Energy Education and Innovation: Inside OU’s Leading Program with Mike McConnell

Full Transcript with the Student Panels.

Energy Education & Innovation: Inside OU’s Leading Program with Mike McConnell

This was an outstanding podcast on the University of Oklahoma Energy Center with the director, Mike McConnell. We had several students also sit in on an energy panel discussion, and you can hear them… pic.twitter.com/Q9Bbk3NSG9

— STUART TURLEY – Energy Podcast Host (@STUARTTURLEY16) May 5, 2025

Stuart Turley [00:00:07] Hello, everybody. Welcome to the Energy Newsbeat podcast. My name is Stu Turley, president CEO of the Sandstone Group. Today is an absolutely wonderful day in America. Not only do we have some absolutely wonderful changes in the energy department. We have a whole new outlook for the world. And today I have Mike McConnell. He is the Director for Energy Management at OU. Welcome to the podcast. Well, thank you. It’s great to be here. I’ll tell you what, I am having so much fun. Even though I went to the other school, I just saw a wonderful video of what you’re describing is going on here. What a great thing!

Mike McConnell [00:00:47] Well, thank you. We have a lot of fun stuff happening. What a time to be in the world of energy. It is crazy, frankly. Now, tell us about the program because it started in 1958. It did. Yeah, we were the first of its kind, actually, and it was called Petroleum Land Management, and it was sponsored by AAPL, which is the American Association of Petroleum Landmen, now Professional Landmen. And it started in 58, we were the first ones, and I kind of joke about it, but I always describe OU as the energy university, because we actually started with the first petroleum geology degree, and that was in 1916. And then we had the first petroleum engineering degree, and that was 1924, I believe. And then we were petroleum land management in 1958. Wow. Wow. So it is an interesting time. It’s interesting for me to be here. I have a lot of passion and being with our students in the Robert M. Zinke Energy Management Program is its long name. Bob Zinke is a great guy who is our benefactor and he’s done wonderful things for the program.

Stuart Turley [00:01:57] Now, what is your background and how did you become the director?

Mike McConnell [00:02:00] Well, it’s a funny story, probably not for this, becau se it’s also better with alcohol.

Mike McConnell [00:02:06] But I have a funny journey because I am not kind of what is typical for a program director. I am not an academic. I’m kind of the opposite of that. I came over after 35 years in industry. And it was interesting because our company, it was Jones Energy out of Austin, Texas, and we had an office in Oklahoma City. And we unfortunately didn’t make it in 2018 and filed for bankruptcy. and it was emotional and devastating. but it was a time to reset and decide what’s my final journey gonna be. And this was an opportunity and a guy named Steve Long, who was the sixth director, I’m the seventh director since 1958. And he said, why don’t you come over? I’d like to retire. Have you ever thought about being the director? And I said, what? You know, it didn’t even occur to me. But I had lectured in this program every semester for 20 years as a guest lecturer. And so the passion, my heart was in it. In fact, I got out December of 82. And so the passion. in PLM, my son went into this major and graduated in 2016 and Michael was energy management because in the year 2000, we had a major change in what we were doing here with the program.

Stuart Turley [00:03:25] You had mentioned something in your intro video, which we’re going to tag on the end of this after we take a look at this, but you’re you’re talking about molecules and you’re talking about where you’re going.

Mike McConnell [00:03:35] Yeah. Well, it was interesting when you come in with a new perspective. And our program, it’s just been wonderful. And I’m just really proud of the history of it. And I’m proud of what it did for me. What it did for me was it taught me how to be a commercial person. And so it’s a very people -oriented, commercial negotiation type role. Right. and the basics I learned here. you know, put me at the upper echelons of business. I was very fortunate in the tools that I learned from OU, and especially from our adjunct professors who were professionals working our lawyer. When learning Olin gas law, he was a practicing attorney in Oklahoma City, and I’ll never forget he would come in and lecture for three hours. So you got to learn how this really worked. It was a great compliment to our HDS and full professors to finish with practical knowledge along with that. Those people and this program helped make me successful and I’ve had a wild ride in my career and so I really attribute so much of that to OU and to this program.

Stuart Turley [00:04:44] In, you know, in the one thing I really like is there’s a couple things I’m going to I’m going to kind of surprise you here.

Mike McConnell [00:04:50] Well, I hear it’s a question, so I just get off and go, so.

Stuart Turley [00:04:53] Oh, no, we’re gonna we’re gonna have some fun here You had the student just stopped by and I and her name is Piper and we’re going to go ahead and play that interview at the end of this because she I mean what a testament she is a senior she’s graduating in may and she’s gonna go work for exxon mobile and you know what i’m over here going this is kind of cool because she’s like it’s about energy now she actually had some great things to say about energy and like chris wright chris wright from he is one of my all -time heroes and i notice is chris as you’re looking at this look at this this is chris wright’s book that you have here and You’re bettering human lives by liberty, energy. And I mean, Chris, let me have a copy of this early on. And I’m very, very proud of the fact that. Chris Wright understands that low -cost energy ends poverty, and when we take a look at Germany, Germany is de -industrializing because they don’t have low -cost energy. We need to use…

Mike McConnell [00:05:58] Yeah, it’s interesting. I brought up some slides at the end of last semester about bad policy from Germany and what it’s done to their citizens and their country. And we’ve been blessed to have cheap energy for 150 years. It’s playing out.

