Big Digital Energy

00;00;00;00 - 00;00;26;21
Unknown
Hey everybody, welcome to BDD. We're having the conflict issue the Pope and Trumper and do it from JD Vance are taking on Iran. Marco Rubio was at the UFC fight. Holy cow. We got it all going on this week. Glad to be back, boys. I missed you all. Yeah, we missed you, man. I missed you, Chuck. This sucks having a job.

00;00;26;23 - 00;00;52;19
Unknown
I mean, it's fun running around, you know, selling our vision of AI and and all, but actually filling out so W's. And, that's what I didn't see. You got up. You got upgraded to co-founder. Yeah. So we did that. We did this for, for Silicon Valley. The, there's some, you know, Colin's like, hey, there's some weird guy on my cap table that's literally only cut checks.

00;00;52;19 - 00;01;13;02
Unknown
Every bit of equity he has. He's truly paid for. He shows up. We don't have to pay him. He does all that. Some VC wanted to buy me out of the company. And then all of a sudden, if you put co-founder as a title, they're good with it. So I don't understand that. But not my oh come on, Chuck, you don't understand Silicon Valley.

00;01;13;07 - 00;01;40;04
Unknown
I don't I don't maybe that's private equity narcissism you know. But yeah, that's exactly what that's the biggest swagger I mean look at that Chuck. You are so above them. Hey I can't say that publicly. We need their money. So Kirk's just kidding. He's just joking. So they know. Listen to this episode. But I know our friends in oil and gas.

00;01;40;04 - 00;02;06;01
Unknown
Well, so, the, I will say the ratings have spiked. Since, my absence. So, I'm bound and determined to have a good show, so don't chase away the audience. Y'all have found causation is not correlation. I have people reaching out to me wanting to do. In fact, we're scheduling this episode, but I have people reaching out that are I and oil and gas.

00;02;06;01 - 00;02;29;01
Unknown
So we're doing an AI episode, but it actually heard from the marketing representative of a company that actually can put data centers in space. I was like, are you sure you want to come on our show? Because we will light it up, man. We want to really know. Like, can you put data centers in space because we're saying, no, you can't.

00;02;29;08 - 00;02;58;06
Unknown
So stay tuned. Everybody can. We have some good shows coming up. Is that a tease? We've already talked about this on the heels of, Ellen's appearance on Cheeky Pi podcast, talking about solar panel efficiency. And 10,000 launches a year and a terabyte plus per whatever number of launches. I mean, Mark, what would the IEA say about data centers and space?

00;02;58;09 - 00;03;29;27
Unknown
I want an IEA fast, except for our BP segment. No Jesus's, no. Jesus is risen. Mark, you can now it's you can talk about it. I gave up the IEA for lent. Perfect. Perfect. All right, Mark, kick us off. And I'm assuming we're going to Iran. We are. And if you paid attention over the weekend, we've got a suspended negotiation if you want to look at it.

00;03;29;27 - 00;04;21;23
Unknown
More dovish Lee. But JD Vance was in Islamabad where I used to hang out occasionally. 2021, our negotiation at the Serena Hotel and they left without any resolution because, as I've seen, the headlines characterized or opinions that, basically the team is reporting back that, Iran came in with what, assuming leverage that it does not have, and you drill down and it still becomes, you know, there's no negotiation on the the demand that there is a complete capitulation on anything that would lead to Iran ever developing and possessing a nuclear weapon.

00;04;21;26 - 00;04;46;04
Unknown
And so coming out of that, we saw the, order to blockade the Strait of Hormuz, which is already blockaded. But we're going to jump straight from the Double Dog dairy to the Triple Dog dairy. No, I strenuously object. I mean, that's the 40. That's a 42 hour round trip for a selfie and a best and final offer.

00;04;46;04 - 00;05;11;20
Unknown
I mean, it's it's almost like the most expensive DoorDash. No delivery in history, you know? Yeah, actually, I was thinking about this this weekend. You know what it is? It's actually perfect that we sent the private equity bro over to do it, because we're so used to getting on a flight, going in for one meeting. Heaven and LP tell us, no, I'm not going to invest in the fund.

00;05;11;22 - 00;05;34;20
Unknown
Stay at a nice hotel comes straight back. That same day, my, my best version of that one time is a big investor in Portland, Oregon, called up and said, yeah, we'll take a look at this fund any chance you can come tomorrow? So I was like, yes. And I was taking the jet because, we were going to we're going to have we're going to have to hit Portland.

00;05;34;23 - 00;05;57;10
Unknown
And I called my buddy German and I'm like, hey, German. I'm firing up the jet. I'm heading to Portland tomorrow. A three hour meeting day trip. You want to go? Germany's like. Oh, absolutely. So we land in Portland. I get in a car, German gets in a car. I go get three hours of grilling. Probably worse than Vance Scott on this whole thing.

