America’s new gas boom. Can the industry meet soaring demand to power AI and export LNG while keeping energy affordable at home?

26:55So this is the opportunity that we have for the world. But people will say, well, what about the price shocks that are taking place because we're seeing the impacts? Well, our answer to this is our energy systems need to be bigger. And we're already seeing the benefits of a bigger LNG ecosystem. One thing that is really important to mention about LNG is when it comes to energy security not being dependent on one specific country like Europe buying piped gas from Russia, when you have a pipeline, you only have one person that can put that gas into that pipeline. It was Russia. So you really don't have other options.

27:30With LNG, this is a pipeline to the world. OK, when this natural gas on these ships, you can source this from different parties around the world and you can deliver this to different parts around the world. And one of the things that we've seen, the benefits of this ecosystem getting bigger. So right now, for your readers, the LNG ecosystem, when the Russia Ukraine situation happened, was about 50 B.C.F. a day of natural gas. and the U.S. was exporting around 10 BCF a day of natural gas. And what happened when we saw that conflict, we saw natural gas prices in Europe rise to over from a normal$10 price level to over$80, and it averaged over$40 per unit of gas.

28:21Fast forward to where we're at today, we've seen, and just for perspective, the amount of energy that was pulled out of the ecosystem by shutting off Russian gas was about 10 BCF a day was what was pulled out. And that caused that price to spike. Here we are today in the Iran situation. And with that Gulf being shut down, about 10 BCF a day of natural gas is being prevented to hit the market. But the difference is the price action that we've seen, prices have gone from, call it$10 to 20, not 40, not 80. They've gone to 20 and they'll, they'll come back down. The differences are our LNG ecosystem is bigger.

29:02So instead of 50 BCF a day, it's now 60 BCF a day. And the actors that are feeding this, the United States, we've increased our influence. And today, you know, we're exporting 20 BCF a day. So we're a much bigger player in the LNG ecosystem. So think about this. You know, our vision is to let's get our energy exports around the world to 100 BCF a day. And guess what? With 100 BCF a day ecosystem, we're going to be able to withstand any geopolitical impact that the world can throw at you. You know, whether it's the Russia, Ukraine, 10 BCF a day, or what's happening in Iran, it's hard to picture a bigger disruption in energy than what we're seeing in the Middle East.

29:43But 10 BCF a day is something that can be, that we can deal with in a bigger energy ecosystem. So this is a time to understand the issues, but also understand the solutions is to lean in. And we're already seeing the benefits of a bigger energy ecosystem as this is playing out. And we're just getting started with that. Every business has priorities to protect, goals to reach, and decisions that need to hold up. Energy should support all of that, not become one more thing to manage. That's why Engie takes the time to understand your business before building energy solutions around it. Your operations, your goals, your pressures, your plans for what's next.

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30:47So, Toby, it's really interesting what you're saying. And of course, I think it's understood in the markets around the world that the U.S. gas, and that goes even beyond LNG. China was buying ethane to replace naphtha that was lost in the Gulf. We've got Indian companies coming to the United States looking for LPG to replace LPG that was lost to the Gulf. So, you know, the United States pivotal role in this moment of emergency is, I think, pretty clear to everyone. But sometimes when I'm talking to governments, they just don't want to be dependent on any imports. And so, you know, has LNG taken a hit?

31:29You know, I've got people talking about moving to greener energy because it's domestic. So you've got the, you know, miracle story of Pakistan, where a lot of rooftop went in into Pakistan in the last two years as sort of this astronomical jump in the amount of solar there. What are you thinking as sort of an LNG player and as a natural gas producer? Are you worried about people wanting only to have domestic resource? Yeah, Amy, I'd say my attitude towards the energy systems that we're building, my attitude is we need all of it. If we want to achieve energy abundance for this world, if we want to provide energy security to our allies, if we want to win the AI race, If we want to protect the energy advantage for our citizens, make the planet cleaner, we're going to need to triple the amount of energy that's produced and consumed in this world.