Stuart Turley [00:06:12] real time. It is it absolutely is. And so your students, you know, I’m so you’re you’re the director and I hate just like blind sighting him here. But your students are doing

Mike McConnell [00:06:22] great. I’m very blessed. I mean, there’s a couple things. I didn’t answer your question about what we’re doing here. There’s a couple of things. And so we have traditionally been oil and gas, and we are still very heavy oil and gas, of course. It’s our bread and butter, and it’s what developed. It’s what the machine’s built on. What we’re trying to do is add other forms of energy. I mean, my view was pretty clear, and I took this to our board and got this. approved as a concept is when Biden came in, I figured we were going to have four years of anti -oil and gas, vilifying oil and gas, and he was going to throw a trillion dollars at renewables. And my thought was, we’ve got to get our students going to those jobs. Whether you love or hate renewables, it’s irrelevant. in their jobs, and we will be doing some of this. Depending on what the pace is, we’ll find out. As a creator, that’s important. Yes, absolutely, because we are in the age of electrons, and I truly believe that, that that is the driver. So you’re going from molecules to electrons. I’m adding electrons. I’m not to the exclusion. I’m careful about that, not to be cute. Think the way you think. But it’s because I want to add those jobs. to me, for us to be the oldest program and the biggest program. We need to be out there and really kind of on the cutting edge. I am a great believer from my experience as a CEO and a president. I’ve done it for 20 years, and a lot of that was looking forward. And I just am such a believer with electricity. At the very least, it’s going to grow 40 % in the United States by itself. And it’s going to grow more than that globally. And we’ve got to be prepared. and I want our students.

Stuart Turley [00:08:11] in that world. Wow. You know, with President Trump declaring an emergency for energy, I think he’s about to just totally unleash everything. I think it now, how do you, how does the school play into the nuclear into that? Because you’re going to have the nuclear, you’re going to have the molecules, then you’re going to have the thing. How do you guys play into that role? You know, it’s interesting. I’ll see you in the next video.

Mike McConnell [00:08:32] I am very pro -nuclear. I am an and guy, not an or guy. I want it all. I want us to be in renewables. I want us to be in wind and solar and hydro and geothermal and hydrogen. But I also don’t vilify what actually is the most important thing in the world for national security and for just the daily lives of Americans and that’s oil and gas. And so let’s do both. let’s do all. Nuclear is fascinating because it’s a difficult one. The person that we’re having lecture tonight in our class is a guy named Doug Sandridge and he is an amazing individual. I love his lecture. His lecture tonight to these students is going to be obstacles to the path of net zero and how do we get to net zero and he’s going to go through all of his observations and analysis, and it’s fascinating. And it’s not realistic that we’re going to get to net zero. It’s a pipe drain. It doesn’t mean you don’t try to improve and you don’t add in more energy sources. I am all in on that. It’s let’s replace things when we can, not vilify what gives us the American lifestyle, and then we’re going to go build wind and solar. I like them all, and I like them both, but not one to the exclusion of the other.

Stuart Turley [00:09:52] You know what’s interesting is, what does the United States do better as an oil and gas thing? We do cleaner energy in oil and gas, more environmentally sound, more than any other country in the world.

Mike McConnell [00:10:08] No question, we don’t get any credit for it at all, none, but we do. It’s fascinating. So Doug, back to Doug Sandridge for a minute, he actually put together oil and gas executives pro -nuclear. And I was very prideful to sign that as an oil and gas president that was for nuclear. And I think it’s huge. I think it’s that we’ve got such enormous electricity issues and even people don’t understand the scale. I talk a lot in this program about scale and I think many nuclear plants and assets are the way to really help congestion because I think it’s realistic to replace or double every transmission line in the United States. It’s not going to happen and you need to alleviate capacity issues along the way. And he even had –

Stuart Turley [00:10:55] When you’re talking electrons, you have to have a baseload. The grid does not like not having a baseload.

Mike McConnell [00:11:01] I can’t imagine that job to actually have to schedule around that job would be very difficult.

Stuart Turley [00:11:08] I wonder if you are, if you’re a balance in the, and you work in the balancing authority, do they issue you scotch at the door when you go home? I don’t know. That’s gotta be.

Mike McConnell [00:11:18] horrible job. I joke about that because one of the things I’m also trying to offer our students are what are other great jobs. So I’m a great believer that I want to create students that can be successful in any sector of energy. Right. And that includes midstream and downstream and renewables and power and you name it. It’s a very extensive job front. And I just think it’s important to be able to do both. And I joke, we have a lot of students now going into the midstream side. And one of the things that I talk about in my previous life, I was president of two of our pipelines when I was over at Enron, a company called Houston Pipeline and LRC. Oh, very good. And I loved that part of the business. I was able to transfer the same skills of being a landman to being a gas buyer. And I tell a story about the midstream when I was president. I came back from a three -year assignment in London, and I became president of Houston Pipeline. It was the key asset that started all of the assets that they later changed the name to Enron. It was one of those early pipeline assets because it was a pipeline company originally. And in fact, Houston Pipeline, I think we started in 1925. And so I love that job, but I remember my first day on the job. I met all of my new team, I was 37, and it was, you know, a little weird, you’re right, you’re coming back to the United States, you’re meeting all these people. And I said, OK, well, I’ll be around. I’m excited to be here. I’ll be I’ll come back on Friday. And they go, where are you going? It’s your first day. And I said, I’m going to go to gas control. And I went up and sat with the gas control bunch, the scheduling bunch to really learn how our pipeline works. Nice. And I really encourage that and have been able to let people like Valero and Energy Transfer and Magellan and Planes and Sunoco that are students, give them a scheduling job right off the bat and let them learn and let them take those commercial skills, match it with the understanding of the logistics of gas movement and there will be a really

Stuart Turley [00:13:28] strong. See that would be way cool because in college I was actually on the pig side of things out of a line. So you know when you’re trying to either do that or work on the the pipeline side of things, pipelines are the safest way on the planet to move molecules.

