Big Digital Energy
Welcome to Big Digital Energy with Chuck Yates, Mark Meyer and Kirk Coburn. Weekly news in energy covering oil and gas and cleantech.
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Big Tech's Dirty Energy Secret, Avatar's O&G Shark Tank & The AI Divide | BDE 03.27.26
<p>Kevin Krausert, CEO and Co-Founder of Avatar Innovations Inc., brings a story that starts with a vegan roughneck and ends with a venture studio that's quietly changing how oil and gas companies innovate from the inside out. Chuck and Kevin get into the Avatar model, some clever bets that actually paid off, the coolest ideas that flopped, and why Kevin thinks AI early adopters in energy are about to leave everyone else in the dust.</p><p>Click here to watch a video of this episode.</p><p><br></p><p>Join the conversation shaping the future of energy.<...
Qatar LNG Wiped Out, $200 Oil in Asia & Iran's Endgame | BDE 03.20.26
<p>Chuck and Mark are back and wasting no time getting into it. Qatar's LNG infrastructure is heavily damaged, a Red Sea refinery just got hit, and oil markets are absorbing a shock that the IEA apparently never saw coming (surprise). The guys break down regime adjustment vs. regime change, what a prolonged Strait of Hormuz disruption could mean for a global recession, and why gas prices matter more politically than anyone wants to admit. Then somehow they land on Mean Joe Green, Chuck Norris, and Astros opening day.</p><p>Click here to watch a video of this episode.<...
"Robinhood for Oil & Gas": Tokenized Energy, Blockchain Deals & Permian Access | BDE 03.17.26
<p>Oil and gas deals have always been a handshake-and-know-the-right-guy kind of business, but Tokenized Energy is changing that. Chip Simmons and Adrian Macias, co-founders of Tokenized Energy, along with Tim Pawul, President of Minerals and Royalties Authority LLC, join Chuck to break down how blockchain is turning exclusive oil and gas investments into something anyone can access from their phone for as little as 500 bucks. </p><p>Click here to watch a video of this episode.</p><p><br></p><p>Join the conversation shaping the future of energy.<br>Collide is the community where oil & gas professionals connect...
Iran Goes Hot, Oil Spikes & Sells Off, IEA Eyes the SPR | BDE 03.09.26
<p>Oil prices swung wild overnight and the BD War Chronicles rolls on. David Pursell joins Kirk and Mark to break down the SPR numbers, the Jones Act waiver, and why the IEA's emergency reserve is starting to look more like a price cap than a crisis tool. They also get into Iran's mosaic defense, Strait of Hormuz shipping chaos, and why reservoir damage fears are mostly noise.</p><p></p><p>Join the conversation shaping the future of energy.<br>Collide is the community where oil & gas professionals connect, share insights, and solve real-world problems together. No noise. No...
US Bombs Iran, Oil Barely Flinches, OPEC Ramps & the Regime Change Gamble | BDE 03.03.26
<p>The Persian Gulf just became a live fire zone and crude is barely flinching. What does that tell you about where oil markets really stand? David Pursell, EVP Planning Reserves and Fundamentals at Apache Corporation, joins Kirk and Mark to break down the US strikes on Iran, why this is nothing like Operation Midnight Hammer, what OPEC is actually capable of producing, how strategic reserves are everyone's insurance policy, and whether the real story here is regime change, not barrels.</p><p></p><p>Join the conversation shaping the future of energy.<br>Collide is the community where oil...
Texas Railroad Commission Candidate on Zombie Wells, Injection Crisis & CCS Scam | 02.23.26
<p>Hawk Dunlap, 2026 Republican candidate for Texas Railroad Commission, pulls no punches on zombie wells, produced water injection, and why carbon capture is a taxpayer funded scam. From 27 years of international well control across 100 countries to excavating 150 leaking wells on a Texas ranch, Hawk brings the kind of boots on the ground credibility this conversation demands. The primary is March 3rd.</p><p>Click here to watch a video of this episode.<br></p><p></p><p>Join the conversation shaping the future of energy.<br>Collide is the community where oil & gas professionals connect, share insights, and solve real-world...
Chevron Buys Texas Ranch to Dodge Lawsuit, Wind Blade Graveyards & Musk's Space AI | BDE 02.13.26
<p>Kirk, Chuck, and Mark cover Chevron's settlement to buy a West Texas ranch rather than face trial over decades of alleged pollution, Ken Paxton's lawsuit against a fiberglass recycling site turned wind turbine blade graveyard, and Elon Musk's plan to put AI data centers in space powered by solar panels. They debate whether the space data center concept is real or just Musk messing with software guys, discuss BP suspending share buybacks to reduce debt after their energy transition distraction, and reflect on Expand Energy leaving Oklahoma City nearly a decade after Aubrey McClendon's death, marking the end of...
Devon-Coterra Mega Merger, Data Center Cancellations Spike & Rubio's Mineral OPEC | BDE 02.06.26
<p>Kirk Coburn, Mark Meyer, and Chuck Yates tackle Devon's $58 billion merger with Coterra—a Delaware Basin land grab with Marcellus as an afterthought. They break down why scale matters when your cost of capital beats everyone else's, why Oklahoma keeps building great companies Houston eventually swallows, and why data center cancellations reveal America's infrastructure crisis. The real insight? PJM's grid failures prove you can't bolt 21st century AI demand onto 20th century infrastructure with 19th century permitting. Plus: Trump's trade flurry, China's mineral monopoly, and why we have 2 icebreakers while Russia has 54.</p><p>Click here to watch a vi...
Winter Storm Fern Flops, ERCOT Grid Survives & IEA's $15 Trillion Oil Mistake | BDE 01.29.26
<p>Winter Storm Fern exposed the grid's contradictions, New England burned 40% oil for power while sitting 300 miles from the Marcellus Shale, ERCOT's batteries sat idle during $2,000/MWh spikes, and solar panels disappeared under snow. Meanwhile, the IEA quietly restored their realistic demand forecasts after five years of transition fantasy, revealing a $15 trillion underinvestment hole. Toby Rice reminded everyone what actual energy leadership looks like by getting wells back online in a hard hat instead of pontificating from Davos.</p><p>Click here to watch a video of this episode.<br></p><p></p><p>Join the conversation shaping the future...
Trump at Davos, Natural Gas Spike & Continental Energy Halts Drilling | 01.23.26
<p>Kirk, Chuck, and Mark reunite on the Big Digital Energy Show to dissect the week's chaos - from natural gas spiking 75% in five days while Waha trades negative, to Trump's Davos windmill rant and the mainstream media's Greenland invasion hysteria. They break down why Harold Hamm's decision to shut down Continental's drilling makes perfect economic sense at $70 oil, debate whether 50% well-level returns ever translated to actual corporate performance, and explain how OPEC's Amine Nasser is signaling that global spare capacity is actually lower than the 2.5% he's publicly claiming. Plus, the crew explores how AI-native workflows are creating trillion-dollar opportunities...