32:23And I think that having a balanced approach towards energy is going to be critical. Putting all of your eggs in one basket, like we're only going to focus on green solutions or only going to focus on natural gas. You need to have a diversified portfolio. One thing I hope that the world has learned is that this sum of the above approach towards energy, only solar, only wind, only natural gas, only coal, only oil, that hasn't worked. And so we need to evolve to an all of the above approach to energy where all forms of energy are needed to contribute. But if we want to achieve our energy abundance ambitions quickly and efficiently, all of the above is not going to cut it.

33:06We need to evolve our approach to a best of the above approach. And that means we're deploying the best energy solutions to the world stage. And the best energy, the grading criteria is, I think everybody agrees on this, energy needs to be affordable, needs to be reliable, and it needs to be clean. And we think that for energy abundance, solutions also need to be show that they can scale and they also need to be fueled by innovation and show that they can get better over time. When we look at energy and we look at, you know, natural gas through that lens of grading criteria, we think it is going to play a leading role in our energy future.

33:45And it will be a big part of the mix. And we have big solutions that we can offer for the world. But I think when it comes to energy security, I think one thing that's really important for people to understand is energy can be abundant. Just think about where we were in the United States where 20 years ago we were energy dependent. And a lot of people said we don't have any solutions. Well, what happened is we cracked the code on shale and we transformed America from being energy dependent to an energy powerhouse on the world stage. We created that. And, you know, what we've done in the U.S. with shale, it's foolish to think that this can only be this is only going to happen in the United States.

34:30When you look at a map of shale, shale is everywhere. And I'll just give you a story about about this. You know, one thing I would tell you, you're not going to crack the code on shale if you ban hydraulic fraction, if you ban pipelines, you know, you're not going to have any shot. But this is starting to happen in other parts around the world. You know, five years ago, I had a conversation with a leader from a Chinese energy business, and he was telling me the struggles that he was having as he was trying to crack the code on his unconventional resources. And, you know, after hearing him speak for, you know, what was hundreds of millions of dollars invested with little to show for it, I asked him, I said, hey, do you ever think about throwing in the towel?

35:12And he looked at me and he said, we're never going to give up. And to me, that is the attitude of abundance. And when you look forward to where they're at today, now China, who was considered resource poor, is now producing more natural gas than resource rich Canada. That's incredible that they cracked the shale. Yeah, which has been a poster child. Canada has been a poster child of of energy scarcity. And with an attitude of abundance, we can create energy security. And I think everything that we've developed here in America, these are these are solutions that we can we can bring to other parts of the world.

35:51Now, let's make sure we realize full potential of our resources here in the U.S. before we start thinking about going to other places. A lot of these issues are self-inflicted from an energy security perspective. So in all of the above, you know, just to sort of level set with the listeners, you and your brothers, or maybe it was just your brothers, invested in renewable natural gas, which is, you know, kind of something in other countries, you know, might have a lot of potential if you're talking about domestic, because you're talking about basically turning waste, whether that's landfill waste or whether it's some other kind of waste into energy.

36:27And that's been sort of price challenged and biofuels have been sort of price challenged. But now with the disruption in the Gulf, you know, I have one friend who's a owner of a container ship company. And early into the crisis, I didn't believe that the strait was going to open right away. And I advised her to go out and get some marine, you know, biofuel supplement marine fuel to, you know, to replace bunkers. And she said she's done very well doing that. So and now with AI, maybe we could have a better solution for sustainable aviation fuel. Like when you look out over the landscape, do you still feel like all these things are marginal or you feel like countries are going to double down now because they want something that they control inside their border?

37:17Yeah, I think a couple of things. People need to understand, I don't have an infatuation with natural gas. I have an infatuation with energy. And we're going to produce energy that's the cheapest, most reliable, cleanest. And as an example of that, the brothers, we got into the renewable natural gas business and we created, alongside the management team, one of the largest renewable natural gas businesses in this country. And we sold it to BP, whose company was called Arkea. Which they're selling it, by the way, this week. They're now selling it again. But anyway, go ahead. Yeah. So this was an amazing thing.

