THE CRUDE TRUTH Ep. 31 Christi Craddick, Chairman of the Railroad Commission of Texas

Oil and Gas is important to Texas and the United States. On this episode of THE CRUDE TRUTH we visit with the Chairman of the Railroad Commission, Christi Craddick. With experience in Oil & Gas Tax, Water, and Environmental Law she is more than up to the challenge to continue the fight FOR oil and gas. Yes, Texas is the largest wind producer in America, however for our economy to succeed and grow, we need “fair and consistent oil and gas regulations that make sense.” Thank you to Mrs. Craddick for stopping by THE CRUDE TRUTH studio.

Please reach out to Christi Craddick on his Instagram HERE  

Check out StatusJet HERE

THE CRUDE TRUTH Ep. 31 Christi Craddick, Chairman of the Railroad Commission of Texas

Rey Trevino [00:00:00] As you know, we like to talk to champions of the oil and gas industry on The Crude Truth and we’ve also had the opportunity to talk to policymakers and overseers on The Crude Truth. Well, in this episode, we get to talk to somebody, a special lady that does both on this episode of The Crude Truth.

Rey Trevino [00:01:14] Well Good morning Good afternoon hello Good evening. Thank you again for tuning in for another episode of The Crude Truth. I am once again just so excited to have another amazing guest today who just happened to be in Fort Worth, just spreading all the good news and all the great things that the oil and gas industry is up to. Today my guest is Railroad Commissioner Christie Craddick, Christie, How are you?

Christi Craddick [00:01:38] I’m well thanks for having me today.

Rey Trevino [00:01:39] No, no, thank you for coming in on this wonderful spring afternoon, and Welcome to Fort Worth

Christi Craddick [00:01:45] And I always like coming to Fort Worth. I call it Where the West Begins.

Rey Trevino [00:01:49] Yes, Yes.

Christi Craddick [00:01:50] And the second part of the oil and gas industry.

Rey Trevino [00:01:53] Well, I cannot thank you for coming on I had the opportunity to have gone on a while back and a couple of times. And, you know, you guys, which are doing at the railroad Commission, is just more than important. It’s life-altering, life-changing, and it helps keep the oil and gas industry running and helps keep Texas clean.

Rey Trevino [00:02:11] And so when the opportunity arose to have you come on, I was like, No, no, please, you know, whenever what time? I don’t care you know, I’d love to have you on. So again, thank you so much for coming on.

Christi Craddick [00:02:21] Well, thanks for having me and I call the role commission the most important state agency nobody knows what we do.

Rey Trevino [00:02:27] There you go I know I still tell people I’m like, what is the Railroad Commission? We’re actually the ones that oversee the oil and gas industry in Texas. And like what I said, it’s a long story but yeah, they’re the ones that do it.

Christi Craddick [00:02:37] But we like our name.

Rey Trevino [00:02:38] Well, you got to. It’s unique. It just. Just as unique as Texas is, if you ask me.

Christi Craddick [00:02:42] That’s right.

Rey Trevino [00:02:43] Well, for individuals that do not know, you know, let’s talk about you a little bit, your background. You are actually from West Texas, correct?

Christi Craddick [00:02:50] I did. I grew up in Midland and then I went, which I love so as was said for the second part of the oil and gas industry, Midland really is the heart of the oil and gas industry, not just in the state, but in the country.

Rey Trevino [00:03:02] Yes,.

Christi Craddick [00:03:03] I joke that everybody goes to Midland, Fort Worth, Houston you know, we’ve got it all going in the state. And then I went to ended up in law school at UT Austin and stayed in Austin and so I’ve done oil and gas tax water, and environmental law for a long time. And then about I guess now, 12 years ago decided to run for the Railroad Commission so I’m starting my 11th year and it’s been interesting this industry has changed a lot.

