The PetroNerds Podcast – Details, episodes & analysis

https://youtu.be/lLw1PhhXCEw

Recorded March 16, 2026

In this episode of the PetroNerds Podcast, Trisha Curtis, CEO of PetroNerds, speaks with Tyler Lindholm, former Wyoming state representative and current Wyoming State Director for Americans for Prosperity. They break down why Wyoming holds a major advantage in affordable, reliable energy and why the state needs to shift from defense to offense. They discuss why Wyoming sits in a uniquely strong position in U.S. energy, especially as oil markets tighten, electricity demand rises, and policymakers push permitting reform back to the center of the national conversation.  The conversation covers Wyoming oil production, natural gas, coal, utility control, rare earth minerals, education funding, and the policy contrast between Wyoming and Colorado. Tyler explains why Wyoming has played defense for too long and why the state now needs to lead with confidence on energy, infrastructure, and investment. A major focus of the episode is coal-fired power generation, including the potential for a new Dry Fork coal plant near Gillette. Trisha and Tyler also explore why reliable low-cost electricity matters for industry, manufacturing, data centers, AI, and national security.

In This Episode

• Wyoming’s current oil and gas position
• High oil prices create an opening for Wyoming producers
• Federal land access, bonding pools, and BLM barriers
• Why permitting reform matters across energy and infrastructure
• Wyoming’s coalbed methane boom
• Why coal still matters for reliability and affordability
• The potential new Dry Fork coal-fired power plant
• How out-of-state utilities influence Wyoming power policy
• Third-party generation, data centers, and industrial growth
• Rare earth minerals, refining, and national security
• Why Wyoming should compete more aggressively with Colorado

Key Takeaways

Wyoming has the resources, location, and power cost advantage to become a bigger energy and industrial leader.

Permitting reform is not a niche policy issue. It affects oil, gas, coal, transmission, broadband, mining, and every major infrastructure built in the West.

Coal remains a strategic asset for grid reliability, industrial growth, and national security.

Wyoming’s ability to shape its own energy future remains limited when out-of-state utilities control major generation decisions.

Rare earth development and domestic processing deserve much more urgency.

Guest

Tyler Lindholm is a former Wyoming state representative, fifth-generation rancher, military veteran, and current Wyoming State Director for Americans for Prosperity.

https://youtu.be/YNwOi5XyfbQ?si=IJ8gUgADuwjV6RtG

Recorded March 25, 2026, and February 26, 2026

Episode 153 of the PetroNerds podcast is a heavy-hitting, energy-dense podcast packed with intel and data in every second. Trisha Curtis, CEO and host of the PetroNerds podcast, walks listeners and viewers through a timely and thorough presentation on the State of Energy, covering topics from Iran and Russia to China and US shale.

Trisha covers the gauntlet in a deep dive presentation given on February 26th, 2026, just two days before the war in Iran. Trisha discusses Iran’s oil production and how little geopolitical risk is priced into oil at $65 a barrel. She gets into Chinese oil demand and the Chinese economy, the importance of oil, getting energy right, and the role of coal and natural gas in power generation and electricity prices.

She talks about the rise in electricity prices, the corresponding rise in wind and solar power, and the decline in cheap baseload power from coal. She discusses Chinese coal demand and the importance of energy in war and conflict. And Trisha introduces this podcast with a fresh update on oil prices, oil flows, and the war in Iran.

This talk and presentation were sponsored by First Turn Capital and Liberty Energy. The presentation was hosted by the Denver Energy Network and the Women in Oil and Gas Association at Liberty Energy’s office in Denver, Colorado. 

Please reach out to PetroNerds directly at www.petronerds.com.