37:53When we talk to utilities and they say, what's your energy plans? They say, well, we're going to do renewable natural gas. We're going to lean in on that. Well, what you need to understand is the scalability of these solutions. Amy, if we captured every molecule of methane from every landfill in the country, that would allow us to produce a BCF a day of renewable natural gas. OK, compared to the 110 BCF a day natural gas market, it's a drop in the bucket. It's helpful. But when we think about the scalability of these solutions, they're just small. Now, one of these things that's really important people understand, though, is our energy systems that we're building today are going to set the table and provide the infrastructure for these energy solutions of the future.

38:40You know, the pipelines we're building today, they're going to be able to move other like renewable natural gas in the future if that becomes if they can crack the code. But I think the world, when you look at the just the crippling energy prices that we're seeing around the world, I mean, in the US, electricity prices are up almost 15 percent. In Europe and Germany, they're up over 100 percent compared to China, where electricity prices are down over 30 percent over the last 15 years. The world, I think, is really hasn't has a bigger appetite for more affordable energy. And that's where we need to start in the scalability.

39:18Those is what's going to is what's going to happen. But people need to understand the energy solution. I think the energy transition solutions, they're going to come from the from the companies that have gone through energy transitions and American energy. We've gone through one of the biggest energy transitions going from conventional to shale. And so, you know, we have some other really amazing tools that we're we're focusing on here. you know, carbon capture could be another, you know, game changing technology. I mean, we say carbon capture could be as impactful as hydraulic fracturing. Now, that is a very bold statement because hydraulic fracturing changed the world and made America the energy superpower.

39:59We are currently producing over 30 million barrels a day worth of energy when you add up everything together and put on an equivalent. That's more than Russia and Saudi Arabia combined. So to say something like carbon capture could be as impactful as hydraulic fracturing is very bold. But when you look at, you know, when we produce these wells, we're only getting maybe 15 % to 25 % of the energy out of the oil out of these reservoirs. That's thanks to hydraulic fracturing. But putting CO2 into these reservoirs, you know, we call that tertiary recovery. We can get another, call it 15 % to 20 % of the energy out of the ground.

40:38Well, guess what? You get another 15 to 20 percent. That's pretty similar to what you started with hydraulic fracturing. It could be as impactful. The challenge with carbon capture, the chicken and the egg situation really is where can you actually get the CO2? And so getting those pure streams of CO2, if you can give that to this industry, the industry will find ways to put it on the ground and increase the energy production, but also be decarbonizing the same form. Those are just examples of solutions that this industry is working on. And when they are commercial and they are going to be a more cost effective, reliable cleaners form of energy, this industry is going to be the ones that bring that to the market.

41:18But I think pushing and trying to force energy solutions that maybe are not profitable or truly sustainable today, I think is one of the reasons why the world is being faced with higher energy bills. And we just need to step back, take a more practical approach. We hear you loud and clear. People want cleaner energy solutions. We think it's a big prize. We think that's one of the biggest races is to be the first energy solution that is affordable, reliable and zero carbon. That would be winner take all. So we are in that race with carbon capture. But we're going to take a real practical approach towards this and realize what we need to do today to meet the energy needs of the world, which is pretty massive.

41:58That is very interesting. How far away is actual commercial deployment of carbon capture for you in that way? I mean, you were talking about the problems in terms of securing streams of pure enough CO2 to make that viable for you. Is that still going to be somewhere in the future or is that a near-term prospect? Yeah, I put that in the five to ten years. You know, one of the opportunities we see is, you know, one of the biggest drivers for power generation is the hyperscalers. And they certainly have maintained their ambitions to procure the cleanest energy possible. And that's why I think to meet their needs.

42:41And I think that's why you're seeing natural gas playing a leading role in the power generation build out in this country. But there's your customer. If they are willing to pay for the cost of carbon capture, that could be something that allows us to bolt that on to the build out that's taking place in this country. That could be that five to 10 years. You know, industry is ready to receive this CO2. I mean, there's some things we need to do, but compared to the innovation that needed to take place to unlock shale reservoirs, like being able to stick CO2 underground is not going to be as big of an issue.