Christi Craddick [00:03:30] You know, we were just kind of finishing the Barnett Shale when I got to the agency. Nobody ever really thought fracking was a bad thing. Now everybody thinks something else is a bad thing. But we, you know, it really has this industry has grown it continues to change and in the players continue to change and develop, too. And as an agency, we are trying to keep up as quickly as we can.

Rey Trevino [00:03:53] Well, you know, one thing I think you’ve done to really keep will not keep up, but in your tenure to catch up is your website alone. You know, it was you know, it was very hard to navigate it. And what you and your team have been able to do during this tenure that you’ve been there has really made it more user-friendly.

Christi Craddick [00:04:12] Thank you. We’re trying. So, you know, when I got to the agency ten, 11 years ago, we were logging in with Novell. If anybody remembers, that is where we are. We were and are still a little bit on a mainframe with Fortran.

Rey Trevino [00:04:27] Ok.

Christi Craddick [00:04:27] Which is old technology everything that anybody was filing was in hard copy and even at that point, I think we were allowing things to be emailed to us. But then we still had the keystroke, everything it right, very inefficient, very not transparent either.

Christi Craddick [00:04:42] And we were doing with 650 people and part of what I ran on and part of what we’re finally getting finished is going and updating and modernizing the Royal Commission website. We want to be more efficient, but we also should be more transparent, and that’s where it’s been very helpful. So when you’re talking about our website.

Christi Craddick [00:05:00] You now can go on and our GIS mapping system, you’re seeing stuff in real time for us, maybe 24 hours, but basically you’re seeing stuff in real time about what’s going on with a well, what inspections we’ve done. You can file online about 95% of what you’re filing to that royal commission is electronic, whereas we’d started with nothing. So we’ve come a long way.

Rey Trevino [00:05:21] No, I remember the days when my father was still doing all of that himself, and it was like, Don’t lose this paper you got to keep up, keep up. And nowadays, like you’re seeing a 24-hour turnaround, you’ve seen something in get your tests done, you know, or you follow new, you know, you file something and boom, within 24 hours, it’s already there on it and it shows it and it’s good to go.

Christi Craddick [00:05:41] And that’s our goal.

Rey Trevino [00:05:42] And the other thing I’ve done more of is and this is just on my own being an operator is you’ve got more people I feel like that will answer the phone.

Christi Craddick [00:05:51] Good. If not. And you told me differently, I was going to go back and make sure, you know, we’re in about 960 people now in the state, so we’ve grown some, but this industry has grown by leaps and bounds.

Christi Craddick [00:06:02] We added a field office about three years ago now back in Lubbock for those people who have been operating for years. We used to have one and we closed it before I ever got there. And realize because West Texas and I say West Texas, the whole area is so busy. We had an opportunity for to get more people to work for us in Lubbock coming out of college then, and we can do it all in Midland and in San Angelo and Abilene. It was tough also.

Christi Craddick [00:06:28] So we’ve got ten field offices and half our people are inspectors. So they’re out doing their job and have, I think, done a really good job. I think checking the environment and making sure that this agency is following up with people, but allowing them to remediate first.

Rey Trevino [00:06:44] Yes. No. And, you know, the guys that we use in most of our stuff that we operate is up in the north Texas area. Nine, nine, eight. And, you know, they’re all almost unofficially local guys in those areas. You know, they know a lot of the people, they eat at the same restaurants.

Rey Trevino [00:07:03] And so there’s a lot of respect, just mutual respect more than anything else. And I think then for that to go into the oil field or the leases itself really helps out. And then also your guys, you know, they may have been at an oil and gas company themselves for the last ten, 12 years.

Rey Trevino [00:07:17] So they have that experience to be there, be like, hey, you know, let’s do something about this and let’s work on this, you know? And that’s something also that I want to say that that’s a song you’ve really brought to the position are to one of these three positions is the experience of the oil and gas industry to the Railroad Commission in a long time, I think.

Christi Craddick [00:07:39] Well, thinks you know, I think it’s important one of the reasons I’ve decided to run is I looked at where this agency was and that we needed to move along pretty quickly. And I thought, you know, I want to be there I can do a better job I know what I know the people, whether they like me or not, all the time.