Mike McConnell [00:13:46] Absolutely. So I just can’t imagine you, we joked about, you know, giving them a scotch when they started their job pipelines, like in a big transmission line, gas moves at 18 miles an hour, right? So you know, you can pressure up pressure down, there’s a little bit of leeway, depending on pressures, when you’re in electricity, it moves at the speed of light, how do you schedule it, I’m amazed that they do this kind of job.

Stuart Turley [00:14:12] It’s really amazing. Meredith Anglin wrote the book, Balancing the Grid, and it might be a good one for you. She is a fantastic lady, and that one for me was one of the eye -opening when I read that book. It was one of those, kind of like Robert Bryce’s book, and it is one. It is a nightmare to consider. You have renewable energy of wind and solar. When does it come down? When is it not working? And then you have… a nuclear reactor sitting over here at, oh, by the way, it’s at 10%. It’s at 10 % today. It’s at 10 % today. I mean, it’s kind of nice that you have that. And so, and then you have the storage, like the storage in California where it’s burning. The storage is good. Storage good. The storage on fire, not so good. Oh yeah, of course. Yeah, luckily.

Mike McConnell [00:15:01] Yeah, luckily, yeah, those poor people in California, it’s just terrible, it’s just terrible. And one of the things that I was able to have at Houston pipeline, I had the second largest storage field in the country. And it was really the BAML storage field is what kept Houston warm in the winter. We would gear it up and really do that. Storage is so amazing. And again, what do you do with storage and electricity? There’s no such thing. Yeah, so it’s another challenge to power. Yeah. So it’s.

Stuart Turley [00:15:30] So now LNG, LNG is expected to double in the next 10 years. And it is just unbelievable. Vietnam just had their LNG to power a plant come online. So when you start taking a look at where you have coal, the idea of putting in US LNG exporting to anything direct to a power plant, that’s a whole new concept. And then taking a look at floating LNG import, Germany be dead meat right now. If they couldn’t import via.

Mike McConnell [00:16:05] LNG. I will say that last, when all this was going on with the Ukrainian war and obviously gas proms shut down their gas for various reasons and nobody wanted to take it to support Russia, I literally looked at that and I said, people are going to die this winter. Germany was so reliant because they’ve shut down their nuclear plants and all their coal plants in a very misguided energy policy. and we were trying to see what LNG would do. I had a funny, in another lifetime, and previous back in around 1999, 2000, one of my business units was global LNG. And so I had the LNG business for Enron for a while. I actually had three ships, LNG ships, and we were bringing LNG in. And we believe that the natural gas was so short in the United States back in the mid to late 90s that we were gonna have to import LNG. And of course, what are we doing now? We’ve turned it backwards and now we’re exporting. And so I find the LNG business so fascinating. And when I will tell you without trying to get too political here. What are we doing? When Biden shut down the permits to not let LNG go forward, he should be ashamed of himself because all that happened in Europe, they brought on coal plants.

Speaker 3 [00:17:24] I -I’m gonna say –

Mike McConnell [00:17:24] because they didn’t have LNG and it’s just unacceptable policy and LNG is safe and it is clean.

Stuart Turley [00:17:31] I find this one thing, Speaker Johnson yesterday came out and said that Biden did not know that he had signed that. Oh, really? So that is that is that tells you a lot of problems there. There is a lot of problems there. And what’s even worse is we we have to have from a geopolitical standpoint, we could lose Japan to Russia. Yeah. There’s a lot of because of the malarkey that has gone on. So as students are here, Piper, the young lady that was, that I’ve interviewed and that you’re gonna put at the end of this, she’s phenomenal. She is an example of what your school is producing. My hat is off to you, sir.

Mike McConnell [00:18:12] Well, thank you, and OU has been very supportive, and like I was joking earlier, I really look at us as an energy university. we have an obligation to be on the forefront of that. I really believe that. And I think this is helpful, taking the approaches that we’ve got, especially I was talking with you offline earlier about power and that in my intro class, so I like to teach the intro class. Nice. And it’s interesting how, if you take a poll, how many people want to be in oil and gas versus, you know, renewables. And it’s 75 % want to be in renewables. Right. And then they understand over time because we talk about facts. and we do talk about and, not or, and by the time that the year is over, they have a really good grasp of what is happening in energy globally and in the United States. And frankly, how did I get into it and make it change and make it work? The passion here in these students is unreal. It’s awesome. It’s awesome.

Stuart Turley [00:19:12] You know, I wanted to retire and become a professor. Did you? Yes. And now I’m a podcast host. Go figure that out.

Mike McConnell [00:19:19] Oh, I like that. You’re influencing more people probably now.

