Good morning, here's what the Oilman has for you today:

• Millionaire of the Week: Mark G. Papa

• Biden Admin May Slow Down LNG Approvals

• Upcoming Oil and Gas Events

• Tweet of the Day

Millionaire of the Week: Mark G. Papa

The man who “ruined the market for 20 years”

In 1998, a company was formed within energy giant Enron.

At the head of that company, dubbed Enron Oil and Gas, was petroleum engineer and industry veteran Mark G. Papa.

A year later, Enron Oil and Gas was spun off and started making history.

A fateful asset swap

In 2000, just as Enron was beginning to collapse, EOG sealed an asset swap deal with Occidental.

Oxy gave EOG assets in East Texas and Oklahoma and got its assets in California and the Gulf.

In the same year, EOG also swapped assets with Burlington Resources.

The assets it received were in a place called the Permian Basin.

At the time, the shale gas revolution was beginning to gather pace.

A ruined market and new opportunities

In 2007, Papa stated that so much shale gas had been discovered that “we had probably ruined the market for 20 years”.

Then, he promptly pivoted EOG to shale oil…

…which was yet to take off as experts weren’t sure you could suck oil out of shale rock.

EOG and scores of others proved those experts so wrong.

It did it by developing new fracking techniques, new proppants, and drilling fluids.

And by pioneering artificial intelligence for the oilfield.

Papa left the helm of EOG in 2014.

By that time, EOG was the fourth-largest oil producer in the U.S.

Today’s Edition Is Brought To You By ROX Exploration

Invest in the future of energy with ROX Exploration – a family-owned, independent company dedicated to exploring, developing, and producing oil and natural gas assets. ROX's team of experts drills and operates properties throughout Oklahoma.

If you're an accredited investor looking to diversify into direct oil & gas working interest offerings, then connect with ROX Exploration today.

Biden Admin May Slow Down LNG Approvals

The Biden administration has launched a review of approval requirements for LNG projects.

It could result in fewer approvals for new capacity.

Just when the U.S. took the top LNG exporter crown.

Votes versus volts

Climate activists have had it in for LNG for a while now.

Now they’re getting louder, and the White House is listening.

It is an election year, after all.

It’s a tricky situation, however.

The review, per Politico, which cited unnamed sources, will focus on one question.

That question is whether growth in LNG capacity is in the national interest.

You’d think the answer is too obvious to merit a review.

U.S. LNG exports to Europe almost entirely replaced Russian gas.

It helped the EU avoid blackouts.

I’d say that’s definitely in the national interest.

But the climate activists running the Biden show think differently.

For them emission reduction is the national interest.

An insidious attack

The approval time for new LNG facilities lengthened from seven weeks under Trump to 11 months under Biden.

Under Obama, the average approval time was about five months.

But under Obama, the noise coming from activists wasn’t so loud.

Now, they’ve set their sights on LNG and are pressing hard.

So if you thought the Biden admin couldn’t be that short-sighted, you were wrong.

Especially when some congressmen argue that more LNG exports would mean higher gas prices at home.

Last year proved this isn’t the case, but who cares?

The point is to keep attacking oil and gas, hoping they’ll fold.

Because that’s going to happen.

Upcoming Oil & Gas Events

• January 16: TIPRO/IPAA Leaders in Industry Luncheon, Petroleum Club of Houston, Houston, TX

• January 17: IPAA Private Capital Conference, The Post Oak at Uptown Houston, Houston, TX

• January 17: Petroleum Alliance of Oklahoma, Wildcatters Wednesday Luncheon, Oklahoma City, OK

• January 17-18: GO-WV Winter Meeting, Marriott Town Center Hotel, Charleston, WV

• January 18: Kansas Oil and Gas Day Legislative Reception, Kansas State Capital, Topeka, KS

• January 23-25: POWERGEN International, Ernest N. Morial Convention Center, New Orleans

• January 30- February 1: Onshore Wellsite Automation Congress, Houston, TX

Around the Global Patch

🇭🇺 Hungary's drive to dominate EV battery production.
🇨🇳 U.S. graphite surge: implications of China's export controls.
🇦🇿 Azerbaijan boosts domestic oil production goals.

Tweet of the Day

Thanks for reading today's Oil Patch!

Stay oily, my friend.

Two quick requests before you go:

• If you found this useful, forward this email to a friend to spread the word. 👇

• Take 1 second to answer the poll below, and please tell us what you think 👇👇