Christi Craddick [00:07:55] But I think they do I know the people and we have a real opportunity for this agency to continue to be a leader. It needs to be, especially based on what we’ve been through. Obama And now we’ve got Biden going on. We need to continue as an agency to lead not just for Texas, a state, but for the national say to be an oil and gas leader across the country.

Rey Trevino [00:08:16] Well, I definitely want to jump into what you just said about the Biden administration and the Obama administration. But I do know also that Jason Module and has also been he’s been on the show and he had nothing but also great things to say about what I’ve been able to do in partnership with so many different people.

Christi Craddick [00:08:31] So well, and I appreciate me because I trained him well he worked for me for a short time that he’s doing a great job and work and represents the smaller operators in the state really well. And not all are small but smaller operators. And I think the challenge we’ve always got is an agency got a lot of big operators now back in the state they see an opportunity and they’re buying things up.

Christi Craddick [00:08:52] But the lifeblood of this industry always has been and to my mind, always will be the smaller operators. So figuring out how you write a rule or do something as far as implementation of a rule with think taking it to account, look, you’ve got big operators and they can afford to do a lot of things.

Rey Trevino [00:09:10] Yes.

Christi Craddick [00:09:10] Versus smaller operators who really are not can afford to do things they’re trying to do the right thing. And they also create jobs too and are paying good taxes in the state. We don’t want to lose them. So he’s doing a good job I appreciate what and he works hard.

Rey Trevino [00:09:24] Yes. Well, you know, you mentioned the Obama and now the Biden administration, and you and your team have been I want to the only words I could really say is you all have been at war with this administration to protect the oil and gas industry here in Texas. And why are you protecting our industry? You’re actually also protecting our economy here in Texas. And, you know, what are your thoughts on, you know, on what’s going on in Washington and how we can continue to combat it here in Texas?

Christi Craddick [00:09:54] I think education is a big piece of how we combat it but I always like to tell this story because I think it gives a good example of the different administrations. When the Obama administration walked out the doors and agency, we were watching 144 rules and regulations they had proposed.

Rey Trevino [00:10:12] Okay.

Christi Craddick [00:10:12] Remember, we do coal and we do pipes and we do oil and gas, we do geothermal, we do carbon, we do the whole thing. When the Trump administration walked out the door, we were only watching for rules and regulations so 140 went away in four years. They realized that overregulation doesn’t make a lot of sense and that states regulate that’s our job.

Rey Trevino [00:10:35] Yes.

Christi Craddick [00:10:36] And one size doesn’t fit all either. In fact, one size doesn’t fit all in the state someday. So this administration is back. And in fact, the Biden administration, I would say, is less friendly even than the Obama administration and I wasn’t sure I could say that, But they really are and don’t want to talk to us and appreciate how important oil and gas is not to just Texas, but across the state and now we’re seeing it across the world, Right? I mean, if you look at what’s going on in Ukraine, I think that’s a good example of our friends in Russia and I say that a little bit facetiously.

Rey Trevino [00:11:11] Right.

Christi Craddick [00:11:12] That everybody wants our natural gas now so LNG is really important across the world and we’ve got a lot of natural gas. We produce 25% of the states of the country’s natural gas that comes out of Texas.

Christi Craddick [00:11:24] So I think that they are appreciative of that but, you know, the Biden administration, to me, the first, they’re very indicative of how they believe or don’t believe in oil and gas. The first thing they did was shut down the Keystone XL pipeline.

Rey Trevino [00:11:38] Right.

Christi Craddick [00:11:38] Remember, it’s been open since 2014 in the state or part of it and, well, I’d much rather do business with our friends in Canada than Venezuela.

Rey Trevino [00:11:46] Absolutely.