Stuart Turley [00:19:22] I would have never guessed that. Back when I graduated, they did not have podcasts, needless to say. But I’ll tell you what, this is exciting. And thank you so much for your time. And what a great testament that you have, Doug Sandridge, teaching one of your classes. Hi there. And tell us your name.

Speaker 4 [00:19:40] So my name is Piper Lawlier and I am a senior at the University of Oklahoma studying energy management and minoring in finance.

Stuart Turley [00:19:48] Fantastic. Now, what did you, what were you thinking when you decided to go to the OU for learning on energy management?

Piper Lallier [00:19:55] So I had actually no idea what I wanted to study, and then our director Mike came and spoke in one of my classes, and he talked about all the opportunities that the energy management program has for students career -wise, being able to find mentors, and being able to connect with like -minded peers, and he talked about how the energy field is really geared towards, especially dealing with oil and gas, how it’s geared towards students that are… outgoing and people, people, and that sounded like it was right up my alley, so.

Stuart Turley [00:20:30] So as a senior and you’re going out into the cold, cruel world, where are you going?

Piper Lallier [00:20:37] I am going to be in Houston, Texas at ExxonMobil.

Stuart Turley [00:20:40] Nice! ExxonMobil! No way! So you go to OU, now you’re going to ExxonMobil, and what do you think was your best class while you were here?

Piper Lallier [00:20:53] I would say one of my best classes is Introduction to Exploration and Production. It is taught by Mike Stice and he was previously the Dean of the Petroleum Engineering School. Nice. And he has a lot of experience, his class he teaches from experience that he has and also just gives the students a wide range of everything involved in exploration and production from the geology side, engineering side. So it gives students a really good idea of what it’s like to work in the energy field.

Stuart Turley [00:21:32] So what do you think oil and gas means to the US energy economy?

Piper Lallier [00:21:38] I think that the oil and gas industry is everything to the US economy. I think they’re extremely correlated and I actually went to a speaker event this past semester and Scott Tinker spoke to us and he is a world -renowned expert on all things related to energy and he actually said that there’s a direct correlation and relationship between energy security, economic security, and environmental security. and that was something that really stuck with me and that I completely agree with. I think that you have to have energy in order for our country to be successful economically and the way that we can improve environmental conditions of fostering all the resources and energy is a way that we’re going to economically prosper and also help.

Stuart Turley [00:22:31] Well, that’s pretty cool. So Piper, there is a strong correlation between ending in poverty and having ample low cost energy. So having that kind of a relationship is pretty important. Do you know who Chris Wright is by any chance?

Piper Lallier [00:22:49] I do not think I do.

Stuart Turley [00:22:51] If I were you, I’d also take a look at Liberty Energy and go look up Chris Wright. And you will see that Chris Wright was absolutely fantastic in his articulation of ending energy poverty by having low cost sustainable energy. And that is using all forms of energy, wind, solar, nuclear, coal, but use it responsibly. Yep. And he’s also going to be our next Secretary of Energy. so.

Piper Lallier [00:23:21] Okay.

Stuart Turley [00:23:22] be a good one for you to go look, go look up.

Piper Lallier [00:23:24] Let’s do that.

Stuart Turley [00:23:25] That’s pretty cool, right? You are, you know, you come in for a podcast and you get a homework assignment. How does that, you’re like, wait a minute. So now how do you feel about, oh, you going and becoming part of the SEC?

Piper Lallier [00:23:38] Oh, I think it is extremely exciting and a really great new chapter that OU is starting. I actually, in my freshman year, I danced on the OU Palm Squad. So I have a big heart for OU’s traditions and their fan base. And I think that sports -wise, the SEC is a really exciting group to join. And I think all of those schools are… competitive and going to bring out the best in OU.

Stuart Turley [00:24:10] Oh, that’s a great way to look at that. I love the OU -OSU rivalry. I happened to go to the other school, but I do love the fact that there was always that rivalry. I hope we get back to that someday.

Piper Lallier [00:24:23] I agree with that. I think that I know I’m from Houston, but I know all of my friends that are from Oklahoma grew up with the OU -OSU rivalry and definitely was sad to see that go with our football season. But they did have a basketball game that was Bedlam this year and I heard that was pretty exciting.

Stuart Turley [00:24:44] Now, if you’re from Houston, what prompted you to go to OU?

Piper Lallier [00:24:50] I applied to seven different schools. I had no clue where I wanted to go. And funny enough, I thought I was gonna go to the University of Texas. And I visited the school and just decided that was not for me. That was not for me.

Stuart Turley [00:25:03] It was a great school too.

Piper Lallier [00:25:03] It is a great school. But then I completely shifted gears and came and visited OU. I just fell in love with the campus. I really liked the distance from home. It’s an easy flight or a little hefty drive. And I just was super interested in everything the school had to offer its students.

Stuart Turley [00:25:23] Um, now I love Houston because when I go down there for NAEP and, uh, meetings with oil companies and stuff like that, it is absolutely an oil town and I love what Houston has done and with your working at ExxonMobil now, it is going to be Houston is really turning the corner and becoming a financial arm. Yep. So when you take a look at energy, what happens to countries that don’t have good low cost energy?

Piper Lallier [00:25:52] If they don’t have good low -cost energy, they also experience poverty, right? Yeah.

Stuart Turley [00:25:58] Germany is going through that right now, they’re industrializing and when we take a look at the financial might of the United States, what’s about to happen for the United States?

