Trudeau’s war on Canadian energy won’t save the planet
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Summary
In this episode, we sit down with David Hood, CEO of Geologic, a company that provides data and analytics to the oil and gas industry. We talk about the company's journey from a small start-up to a global leader in the field, and what it means for the future of the industry.
Transcript
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I'm sitting down with David Hood of Geologic here in Calgary. David, good to talk to you.
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Thanks for joining me today. Thanks for inviting me. So we've been asking everyone that we've been
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speaking to in this, how does your company fit into the landscape? Because you're actually
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part of a very unique aspect of the sector that I don't think a lot of Canadians outside of the
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energy industry really know exists. Yeah, absolutely. And there's a perception that I think
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a lot of people who don't know about the industry, that it's a very low-tech, old-fashioned
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type industry. Nothing could be further than the truth. It is very, very leading edge. It's very
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challenging. It's applying the latest technology in multiple ways. And we're just one example of that.
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So what we do, we grew from a data company, because the industry consumes voracious amounts of data.
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Everything it does is driven by data that was originally subsurface and provided the information
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and the tools to interpret the data and apply it right across the whole cycle of the industry.
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Right from exploring for oil and gas to should I buy or should I sell a company? We are just a
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product that is used, or products, right through the industry from beginning in the morning to
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the end. And we grew from there where we were into the, we now have an operation in London,
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we have an operation in Houston, we've got a data operation in India and a software operation in
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Pakistan. And this is a Calgary company that was going up against a major, major international
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organization that had 85% of the market. And we had a tiny sliver of books left. Now we've got by far
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the majority of the market and they have what's left. We basically just took my business away from
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them, based on better data, better quality, better services, and frankly, an Alberta approach to doing
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So that story there is, I think a tremendous Canadian success story, not just an Alberta story,
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not just an oil and gas story. It's a Canadian business that's doing such incredible things
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globally. And I think it's a testament to what happens if the industry can be left to its own devices.
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And you bring this into an environmental context, and you have a government and an environment of
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NGOs, ENGOs that believe the industry is the problem. And that's not consistent with, you know,
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the facts on the ground as you see them, I know.
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Absolutely not. That's right. There is no chance of getting to a net zero environment without
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the technology and the expertise from the oil and gas industry. Geothermal relies completely
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on expertise from the oil and gas industry. Carbon capture and storage, the same thing.
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And also lithium and helium, hydrogen, that technology is coming out of the oil and gas industry. And so
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it's absolutely critical. And we all want to cut emissions. But I distinguish between the people
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who are serious about it, and the people who are playing games. So the distinction I would make is
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this. If you're saying that we are facing an existential crisis, then you treat it as such, and you do every
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single thing you can to get to solving the problem, which we need to do. If you are saying that we only
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want to do, take this solution, or that solution, or the other solution, but we don't want to use these
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solutions because we don't like them, then you're telling me it's not an existential crisis. So what is
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it? And I think a lot of the NGOs are taking the second approach. Like, for example, nuclear is going
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to be a huge part of the solution. But some people say, well, we can't have nuclear. Well, do you really
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want to cut emissions? So it's- And carbon capture, very similar things. Oh, no, we don't want that
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suggestion. We don't want that solution. Right. And if you talk to the folks at Pathways Alliance,
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they are hugely focused on doing that. Whitecap Resources has got a major project in Saskatchewan,
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where they are capturing enormous amounts of carbon all the time. That project has actually been
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using our data and our systems from way back before Whitecap bought it in. And there's tremendous
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progress there. But you have to have the oil industry's part of the solution.
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So what is it that is missing from this? Because I don't think anyone can really deny that a lot of
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this is very ideological. They aren't interested in solutions. The stated objectives are often not
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the genuine objectives here. What is it that they're not seeing? Is it that they're not recognizing
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what the industry has done or that that just doesn't factor into the calculation?
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I think a large part of it is, you know, I'm an engineer. A lot of the people in the industry are
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engineers, scientists, and they look at it from a factual scientific approach.
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As they should, I would say. It's a scientific issue. Absolutely, absolutely.
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It's not a political... I mean, it becomes a political issue, but the problem is one that
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at its core is about science. If you don't focus on science in the industry, you don't get very far.
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But I think a lot of the people who are pontificating about this stuff have no scientific
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or engineering background, and they're listening to stuff. You know, let me give you an example.
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When I was a kid, I grew up around... there were shipyards everywhere back in Scotland where I was
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born. There was a time when 30% of all merchant tonnage afloat worldwide was built on the clite.
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You understood heavy engineering. You saw it all over the place.
