Are You Energy Dense...or Energy Dense?
How many M&M’s does it take to match the energy in one Mcf of natural gas?
Find out in this SHALE INSIGHT® 2025 recap, which asks:
Are you an energy dense leader…or are you an “energy dense” leader?
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Transcript
(AI training in progress; please excuse any errors)
So what comes to mind when you hear the term energy density? Well, for me, when I hear energy density, I think of two things. One of those is M&M's, and the other one I think of is protesters.
00:16
And the reason I think of those two things is, first and foremost M and M's, because I recently learned that it would take 80,000 individual M&M's, plain M&M's, not Peanut M&M's or some other variety, but 80,000 plain M &M's to equal the same energy content as one Mcf of dry gas. So in other words, if you had one Mcf of dry gas, a measly $3 worth of gas, you would have to have 80,000 M&M's to again, generate the same calories, BTUs, joules, whatever measure of energy you prefer.
00:51
And what a great visual right of the disparity in different energy sources. Now, again, we're not heating our homes with M&M's, of course, but it underscores the value, the severely discounted value, if you will, of natural gas, versus the volume, the cost of something like M&M's. And admittedly, I'm sharing this in part because I gave away half an Mcf worth of M&M's last night. Again, about 40,000 M&M's in the form of about 400 of these M&M filled light bulbs at the Shale Insight Women's Energy Network happy hour here in Erie, Pennsylvania. So I have this fresh on my mind, but again, a nice visual comparison of energy density.
01:30
And the other thing that I think of when I think of energy density is all protesters. Why? Well, because you think of, you know, the other form of density, right? When you call somebody dense, what are you saying? Well, you're saying that, you know, maybe they're they're slow on the uptake. Maybe they're ignorant. They're slow witted, if you will. And in many cases, the protesters who were hear in Erie for the Shale Insight Conference. They may have had the best of intentions, but, you know, by and large, they're dense. And I don't mean that in a disparaging way. They simply don't have the information necessary to perhaps have a more engaging conversation about the pros and the cons and the trade offs that come with different energy sources, including the tradeoffs when it comes to energy density, like the different energy densities for different forms of energy, from natural gas to wind to solar and again, on and on.
Protesters outside the Bayfront Convention Center on September 17, 2025
02:22
So that being said, energy density. But why? Why would I bring that up here on this episode of the energy detox that is being recorded on the heels of the Shale Insight Conference, which just wrapped up? Well, I share it because for all of the speakers that took the stage this week here in Erie for shale insight, each one of them, in some way, whether they realized it or not, had comments that tie to energy density, and most of those refer to the first form, the physical form of energy density, but some of them touched on again, that other form of density, sort of the ignorance, if you will, the slow wittedness, the ignorance around energy that, Again, is shared often at events like this by protesters. And so I'm going to step through some of the brief comments that I heard from the speakers today and yesterday, and through conversations even the day before, from Shale Insight, not revealing anything proprietary, not revealing anything that's not likely already in the public domain. But again, things that I Joe Sinnott heard, while stepping through this with, of course, the intent here on The Energy Detox, to turn them into something that you as a leader in the energy industry, can use to be a better leader, to model good energy density, to model a leader who, again, packs good quality leadership into a relatively small package, as opposed to the other form of density, where, again, you might go around and find yourself kind of appearing like the protesters who, in many ways come across as hypocritical or ignorant or, again, dense.
03:51
So that being said, the first speaker I'll touch on briefly here is Sarah Fenton from EQT, who touched on something that is very much in the public domain, but touches on energy density, and this is EQT's combo development approach. That is where EQT tries to plan as many wells as possible in a given geographic area, so that, again, they create, in essence, energy density and all of the many benefits from an operational standpoint, from an environmental standpoint, that come with that.
04:20
And this combo development strategy, of course, mirrors, really, all the benefits of horizontal drilling, where, again, we can access a tremendous amount of energy from a single well pad. And this was underscored by another speaker expand energies, Nick Dell'osso, who talked about all of the record setting laterals that they've drilled just in the past couple of months. So drilling longer and longer, more efficiently than ever. So that, again, what you have a more dense operation, you can produce more energy from a smaller footprint and do it in a more condensed amount of time as well. That's a good thing for everybody. That's a good thing for the environment that I believe the protesters sincerely want to protect, and it's a good thing for Americans who, again, you know, like the fact that natural gas is only $3 an MCF, as opposed to the hundreds of dollars in M&M equivalent energy that you would need for the same amount of energy that we produce here in Marcellus.