Piper Lallier [00:26:07] or about to grow economically and invest more in energy.

Stuart Turley [00:26:10] Yeah. So this is cool. There is hope for our future. So where do you see yourself in about three years from now?

Piper Lallier [00:26:19] Um, in about three years, I hope to be well established in my career. I’m really excited to get to work and to work extremely hard and learn as much about the business that I can and see where best I fit within that, whether that’s in oil and gas or in carbon reductions or whatever that might be. Just being able to pinpoint where my interests lie.

Stuart Turley [00:26:48] When you’re at an energy college or the energy program here at OU, what were some of the main focuses of your curriculum as you’re going through this program?

Piper Lallier [00:26:59] I would say our curriculum is very finance heavy. A lot of our students double major in finance and energy or do the minor where you don’t have to add additional hours if you minor in finance. So we’re very finance heavy. We also have a lot of law courses and learning about real property law, energy law, law of commercial transactions is a class that I’m in right now. So that will be really useful. And then… There are also lots of opportunities to learn about every other source of energy. Our director Mike has really expanded the curriculum to involve renewables and different forms of energy along with oil and gas and he instills the belief in all of the students that we need as much energy as we can get in all the forms that we can get it.

Stuart Turley [00:27:49] I like the way he thinks.

Piper Lallier [00:27:50] and not or is what he likes to say. So.

Stuart Turley [00:27:53] What does he say now?

Piper Lallier [00:27:54] He says you need all of them, so you’re and not or, so you’re choosing between them, you’re choosing all of them.

Stuart Turley [00:27:58] and I was saying is this a whole new ore that he was trying to mine and I’m like the Colorado School of Mines is up there and I was thinking this was an ore. No. Sorry that’s that Oklahoma State in me. No. Okay but no this is an exciting time for you then. Very exciting. This is pretty fun so you’re really not that much longer. You’re graduating in a few months.

Piper Lallier [00:28:23] Graduating in May, yes

Stuart Turley [00:28:26] Wow, that is fantastic. Well, Piper, thank you so much for your time. I do appreciate you.

Piper Lallier [00:28:31] Thank you for having me.

Stuart Turley [00:28:32] you will do fantastic. Thank you. All right. Hello guys. Thanks for stopping by the podcast today.

Speaker 5 [00:28:38] Of course, thanks for having us!

Stuart Turley [00:28:39] So you guys are all juniors in the energy program at OU, right? Yes, sir. Now, what prompted you to start going out and saying, I’m going to try to push molecules and or electrons, what prompted you to wake up and become an energy major? So you guys Go ahead.

Speaker 5 [00:28:57] So I have a lot of family members that have gone through this program and they’ve had just really successful careers and loved their jobs and been super happy with it. So it kind of prompted me to get the idea to possibly go into it. And then I came and met with our director, Mr. McConnell, because I’m a double major in finance and energy management. So I was originally just finance.

Stuart Turley [00:29:17] Are they oil men like as in what they do?

Speaker 5 [00:29:19] They do land, yeah, so both my older sisters went through this program, and they’re landmen, and then my cousin went through this program as well, and she’s a landman.

Stuart Turley [00:29:29] They look better than Billy Bob Thornton.

Speaker 5 [00:29:31] Absolutely. I was a little worried. You were thinking that, weren’t you? Okay I was a little worried.

Junior Student 1 [00:29:35] I was thinking that, yes sir.

Junior Student 3 [00:29:37] Luckily, they’re office -based, so they’re in -house. They’re not out on the site, but they don’t have as many risks going on. But they loved it, and so I came and met with Mr. McConnell my freshman year. Because I told him I wanted to do more finance and more shit in the numbers side of things, and so he told me to just give his class a shot, the intro class, and absolutely loved hearing about the energy industry and just learning about it, so decided to double major. risk on

Junior Student 2 [00:30:05] How about you? So I was actually a sophomore on the business side of major wandering around the career fair and I ran into a lady named Brenda Peter. She works for our program and she’s from my hometown. I played high school basketball with her grandson. So I was like, Ms. Brenda, what are you doing here? And she’s like, well, I work for the energy management program here gave me this feels like that sounds really cool.

Junior Student 3 [00:30:23] No way!

Junior Student 2 [00:30:23] And then she introduced me to a company and they offered me an internship if I searched my major and I did and now I’m here and I’m loving it. How about you?

Junior Student 1 [00:30:30] Yeah, so I’m actually from Orange County, California, which is kind of like non -traditional for oil and gas for

Junior Student 3 [00:30:35] No.

Junior Student 1 [00:30:37] And when I came out to OU, I’ve always kind of had an interest in like oil and gas and energy in that I kind of wanted to do something different, unique, impactful. And so I met with Director McConnell, which we had an awesome conversation. And I just kind of figured out that this is what I wanted to do. And within the first month, I think I’ve already had my internship lined up for the summer, which was awesome. And I’ve loved it ever since.

Stuart Turley [00:31:01] I just interviewed Mike from, he’s a CEO from California and he is working out in Kern County is one of the biggest, Mike Umbro, and Kern County in California is one of the biggest oil fields in the United States. But Governor Newsom is trying to shut it down. So what Mike Umbro is doing is he’s going out and he is now drilling, taking oil fields that he can’t get permits for anymore and he’s put solar panels on them. He’s heating the water and he’s putting the water into the well and then when the water comes back out they heat the homes with the water and they turn it into electricity at night and oil happens to come out of the ground. They can sell the oil then because it’s a byproduct of the geothermal. So you might have a job when you go back if you look at geoengineering and geothermal. for oil and gas in a county that wants to regulate you to death.

