have invested heavily in alternative export infrastructure, including pipelines to Yanbu and Fujairah, reducing some of the region’s vulnerability during times of conflict.

One of the central themes of the presentation is China’s long-term energy security strategy.

Trisha argues that understanding China is essential to understanding today’s oil market. Beyond demand growth, China has spent years building strategic crude inventories, expanding refining capacity, increasing domestic production, and investing in power generation infrastructure designed to strengthen national resilience.

She suggests that much of China’s apparent oil demand growth may actually reflect large-scale stockpiling efforts, creating significant uncertainty around traditional demand estimates. Combined with China’s continued reliance on coal, expanding electricity generation, and focus on industrial competitiveness, these policies reveal a country preparing for long-term strategic challenges rather than short-term market fluctuations.

The discussion also tackles broader energy policy debates, including the role of coal, natural gas, renewables, and electricity markets.

Trisha challenges many prevailing energy-transition assumptions, arguing that energy security and reliability remain the foundation of economic growth and national security. She points to China’s continued expansion of coal-fired generation alongside renewable development as evidence that reliable baseload power remains indispensable.

The conversation explores how rising electricity demand from artificial intelligence, data centers, manufacturing, and electrification is creating new pressures on power grids throughout the United States and Europe. According to Trisha, years of underinvestment in dispatchable generation, transmission infrastructure, and permitting reform have created vulnerabilities that policymakers can no longer ignore.

The episode concludes with an in-depth assessment of the U.S. shale industry and the future of American energy production.

Despite recurring claims that U.S. shale growth has peaked, Trisha highlights continued productivity improvements across the Permian Basin, including longer laterals, stronger completion techniques, and operational efficiencies that continue to surprise forecasters.

She also discusses the growing importance of natural gas infrastructure, LNG exports, and pipeline takeaway capacity as critical components of America’s energy future. While constraints remain, particularly in natural gas transportation, Trisha argues that the U.S. oil and gas sector remains one of the country’s greatest strategic advantages.

Whether you’re an energy executive, investor, policymaker, or industry professional, this episode offers a timely and data-driven examination of the forces shaping oil markets, power systems, and global energy security in an increasingly uncertain world.