43:18But when you think about what's happening in the US every day, we talk about the oil production or you talk about the gas production. For that, call it 13 million barrels a day of oil production. What people don't understand is that there's typically four to five barrels of water being produced alongside every one of those barrels of hydrocarbons. What that means, Ed, is that every day in the US, we are pulling over 40 million barrels of liquid out of a reservoir. And that's creating space for 40 million barrels of something else to be put in there like CO2. So we have for enhanced oil recovery or enhanced gas recovery, if we can solidify sort of what the prize is there when you put CO2 on the ground, how much more energy do you get out?

44:05We can solidify that prize and also get the incentives for people to actually make the CO2 with carbon capture technology bolted onto these power plants. Those are two things that could come together and actually create a more sustainable, cleaner energy system, but still respecting the affordable and reliable aspects of energy. Yeah, because that whole process is still really pretty expensive, isn't it? And certainly, I'm sure, would require some kind of government support to make it viable. That's right. I think we need to, when we think about CO2, we need to think about this for a cost of probably less than$100 per ton is sort of the mark that people are trying to figure out.

44:48And just so you know where the cost challenge here, because you've got to make the CO2, you've got to transport it, you've got to stick it underground. Sticking underground is actually going to be very cost effective. We're not worried about the cost there. You're talking about less than$20 a ton to do that. Piping, transporting the CO2, we know what those costs are. It's really the biggest part is really on the capture of the CO2. You look at DAC and anywhere from$1 ,000 a ton and also some of these carbon capture bolt-ons to natural gas plants. those if we can get the capture part uh solved like that then i think it would unlock the other parts of the value chain yeah no and as i understand it's still the sort of the basic technology for carbon capture using amines that hasn't progressed a massive amount of it it's been refined to develop um one fun fact about me is that my father worked on carbon capture technology back in the 1970s and when he looked at what they're doing today he says the internet is still basically the same thing it's not massively different now from what we were working on back then so you know as you say um if something could be done to achieve a breakthrough in capture in particular that could bring costs down dramatically that would make a huge difference but it's it's tough and there are a lot of challenges there certainly yeah and then i'd make on this i i also think we need to you know have the right mentality on this because in the carbon capture space um You know, the focus should be for people that want to see cleaner energy.

46:25The focus should be let's put this CO2 underground and make sure it stays there. When we think about carbon capture, you know, there's the deep permanent injection, which people, you know, love would love to see that happen. But some some people say, well, if you if you're doing CO2 to get more more oil or gas out of the ground, I don't want that. Well, let's remember what our goal is here is to get the CO2 underground. So we need to have an attitude that allows us to focus on that and not shirk away or discredit CO2 injection that is going to facilitate more hydrocarbons to be produced. I mean, the thing about the injection, of course, is that it makes it much easier to make it commercial.

47:10So there's an advantage there. But it also requires a closed loop system. And, you know, and Toby, EQT would be in a good position to move in that direction because I have to be able to recapture the CO2 after I inject it and have it not just come back out into the atmosphere. So it's really, I mean, I think well suited to some of the things you've done in your history because you have a multiple layer of technical challenge. So I want to go back, Toby, to your points about a significant increase, very substantial increase, you're talking about in US natural gas production and the benefits that that could bring to the world.

47:51Just want to run through some of the numbers quickly just to help people understand the scale of what you're talking about. But as you were saying, the US natural gas market today, about 110 billion cubic feet a day. It's rising very significantly right now because of two factors. One is the wave of new construction of LNG export plants going on on the Gulf Coast in particular. That's going to increase exports of gas demand for gas very significantly. and then also we have of course the ai boom as we've been talking about all new data centers being built and the power generation that they're going to need and a good proportion of that is going to be natural gas and that's also going to increase uh the size of the gas market you put those two factors together lng and ai the rest of it's i think our number is that it could be as much as a 40 % increase in demand for natural gas in the United States over the next 10 years or so.

