Gareth Roberts: "Geology, Optimism, & Something Completely Different"

Episode 61
March 8, 2023

(Conversation recorded on December 19th, 2022)  

Show Summary

On this episode, geologist and entrepreneur Gareth Roberts joins Nate on the podcast to discuss the geological science behind how we find, extract, and deplete fossil hydrocarbons. Gareth and Nate also unpack how financial policy, government, and an energy transition interact with an aging hydrocarbon-based grid. What does all of this mean for our energy future? How can we use humor to process and make sense of these societal challenges? How do scientists, communicators, and planners come together to respond to such challenges?

About Gareth Roberts

Gareth is an entrepreneur and successful founder and leader of a large public oil and gas company. He was born in the UK and studied geology at Oxford University before going on to work for Texaco and Murphy Oil in the US and UK. In the 1980s he became independent and subsequently founded Denbury Resources (NYSE: DNR), which grew into a $10 billion company under his leadership. Gareth stepped down from Denbury 10 years ago and has since been involved in the creation of various businesses, including ones involved in carbon sequestration and helium exploration.

To watch this video episode on Youtubehttps://youtu.be/MNtmuFpdNlc

Show Notes and Links to learn more:

PDF Transcript

00:35 - Gareth Robert works + info

00:58 - Denbury Resources

01:15 - Geology

02:05 - Scarab Beetle/dung beetle in Ancient Egyptian culture

04:02 - Carbon sequestration in the North Sea

08:51 - How geology affects the quality of wine - the terroir

09:12 - Peter Ward + TGS Episode

11:15 - M King Hubbert

11:31 - Colin Campbell

12:51 - Geology of Shale Oil

13:32 - EROI

13:57 - Permian Basin

14:20 - Very cheap monetary policy of the last 10 years

14:30 - 100 million barrels of oil/day globally

14:42 - US produces about 6 million barrels of shale oil/day

18:45 - Shale oil fields aren’t really made of shale - and we don’t really know the resource pattern of the oil there

20:21 - There is a lot natural gas as a byproduct of oil drilling - 30-40% of hydrocarbons that come out

21:38 - The recovery of oil in a conventional field is already low, and the shale oil recovery is even lower (Section 16.5.1 Recovery)

22:26 - Brownfield site

24:10 - All the valuable ways we use oil that aren’t burning it for fuel

25:40 - Haber-Bosch Process

25:48 - 60% of the nitrogen in our bodies has been fixed by the Haber-Bosch process

26:48 - Art Berman + TGS Episode

27:15 - All the things in a barrel of oil

28:40 - A barrel of oil contains 4.5 years of human labor (section 4.3)

30:17 - Pakistan and Bangladesh and other countries left with no natural gas in the wake of high LNG prices (bought up by Europe)

31:30 - Oil at $-37/barrel in 2020

32:55 - Jevons Paradox

33:45 - Wind power is installed using fossil energy

34:40 - Nate’s Phd thesis on net energy

39:55 - Monty Python

40:03 - Terry Jones

44:16 - Spike Milligan

44:41 - Nazi Germany was not a place that had humor

47:46 - Renewable intermittency requiring back up

48:50 - New nuclear fission innovations

50:01 - Resource restrictions for electrifying vehicles

51:48 - Permanent carbon sequestration

52:49 - Jennifer Granholm

52:51 - Strategic petroleum reserve

53:33 - Renewables in the Texas and the UK market

55:10 - 85% of world’s oil/gas reserves are owned by national companies

56:55 - Rationing during the World War 2

1:03:32 - Scientists are wrong 95% of the time

1:03:50 - Our species is taking ⅔ of NPP for ourselves

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Nina Simons: "Dancing With Contradictions - A Systems View"