Episode Details

We are excited to continue our California COBT Series with a discussion featuring Francisco Leon, President and CEO of California Resources Corporation (CRC). This episode was the culmination of a full day with the CRC team studying California’s oil and gas complex firsthand. We started at the Port of Long Beach, traveled north to CRC’s Elk Hills operations near Bakersfield, and ended the day in Santa Clarita, where we sat down with Francisco to discuss what we had seen and the broader outlook for California energy.
 
Along the way, we visited with Dean Persinger, Vice President of the Wilmington Production Complex, at the Port of Long Beach; Gabby Gonzales, Senior External Affairs Advisor, at Elk Hills to discuss CRC’s community engagement efforts; as well as Joe Jephson, Engineering Manager at Carbon TerraVault, and Brent Ilott, Vice President of Operations of the Elk Hills Production Complex. The day gave us the opportunity to see the breadth of California energy production up close and better understand the infrastructure and policies shaping the state’s energy system. It was a unique opportunity to see CRC’s operations firsthand and spend time with the people working across the company’s California footprint.
 
In our conversation with Francisco, we discuss the changing energy landscape in California and the state’s efforts to balance affordability, reliability, environmental priorities, and local energy production. Francisco shares his perspective on a more constructive environment for energy investment, including improved permitting activity in Kern County and the growing focus on the costs and energy-security implications of relying on imported energy. We discuss CRC’s evolution into a broader California energy platform and the significant optionality across its existing asset base.
 
We explore the history and future of CRC’s Long Beach and Elk Hills operations, including conventional oil and gas production, power generation, carbon capture and sequestration, and the proposed Golden Valley data center development. We cover CRC’s recently announced Crimson acquisition and the strategic value of ~2,000 miles of pipeline infrastructure across California, the company’s broader consolidation strategy following the Aera and Berry transactions, and how CRC could increasingly serve as both an operator and an enabler for additional capital, partnerships, and development in the state. Francisco also shares his thoughts on company culture, community engagement, and the importance of working constructively with regulators, political leadership, and local communities.
 
Mike Bradley patched in and kicked us off by noting that the 30-year U.S. Treasury yield was trading at ~5.3%, its highest level in two decades, despite relatively subdued inflation data the previous week. He highlighted the record pace of bond issuance financing the AI infrastructure buildout and the possibility that it could be competing with heavy U.S. government issuance for capital and contributing to higher borrowing costs. Turning to equities, both the Dow and S&P 500 have modestly declined this week as second-quarter earnings season winds down and investors look ahead to NVIDIA’s results next week.
 
In energy markets, WTI crude had risen ~$3/barrel this week to ~$85/barrel, largely reflecting expectations that the Iran conflict will remain an ongoing issue as the 60-day MOU expires. European natural gas prices have also increased to ~$22/MMBtu, up ~$2/MMBtu over the past couple of weeks. TTF prices are now up ~140% this year, with EU storage levels, particularly in Germany, well below seasonal five-year averages and below levels seen in 2021 ahead of the sharp increase in gas prices during the 2021-2022 winter.
 
The energy sector has posted modest gains alongside higher crude prices. With second-quarter earnings largely complete, Mike expects sector performance to be driven by oil prices, the broader equi