48:54So you've already got this big increase coming. What you seem to be talking about then is a big increase on top of that. And I think you use the number of maybe an increase of adding another 100 BCF a day to US production. So give or take kind of get doubling the size of the market and sending that for export. And the question that we have, certainly what Mackenzie, the question a lot of people have then is what would be the consequences for prices if you did that? And as you say, we've been in this fantastically beneficial environment in the United States as a result of the shale revolution of having long-term, very low and stable gas prices for getting on for 20 years now.

49:44And that's a tremendous benefit to American consumers. It's a benefit to American industry. It's something which has really helped the United States relative to other economies around the world. And the question is, is it going to stay that way? And so if demand increases rapidly, as it's already doing, but then if it increased it even more, as you're suggesting it's possible, isn't that just going to start driving prices up and potentially putting at risk this whole kind of benign environment of low prices that American consumers have been enjoying for so long? Yeah, that's a great question. And that's something that we definitely need to address.

50:22And we're excited to answer that question. So as you mentioned, just the size of the demand that we see, these are things that are already in motion. The power generation build out could be between 10 and 20 BCF a day. The LNG build out just from what the market forces have already set up. We see another 10 BCF a day increase. We think the conflict in the Middle East is going to cause people to diversify away from the Middle East, come to the States. And so with that, you could see a pathway from, so today we're at 20 BCF a day going to 30. I think with the diversification, I think you can see a pathway from 30 to 40 BCF a day.

51:00So as you mentioned, you could see a 20 to 40 % increase in natural gas demand here in the States with those two factors. As I mentioned, the surplus that we can create, we have a, with a$4 price, domestic price of natural gas, that's the price signal to get it out of the ground. We believe we can create a 60 BCF a day natural gas surplus. People need to understand the amount of inventory we have in the United States is completely correlated to the price that we're going to get for the product. Said another way, at$5 natural gas, the amount of surplus we can create is even greater. So the surplus that we have the ability to meet that in, you know,$5 natural gas is the energy equivalent of$30 oil.

51:46Okay. So this is still super affordable energy. And then to your point on the impact, you know, this has been an argument that some people have had concerns, rightly so. If we export, is this going to have an impact to domestic prices? Well, we've got a great track record of empirical data you can look at. We exported relatively zero little LNG back in 2016. And then over the past 10 years, we're now the world's largest LNG exporter. What if gas price is done, natural gas price is done from 2016 today? They've been some of the lowest natural gas prices that we've experienced in history. What does that tell you?

52:20That tells you that we have the resource to be able to meet the demand. And I would also make the argument that LNG is actually in our ability to export is actually going to increase the energy security that we have here in the United States because exports mean surplus and surplus means energy security. Now, we saw this actually play out this winter, you know, winter storm fern that took place, you know, in that early February timeframe. Domestic prices rose because of this extreme weather. Prices got up to over$7 Henry Hub price in the United States. And what we saw happen was about five BCF a day of our LNG exports turned down.

53:05And we were able to use that gas to help support and depress prices here in the United States. It's an example of our surplus actually being a buffer to provide energy security to Americans. And also another point I think that is worth looking at right now, we see international prices through the roof, you know, north of almost$20 per million BTU. In the States, they're less than three bucks. With this crisis that's taking place, you know, while prices have gone up 50 % internationally in the United States, they've gone down 10%. So clearly there's a disconnect between the international price signals and what's happening in the United States.

53:44And as long as we have the ability to let these markets function and make sure that the gas can get to the source of demand and we have the pipeline infrastructure to do that, we're going to be able to make sure that the low cost energy is able to do its job and keep energy affordable for Americans while also providing energy security to our allies. Hey, Toby, I want to ask you a question, just a CEO type question, because we have a lot of listeners from Houston and other parts of the oil and gas industry, too. So, you know, one of the big things you keep mentioning, you know, sort of four dollars as being this magic number for the industry.

54:21But one of the things we know is that for companies like EQT, even where you have great management, you know, stock price goes up and down with the fate of energy prices and no much no more than in the natural gas upstream, you know, drilling industry companies that do only upstream. So in the last couple of years, EQT has kind of diversified your business in the sense that you've kind of moved downstream into midstream parts of the business with pipeline and other kind of assets. And, you know, the interesting thing is, it's sort of like a different strategy to kind of go back to vertical integration.