Christi Craddick [00:11:47] And I think that’s what they’re missing or they’re now going to all over the world are trying to make a deal with Saudi Arabia. I mean, we’ve all tried this before we’re now pushing Saudi Arabia. I believe the Texas producers are to be more thoughtful and how they’re going to produce. They can’t produce as much as they want to anyway. So Texas has and the Texas producers have a real opportunity for that.

Rey Trevino [00:12:10] Well, you know, when you mentioned the natural gas, you know, we’re still exporting. And, you know, where do you think we can go with our Because we have been called in I’ll be proud to say that Saudi Arabia of natural gas.

Christi Craddick [00:12:23] Right.

Rey Trevino [00:12:24] You know, how do you think us here in Texas can really bring natural gas to a better to the forefront, more, you know, in the future?

Christi Craddick [00:12:32] Now, I think people don’t appreciate what natural gas does for them on a daily basis. When you think about it, flipping on your lights will about a third in this state or more on any given day, your power comes on because we have natural gas power plants or I always tell the young a lot of younger people, please give me your cell phone back because it’s plastic and that’s a natural gas product, right?

Christi Craddick [00:12:55] My daughter now gets it. I have an 11-year-old and she’s like, okay, I want to understand why. Okay, let’s have a conversation. You drive in the car, you turn on the stove she’s helping me cook. But the thing that has gotten her is that she’s now educating her friends, that how gas particularly but oil and gas is important. She’s flavored Doritos cheese flavor Doritos you’re eating natural gas you’re eating gas. And so a gas product, everybody’s going to go look.

Rey Trevino [00:13:22] Somebody that’s Doritos, Nacho cheese.

Christi Craddick [00:13:24] She’s flavored Doritos, there are chemicals so, so natural gas touches everything we do. And I think the real challenge we’ve got is this administration wants to get rid of your gas-fired stoves. That’s crazy it doesn’t make any sense. It is a clean-burning energy. We need more. I think the state through the past winter storm has shown wind and solar alone aren’t enough. We need everything. And natural gas is a cheap fuel. We can produce enough. But. And it goes all over the world.

Rey Trevino [00:13:56] Man. My heart’s broken on the, you know, the Doritos nacho cheese there and.

Christi Craddick [00:14:02] You know, get healthy or eat or one of the things.

Rey Trevino [00:14:04] Right is this also is about that rumor with McDonald’s with their buns. I heard a rumor that like whatever’s in yoga mats is in. But that’s.

Christi Craddick [00:14:12] I’ve heard that.

Rey Trevino [00:14:12] I don’t know. But no, you know, you talk about these bands, you know, and just recently here in Texas, and again, I’m not good with politics, but either the Senate or the state Congress side, I’d just put that ban in to ban municipalities from banning natural gas in their city.

Christi Craddick [00:14:33] That’s right. So the legislature’s in and they’re working through some things because they get this is an energy-friendly state in oil and gas, and it’s really not a political issue. Right. Everybody ought to be friendly to energy, especially in Texas. Right?

Rey Trevino [00:14:45] Right.

Christi Craddick [00:14:45] And we get help from our congressmen and women in Texas, both in the statehouse and in Washington, D.C., not every day, but they understand the jobs it creates, the dollars it brings in and how important it is. So is this I think it’s the Texas Senate has taken a vote already and it’ll move its way through the process. Well, fair, consistent regulations make sense.

Rey Trevino [00:15:09] Yes.

Christi Craddick [00:15:10] And that’s where we don’t you know, we don’t want a municipality like I live in Crazy Austin and it has its moments. Right? Right in there. And there are some conversations at one point in the last few years that if you’re developing a new subdivision, you can’t put natural gas in that subdivision electric only. Okay. You can have that should be the developer, the subdivision, not the city being able to permit you differently.

Christi Craddick [00:15:34] But again, where’s the electricity come from? And that’s the real key. It doesn’t all come from wind and solar, although we’re the largest wed. Right?

Rey Trevino [00:15:42] Right.

Christi Craddick [00:15:43] It comes from nuclear and coal and natural gas and wind and solar and we have 30 million people in the state. You got to keep growing that electricity where it’s coming from because if not, we’re not going to have enough and I want my power to come back.