Recorded November 4th, 2025 and September 17th, 2025 Episode 144 of the PetroNerds podcast is another heavy hitting PetroNerdy special. The body of this podcast is Trisha Curtis' talk to the Fort Worth Chamber of Commerce on September 17th, 2025. Trisha introduces this podcast with a fresh market update covering OPEC Plus' recent output increase, the Xi and Trump meeting, China and the US, geopolitics, the Fed, and the consumer. In this presentation and talk Trisha takes listeners through the oil market and the economy and begins the presentation and talk with oil prices and the health of the economy, the move to $65 oil on the back of Ukrainian strikes on Russian refineries, Putin and Russia's drone incursions into European airspace, and Xi Jinping's SCO meeting with North Korea, India, and Russia, and China's military parade. Trisha talks about natural gas prices and the natural gas outlook and AI demand and power generation, US vs. China and the AI race, and OPEC Plus and Saudi output and market share. She gets into oil prices and the sentiment of the oil industry, crude oil inventories, explaining tariffs and what they mean and why, tariffs on India and China, Chinese crude oil stockpiling, and China's support of Russia. Trisha further dives into tariffs being about China and competition with China, the US manufacturing industrial base, manufacturing and the role of power generation. She gets into the rig count, longer laterals, the efficiency of the service sector and the resilient output of US shale, LNG exports and prices, global LNG market, US natural gas prices and residential natural gas prices, EIA nat gas price spike projections, and electricity prices. She talks about global coal consumption, Chinese coal consumption, global electricity, Chinese electricity, and Chinese oil and gas consumption and their economy. The last 15 minutes are filled with excellent questions from the audience including peak oil, coal and electricity prices, and oil and natural gas prices projections. Trisha Curtis' interview on Real America's Voice Steve Guber Show: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m0pIGZTrNX4 Trisha Curtis' opinion piece in the Daily Caller, "Winning Against China Means Winning on Energy": https://dailycaller.com/2025/10/19/opinion-winning-against-china-means-winning-on-energy-trisha-curtis/

Recorded on April 4, 2022 Episode 43 of the PetroNerds podcast is part one of an incredible double header on all things US natural gas, global LNG markets, the European energy crisis, and the impact of regulations on ESG and investor pressure.  Trisha Curtis is joined by her guest Renee Pirrong, Strategy Director at Tellurian.  Tellurian is active in the upstream space in the Haynesville and will soon be exporting LNG (Liquified Natural Gas).  Before recording WTI was $101.80, Brent $106.36, Henry Hub $5.80, and TTF Dutch from CME $36 MMBtu.  Trisha starts off the podcast with a global overview and backdrop of what is happening in the world, including the Biden Administration and IEA's planned release of Strategic Petroleum Reserves from the SPR.  In this episode Trisha and Renee get into US natural gas production volumes, US LNG export volumes, LNG export capacity, and the Biden Administration's plans to increase LNG exports to Europe this year and significantly more through 2030.  Trisha gets into the production base potential and the meaningful impact of market signalling by regulators and the need to build infrastructure and pipelines to accelerate production growth in the US and exports abroad.  They discuss the impacts of ESG investing and money going into renewables vs. oil, natural gas, and coal.  They also begin discussing the energy crisis in Europe and Asia.

Recorded on March 1, 2022 In episode 42 of the PetroNerds podcast Trisha Curtis is joined by Matt Gallagher, former CEO of Parsley Energy and current CEO of Greenlake Energy Ventures.  This is a lively and timely discussion by two oil and gas nerds who clearly need more than an hour to discuss the entire global oil market, energy policy in the US and abroad, ESG, the US oil market, and impacts of war in Ukraine on geopolitics and on energy prices.  Prior to recording, oil prices for the US crude benchmark, West Texas Intermediate, spiked to well over $105 and barrel, from $97 just hours before.  Trisha and Matt discuss the Biden Administration's energy policies and war against oil and gas, Matt's look back on the proration talks he had with Texas Railroad Commission when oil prices were collapsing in 2020, and Matt's electric Mustang.  They get into service companies and pricing and the need for service companies to be profitable along with producers.  They spend time talking about the over emphasis of the "E" in ESG and also talk about leadership in the oil and gas space and the certainty most executives have on the northbound trajectory of oil prices.  Trisha harps on recession risk and talks about the risks of allowing Iran, Russia, China, and North Korea to get closer.  And they close the conversation by talking about sustainably sourced and humanely sourced barrels of crude oil from the US and Canada.  This is an awesome episode and one you most definitely want to share with everyone you know!