05:14
That being said, you can turn to Greg Floerke of MPLX, and he, too talked about 10 years ago, when Markwest, now part of MPLX, was developing assets, developing their pipelines and developing their processing facilities. But he underscored how dense really all of that development was. Billions of dollars of investments that really concentrated between Clarksburg, West Virginia and Butler County, Pennsylvania. Again, talking about how dense that activity was. It wasn't spread out all over the place. It was occurring right here in western Pennsylvania, northern West Virginia. And it spoke to the energy density that we're blessed with here in this part of the world.
05:54
Continuing on, Dave McCormick, US senator from here in Pennsylvania, he too, spoke about the energy density that we have, and more importantly, how in order to take advantage of that energy density, which again, is inherently good, we need infrastructure. We need permit reform. We need to be able to get this energy out of here. Because, well, you know what? It is so dense.
06:14
Moving on from there, one of the breakout sessions here at Shale Insight, which again, is one of the many nice formats about this, where you can pick and choose who you want to listen to. Well, one of those talked about produced water and the potential benefits, the potential revenue, if you will, from produced water, because of the rare earth minerals found in produced water. But again, one of the themes, if you will, from that conversation is really the lack of density of those minerals in the water. And can you get to the point from a technological standpoint, from an economic standpoint, where the relative lack of density of minerals in that produced water is worth processing it, extracting it, doing whatever. Again, from a technology standpoint, it would take to get those minerals out. So again, in essence, a conversation about density, not direct energy density, but certainly a related concept regarding a stream that is produced from the development of natural gas.
07:04
And then moving on from there, all the more physical, scientific elements of energy density. There were some more figurative notes that I heard at least, or that I took during the conference, and that was including one from Repsol, a gentleman named Curro (Francisco Gea), and he talked about innovation. And his definition of innovation was not necessarily going out and investing in some sexy new technology all the time, but taking advantage of what's already at hand. In other words, increasing the density of what you're already doing and just doing a little bit better, doing it in an enhanced manner, more efficiently, if you will, increasing energy density instead of going off in 100 different directions under the umbrella of innovation, but finding yourself diluting your message, diluting your focus. So again, figurative energy density, if you will, channeling your energy, your company's energy, towards things that are already working pretty well, and just amplifying them. That is a form of, again, figurative energy density.
08:04
Moving on from there, a PJM representative (Asim Haque) was here talking about, well, PJM, huge grid operator, right? And one of the things he talked about, again, from a completely objective standpoint, that I would love to have a conversation with, with some of the protesters that showed up here today, who, again, are certainly in favor, or they think they're in favor of solar and wind. Well, one of the things that this PJM representative talked about was the reality that when you add things to the grid that are less energy dense, you're going to need more of them. When you add things to the grid that don't have the same level of availability and reliability as things like natural gas to generate electricity that we all rely upon, and that we will continue to need more of. With AI here, not on the horizon, but certainly, I think in our midst, we need to recognize that, you know what, you can add these things to the grid that are less energy dense, but you're going to need a lot of windmills. You're going to need a lot of solar panels, and that's not inherently bad, but again, it's an objective truth that those things are less energy dense, and there are therefore trade offs. There are therefore costs, again, just like the increased costs of M&M energy relative to natural gas energy, all related to energy density.
09:18
So that being said, again, lots of literal and figurative examples of how important it is to lean on energy density and to be aware of it. Just as you as a leader, again, need to be aware that your energy can't just go off in many different directions. You can't just disperse your energy here and there, and not do it in an intentional manner, especially when you have lots of eyes on you as a leader within an organization. And so here, in a minute, we'll talk about some very practical things that you can do to increase your energy density.
09:40
But first, I do want to give the protesters their due. I know there was at least a little bit of coverage on the news last night here in Erie, but I'll give a little bit more coverage here on The Energy Detox.
