"We Have to Be Honest: Our Story is Fantastic"

By Corry Schiermeyer, Energy Workforce & Technology Council

Chris Wright, CEO and Chairman of the Board for Liberty Energy, is eager to tell the story of the energy services industry – to the workforce, his community, stakeholders or the media, and when he does, he has one main guiding principle: be honest.

“I struggle with why more people don’t talk positively about our industry,” Wright said. “For years, it has been, ‘keep our head down and just don’t say anything.’ That doesn’t work. We have to be honest. Our story is so fantastic.”

Wright has become a bold advocate and speaks extensively on energy and the merits of the shale revolution, often with lawmakers, appearing frequently on network television, contributing to documentaries and podcasts, and launching social media campaigns – all providing a rational, sober discussion to the benefits of hydrocarbons.

“Two things created the modern world, the rise of human liberty through bottom-up social organization instead of top-down social organizations, and hydrocarbons,” he said. “Human life expectancy went from 30 years to 70 years because of those two things. Now we have an ESG movement that is explicitly anti-hydrocarbons, and proscribes a topdown checklist of what virtue is; I believe that this is wrong.”

Energy Transition vs Energy Expansion

Environment, Social and Governance (ESG) along with energy transition are the hot buzz words in the political arena of ways to combat climate change and prove a company’s commitment to green energy. Wright believes there are major flaws with both terms.

“Energy expansion is actually a good term. The biggest crisis in the world today is the world needs more energy,” he said. “We aren’t in an energy transition. Hydrocarbons went from 87% of global energy 30 years ago to 83.5% today. That’s not an energy transition.”

He explained that the move away from hydrocarbons is many years away, possibly another 100 years, and to continue to press for a rapid, reckless energy transition is dangerous for humanity.

“(In the western world) We live these wonderful modern lifestyles, elevators, fancy clothes, etc. because of hydrocarbons. A third of humanity does not have reliable access to hydrocarbons. They haven’t had this energy transition.”

Wright is a self-proclaimed humanitarian with a passion for bringing the benefits of energy to every community in the world.

“The arrival of hydrocarbons transformed the human condition, made the modern world, provided for healthy lives, planes, trains and automobiles, the internet, electronics – all of these things came from hydrocarbons. A good chunk of humanity hasn’t realized the benefits from that. If we care about humanity and human well-being, the energy transition we need is to focus on providing energy, not taking it away, making it less reliable and cost prohibitive.”

He is also critical of investment firms reluctant to provide capital for fossil fuel companies. He specifically mentioned Blackrock and its stance on requiring businesses in their funds to report how they will align with the Paris Climate Accords.

Energy is Bettering Human Lives

In response to this movement, Liberty Energy has produced a report supporting the growth of hydrocarbons, entitled “Bettering Human Lives” that outlines the importance of oil and gas in our energy future and the detrimental effects of solely focusing on climate change as the number one crisis across the globe.

“Our Bettering Human Lives project was in part a response to Blackrock, Vanguard and State Street (ESG policies and priorities) and lays out how we view the world. We believe our industry is the most important industry in the history of the world because it is the enabler of everything else that betters human lives.”

The report highlights Wright’s three global energy challenges in order of priority: energy poverty, access to energy and climate change.

He said billions of people around the world face energy poverty, including “a third of humanity who are burning wood to cook their daily meals, and three million people die from that a year.”

“We need to build infrastructure and export more propane. Propane is the fuel that people can easily have for clean cooking fuel,” Wright said.

The report outlines how energy poverty has significant negative impacts on women and children around the world. Women in energy poverty spend roughly two hours a day just looking for wood to burn for cooking and heating, as well as searching for some form of clean water.

“If they get a clean cooking stove and a water pump, they will have clean water from ground water, they have clean cooking fuel and in turn their health will be better, their kid’s health will be better, literacy rates will rise, and economic opportunities increase. This is a solvable crisis, and I believe this is the number one priority of our time by far.”

Secondly, the report emphasizes the importance of providing affordable, secure and reliable access to energy, not just around the world, but domestically. Wright notes 12% of Americans have received utility disconnection notices in the last year due to high energy costs.

He continues with the warning that, “if we do what California has done or what Europe is doing (in response to banning fossil fuels) we make energy more expensive. It is hurting the life opportunities of low-income people, even in America. That is a problem.”

Lastly, the report mentions climate change as something society must balance costs versus benefits.

“Net zero poverty by 2050, that is my goal, even if it means incremental increases of emissions,” Wright said. “Lack of energy access represents 10 million or more preventable deaths a year. We can address this with more propane, more energy infrastructure, less rich country idiocy preaching and putting barriers in the way of low-income countries and low-income citizens. We want to reduce the temperature of the earth by a few tenths of a degree three generations from now. And that’s supposed to be more important to us than 2.5 billion people getting clean cooking fuel and living longer lives. That’s just wrong.”

Politicians and anti-hydrocarbon entities that believe the world must hit net zero carbons in the next decade or two are being disingenuous and causing detrimental outcomes at home and abroad, including energy insecurity and unaffordable or reliable energy, he said.