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Today, I think a lot of people never see it, and they have a sense that whether it comes from...
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we're talking about electricity, or whether we're talking about energy generally, or whether we're
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talking about food. You know, food comes from the supermarket. Energy comes from the wall socket.
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And they have no sense of the heavy engineering that is required somewhere. Like somewhere has to
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build... somebody has to build a power plant to make that happen. Somebody has to build a windmill to
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make that happen. It doesn't just happen. And I think part of it is there's that disconnect between
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an engineering understanding that used to be there and the idea that it all gets done on your phone.
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Yeah, and I think that part is so key. And I mean, even when you have people arguing that we need to
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transition away from oil and gas and use, you know, use all of these other means of powering things,
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they don't understand what goes into creating that. I think you're right. Electricity does not start in
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a battery. Electricity has to be generated somewhere and put into that battery. And
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that even right there is the fundamental disconnect that I don't think a lot of people think of when
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they believe that, you know, this is the future. That's right. And I used to actually work in an
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electricity supply business when I was back in the UK. And the complexities of what's involved in there
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are mind blowing. And you cannot just the difficulty of having a stable and reliable power source is
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it's something that you take for granted, because in the Western world, people have been doing it very
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effectively in a very long time, it is very easy to screw up. If and if you have a lot of intermittent
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power sources, windmills are great. You know, the sunshine is great. But this doesn't work all the
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time. And you have to, if you're going to rely on those kinds of sources, you're going to have to
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take them from places where, for example, there's a lot of wind, or there's a lot of sun, and you're
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going to have to get it reliably to places that need it with power. So you're going to need to build a lot
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of grid. I have no, I have yet to see anybody present a plan that says how that grid gets built.
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Even something as simple as power as generators, excuse me, not generators, transformers,
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which is needed to step power, you need to step power up the voltage to transmit at long distances,
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otherwise, you lose too much. And you have to bring it back down to bring it into houses,
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otherwise you kill people, which is usually not seen as a good thing to do. And so you have to
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have a lot of transformers, the more you have a grid. We don't have the transformers.
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There is a major, major shortage of transformers globally. And partly because there is material
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that is needed in there, a lot of it comes from China, and you just can't produce enough. And so,
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you know, I have test-driven electric cars. I love them. They're great. A lot of fun. But if you are
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looking at transferring the entire load across by electrifying everything and then putting in
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intermittent power sources, you have to have a plan to get from here to there. I have yet to see one.
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We were speaking earlier about geologic and what I characterize as a Canadian success story. And I
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go back to your experience here. You came to Calgary. You could have gone anywhere in the world. You
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could have stayed in Scotland. You chose some years ago to come here. If you were to roll your age back
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to how old you were then, but you're making that decision in 2023, do you view Canada as the future
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where you can build up a career in the energy sector and help build up a very prosperous and
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successful company in that sector? I can't think of a better place than Calgary to do exactly the
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same thing again. Even in 2023 with all of the regulatory hurdles and uncertainty, you'd still
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have that optimism? There is no doubt that Canada has got a lot of things that they have to rethink.
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I think in Alberta that I have never seen in the 41 years I've been here, I've never seen as many
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opportunities as there are right now. Both because the industry is going to be critical going forward.
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It is driving emissions down. The key thing is you need to get rid of emissions. You don't need to get rid
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of fossil fuels. In addition, you add up the capability that is fear in this province for
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things like carbon capture and storage and hydrogen and helium and lithium. I was told by one of our
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customers that we have got the biggest potential lithium reserves in the world. I thought it was chilly,
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but I'm nervous here. We have got enormous capabilities for carbon capture and storage.
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Some of them biggest in the world, but partly because of our geology and partly because of the
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technology. And hydrogen is another huge opportunity. There was a conference in Edmonton about three or
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four months ago. 8,000 people attended from 30 countries to come to Edmonton to talk about this
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desktop. So you layer on all these opportunities and there's enormous capabilities out there. Particularly,
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and this is key, it's a major technology frontier. What we do all the time is we're doing advanced
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technology. I keep saying to people, what our people do is they create value in a thin air. If you're a
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programmer or a data person, you have got nothing except what's up here. You go, well, let's build
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this. And you create value for people from there. And artificial intelligence is another area. We're
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working with a number of companies to develop. Yeah, you're a knowledge company in a resource
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sector here, which is particularly impressive. And so the capabilities that come from there
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are going to be my boy, more names that we can do. So I'm very, very optimistic.
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Well, some of your colleagues, you need to give them a pep talk. You've been the most optimistic of
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them. So I'm glad we get to end on that note. David Hood of Geologic. It's been a pleasure. Thank you.