55:02It meant that not only can you sign these LNG contracts, but you can also work with utilities because you have the corridor to bring them the gas and you can control that. So tell us, can you tell us just a little bit about like inside the world of oil and gas CEO and how you think about those decisions? That's a great question. I'm really interested in your answer to that. I just wanted to add one more if I can, which is also in that context, when you look at this expectation of growth in demand for gas, the growth that's pretty well already baked in and the additional growth potential on top of that that you see, how does that affect your decision making?

55:41And you've been very focused on the Appalachian Basin, so Pennsylvania, Ohio, West Virginia is where you are producing now. Do you see a case for moving further afield beyond that to other parts of the country, maybe to other parts of the world. So again, when you're making those kind of strategic decisions that Amy's talking about, how do you see the future of the company? So, you know, for shareholders, what is the value proposition that we're offering? How do we prepare the organization for this growth? And I can cover that. So the value proposition, what we're offering investors, we want to give investors the best risk-adjusted exposure to natural gas.

56:22That's it. And so the risk adjusted part really comes down from us having a low cost structure in a cyclical business. A low cost structure is going to allow you to weather the storm and maintain upside exposure to the upside when prices do turn the other way. So for us at EQT, we've been laser focused on lowering our cost structure. Currently right now, EQT, we have lowered our costs by over 30 % since taken over. And right now, EQT has a cost structure where we can generate profitability with a$2 natural gas price. For perspective, we believe the marginal natural gas producer in the United States requires a$3.50 natural gas price.

57:10So that buffer is, that's our cushion and is really what protects us on the downside. Now, also, what that allows us to do is because we're able to maintain our profitability when prices are low, that allows us to mitigate the need for hedging. And now, without hedging, we now have exposure to the upside. And this was the key to making a lot of this happen was that vertical integration you mentioned, Amy. By integrating our pipelines, we were able to pull probably about$0.45,$0.50 in our cost structure and lower it from$2.50 to that$2 today. Um, and we said, we don't need to hedge and we actually entered 20, 20, 26 with, with very little hedges in place.

57:53So when, you know, extreme weather event happened, we were able to, um, make sure we were able to take advantage of those higher prices while still doing everything we can to produce as much energy as possible during that period of time. I'd actually produce a really, you know, one of the greatest quarters in the company's history, uh, was because of that, maintaining that exposure to the upside. So that's our value proposition. How do we prepare this company for this tremendous growth that we see? And this really is just a continuation of what we've been doing since we came in here, telling shareholders we want to realize the full potential of EQT.

58:31That means we want to make the highest quality company possible. That all starts with our culture. So we've built a quality culture. Our employees are engaged. They're values driven. They're going insight to action faster. than peers. We respect the ranch, the men and women that are out there in the field. So we've got a great culture, great leaders. The next thing is having a quality cost structure. And that's, I mentioned, having a$2 cost structure, something that we're going to continue to focus, looking for ways to drive that lower. Having a quality asset base, we have over 2 million acres that we've assembled.

59:05When we started here, it was about a million acres. We've added another million acres. That's what gives us the opportunity to drill and continue this great work for decades to come. And then the last thing we're on the final step here is having a quality balance sheet. So we're hitting our leverage targets, and that is going to be, we're going to hit those targets by the end of this year. And that's going to give us the freedom to bring the last part of piece of the puzzle for EQT, which is bringing quality growth to EQT. And the quality part really is, we define it as being sustainable growth.

59:40Sustainable growth starts by capturing the demand and then backfilling that demand with production. In the past, I think operators would look and say, oh my goodness, there's a huge amount of demand coming. Let's go out there and start drilling. And you get ahead of yourself and the demand maybe takes longer to show up. The pipeline gets delayed, the power client gets delayed, and you oversupply the market, prices crash, and it's not a great place to be. So for us to capture this, for us to grow, we're looking to capture the actual demand directly. And this is some of the work that we've done by doing gas supply deals with power generation facilities.