Junior Student 1 [00:31:55] Yeah, yeah, I mean, there’s a lot of need for that, but you know, I definitely want to get as much experience in Texas and Oklahoma. I mean, even Denver.

Stuart Turley [00:32:04] So you want to get out of California, is that what you’re saying?

Junior Student 1 [00:32:06] I think most people do.

Stuart Turley [00:32:08] Just checking, I did not get your names as we were starting. So what was your name? So.

Junior Student 1 [00:32:12] Ryan Estis.

Junior Student 2 [00:32:14] I’m Tristan Kathy.

Junior Student 3 [00:32:15] I’m Lexi Lawler.

Stuart Turley [00:32:17] And how do you like it here though?

Junior Student 3 [00:32:19] I love it here. It’s a really great community because what’s nice about OU is that it is such a big school, but it feels like everyone knows each other. Right. And everyone’s just super friendly and really nice and especially in the

Stuart Turley [00:32:31] Not from New York City, huh?

Junior Student 3 [00:32:33] Well, no, I guess not, but yeah everyone’s super friendly and I will say in the energy management program all the professors really care about their job a lot and I really appreciate that and they like to know all their students.

Stuart Turley [00:32:45] That’s cool, how about you?

Junior Student 2 [00:32:46] Yeah, so I’m from a small town 30 minutes away called Newcastle. So I’m basically going to school at home and I love it. I’m in Greek life and it’s a great, great social scene. And then academics wise, like all of our energy management courses, we’re learning like real life stuff. And that’s why I really enjoy it. It’s easy to go to class. You did not travel far. That’s no 15 minutes. I got my in -state tuition. I was like, yep, this is where I’m going. So good to see you. Easy, we got a class.

Junior Student 1 [00:33:06] Yeah, I’ve loved OU, you know, I think definitely the layout of the campus is one of the best layouts I’ve ever been to in touring schools. And then obviously, you know, the people are super nice here. They kind of make it feel more like a family because obviously there’s a lot of students here and it’s a big school, but they make it feel smaller, which I kind of like.

Stuart Turley [00:33:25] So as a energy major, and you’re taking a look at energy, and as I’m visiting with him about going from molecules to electrons, what are some of your most memorable classes or incidents that you’ve had, and what is your most memorable thought that you’re learning from this?

Junior Student 2 [00:33:45] So we had a class called Introduction to Exploration and Production with Mike Stice and just learning how many different byproducts there are of the energy field was the most mind -boggling to me. Petrochemical feedstock for all the plastics, the fertilizer from the nitrogen, stuff like that. Your average person would never even realize or consider. That was my first eye -opener. Petroleum is not just for transportation fuel. It’s plastics, which we interact with every day, fertilizer, which grows half the food that we eat. So now that was the biggest eye -opener for me for sure. I wanted to start.

Stuart Turley [00:34:15] You cannot, let’s say everything was solar and wind, you’re not going to have iPhones. Electricity. Yeah, yeah. Yeah, I mean it just does not happen that way. How about you?

Junior Student 1 [00:34:25] Yeah, actually, I had that same class with Tristan and I was just about to say, I think that, you know, Mike Stice did a very good job at actually opening our knowledge of how important energy actually is in the society and it kind of gave us, you know, grounds to debate people who don’t necessarily agree with like the exploration of natural resources and, you know, just gave us a lot more knowledge about broader industry.

Stuart Turley [00:34:49] Who in the world does the best drilling exploration production in the world?

Junior Student 1 [00:34:55] Matador Resources.

Junior Student 3 [00:34:57] Probably Exxon, ExxonMobil.

Stuart Turley [00:34:59] I was gonna say what country does it the cleanest? Let me rephrase that question. USA. Oh, there you go. And now we’ve got the Gulf of America now. So, because what’s fun is taking natural resources and delivering a low cost energy at the least amount of impact on the environment. I’ve always said, let’s get rid of energy poverty. Let’s take the lowest cost kilowatt per hour, deliver it to everyone on the planet with the least amount of impact on the environment and having it sustainable and yet fiscally responsible. That kind of changes the formula of what’s available out there. Now, finance, you said that you have finance or you have finance major as well? So yeah.

Junior Student 3 [00:35:45] Yeah, so it’s I’m a double major so I’m doing both, but that’s pretty cool. Yeah, so eventually one day whenever I graduate I want to do finance in the energy space solely so nice Yeah, I love the energy industry so definitely sticking with it, but on the finance side

Stuart Turley [00:36:01] Failed accounting, I just want to be honest with you.

Junior Student 3 [00:36:04] I can never

Stuart Turley [00:36:04] not do very good in school. That was my only F that I did get. And I so I go figure that a podcast host failing accounting, but now I make money off oil and gas investments. So go figure that out. So how about you?

Junior Student 2 [00:36:19] I’m also energy management and finance. I picked up the finance major more of as like a fallback plan. You know, this is a cyclical industry. I want to go in as like an in -house land man for an exploration and production company upstream. And, you know, I want to pick that finance up to be more well -rounded. So that was my main driver behind it.