Rey Trevino [00:15:57] I like to turn the switch in, my power to come on and, you know, you talk about the electricity and we have to as we continue to get more Californians here in the great state of Texas, we have to build the power grid. You know, we have to add to it to add more lines. So that means we didn’t have to add that energy source. Right?

Rey Trevino [00:16:16] And it’s like we have to continue to grow this. It’s it’s almost like it’s just a full sort of like everything’s connected. And so when people can understand that natural gas can really be a great product, you know? You know, it’s cleaner Bernstein I mean, here in Fort Worth, I know the public transportation uses it. I think it’s compressed but, you know, they use it so it’s just such an important thing for us to use it and for everybody to understand that that is what we’re doing.

Christi Craddick [00:16:42] Lots of opportunities and it’s cheap.

Rey Trevino [00:16:45] Yes.

Christi Craddick [00:16:45] And that’s important in today’s economy to make sure you’re finding good power sources and good sources of energy that are affordable to the normal person.

Rey Trevino [00:16:54] Yes, Because you know what? Filling up is not filling you up, but charging a $90,000 electric vehicle just is not you know, that just doesn’t do it.

Christi Craddick [00:17:03] Well, and I’m going to tell you, it cost you something. You may not see it every day, but it costs you something and you can’t do it with your orange power cord, right?

Rey Trevino [00:17:10] No. Yeah. You have to install something and it’s like they’re not thinking this through. It’s like, you know.

Christi Craddick [00:17:16] Where they are you know, that’s where the Biden administration thinks we’re all going to have been on electric cars in a few years. I can’t drive between Austin and any place else, Houston and Midland, without having to stop and charge.

Rey Trevino [00:17:28] Yeah,.

Christi Craddick [00:17:28] Well, it didn’t make any sense either you know, we I think competition in if people want to buy an electric car, that’s their business.

Rey Trevino [00:17:35] Yes.

Christi Craddick [00:17:35] But I sure like my guess, my guess.

Rey Trevino [00:17:37] No, and I agree the same thing hey, man, if they want to have their own, like, Hey, that is great. Like, good for you, you know, but give me the option to have the other. And the fact that they’re taking away is basically communist because, you know, that’s just not right. It’s like, wait a minute.

Rey Trevino [00:17:51] And capitalism is what will actually allow electric vehicles down the road to actually become something because then they’ll be that competition that you’re talking about and then somebody will create something that’s actually good and affordable.

Christi Craddick [00:18:06] Well, look, you’ve got battery issues, right? Most of the lithium is coming from China. Yes as we’re already talking about their competition and we don’t. And what do you do with them afterward? They only last for four years. You can’t recycle them.

Rey Trevino [00:18:19] No.

Christi Craddick [00:18:20] So there are some challenges. And those cars are made from oil and gas products.

Rey Trevino [00:18:24] Yes, I know that’s yeah, that’s that to me is the one thing that it’s like these vehicles are just not you know, it’s like they’re all going to be like, oh, excuse me, So sorry about that. But know that those vehicles, there’s oil and gas in them from the tires all the way up to the top of the roof. That’s right so there’s a petroleum product in there.

Rey Trevino [00:18:45] You know, I think something as a small operator of remediation and what you guys are doing there at the Railroad Commission, can you explain that a little bit and maybe what you all are doing? Do you see that being kind of bigger moving forward in the next 5 to 10 years? Or what do you see?

Christi Craddick [00:19:02] Your priorities have always been at this agency, health and safety and environmental. Yes, Well, it continues to be our priority. And part of that is, well, plugging. For instance, when you’re talking about remediation, that’s one of the ways we think you ought to remediate if that well, if a well is no longer viable, it’s not economic or if it’s got an issue that we say, you know, it’s got a leak and you’ve got to do something with it, then we want you to plug that well for health insight, but really for the environment we don’t anybody in the state.