1:00:18This last quarter, we announced a very large partnership with CPV Shea Energy Center in West Virginia. It's going to be a two gigawatt site. It's going to require about 300 million cubic feet of natural gas. It's about 4 % of our company's production. It's easy for us to allocate those volumes to that facility, but that will also provide a pathway for us to grow. For our story, this growth for the next few years is really going to be focused on making sure domestic needs are covered. We're able to provide affordable energy to lower energy bills, but also support this power generation buildup that's taking place.

1:00:52But then when you step, you look further out, really in 2030, the international natural gas story becomes even larger. While we We see demand in the US growing maybe called 20 to 40 BCF a day. Internationally, we see natural gas demand growing 200 BCF a day. And for perspective, global natural gas ecosystem is about 450 BCF a day. So this is a big move and we want to have exposure to those markets. So in the root of all this, Amy, our strategy is very simple. I can boil it down to this one sentence. access premium markets, be the low-cost energy provider to those markets. It's that simple. So international markets, we do consider those to be premium, and we want to be the low-cost energy provider.

1:01:41And having our base of Appalachian operations is what's going to allow us to put gas on the doorstep of the world for a price of less than$10. We think that hunts, and that also is going to create other opportunities around the world for us. That is very interesting. Something else you mentioned at the beginning of the show was your work with your nonprofit that you founded, Energy Core. Tell us a little bit more about that and what is that going to be doing? Really, our focus with Energy Core is to bring energy abundance to emerging markets. And so, you know, we are looking to the driving force behind that one is understanding the correlation between energy access and wealth.

1:02:19If we can get people access to energy, we can make them wealthy. We can improve the quality of life for billions. And what we're doing at Energy Corps is we're identifying energy projects. We're providing access to energy, but also making sure that that energy can translate to wealth. So we also are focusing on how is that energy demand? What is the demand for that energy? And when you say sort of supporting energy project, what kinds of things are you doing? Yeah, I mean, across the board, you know, taking an all the above approach, we are looking for ways to deploy renewables, deploy natural gas, deploy propane for clean cooking.

1:02:54One of the things that's, we're really leading with purpose on the profits and purpose equation. Energy Corps gives us the ability to lead with purpose, but we are still focused on deploying truly sustainable energy solutions. So the profitability of these energy solutions that are being put out, even though this is a nonprofit, is something that's incredibly important to us. I'll just give you an example. We just got done, uh, partnering with an organization called innovation Africa. And, uh, we did a solar powered water project. And for a hundred thousand dollars, Ed, we're able to drill a water well, build a water tower and have the, a solar powered pump that water up to the tower.

1:03:34And that's providing clean water for over 3000 people in this village. You know, you step back and you realize like women in this village were waking up at 3 AM to go get clean water for their kids before school. All that's done now. They don't need to do it. Now they can actually focus on teaching and growing and maybe getting a job earning. And they're on their path with something as simple as providing access to clean water, which is only available if you have access to energy. When you look at the impact we can make, I mean, that's a$100 ,000 project, benefits 3 ,000 people for$3 a person.

1:04:11If you want to make an impact with energy, Energy core is giving us the opportunity to do that. This is one of the reasons why we started this was to make an impact. So this is not a think tank. This is actually finding the projects, partnering with them and actually getting things built. we believe that you know the energy industry is going to play a leading role in providing energy access to the billions out there we're kick-starting that with with energy core you know what's what's really been awesome is this has really become the non-profit for our industry we've raised over 20 million dollars and so we are taking applications from organizations around the world hey hey toby you're a profitable industry not i'm not criticizing equity because you're a leader But for the other companies that are listening, that is low potatoes for an industry that makes so much money.

1:05:04I mean, I want to see all of you calling Toby and offering him more donations for this NGO. That's right. Thank you. Thank you, Amy. Appreciate the shout out for the fundraising. Yes, we are still taking we're still taking a lot of fundraising. You know, one of the things that we've seen in this in this space, there are a lot of organizations that are working to address this problem. And why? Because this is one of the biggest, highest impact opportunities you can have. I think what we're doing with Energy Corps is really partnering with these organizations and providing them the resources and energy expertise so that their projects can be truly sustainable and then work to scale them.