He mentioned the move to lower carbon emissions have been happening naturally for more than 150 years.

“We’ve been decarbonizing for 150 years. Coal is lower carbon intensity than wood, oil is lower than coal, gas is lower, nuclear is lower. Greenhouse gas emissions on a per person basis in the United States is lower than any year since I was born. This is not government regulations forcing this, we are naturally moving away through technology,” he said.

“Changing greenhouse gases are a slow-moving, long-term issue that technology will fix and take care of, but not in one, two or even three decades.”

There are times where humor is also imperative in the discussion of the importance of oil and gas, Wright said. One such example is an issue that came up with The North Face company.

He and his wife are avid climbers. A good friend and fellow climber was a lead athlete for The North Face and that relationship led to Wright ordering 2,000 jackets with the Liberty logo from the company.

Soon after, another oil and gas company approached The North Face to purchase products for marketing purposes as well. This time, The North Face refused – stating it did not want to do business with the company because they produced hydrocarbons.

“The hypocrisy is so high,” Wright said. “North Face can’t make their products without hydrocarbons. Their products are made out of hydrocarbons, and the activities their clothes and equipment support are impossible without hydrocarbons.”

In response, Wright produced a six-minute video, his first video discussing the controversy. Roughly 15,000 people saw that video. Then Wright condensed the message and flipped it – congratulating The North Face for being such a great customer of hydrocarbons.

“The second video … instead of 15,000 views, it got 6 million views! Sometimes it is important to put some humor in the discussion.”

Market Confidence

Wright is also bullish on the industry, and not just the positive global impact oil and gas has had, but the future of fossil fuels in the marketplace.

“I think the outlook for our industry and our customers is quite good. I think the next five years or so will probably be good for our industry. We are moving towards a healthy service sector that we haven’t seen in years.”

There are potential ups and downs, but overall, the market outlook is positive, he said.

“We could have bumps, and even a pullback in the next year or two with a coordinated global recession. But as soon as there is any rebound, we will be in a tight market, and we may remain in a tight market for some time.”

He noted the lack of investment in the industry for the better part of the last decade has made for tight markets. Additionally, poor political decision-making and vilification of the energy industry has made for a lack of infrastructure and underinvestment in global energy infrastructure.

“Unfortunately, outside of the U.S. and Canada, we have $200-300 oil equivalent prices for natural gas. This is awful. This is the market today. That isn’t a resource issue; it’s an infrastructure issue.”

Wright also worries about the geopolitical implications on the market and energy affordability.

“If we lose oil globally, if Russia can’t find a home for its oil exports, if Libya doesn’t get back into shape, Nigeria declines further, if we have any upset in Iraqi oil production, all of these could drive $200 oil, which is not good for the world,” he said.

But for the first time in almost a decade, the supply and demand favors energy services.

“The biggest concern I hear from customers today is not necessarily price, they just want the services. They may have four rigs and need two frack fleets and they just want to make sure those wells get fracked. The service sector is moving into a much healthier place.”

Employees are Great Ambassadors

As Wright has emerged as a great advocate for the industry, he recognizes that he can’t carry the standard alone. He urges people who work in the industry to tell their story – the story they know – and be proud of it.

“People should speak up more,” he said. “Speak to your neighbors. Speak to what you know about.”

But its not just the employees who should speak up. Leadership must also empower their employees to be ambassadors.

“If someone is going to drive hard and work hard for your company every day, (as a leader) you better take the effort to engage them in the broader role their work has, what’s the impact on the country on this community and on this world. You must bring that message (to the workforce). It is so uplifting, it’s so inspiring, and it is true,” he said.

“Everyone wants to change the world, and we are one of the few industries that really does change the world. Many people don’t know, they don’t hear it and they need to. If they know the impact of the work, they will be proud and they will tell others.”

Actions Make a Difference

In addition to becoming vocal ambassadors for the industry, Wright noted the energy workforce is already spreading positivity throughout their communities by being good citizens.

One example he noted is when Boulder County, north of Denver, experienced devastating flooding throughout their community, Liberty employees did not hesitate and raced to their assistance.

“This is a community that is not supportive of our industry. Many yards have anti-frac signs in the front. But when they were in need, we had crews with our busses in the community bringing people food and water, cleaning out damaged homes and helping people out of harm’s way.”

“This is what our workforce is about, neighbor helping neighbor,” Wright said. “Even when that community may have been vilifying us yesterday, today they were in need, and we were there for them.”

Wright is also proud of the workforce at Liberty Energy. He has a simple message to other leaders as they work to build their workforce – find the people who are going to help you succeed.

“I have a dirt-simple principle: how are you going to win? You want to pick players on the team that care about what they do. That believe in what they do,” he said.

“We want you to move the ball forward. We don’t tell people when to get to work, when to leave work, how to take their days off. We do want people in the office, but we have always had a flexible schedule. We want people to get the work done but we aren’t going to shepherd over you. So, we find great humans who love what they do and then empower them.”