00;05;57;12 - 00;06;26;16
Unknown
At the end of it, they basically tell me to to tell me, no thanks, but no thanks. So I'm a little dejected. Heading back to the plane, I pull up German's Instagram account. German's been to the pot store. He's been to Voodoo Donuts. He went to a Bernie Sanders rally. He's wandering around some waterfall taking pictures. We get back to the plane and I'm like, dude, we had totally different days.

00;06;26;20 - 00;06;49;24
Unknown
So, I had the JD Vance Day. German had more fun. Was that the origin of the original pound? No. No, it was, the the the that was not. But he's still is is, Yeah. So the, where does this end? I mean, at the end of the day, it's okay. Well, we can block it up, too, and I guess we'll go.

00;06;49;24 - 00;07;26;17
Unknown
I think we have the technology to go through and grab all the minds, right? We're going to be able to undo that. I don't know how we're going to be able to undo the threat of drones coming over, but maybe we've got antiaircraft stuff that can handle that. I guess the only naval capability or what it's been reiterated that the 158 ships of the Iranian navy lying at the bottom of the sea, it's the first attack boats and Trump issued a stern warning this morning about, you know, we're going to basically deal with those as we dealt with the drug boats, back in the day.

00;07;26;19 - 00;07;49;28
Unknown
And it's it's swift and violent and will kill them, in the middle of all this after Trump announced his blockade of the Strait of Hormuz, Iran fired back and said, effectively will activate the Houthis and we'll take care of the, Mandeb strait, which is the the narrow passage into in and out of the Red sea.

00;07;49;29 - 00;08;00;12
Unknown
So what what that means, you know, let's see, we've got another. What? The cease fire is.

00;08;00;15 - 00;08;07;24
Unknown
Scheduled to end, I think within the next week or so, maybe five days.

00;08;07;27 - 00;08;38;02
Unknown
What's the what's the deadline there? Yeah. Okay. I should know that, too. Although, I mean, I think when the, the deal was over, if all bets are off, it may be all bets are off. I mean, we still have 10 to 13 million barrels of upstream production that is not flowing. However, you place it in the, in the supply chain, whether it's shut in production or blockaded, tankers on water, in storage, at ports.

00;08;38;07 - 00;09;12;28
Unknown
So, you know, if, if indeed the Mandeb strait was, was closed, you've got another 12% of global flows, which would mean plus or -32% are affected. Now, there's some make ups like the East-West pipeline, which after the, pump station damage is now fully back online. According to the Saudis, flowing 7 million barrels a day. But that is not what the offtake is on the Red sea side.

00;09;13;01 - 00;09;34;02
Unknown
So you, you know, ultimately going to have to find a place to put that and then, I don't know, Kirk. What what's your take? What where does this go? This back and forth? Well, I mean, I was just I don't know, today's Bloomberg article came out which is talking about this exact issue. What I didn't realize is the decades of sanctions made Iran more resilient.

00;09;34;02 - 00;10;04;13
Unknown
So not less. They out produced Britain in steel, cement and ceramics, produces as many cars as Canada, and built a world class missile drone capability precisely because they were cut off. So, as Dymburt put it and their article this morning, sanctions triggered mutagenic adaptation. So the question really is whether the US military can put pressure and overwhelm this adaptation.

00;10;04;13 - 00;10;41;03
Unknown
But you've got theocratic that I mean, literally, it's impossible to negotiate with. I'm just thinking what I mean is this is just the industrial complex, like making money because the resolution there is not I mean, we're we need to increase oil production in the US. Oil prices are, what, $102 today? I mean, it's just it's lining people's pockets, but I don't really understand, you know, people in Washington know what was happening in Iran.

00;10;41;08 - 00;11;08;09
Unknown
They know this. And you've got like a, you know, a basically a TV personality president negotiating against their crops that are irrational at best. So, I mean, I think it's just a I don't know what's going to happen, except you have no small measure of Russian and Chinese backing or reinforcement and or and enablement is probably a better word.

00;11;08;11 - 00;11;28;00
Unknown
I mean, I'm curious, like, I want to get my hands on one of the cars they make. Are they good cars? Does anyone know? That's the question. I'm coming out of this, not what's happening on the street, because I'm watching like the news channels are showing all the different lines of the Strait of Hormuz and who owns what and where it is.

00;11;28;00 - 00;12;03;01
Unknown
I'm like, this is just becoming almost as if someone drew this up in Hollywood. My favorite fact about Iran, supposedly highest percentage or dollar per capita spent on plastic surgery in the world is supposedly in Iran. So they got that going for them, knocking off, Dallas, Texas. But number two, this is beginning to feel very much like, Monty Python and the Holy Grail when the guy's just like it is a flesh wound.

00;12;03;03 - 00;12;30;01
Unknown
It's just a way coward. I mean, it's like, again, I come back to you. Draw Charlie Kaufman. I come back to the thing. If I ran a third world country. Think I'm good with a shipment of vodka each month? I'll have a drink. I'll kind of rule, but no need to go against the Great Satan. I mean, how how is that guy who's running it right now sleeping at night?