1:05:42At Energy Corps, we're not focused on providing first light. So we're not putting light bulbs in huts. Really, what we're really going to focus on is bringing modern energy at scale. And so we think that's the niche that is really going to allow us to leverage our energy expertise and work with with the governments to make sure that they have the right policies in place to to achieve the wealth from the energy. We've got fantastic leadership with with Tisha Schuller. She's she's the head of our energy corps. I don't know if you guys know her, but she's a thought leader in the energy space. And she's just like me, has dedicated her life to bring energy abundance into this world.

1:06:19So it's a fantastic platform, tons of momentum. And please check it out, energycore.com, C-O-R-P-S, like the Peace Corps, but for energy. And we're really excited about launching that this last year. And we're really excited about the future there. Yeah, and it's great to hear about that. I mean, to be fair, Amy, there are other energy companies that also do great work in terms of philanthropic activity, social responsibility. But yeah, that is a great call to action. everybody talks about this and then they don't do that they do some other things so i'm just saying if you're going to go around saying that this is your you know thing you can solve then then definitely be putting assets right on this particular topic that is what i'm saying and amy i will i will i will say just to give people some uh so some grace here i mean this has been uh really kick kickstarting the fundraising it's only we've only been out here for a few months really soliciting donations.

1:07:16Ultimately, what we're creating with EnergyCorp, because it's an all-the-above approach, I really want to give agency to the energy businesses so that they can, depending on the geographies or the energy solutions that they provide in their base business, they can build a portfolio of energy access projects that aligns with their business. Like for us at EQT, one of our biggest focuses is going to be on clean cooking fuels, leveraging propane to eliminate indoor air pollution, mitigate the 3 million lives that are lost, women and children prematurely from breathing indoor air pollution, which is completely unacceptable.

1:07:54But, you know, we're building up these partnerships with all of these nonprofits around the world that are actually deploying these projects. And then, you know, the vision is that companies can come and say, I care about this geography, this type of energy problem or solution, and they can build a basket of their projects, and then they can sponsor that area. And the goal for us is to take these communities and regions and bring them up the energy access scale, but also making sure that that's translating to wealth. So one of the really exciting, I think that getting people access to energy, we know how to do that.

1:08:32The biggest challenge is making sure that energy translates to wealth. And this is where I think this could not be starting at a better time because with with artificial intelligence, if we can get people access to electricity, we can kickstart the education, kickstart the economies. And this is really a unique period of time where we can really, you know, complete the full cycle and really lift these lift these people up. And eventually, I mean, you know, the work that we're doing in the emerging markets, hopefully those emerging markets become just markets. And then there can be ecosystems that our bigger businesses can help fuel in just part of our normal job, which is providing access to affordable, reliable energy to markets.

1:09:15Yeah, that is a fantastic call to action. As you say, that issue of clean cooking fuels in particular is a really important one. And it'd be great to see what progress can be made on that. So, yeah, I would echo that thought. People should definitely check it out. But you're saying Peace Corps, CORPS is, you can Google it. Sorry, now I said it wrong. Energy Corps, like Peace Corps, CORPS, I would definitely encourage people to check that out as well. And it'll be really interesting to talk to you again, perhaps in a few years, to see how things have gone and to see what progress you've been able to make with that and how economies and lives have been changed by it.

1:09:55For now, though, we are unfortunately going to have to leave it there until we've got space for. But it's been great talking to you, Toby. thanks very much indeed for joining us. All right. Thanks, Ed. Thanks, Amy. Yeah, thank you very much, Amy. Great to see you again. Yeah, great to see you. Great to see you, Toby. Yeah, thanks very much indeed to our producer, Molly Moen. And above all, as ever, many thanks to all of you for listening. We really value your feedback. So please do keep that coming. Leave us a comment, leave a review, get in touch on social media. And we'll be back very soon with all the latest news and views on the future of energy.

1:10:27Until then, goodbye. 9 coten