Junior Student 1 [00:36:36] So I’m actually more committed to energy management, and I’m only doing energy management.

Junior Student 3 [00:36:42] And now come on, right?

Junior Student 1 [00:36:43] But, uh…

Stuart Turley [00:36:44] That is absolutely a hoot.

Junior Student 1 [00:36:45] Yeah

Stuart Turley [00:36:46] I am the only committed or committed person in here, right?

Junior Student 1 [00:36:50] Yeah, I’m looking, I’m probably going to pick up the finance minor just because you don’t have to take any extra credit hours to actually get that. And I’d also like to get maybe a legal certificate while I’m here because I’ve been kind of exploring whether I want to go to law school or not. Legal as in? It’s just a certificate that means you know a little bit more about the law, yeah.

Stuart Turley [00:37:09] I don’t know. I was like, are we going to have to have production cut this part out? What kind of legal statement did you need from us? I’m just kidding. You never know anymore about where some of the jokes go on the podcast that I’ve had. That’s been fun. Now, where do you see yourself in five years from now?

Junior Student 2 [00:37:29] I definitely want to be an in -house land man for an upstream oil and gas company for sure. Hopefully, I’d like to stay in Oklahoma, but I know realistically, I’ll probably need to go to Midland or Houston for a few years and earn my strive support and come back to OKC or Tulsa.

Stuart Turley [00:37:39] Okay, you’re way, way years beyond where I was when I was your age. I’m sorry, I should have been in the army instead of doing going to college. How about you?

Junior Student 1 [00:37:50] Yeah, I’d like to also be an in -house land man. I think that, you know, working as a land man is one of the most like diverse parts of the industry in terms of, I mean, you have to communicate with every aspect of an oil and gas company, like accounting, all your engineers, geologists, and I think like kind of helping being that face of a company and seeing like, you know, first line of defense against landowners is super important and, you know, as.

Stuart Turley [00:38:16] first line of defense against landowners. I like that.

Junior Student 1 [00:38:20] I guess I should rephrase that.

Stuart Turley [00:38:21] Wait, first line of contacts.

Junior Student 1 [00:38:24] I think, you know, helping bridge that gap and, you know, trying to relate with land owners or other interest owners is obvious.

Stuart Turley [00:38:31] But you know, there’s a lot to be said for solar panels when you have land rights as well too. So landmine is not just for oil and gas anymore. The royalties also play out in a lot of different ways. Are they teaching, and I don’t know this, but are they teaching contract negotiations for wind owner farms? Because we’re seeing that there is a major problem coming up in the next 10 years of farmers and folks that own wind farms, who gets to do the land reclamation if the wind company goes bankrupt? So there’s a big market for a lot of land men and negotiations and things coming around the corner on that one.

Junior Student 2 [00:39:15] Yeah, we have a, we have a negotiations class. Um, do we have a contracts? I’m not sure. I think we might.

Junior Student 3 [00:39:21] I have one, but yeah, we’re in, I’m in a, like me and Ryan are in a real property law class right now. So we’re learning a lot about, yeah, property law and lands and how that relates to us. If you’re… a lot about going to be a land man, and oil companies, and giving royalties, and dealing with land owners and things like that.

Stuart Turley [00:39:37] It’s a huge problem when you consider there’s now articles out there. And again, I am of the all of energy. Let’s use all forms. But if the solar farm is out there and a hailstorm comes through, who does the reclamation if there is no insurance? The landowner. That is now some serious problems coming through there if the insurance, like the homes in California are burning up and Nobody had home owners insurance because many of those policies got canceled. So all of a sudden you got to put that in the back of your mind. Do you really want all those solar panels or windmills on your land?

Junior Student 2 [00:40:19] land I wouldn’t I mean it also decreases property value so yeah

Stuart Turley [00:40:21] Yeah, all of a sudden when I’m sitting here having this discussion, I’m a NIMBY, you know, not in my backyard, you know, I am really not interested in having that. So if I was taking a look at a next generation of land reclamation and that is looking at work, I’m trying to work with folks that are in the wind and solar business for land reclamation and trying to find out how to get those funded. And there’s going to be a lot of federal money available. oh good jobs to get that land reclimated and taken care of. So that’s going to be some kind of cool things around the future too. Yes sir.

Junior Student 3 [00:40:58] Yeah, opportunities of all. Thank you. Yeah.

Stuart Turley [00:41:00] Absolutely.

Junior Student 3 [00:41:01] Just more and more doors opening.

Stuart Turley [00:41:03] Absolutely. So I’ll tell you, one thing I don’t like about OU going to the SEC is I miss Bedlam football.

Junior Student 3 [00:41:13] I do too. I miss seeing us win.

Stuart Turley [00:41:15] Oh, okay.

Junior Student 3 [00:41:15] Well, not last year again.

Stuart Turley [00:41:17] We did win the last one. Now I have to tell you since we are right next to the stadium over here and the last time I was here, O -U -B -O -S -U, but my daughter and I were standing here and a guy, my daughter put her chips right down in it and the guy sat down in the chips. so he stood up at an OU football game. We have our OSU sweatshirts on and he has chip bonkers there because there’s the motor oil that they use. It’s an oil byproduct on those chips. It’s a joke. He has chips that he sat on my daughter’s chips and nachos and it’s all sticking to. So I pull his ticket out and I start scraping his seat with his ticket and everybody’s laughing. All the OU folks think it’s the funniest thing that they’ve ever seen is an OSU guy. I was like, what? scraping chips off of the guy’s bohankas. He didn’t think it was very funny. So I got a great seats because he left and I enjoyed the game getting beat, having my big brother, OU, beating up the little brother, OSU. We lost that year. Yeah. So, but I do love the state rival.