00;12;30;03 - 00;12;55;29
Unknown
I mean, we've we've knocked them all off. You know, that's the big question is who's running it? That is the question supposedly that if you wanted to actually say that Trump is playing 3D chess here and give Trump a lot of credit, he's basically they they're what are they, 24 different regions. Each region has a leader. It's very decentralized.

00;12;56;01 - 00;13;21;27
Unknown
Yeah. Decentralized command. And so those guys go on after each other. You know, he figures out which one he can play ball with. And then he backs and gives those guys the weapons and they wind up the mosaics. Actually 31 autonomous. Units. And I guess the flip side of that is, you know, some kind of coordinated message doesn't get to one of them.

00;13;21;27 - 00;13;45;24
Unknown
Who does, who decides that, you know, they're going to have target practice. You know, this in the in the middle of the ceasefire. It's it's like the, it's like the Japanese soldier who was still in hiding in the Philippines, I think as late as 1973. You know, it was interesting. I was talking to, as you all know, I'm getting my house because of mold, so I spend a lot of time with my builder these days.

00;13;45;24 - 00;14;11;16
Unknown
His son. This is an interesting data point. His son, was, ex oilfield worker had gone to a different industry and has been called, by energy companies. Hey, come back and join. We're actually said they're ramping up, activity. And I was doubting that. I was like, I haven't seen that. I don't know how you pick up additional rigs.

00;14;11;16 - 00;14;33;03
Unknown
Yeah, it's at 100. Maybe I would go frack my ducks I have out there so I could get Ahold of $100 oil, but I still don't know that I'm committing to more rigs. No, I mean, it's all about one. You're not going to. You're not going to be able to pivot this year's capital budget to make any kind of impact inside of calendar 2026.

00;14;33;06 - 00;14;57;28
Unknown
It'll be interesting as we move to the second half of the year, or when maybe the questions start coming up on conference calls. If this sustains, you know who goes first and says, we're we're going to ramp up and pick up rigs. Even if, you know, the the outer, tenors on the forward curve are still kind of flirting with that point of indifference or warm idle in the mid 60s to low 70s.

00;14;58;00 - 00;15;21;07
Unknown
And how much can you trust it? And that's the thing is that we, we can't, there's no clarity as you look out on the horizon. And, you know, for the last five years, what's worked certainly has driven performance this year is the discipline of the industry focusing on returning, you know, 50% or more of of cash flow to investors in various forms.

00;15;21;14 - 00;15;46;21
Unknown
I'm interviewing Case Van Hoff on Wednesday, and I plan to I plan to ask him all this hour, how are we thinking about budgeting? When do we pick up a rig? Does Washington do anything? It's I don't know if it's, I, you know, I'd love to hear if Washington's called with an offer of anything. I doubt he'll tell me, but, you know, I wonder if there is a plan there, because Chris Wright gets it.

00;15;46;23 - 00;16;17;18
Unknown
We'll look in Washington. Do. Oh, man. We print money free, dad. Well, we'll finance half of every well drilled. I mean, we'll we'll knock down every regulation on building pipelines, etc.. I mean, they could they could offer a lot of in the way of incentives. There's probably, there's probably things to do in the tax code too, you know, and if we're going to get accused of taking subsidies, why don't we actually get some instead of just, accelerated depreciation?

00;16;17;20 - 00;16;41;11
Unknown
You know, this is complete joke, but part of me is thinking or studs in the office of Washington DC saying, hey, this is the perfect time to build more windmills because it's going to fix. We don't need oil. See what? See the volatility of oil. We need more wind farms offshore one way. And there are those that believe the really the the economic side of this.

00;16;41;11 - 00;17;07;24
Unknown
The play has been to reroute traffic to the Gulf Coast. And we see it in terms of how export volumes have responded. We're approaching an all time high, if not at an all time high of 5 million barrels a day. And so there was, particularly like Rory Johnston's posting over the weekend, desperately needed oil. There's tankers heading at speed to the US Gulf Coast.

00;17;07;29 - 00;17;55;25
Unknown
And actually, the president hijacked and and reprinted that on Truth Social, you know, crowing about the fact that we've got all of this opportunity to make up the difference, which practically logistically, is another matter. Not only from the standpoint of if you're taking what historically came from and through the Strait to East Asia and Southeast Asia, you've now got a go the other way around the world and pick it up from the Gulf Coast, go through the Panama Canal in most cases, and then make it to, the shorelines of East Asia or the ports of East Asia, which is, I don't know, a much, much longer travel time.

00;17;55;28 - 00;18;19;20
Unknown
So is this a un are we going to have a new expression? It's not a slow boat from China. It's going to be a slow boat from the Gulf of Mexico or Gulf of Freedom or whatever we're calling it today. Yeah. Come on, you can't. We can produce it. We? Yes. Thank you Chuck, we can produce it. But this is actually a short ask as the game acronym is just so natural.

00;18;19;20 - 00;18;46;02
Unknown
It's it's hard to shake, you know, that there are guys out there. Chuck, I'm sure you've been pitched, but there has to be people running around saying, we want to double the export infrastructure out of the Gulf, because that is the one area that we have sort of just underinvested, because we always left the Middle East to the heavy lifting, always on shipping oil.