Christi Craddick [00:19:31] We’re all environmentalists. I say this, you know, if you’re in the oil and gas business, you’re in the fluids business, but you’re also an environmentalist because you’re following the law and are cleaning things up.

Rey Trevino [00:19:42] Yes, ma’am.

Christi Craddick [00:19:43] That’s what it’s about. And so I call us one of the oldest agencies that have environmental priorities in it, to be really honest. We’re asking people we ask people to plug a certain percentage of wells a year.

Rey Trevino [00:19:54] Yes, you do.

Christi Craddick [00:19:55] And we think that makes good sense we don’t want just well, sitting out there that are causing any issues. That being said, we try to work with people, right? You have the opportunity to come in and say that while still viable, we’re going to do some testing.

Rey Trevino [00:20:10] Yes.

Christi Craddick [00:20:10] We’re going to make sure that there’s no issues with it but it’s so small and gas to produce, which means it’s tax dollars and a job sitting out there. We don’t want to plug wells. It’s viable. But if they are viable, we’re going to ask you to go plug it or we’re going to ask you to clean something up.

Christi Craddick [00:20:26] You know, we have inspectors all over the state we inspect about a fifth of the wells a year, get inspected in the state. So that’s I know just about 200,000 inspections for us that’s a lot of inspections we take it seriously we issue about $1,000,000 of penalties a month, by the way.

Rey Trevino [00:20:45] Wow.

Christi Craddick [00:20:46] That being said, if we go out and it’s on your property or your dad’s property and you say so, you’re in violation of this rule, please, and we give you a notice that you’re in violation, whatever it is. So you’ve got a little spill on the ground, right?

Christi Craddick [00:21:00] We want you to clean it up I don’t want it I don’t as an agency, want to take it over. We see real opportunity then we’re going to come back and inspect. If you’ve cleaned it up, that’s good. We’re probably going to issue a little penalty if you don’t and we’re going to keep coming back. And if you don’t follow our rules, at the end of the day, we’re going to shut you down.

Rey Trevino [00:21:16] And pull my bond.

Christi Craddick [00:21:17] That’s right.

Rey Trevino [00:21:17] No,.

Christi Craddick [00:21:18] Your bond. And that becomes really serious if you think about it you’ve just spent whatever it is on a well to develop it. And you can’t you can’t produce it that seriously and we take that very seriously.

Rey Trevino [00:21:31] No, I mean, you know, that’s the one thing I tell people a lot is it’s not about like even though the drilling part is always the fun part that people like. But that’s not the importance of producing the oil. And if you get somebody that comes in and if you guys come in, shut down a company that means that’s dollars daily dollars that are out of their pocket or out of their investor’s pocket. And that’s not important. That’s very important to continue to produce.

Rey Trevino [00:21:55] And then, you know, just to piggyback on what you’re talking about, how, you know, Railroad Commission is actually one of the oldest environmentalists. I like that and I think I’m going to start to use that if that’s okay. Christy Fine, because I don’t think you can find one working out in the oil and gas industry that isn’t an outdoorsman of some kind. Hunting, fishing, camping, backpacking, Hiking, or whatever. And we all want to keep the area beautiful that we’re in.

Rey Trevino [00:22:19] And so that is what you guys are doing and you’ve been doing really a great job, you know, for us smaller guys. I mean, y’all, you do work with us and there’s no only this box. And I want to say that again, that that the commission truly does work with all the small independents out there because we make up, first of all, the majority of the oil and gas here in Texas. And they understand that and they work with us all the time. So I want to say thank you to you guys for that. It’s not just about the big boys and girls that are out there that you guys really do that. So thank you.

Christi Craddick [00:22:51] Well, thank you for acknowledging that. We try.

Rey Trevino [00:22:53] Well, in that kind of I guess, Segways actually into something else I do want to touch on, which is the small independents, you know, here I’m saying that, but, you know, what are you guys doing to continue to work with us, the smaller independents, to really, you know, just have our back?