And again, that was around some of their messaging, some of their messaging about the need to protect the air and water, recognizing, of course, that in many ways they came across as dense because they were sharing this message with a crowd that was probably what at least 25% professionals who are quite literally focused on protecting air and water. So making claims like that, or making that your talking point, if you will, or yelling point, or bullhorn point, or whatever the terminology is for the protesting folks, it's a display of ignorance. It's a display of, again, energy density in a negative way.
10:32
And I think Doug Burgum actually, the closing speaker, who just got off stage here a couple minutes ago, he touched on this. He touched on the fact that the current administration, again, from a completely objective standpoint, they're not, well, energy dense. They understand the facts. They understand the science. Donald Trump has assembled a team, including those who are part of the Energy Dominance council that is chaired by Secretary Burgum, and that council is, of course, filled with a whole bunch of very smart people who are the opposite of dense, right? They're aware of what it takes to take full advantage of our nation's resources. For the people of the United States, that's a good kind of density, energy density, in terms of knowledge about what we actually do, so that we make sound decisions and avoid the potential downside of being dense to the ignorance side dense like the protesters who might short sightedly move into a future where we need a whole lot of energy, but might not have it available to us. Again, if we don't recognize that less dense, less reliable resources, we're going to need a lot more of them, like again, the 80,000 M&M's that you need to equal one MCF of natural gas.
11:45
So all that being said, what do you do with this information? What do you do as a leader in the energy industry? Well, again, as we said a couple times already, you want to be energy dense in a good way. You want to make sure that your energy is channeled for your primary stakeholders. Your energy, if you will, is applied to a core message. And I say this having sat through hours of presentations, which are all good. It's nice to have long form conversations that can kind of get into the details and meander a bit. But by and large, in your day to day, you don't have the time for that. And more importantly, your audience doesn't have the time for that.
12:14
So the first thing for you to do today is ask yourself, as you go throughout the day, are you go throughout the day, are you being dense? Are you being crisp with your message, or again, are you allowing it to kind of get lost, if you will, to flutter in the wind like is blowing through the air here in Erie, Pennsylvania along the Bayfront? And you know, as you ponder that question? Well, let me give you one exercise that I use all the time with the people that I work with, from a coaching standpoint, because a lot of times I find myself working with individuals who are preparing for conferences like this, to get up on stage and give a talk or a presentation, or within companies, again, to give a presentation, whether it's a technical presentation or they're trying to sell management on something or other. But one exercise that I do with them is to say, Hey, this is all great. I got some notes here. I got some feedback.
13:00
But now, what would you do if you walked into the meeting there and they said, You know what we got to get out of here in five minutes? What would you do? Well, you put on your energy density hat, right? And you probably, I would hope, wouldn't try to cram everything you were going to say into five minutes. No, you would pick and choose, right? You'd find the word, you'd find that message, that crisp message, to make sure that if there's one thing that you want to get across to get across to everybody that gets across in those five minutes.
13:25
And again, that's mirrored, actually, by credit to Shale Insight here to another exercise that they do every year. It's a breakout session where they have six different individuals go and talk about a technology, a technology showcase, if you will, where each person only has up to eight minutes to deliver their message. It's crisp. It's energy dense. It's energizing. In many ways, that's what you want to model as a leader.
13:45
And on the flip side, how do you avoid being energy dense, if you will, like the protesters, who, again, are just not aware? They just don't have the information that is necessary to form cogent responses to the responsible development of natural gas. Well, the simplest solution, and again, something we've talked about on the other 120 episodes of The Energy Detox a whole bunch, is to ask that extra question before putting together your signs, and again, making yourself look like a hypocrite because you're driving around in boats powered by fossil fuels.
People protesting fossil fuels outside the Bayfront Convention Center in a boat powered by…fossil fuels.
Take an extra moment to say, Well, what might I be missing here? In what ways might I be wrong? How could I come across as dense when, again, I think I'm on the right side of things here?
14:28
If you as a leader, don't ask those questions, no matter who you are and what level you are in an organization, you run the risk of coming across as dense.
14:36
So that, being said, ask those extra questions, one extra question, if you're in a meeting or conversation, avoid the downside of energy density. Go to the other side. Don't be like those 80,000 M&M's. Instead, be like that one Mcf of hyper dense energy for the low, low price of $3.