00;18;46;05 - 00;19;19;01
Unknown
So that's that's a really good point, is do we, do we double capacity, which is a multi-year long term strategy because you're not I mean, right now, even if you know all these these Asian refiners, if they wanted oil from the US, they're not getting it until June. So that's that's just today. But if you needed to actually ship 7 million barrels a day from the United States, from the Gulf of Mexico, you need to double capacity.

00;19;19;03 - 00;19;49;12
Unknown
And that takes years and years of planning. Does this opportunity in the Strait of Hormuz actually give people the opportunity to go raise the money to actually do it? So interesting you bring that up because the D.o.e. actually called us at Digital Wildcatters back in the day, quad or digital, what called digital was our act when we were we were a true media company.

00;19;49;14 - 00;20;26;14
Unknown
Kind of the, the, the, the heights of Covid and basically said, look, we're having to just print money. One of the things we need to do with this money we print is at least two projects such that, you know, infrastructure type projects. Let's go spend this money in a real way. And, the idea we pitched them on was go retrofit all of the, refineries along the Gulf Coast to handle US shale crude, you know, because, all those refineries still need that heavy stuff out of Venezuela.

00;20;26;14 - 00;20;58;01
Unknown
And, of course, I'm wondering if maybe that's the play. Let's not export oil. Let's export refined product. But, I mean, those are big, huge bets. And it's tough to do with, with the president changing his mind every 24 hours. So I like where your head went, but, I barring some sort of government marshall plan, I don't see private dollars taking five and ten year bets and energy.

00;20;58;04 - 00;21;24;14
Unknown
I just want to say something. Just just for the record, I think Marshall Plan has come up more times on our Digital Wildcatters show than I've heard in the the entire time in my entire life. Like I studied the Marshall Plan, but we've talked about it maybe 37 times on this show. Well done Chuck, when you're when you're partners, a political science major, you get the Marshall Plan.

00;21;24;14 - 00;22;01;17
Unknown
Sorry about that. On the subject of physical flows, infrastructure, capacity, a long longtime friend of the show and sometimes guest and co-host, John Maher is now the chief economist and head of investor relations at Phillips 66, did a podcast last week with Anne-Marie to some of energy aspects that talked about, you know, timelines here, capacities, you know, just just the physical reality of working through a lot of these, you know, upsets in the, in the system.

00;22;01;17 - 00;22;28;17
Unknown
And on one of one of the issues is if you're running refineries as hard as you can run them, you have been for a while. But also, you know, do you have, do you have the, the physical capacity to move and store as well? It's, it's a, it's a good. Listen, I'm not sure where I think you can find it on YouTube, but, Sean did that with, Emery design of energy aspects last week.

00;22;28;19 - 00;22;54;04
Unknown
From New York. I think they had a conference up there, but, worth worth a listen. So y'all probably y'all may have already talked about this on here, and if so, we can, we can move on to windfall profits taxes. But, said Trini, who's sent the guy over into the Gulf with $15,000 of cash and said, hey, man, tell me what's really going on.

00;22;54;04 - 00;23;20;08
Unknown
And basically, like, hired a boat to take him out into the middle of the strait and was looking around and stuff. And his claim was, there's 50% more traffic moving than you can see on satellites because they're sitting there blocking stuff. And so oil is actually moving through the straits. It's just you're not able to see it from the the satellites.

00;23;20;08 - 00;23;42;05
Unknown
And I don't know how much truth there is to that. But that research report got a lot of traffic on, Twitter. What can the government do, Exactly. All right, let's go to windfall profits tax. I'm kind of wound up about this. That was a little Segway. You didn't pick it up as smoothly? No, I did, yeah, I'm shocked.

00;23;42;08 - 00;24;08;22
Unknown
Sorry. Sorry, guys. So, you know, I wake up in Pacific Times, this time of year and see the US Oil and Gas Association kind of reposting ro Conor's tweet about, you know, it's, it's time to take a bite out of the greedy big oil and impose a windfall profits tax. He's co-sponsor of a bill in Congress right now.

00;24;08;22 - 00;24;31;15
Unknown
I forget the name of the senator out of, Connecticut. Basically, you know, the Carter administration called and wants it on its wants its windfall profits tax back. We haven't really heard as much about this as I thought we would, but I guess better late than never. What's your take, Chuck? You you're chomping at the bit here.

00;24;31;17 - 00;25;11;13
Unknown
So I've thought about this and I went and did a little research this morning. If you look back to 2010, the price of oil averaged $79 a barrel and Kirk brought it up earlier. We're at about 100. So let's say we're up, you know, 20%, 30% kind of since, 2010. I went and looked at the congressman's, district, the average house price in their district in 2010 was $300,000, $325,000.

00;25;11;15 - 00;25;44;19
Unknown
Today, that same average house. This is about 1.3 million. So I am perfectly fine having a windfall profits tax on the price of oil. But let's start with California real estate. And I think the reason they've been able to triple or quadruple in value is because of your favorite point you make that the net income margins on the tech companies are 25, 30, 35, 40%.