Christi Craddick [00:23:08] So, you know, I think a lot of it has to do with it with our rules. If we’re changing rules, we get feedback from small independents, not just associations, but we ask we answer the phone, which I’m glad about, and we try to work with companies. You know, I’ve said we’ve all automated.

Christi Craddick [00:23:25] Well sometimes it takes everybody a little bit of time to figure out how to automate. We get on the phone with people and try to walk them through the process for us or get them information or that’s our job. Our job is not to be adversarial, it’s to work with people. And that’s how I think the philosophy at our agency has been.

Christi Craddick [00:23:44] Small operators, as I said, are the lifeblood of this industry, quite frankly and there’s a lot of people out there and we’re trying to get more people and in my mind, educate more people so they’ll come back to this industry or stay in this industry or want to get in to begin with.

Christi Craddick [00:24:00] I mean a lot of that starts with small operators that come into Fort Worth, and there’s a lot of young people in the city in there, most a lot of them in oil and gas, which I’m excited to see. Yeah, you don’t see that everyplace across the state, but I’m excited to see you’ve got a lot of young people who are enrolled, but of all ages who are really wanting to be in this business, trying to develop some new ideas because they also bring the innovation.

Rey Trevino [00:24:25] Yes.

Christi Craddick [00:24:26] And the innovation long term is what it’s what’s going to keep this industry relevant and continuing to produce. You know, you look at Texas right now, if you go where we are, the estimate is with today’s technology, we can produce 200 more years of oil and gas. If when I got here ten years ago, it was 100 years.

Christi Craddick [00:24:44] So if that tells you how much the innovation I was laughing at everybody. We didn’t want kids to play video games and play with joysticks. Well, that’s how we’re drilling wells now. So I want that innovation in there, the process for the next generation to come in and keep us vibrant.

Rey Trevino [00:25:00] Know the science. You know, they always talk about in the end, I won’t mention what side, but those talk about trust in science and science and new technology has allowed the oil and gas industry to get more efficient, cleaner, and a little less expensive down the road. You know, new technology in the beginning,.

Rey Trevino [00:25:18] However or not however, it’s just awesome to watch what it’s doing because that science allows us now to go into these what were once considered Tier one and tier two. And for my listeners out there, what Tier One and Tier two mean, it wasn’t necessarily where they wanted to drill first is like not on let’s go here.

Rey Trevino [00:25:38]  But these Tier two and Tier three areas are now looking like with new technology, they could actually be better producers than the Tier ones that they did five years ago or even ten years ago. So that technology is it’s very important.

Rey Trevino [00:25:52] And so I think, you know, again, I agree that what you guys are doing is using it and you’ve been doing it. And, you know, in the teaser I mentioned champions, and I haven’t brought that up yet, not apologize because you personally have been a champion for the oil and gas industry, getting the word out there on all the positive. So thank you very much.

Christi Craddick [00:26:12] Thank you. Look, I think this industry is really important to the state of the country. I think there are a lot of good people in this industry who work hard and really are trying to do the right thing. And part of what we’ve prioritized at this agency, partly because it’s now sister, but also when I got to the commission, we had really one person doing communications.

Christi Craddick [00:26:35] We’re trying to build that we know about eight people doing communications and outreach and are looking potentially to put in the office specifically for public outreach that’s a conversation we’ve gone to the legislature and said, we think that’s important we’d like to be able to communicate directly to more consumers than we’re able to. We think that should be a priority for us. And so the more you educate people and the more you have conversations with people, you find solutions, but you also come up with new ideas. I think that’s going to be important for us long term.

Rey Trevino [00:27:07] They are important and now I want to put on your fortuneteller forecast and, you know, right now we’re where we see oil right now. You know, do you see it going up higher? You know, somebody in your position. I don’t even know if you can answer.

Christi Craddick [00:27:22] I don’t even know that. I predict that. You know.