In episode 41 of the PetroNerds podcast, Trisha Curtis takes the first 15 or so minutes to recap what is happening with the crisis in Ukraine and the invasion by Russia which began on the 23rd of February. Trisha is joined by her guest, Justin Kringstad of the North Dakota Pipeline Authority, to talk about the state of the Bakken, the Williston Basin, and North Dakota at $95 oil. The Williston Basin rig count has remained extremely low despite elevated oil prices and Trisha and Justin discuss the nature of the operators and the reasons why activity has not returned to the basin. Trisha and Justin get into prices and what this means for inventory. They talk about "remaining inventory" and "core" and "tiers" and why inventory may not be an issue, the fact that it is locked up by public operators is. Continental Resources is running eight rigs in the Williston Basin but talked more about the Powder River and the Delaware in their earnings call. Trisha and Justin also discuss the huge volumes of natural gas being produced in the Williston Basin, despite less drilling, and the fact that more infrastructure and midstream development for natural gas will need to be built in the coming years. This a timely podcast front loaded with a major market update and followed by a critical discussion of the nuances of the Williston Basin.

In episode 40 of the PetroNerds podcast, Trisha Curtis discusses European energy policy and the European energy crises with expert and professor Thierry Bros.  This is a dense, high BTU content podcast.  Thierry is a professor at Sciences Po Paris and recently published an op-ed titled "Dreaming isn't going to solve the energy crisis."  Trisha and Thierry talk about this recent article and an early February document from the European Commission on including natural gas and nuclear in their plans to decarbonize.  They get into high energy prices in Europe, the heavy reliance on Russia for so much of Europe's natural gas, and the steadily declining production and supply of natural gas from the UK and Europe.  They talk about energy policy and monetary policy and what Thierry calls "magic math" being done by many politicians and regulators.  And they discuss France's push to call natural gas "fossil gas."  This is a refreshing conversation from someone within Europe that understands Energy policy and climate change and is willing to call a spade a spade.

In episode 39 of the PetroNerds podcast, Trisha Curtis sits down with Ryan Keys, CEO of Triple Crown Resources. Triple Crown is a private operator in the southern Midland Basin with 44,000 acres. Ryan offers a very candid view of what it is like to be a private operator in the basin and the serious cost pressures facing operators. Inflation and rising costs and the lack of labor and skilled labor are beginning to bite operational efficiency. Trisha and Ryan talk about the oil market, oil prices, hedging, inflation, and a myriad of other topics. They also talk about Triple Crown’s position in the basin and the uniqueness in being in an off-the-cuff play that fewer folks are interested in, characteristic of many private operators across the US today. This is a fantastic and informative conversation and a must-listen-to episode of the PetroNerds podcast.

In episode 38 of the PetroNerds podcast, Trisha Curtis has the pleasure of sitting down and talking all things Permian Basin with Aaron Hunter of ConocoPhillips. Aaron is the Vice President of the Midland Basin for ConocoPhillips. Trisha and Aaron get into three main topics starting with Permian nerdiness and the state of play in the Midland and the Delaware, the resiliency of the Midland over the course of 2020 and 2021, changes within the Permian Basin, and the rise of private operators. They discuss the acquisitions of Concho Resources and Shell's Permian assets. And they get into ESG, emissions - Scope 1, 2, and 3, ConocoPhillips' Paris Climate Accord plans, their triple mandate, and their recent earnings calls and stockholder meeting. They discuss this in the context of investor pressure and the rise of ESG, and address that this has been emphasized while ConocoPhillips has amassed a significant Permian position in the past two years. This is a timely and not to miss episode encapsulating many recent topics on the PetroNerds podcast and bringing it full circle with a major public operator, and soon to be the largest operator, in the Permian Basin.

In episode 37 of the PetroNerds podcast, Trisha Curtis sits down with Steven E. Koonin, the author of "Unsettled."  Trisha and Steve discuss the premise of the book, the elevation of climate change in policy making, potential pitfalls in the data, and the controversial topic of understanding how much humans are influencing global warming and the certainty of that in the reports and analysis.  This is a frank discussion about the cost of the energy transition and the certainty or lack thereof that climate change is indeed a "code red for humanity."  This is a nerdy and controversial topic podcast filled with analysis and questions.  Steve and Trisha discuss the definitions of "climate" vs. "weather," the the importance of having a proper discussion and debate on how to address concerns about climate change and global warming, the ability to accurately model and have high degrees of certainty, grid reliability, the IEA's net zero by 2050 report, monetary policy, Xcel's shutting down of coal fired power plants and rate hikes, and Steve's comment that "net zero by 2050 is a fantasy." This book is about "What Climate Science Tells Us, What it Doesn't, and Why It Matters." Steven is the former Undersecretary for Science at the US Department of Energy for the Obama Administration and the former Chief Scientist with BP.  This is timely, nerdy, and a must listen to episode of the PetroNerds podcast.