00;25;44;19 - 00;26;18;02
Unknown
So they can afford all those houses. So Chuck, over this, this period, Exxon and Chevron are about 7 to 9% net margins, average since 2010. Apple, Microsoft, Google. Net 23 to 35% over the same period. Ro con is a joke by the way. This includes the 2010 to 2014, when TI averaged approximately $97 a barrel. By the way, I just got a new iPhone and that's my cute daughter, Kelly.

00;26;18;05 - 00;26;42;21
Unknown
I just got a new iPhone $2,000. That's how much my iPhone cost. Damn, Chuck. Yeah? What does it do? What does it do? That's. Now it's not $2,000 worth, but, No, they, I always have to get the maxed out memory because so much of my life, when I got fired, I didn't really have a computer, so I started doing everything on my phone.

00;26;42;24 - 00;27;05;03
Unknown
So I need the max out memory. But, yeah, two grand. It's just going to be when it's made in space, Chuck. That's what I want to know. Well, it's they're starting to make them in Houston. Right. They announced plans for the big factory down here. So maybe when they're in Houston, they'll be cheaper. What's interesting is that it's characterized as, you know, Californians who he represents.

00;27;05;03 - 00;27;51;22
Unknown
Ro kind of represents. And conveniently and somewhat hypocritically, the Silicon Valley constituents, where you describe the the increase in home values, asking for some kind of rebate when we know and Mike, bro has done a really good, persistent, vigilant job of this, pointing out that, you know, the stack of all kinds of special taxes on a gallon of gasoline that Californians are forced to pay, some of which I think 7.5 billion by his accounting has gone to the high speed train to nowhere that now has a price tag of $126 billion, or $136 billion, something like that.

00;27;51;25 - 00;28;24;02
Unknown
And not a single foot of track has been laid. And so I'm characterizing that as a rebate. It would seem like a 25 to 35% margin would be a much riper target from which to extract some of those rebates, because I'm sure there are many in the rank and file in California who were forced with the same iPhone decision that you had to make, and they've got to lay out two grand and, you know, might be doing that once every 12 to 18 months.

00;28;24;04 - 00;28;56;01
Unknown
I mean, here's the problem. He wrote con is is similar to like he hangs out in Europe. Of course. I mean, the environmental irony here is that if you did this windfall profits tax, it discourages investment in domestic production. So less investment means less supply, higher prices, more reliance upon foreign sources of oil. I mean, when you think through it economically and logically makes zero sense.

00;28;56;03 - 00;29;22;11
Unknown
But for some reason, Hollywood, the the political crafts people, the progressives applaud this as if it sounds like it's a great idea. It's just so ridiculous. But hey, you know, a lot of us are just little plebs and we're just living in someone else's world who are calling the shots. If Ro Khanna gets his way, it screws everybody.

00;29;22;11 - 00;29;52;20
Unknown
But he gets paid well. So what does he care? He's probably a multi-millionaire from being a politician. He was wealthy prior. But let's just say what happens when you become a politician? You get, you get, you get total greased. It's great. Chuck, you should run for office. You'll get your jet back. Yeah. There we go. The risk of them getting their way is rising with each passing day of elevated nominal, you know, fuel prices.

00;29;52;22 - 00;30;32;21
Unknown
And so come November, so are we going to see a big talk back to a pretty heavy hand on the industry. Having and being able to point to the fact that, hey, you, you know, you ran on a platform of bringing down prices on everything, most notably energy, and that hasn't happened. Look what we're paying now. You know, we're over what I think yesterday was 411 nationally, as Pickering pointed out, he was doing his unscientific survey, stopping at gas stations, looking at to see who's pumped round numbers of of an app that does that.

00;30;32;21 - 00;30;58;14
Unknown
But. Okay. Partial tank, partial tank. Phillips. Dan's old school. Well, I'll be honest. Like, I've sort of been checking out these cyber trucks because they're the ugliest thing I've ever seen in my life. So I love them. Like, now I'm like, I see them. I'm obsessed. So I've been playing around with Tesla. I'm like, man, what a great time to own an electric car, right?

00;30;58;16 - 00;31;31;14
Unknown
But here's why. Well, you save money for sure, 6000, 8000 a year now because of gas prices. But here's the real reason you want a Tesla. They have the best autonomous driving, and I keep running into people that you that have their car drives in places. So while the AI for I think it's AI chip Forbes and Tesla with I-5 comes which is fully autonomous robotaxi capabilities, I'm in.

00;31;31;17 - 00;32;04;23
Unknown
So that's the real reason. Well, and I predict within five years and I'm going to use Houston, Texas as the example. But cities will be saying there is no no people are allowed to drive within loop 610 or maybe even within Beltway. I mean, it is going to be all autonomous driving because at the end of the day, except those guys on Instagram that are like, take four wheelers and, and are running from cops that that's you have to have that.