Rey Trevino [00:27:25] You know, as we talked in the beginning, it’s like, I don’t know, rules and I’m just thankful that you came on and, you know, you could just show me off at any time. So.

Christi Craddick [00:27:32] So I always say when somebody asked me, the price of oil is going to be tomorrow, WTI say I’ve got some oceanfront property in Arizona. You know that song. That’s kind of how I feel about this. But I do think that long term, we have a good market. You can drill all you want, but we can get it to market because we have a lot of pipelines that support the markets there and are available.

Christi Craddick [00:27:54] And I think oil and gas will be here for a long time you’ve got countries who have energy poverty. We don’t in or in countries that want to move past that. So if nothing else, we’re going to sell it all over. Right?

Christi Craddick [00:28:07] You see, our friends in Mexico are taking a lot of our natural gas, which we’re glad about. And we’ve got to sell the central gas as well. LNG terminals, which we have three either open and active or will be in Texas, and maybe a couple more get permitted. So those are real opportunities to sell all over the world.

Christi Craddick [00:28:25] Now, I don’t know, people may not realize this, even though out of Texas we were the first LNG exporter, it actually was Louisiana with the first export, went to Poland and go look at what’s going on in Europe. Poland wants gas they want to be they don’t want to get from Russia.

Christi Craddick [00:28:42] So I think that we’re going to see a vibrant industry. We’re going to have some ups and downs. I never say booms and busts because that means something else. But I think we’re going to have some ups and downs because that’s part of the industry.

Christi Craddick [00:28:54]  But I think the industry is being smarter about developing for the long term across the state. And that makes me hopeful that we’re going to be here for a long time with good dollars and hopefully not overproduce.

Rey Trevino [00:29:08] Yeah,.

Christi Craddick [00:29:08] I mean, you’ve got a whole area of the country. You know, we go up in New York and Ohio, and they’re having problems producing their own. We’re glad to produce it.

Rey Trevino [00:29:16] Yes. Yes.

Christi Craddick [00:29:17] And so I think there’s some real opportunity to continue to develop oil and gas across the state.

Rey Trevino [00:29:22] Well, I tell you what, I liked your oceanfront property analogy just because I write a Substack article, and right before OPEC met on Friday, I wrote an article saying OPEC’s going to keep the price and keep the production the same they’re going to keep it all the same and, you know, reasons why this is why I think it’s going to be that the next thing you know, Sunday morning, it’s like they’re going to cut another 500 million barrels like they’re going. And the only thing I can think of is my father’s of his favorite saying all these things are normal and the oil and gas.

Christi Craddick [00:29:52] That’s exactly right.

Rey Trevino [00:29:54] Well, Christi, you know, when people want to reach out to you guys at the Railroad Commission, you know, how can they get a hold of you guys?

Christi Craddick [00:30:01] So we have a website or Google+ or find us at the River Commission I think that’s important. And we’ve got a great website and we have a lot of information on our website. You’re welcome to call my office too and ask if you can’t find something, we’ll be glad to help you too.

Rey Trevino [00:30:16] Well, I know 2023 is going to be very full for you. Can you share with us anything else that you might want to want to share just about the rest of the year? Or maybe, you.

Christi Craddick [00:30:23] Know, this year, this year’s important, We’re going to be focused on several rules. We’ll see what comes out in the next couple of years and the next couple of weeks out of the session. This. And then I’m up for reelection. I’ve been here for, I think, get a six-year term. And so this will be my third term to run. And I’m excited for the state and what we’ve done at this agency and what’s coming in front of us.

Rey Trevino [00:30:45] Well, Mr.. Ms. Craddick, I cannot thank you enough for coming on and just again, just highlighting all the good things that the Railroad Commission is up to and how you all just continue to be champions for the oil and gas industry and the economy of not only Texas, but we all know as Texas goes, America goes. So thank you very much for coming to the crude truth.

Christi Craddick [00:31:04] Thanks for having me

Rey Trevino [00:31:05]  And we’ll see you next time on The Crude Truth.

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