It was so fun to watch American Alysa Liu win the gold medal in women’s figure skating at the Winter Olympics. The last win for the United States in figure skating was 24 years ago, when Sarah Hughes won in 2002. I was amazed by Liu’s story. Having retired at age 16 after winning the U.S. championship, she rediscovered her love for the sport. She hadn’t skated in two years! She smiled throughout the winning program and reminded all of us that love and passion are the best energy to power one’s career!
Speaking of energy, here are two key developments from the past week.
Shangyou Nie
Editor, Well Read
Sound Bites from NAPE
Photo credit: NAPE
I attended the North America Prospect Expo last week in Houston, which was organized by the American Association of Professional Landmen (AAPL) and enthusiastically attended by more than 10,000 people from governments, operators, and service companies. I was especially excited to listen to the students’ speeches.
Below are some quotes I captured at NAPE. I hope they can help give a sense of what was being discussed at the event. I’d love to hear your favorite quotes from NAPE, too.
About NAPE:
The first NAPE event was held in 1993, from 18 to 20 February, in Houston, and had roughly 800 attendees.
AAPG, as a sister organization of AAPL, has helped organize the NAPE event for several years now, alongside the Society for Exploration Geophysicists (SEG) and the Independent Petroleum Association of America (IPAA).
Presentations are held across three tracks: business, technical, and legal.
This year’s NAPE attracted international exhibitors from Australia, Canada, Germany (geothermal), Peru, South Africa, and more.
NAPE has a special Energy Innovation Case Competition for students, organized by Southern Methodist University.
Key quotes from NAPE
On oil:
“(WTI) oil price just broke $60 today!”
“There is about a $3 political premium on oil prices now.”
“You still have to be in the Permian. When you talk to potential investors, the first question they will ask is ‘Tell me about your Permian assets.’”
“[BPX] will grow production to 650,000 barrels per day by 2030.”
“[Drilling] inventory is still the name of the game.”
“Uruguay looks great from our 3D basin modeling.”
“87 percent of the U.S. offshore area is off limits for the oil and gas industry.”
“40 percent of American refineries process heavy crude.”
On gas:
“The market for gas is so hot. The price of an asset could double that from one week ago. That is how fast the market is moving.”
“There is now a structural change for gas demand growth in the United States.”
“We just drilled the longest horizontal wells in Haynesville—four miles long.”
“Alaska knows how to do LNG—we were the first state to export LNG in the 1960s. Alaska plans to export 20 million tonnes per annum of LNG to Asia.”
“Some of the new gas offtake rights are as long as 14 to 15 years now, almost like LNG long-term contracts.”
On business strategy and deals:
“The biggest hidden investment opportunity is Alaska.”
“Companies have learned how to live within cash flow.”
“A key decision consideration for me is whether that community will welcome my investment.”
“Don’t [just] buy someone’s liabilities.”
“I love mismanaged assets—that’s where I can make some money.”
“You have to find your investment opportunities through anomalies; you can't make money with obvious trends or those even ChatGPT knows about.”
“My exit strategy is first to look at who are adjacent producers to figure out my potential buyers; second is to preserve my drilling inventory.”
“Complexity kills value.”
On data centers:
“Seventy percent of the power generated for data centers is using gas.”
“It makes a lot of sense for a data center to co-locate with a geothermal facility.”
Go deeper: The next NAPE will be 3–5 February 2027 in Houston, Texas. Visit here for more details.
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BP and ENI announced a new oil discovery in Block 15 in Angola. This is the fourth discovery for Azule Energy, a 50:50 joint venture between the two major oil companies, in Angola and Namibia. This is good news for BP as it refocuses on its core strength of oil and gas E&P, and its new CEO, Megan O’Neill, is about to take the helm.
About the Angola discovery:
According to ENI, the Algaita-01 is a “significant oil discovery,” with an estimated 500 million barrels of oil in place.
Algaita is located in Block 15/06, about 18 kilometers from the Armada Olombendo FPSO. It presents a subsea tie-back joint development opportunity if Algaita does not become a stand-alone hub.
The Algaita-01 well was spudded on 10 January 2026, drilled by the Saipem 12000 drill ship in 667 meters of water depth, according to BP.
The well penetrated oil-bearing sandstones in multiple Upper Miocene intervals, with “excellent petrophysical properties.”
Fluid sampling and other data collected confirmed the quality of the reservoir and fluid characteristics.
Azule Energy is the operator and holds 36.8 percent equity, together with state company Sonangol E&P (36.8 percent), and Sonangol Sinopec International (26.3 percent), a subsidiary of Chinese state company Sinopec.
About Azule Energy:
According to Azule Energy, the equal partnership between BP and ENI was created in 2022, based in Angola, with more than 900 employees.
It has more than 210,000 barrels of oil equivalent per day in production (80:20 oil/gas), and 2 billion barrels of oil equivalent resources discovered in Angola and Namibia.
Azule plans to increase its production to 250,000 boed by 2026–2027.
In total, Azule Energy has 18 blocks with five operated facilities.
These joint ventures have financial and operational independence and can not only leverage each partner’s strengths, but also take advantage of local fiscal incentives sometimes.
What they’re saying:
“Algaita-01 is another step forward in building a strong hopper of opportunities for potential future development and underscores BP’s commitment to growing for upstream,” said Gordon Birrell, BP’s executive vice president for production and operations.
“Algaita might be ‘one of the largest Upper Miocene discoveries in Angola,” said Marco Fonnesu, former exploration manager for Azule Energy, and current exploration advisor for ENI.
Why it matters: The latest exploration success from Azule in Angola provides an additional boost to BP’s renewed efforts as it refocuses on its core strength of oil and gas E&P.
In 2025, BP made 12 exploration discoveries.
In 2023 and 2024, BP doubled its exploration budget to around $900–$1,000 million annually, up from $400–500 million between 2021 and 2022.
As of 1 April 2026, BP will welcome its new CEO, Megan O’Neill, former CEO of Woodside Energy and senior leader from ExxonMobil. O’Neill is known as a strong leader within the upstream sector.
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