00;32;04;26 - 00;32;34;18
Unknown
It's the best Instagram to watch. And Twitter was one of my best friends, was literally like one of the first, employees of Fox News when it first came out. And Dave Rhodes had the adage of whenever there was a chase scene, go to the chase scene because Fox had this nationwide affiliates and, what was what was the guy's name that founded, Fox News?

00;32;34;18 - 00;33;01;14
Unknown
Murdoch. Now the, the Roger Ailes. Ailes. Yeah. So supposedly one day Ailes is watching Fox News and they're doing a chase scene from Miami where they're following the guy and he's running, and Ailes comes screaming down on the news for, good God, we're a serious news organization. Who the hell is doing this? Whoever did is fired. And the reason Rhodes got hired is because he would run smack back to Ailes.

00;33;01;14 - 00;33;18;10
Unknown
He's like, all right, Roger, sit your ass down for two minutes. You watch this. And if after two minutes you still want to fire me, I'll pay you back last week's salary. And Ailes was like, screw you, Rhodes. And he sits there and about two minutes later, this is the greatest thing I've ever seen in my life. Okay.

00;33;18;10 - 00;33;41;22
Unknown
So we're I mean, we're talking about the Iranians and we're flipping to something even better. And let's stay in California. What chase scene did does everyone in the world that was alive remember, we watched it. It was boring AF, but we all know where we were. So where were you when that famous chase scene in California took place?

00;33;41;22 - 00;34;09;17
Unknown
That's easy. Fishes apartment, watching the, rockets. And next play. I was watching the freaking Rockets in Washington, DC. Where were you, Mark? I was in Chicago watching the rockets. And the next O.J. fucking Simpson makes a honorary mention on our show. When we're talking about the Hutus and Iranians, OJ comes in because that's the most famous chase scene anyone has ever watched.

00;34;09;17 - 00;34;41;09
Unknown
We all watched it like it was fin fucking tastic, that freaking white Bronco. And it wasn't even that interesting. So I don't remember where I was when the verdict was announced. In fact, that was back in the days of the Sony watch. Man. I was in Steve Kaplan's cases of financial management at Chicago GSB, and he's trying to lecture and everybody's kind of looking back to those in the back road that had their little Watchmen televisions on silent.

00;34;41;09 - 00;35;04;00
Unknown
And the verdict was announced, and there was this collective reaction throughout the classroom. You could hear it outside. Two people were just just fixated on that whole suit up, Johnnie Cochran on speed dial for that, just in case I ever need an attorney, ma'am. So my brother and I have always played, the game. What do you say to a celebrity when you meet them?

00;35;04;06 - 00;35;33;03
Unknown
And that. That's a fun game to play. The pinnacle of that game was I was in the San Jose airport. I saw O.J. Simpson, 2 or 3 glasses of wine in a ran over to O.J. and said, hey, man, I got a line on the real killers. He freaked out and ran off. Thank you. Was it a Hertz ad hurtling things through the airport?

00;35;33;05 - 00;36;01;07
Unknown
It was, a the the look he gave me and took off kind of had that vibe to it. I actually thought I might get killed, but I was like, what a story that'll be. He he went for some reason, I'm up in Dallas at my golf club. There's a lot of former NBA stars like guys, you know, and I been playing golf with them.

00;36;01;07 - 00;36;29;22
Unknown
The great, really great people. But I told him the story. I was like a year ago, I'm in Houston playing golf at Hermann Park, which is I was like, you know, at Hermann Park. I had the same day I got stuck with a heroin needle by a homeless guy. I dodged a few bullets. But I love Hermann Park because I was trying to get nine holes in before my daughter's graduation.

00;36;29;24 - 00;36;48;15
Unknown
And. And when you play at these public courses, you know, the people in front of you have paid their money. They're going to get all 25 shots per hole and like they're they're getting their money's worth. So it's slow. So this kid's behind me. And he I was like just playing with me. Like we have 4 or 5 holes left.

00;36;48;17 - 00;37;08;09
Unknown
Real nice kid. And he's kind of got a southern accent. I was like, well, you know, where are you from? He's like Kentucky, sir. And I was like, oh, awesome. Well, what are you doing in Houston? Like, how'd you get here? He goes, I'm with the rockets. I go, well, no offense, but you look too small to be a basketball player.

00;37;08;15 - 00;37;31;08
Unknown
So do you work for the rockets? He's like, no, I play basketball for the rockets. Hi, I'm Reed Sheppard. I'm like, never heard of you I'm curcumin. So I'm like okay Reed. Well cool. I'm I'm sorry. I didn't realize that you played basketball for the rockets. Like. And so then I was like, where'd you play basketball in college?

00;37;31;08 - 00;37;53;03
Unknown
Kentucky was like, oh man, how great was it? Four years? He's like, I didn't play four years. I played one year and I was drafted. I was like, oh, cool. You like draftees? Like number one, I was drafted number one as a freshman. I was like, well, don't I feel like the asshole? So like, I didn't think he looked like a basketball player.