Junior Student 2 [00:42:25] Yeah, it’s awesome. It really sucks we missed that. We lost that for sure. Yeah, that is a huge bummer.

Junior Student 3 [00:42:29] Yeah, that is a huge bummer. I miss that for sure.

Stuart Turley [00:42:32] Boy, I don’t know, um, it’s tradition. You know, it is. Oklahoma’s have great tradition with that game, but I’ll tell you, Mike Gundy needs to like, he’s got a 30 year high school college kid, you know, who would have ever said Jim John Belushi, you know who John Belushi is animal house. He goes seven years of college down the drain. Why do we have a college graduate of seven years playing football and losing football and I don’t know.

Junior Student 3 [00:43:01] It beats me.

Stuart Turley [00:43:02] All right. Well, you guys are going to do fantastic. Thank you for stopping by the podcast. For all of our listeners out there, thank you. This was the Energy Newsbeat podcast. And I just want to say, I think the future is bright in energy. And especially at the OU campus here, this has been an outstanding update to this podcast. Thank you all very much. So thank you. Thank you for having us. Thank you for having us.

Mike McConnell [00:43:40] I’m Mike McConnell, and I am the seventh director of the Robert M. Zinke Energy Management Program here in Price College. I’ve had the privilege of being here for five years now. I’m a little different than most department heads. I’m not an academic, but an energy industry executive. I’ve been a president or a CEO for over 20 years.

In fact, when I joined OU, My primary goal was to bring a CEO mentality to our students every single day. I get asked a lot about today’s energy management major. The questions are from everybody in the industry to parents and students. I thought I’d put this video and put it on the website to clarify things. The major began as the nation’s first PLM program in 1958. I call OU THE Energy University. OU was the first school to offer a petroleum geology degree all the way back in 1900, the first petroleum engineering degree in 1924, then the first petroleum land management degree in 1958. We are very proud of our historic heritage. We even have a history book on it.

On a typical day during the semester, our energy management office would be very busy with EMSA students. They drop by to study or to talk. Or, of course, just grab a piece of candy. By the way, our student association, EMSA, actually started in 1959. It’s very active and fun with numerous free field trips. Our major is going through an inflection point right now. But we’ve gone through one before, as when we changed PLM to energy management all the way back to 2000. It was not just a name change. We added new classes and a heavy class workload in finance to get this degree. I believe the finance focus has directly led to our alumni database being very successful in their careers.

In fact, when I arrived, I studied the alumni database and we had 1 ,100 alumni with complete and up -to -date data. I discovered that we have 99 different alums that have been presidents or CEOs. That number is almost 10%. I expected that number to be 1%. If I expand the titles to Senior Vice President and above, the number goes up to 207 individuals, or 19 % of all of our alumni. Those numbers gave me the confidence to continue our finance -heavy curriculum. Although we put out over 2 ,200 graduates in the industry, primarily in oil and gas, as petroleum landmen. What we are doing now is developing students to be successful in any sector of the energy industry. We are building graduates with commercial acumen in energy. Our roots are in oil and gas and we are expanding into all energy sources. We are developing our focus to be from a molecule to a molecule and electron major. Global electricity demand will almost double by 2050.

That is an enormous number, and our students should be part of that growth. One question I often get asked is, aren’t fossil fuels going away in a few years? Well, that’s just simply not true. I want to clarify this. According to the EIA, the Energy Information Administration, in 2050 in the U .S., we will be producing more oil and natural gas than we produce today. Renewables are growing too at a very fast pace, and our students will understand those sources of energy too. The only fossil fuel commodity that will be down in the US by 2050 is coal. But there’s more to that story. In fact, according to the IEA, which is the International Energy Agency, in 2050, all commodities will be bigger, including coal. Although we are reducing our coal use here in the United States, China is putting out a new coal -fired power plant every 12 days.

China already has the largest coal user, and they have five times the plants we have in the US. And by the way, they have more than the rest of the world combined. Well, back to energy management. We are focused on adding employers in the midstream, downstream. electricity, renewables, and finance companies to our extensive employer base. This is to complement our oil and gas stronghold. Our curriculum is strong and unique. Our students take between 12 and 15 hours of upper division finance, 9 to 18 hours of legal studies, and 13 hours of energy management courses. All of those energy management courses are taught by industry professionals. We are providing coursework that lays the foundation for our students to be successful in any sector of energy.

Well, our top priority is getting our students internships and full -time jobs. We even have our own specialist on staff to help just energy management students. Oh, and by the way, we’re the highest starting salary major in the B -School and we’re also the highest hourly rate for internships in the B -School. This last summer, we had 59 internships for our students. Helping our students with financial aid is another priority for us. Since 2009, our students have received over $5 million in scholarships, including $323 ,000 this year alone. Well, thank you for taking time to watch this video. And if you’d like to discuss any of the program further. please do not hesitate to reach out and send me an email at mmcconnell at ou .edu.

Thanks, and I hope you enjoyed this video have a great rest of your day.