00;37;53;03 - 00;38;12;08
Unknown
And now you're like an a great basketball player. So the guys I play golf with now, I told him these stories are like, oh, I'm going to tell Reed when I see him. I was like, dude, totally. That's my like, I wasn't ready for to meet a celebrity. And I acted like I've never heard of you. And I still like, I only know who Reed Shepherd is because I met him.

00;38;12;11 - 00;38;35;17
Unknown
Nice. That's a that's a strong celebrity sighting particularly. And he's playing golf by himself at Park crazy. Wow, I love that. That's great. All right, where do we go next Beep. Oh baby. You know we love picking on beep I was about to say I almost want to sit this out because I'm going to say I've never met a beep person I don't like.

00;38;35;17 - 00;39;23;10
Unknown
And Mark's going to bash on, the difference between the institution and the humans. Yes. Right. Exactly. Totally. Now it's just kind of a, you know, a kind of this next phase of the activists who are dying on the vine with their explicit, climate resolution push, which, as you recall, Exxon finally thwarted it by going around the SEC to federal court in Fort Worth and basically got follow this and some others a couple of years ago to withdraw their, their resolutions, under threat of, you know, losing the lawsuit and getting around in it at that time and accommodative SEC in the midst of, hey, we're going to keep bringing these things up.

00;39;23;10 - 00;39;51;07
Unknown
You're going to spend time and money defending them. The votes are declining to almost insignificant votes in favor. Well, BP got excoriated in a headline, in the F.T. over the weekend, basically saying BP has landed itself in hot water because they basically took the same Exxon tack with the latest follow this and others resolution push, probably an American that pitched it.

00;39;51;10 - 00;40;37;25
Unknown
By the way, I'm in it's April April 23rd is BP's AGM. So basically, you know, I don't understand kind of the the nuance and the intricacies of the similar legal maneuver. But there was, you know, in 2021 called and wanted its, its climate push back and basically what follow this is now and others there was a Wall Street Journal article that followed this one, but others are, are saying now, well, since you've, you know, you've abandoned your transition strategy proved to us, in a world of declining oil demand, how your capital allocation is going to create value.

00;40;37;27 - 00;41;13;26
Unknown
So it's it's climate masquerading as, you know, something the IEA said, which is it is now retracted that we're going to see a peak in global oil demand before 2030, which, you know, is is certainly not the case anymore. What what else, what else can BP do from a business model standpoint? When it proved so spectacularly bad at pivoting the first time under, Bernard Looney, it should run all of its economics, its reserve reports and all that at $100 oil.

00;41;13;29 - 00;41;41;07
Unknown
Just show them that. Well, I mean, that's right, Chuck, that's the right move. The other thing, and I mean, again, shell did this, but shell went from really The Hague to London, which like, go figure that. I mean, I've talked I have actually talked a while about this. I'm actually in some ways shocked because he is, a strong leader.

00;41;41;10 - 00;42;09;22
Unknown
But it makes the most sense for shell to be headquartered in Houston 100%. Not even close on the analysis, but BP needs to relocate. That's their main problem. Being based in London is a shit show. If you just look at the city itself, it's run like a shit show. It's declining and I love the Brits, I love UK but they are freaking going the wrong direction.

00;42;09;24 - 00;42;33;22
Unknown
And so that's the problem is they're they're headquartered in the wrong place. It's an easy it's, it's hard to do, but all it takes is a strong CEO to say we're moving because it's the best financial decision for the shareholders. And I'm not sure why that's been politically knocked down. I mean, that's what's crazy. I don't put any money into BP.

00;42;33;24 - 00;42;58;07
Unknown
Why would you listening to Albert Manifolds, who's the new, executive chair or a non-executive chairman of BP that they brought in from the outside his comments. And in response to all this, I've kind of heard echoes of Lee Raymond back in the day when he used to preside over the AGM and and kind of smack down all of this type of talk.

00;42;58;07 - 00;43;27;16
Unknown
So were, what, 20 years, 20 plus years since then? It is a markedly different tone coming out of the board and the executive leadership at BP, and we'll see how far the steps they take will go before, you know, some alternative comes. But, you know, they they've got a they they've got to get back to basics. And you know, the big argument was, look, this is this is repetitive.

00;43;27;16 - 00;44;10;24
Unknown
It's duplicative in terms of our reporting. It's more disclosure costs money cost time. It's a distraction. Those are the more mundane kind of bureaucratic things. But fundamentally, I think getting at the root problems, which is you're never going to get out of this, who, who which stakeholder group has supremacy. And as we all know, European theaters are much more difficult to to operate in, particularly as an oil and gas concern than the US where we, we've got we've got strong reinforcement that the primary stakeholder, which is the shareholder is is the ultimate priority.

00;44;10;26 - 00;44;44;07
Unknown
We've already talked I mean, yeah, you know, my whole perspective on this, it's always the shareholder period. End of story I don't care about anybody else. Because if the shareholder is not happy you're going to get fired. It's a toxic relationship that BP has with the UK. That's it. So why I mean, they're just playing around with these micro decisions when the macro, the elephant in the room is you're in the wrong place and there's no way that your shareholder value is ever going to go up by relocating.

00;44;44;09 - 00;45;09;14
Unknown
And that's the same issue I had with shell moving to London. They avoided a big tax like a basically a small tax liability. When you look at the, the, the long term value of the company, again, Exxon is playing go or chess while these guys are playing freakin marbles because every great story out there is a circle. So let's come back.

00;45;09;16 - 00;45;45;03
Unknown
I'm going to organize a delegation in Houston, Texas to create a marshall plan to bring BP to Houston, Texas. And their save face thing will be the proactive economic, plan we put in place for them to make the transition a no brainer. I hope that they play this clip when they're at their AGM. And for those who play, BP will become the first Clyde native major.

00;45;45;06 - 00;46;03;26
Unknown
There we go first. Can't call them Sue. Can't, can't can't call them super again yet. Yeah, but maybe this is the path back to super major. There we go. There we go. Can you be bigger than Conoco. So all right Mark, kick us off on, Phil Garner because I've actually got a Phil Garner story to to add.

00;46;04;01 - 00;46;44;02
Unknown
We heard the unfortunate news I think last year, Phil Garner had been, diagnosed with pancreatic cancer, which is, as we all know, one of the worst. And he passed away this weekend. Scrap iron was I got to know him a little bit starting about 20 years ago, right after the Astros fired him. He lived in my neighborhood and was a member of the club, I was a member of back in the day and was actually doing some investing in some private oil and gas that we sat down and talked about a few times and he was also around kind of the youth and, and amateur baseball scene out there.

00;46;44;02 - 00;47;04;19
Unknown
And, one of his grandsons played, some little league and, and on some of the travel ball teams we played, he was always there, very supportive. In fact, his whole family. And so I just remember back in the late 70s, I was a big Pirates fan because they had the coolest look. They had pop star Jewel.

00;47;04;19 - 00;47;27;00
Unknown
They had, you know, Dave Parker, Dave Parker, they had scrap iron. They were the we are family. The Kent took all the the stovepipe hats. All of that. But just, you know, beyond a great, you know, just, a great baseball ambassador and a great player and manager took the Astros to their first World Series in 2005.

00;47;27;03 - 00;47;56;00
Unknown
And just just a great human being. And so, you know, for cancer, and I'll, I'll do my best to, to replicate the iconic mustache. It doesn't even come close. So rest in peace. Grow up. I was, I was at a charity golf event, and, they had the silent auctions, and it was dinner with the Astro managers.

00;47;56;06 - 00;48;20;12
Unknown
So it was Art Howe, Larry Durocher and Phil Garner. And I think I got that for like $5,000. I mean, it was just dirt cheap. I was, you know, aghast. And when you're a guest at somebody's charity event, you got to buy something at the silent auction. I mean, that's the moral, contract you enter when you accept an invitation.

00;48;20;12 - 00;48;45;03
Unknown
And so, anyway, I bought it. And, two things, happened on that, one, Art Howe couldn't make it, but Kevin Bass joined, which which was, was really cool. And the second thing that happened that was so cool is we were in a private room and, we just said, hey, if we promise to keep our mouth shut, can we just talk?

00;48;45;03 - 00;49;07;03
Unknown
And everybody was like, heck yeah, we can do that. And so we kind of got into it and all, and I don't think I'm giving away a great secret because he's talked about it publicly. But the most fascinating part of that night aside from the steroid discussion, which I'm still sworn to secrecy on, but was Phil Garner talking about?

00;49;07;06 - 00;49;37;08
Unknown
He was actually the guy that played go between between Art Howe and, Billy Beane at Oakland, at, Oakland during the whole Moneyball period. And he kept going back and forth so they wouldn't kill each other. And the fascinating thing about that is he said, yeah, look, all that Moneyball stuff made a great story. But at the end of the day, those Oakland A's teams were all about the pitching staff, and Billy Beane didn't draft any of those pitchers.

00;49;37;08 - 00;49;57;18
Unknown
It was the previous routine that the draft at all of them. And so anyway, it was it was it was it was fascinating. Just a great dude. I mean, answered all our questions, took pictures with all of us. So rest in peace. Always ready to smoke a cigar with you two and one. One tweet that was out yesterday.

00;49;57;18 - 00;50;28;20
Unknown
Brian McTaggart, who's the longtime writer covering the Astros, reflected on, I think it was in 2007 when Garner got fired. So McTaggart calls Garner for a comment, and when Garner picks up the phone, he's laughing. And McTaggart said, what's so funny? And it's crap? Said, you have to work today. That's awesome. That's awesome. Rest in peace, Phil Garner.

00;50;28;20 - 00;50;51;20
Unknown
So, anyway, good to see you. Hey everybody, if you enjoyed the podcast, please be sure to comment. Take it easy on me because I'm very, very sensitive. But definitely share the podcast with a friend. And, glad to be back. Missed you guys. Likewise, man. Good seeing you.