RBN ENERGY: Simplifying Complicated & Daunting Energy Market Data

For true insight and expertise around the powerhouse North American energy industry there is one hall-of-famer who can be trusted to deliver comprehensive knowledge that few others can access. Houston-based Rusty Braziel — an industry veteran of Texaco, Altra Energy, BENTEK Energy and more, and member of the US National Petroleum Council — founded RBN Energy (Rusty Braziel’s Network) in 2012. For the past decade, Braziel has built and nurtured an unrivalled group of industry authorities, able to provide knowledge and commentary on different topics affecting business in the sector. Through a popular blog, consultancy business, and conferencing set-up, Braziel has created an ecosystem of data and information that leaves no stone unturned.

Today, RBN Energy is recognised by engineers, scientists, investors, financiers, operators, analysts, executives and more as the leading source of market data, making difficult information quick and easy to digest.

CEO David Braziel, RBN’s second-generation leader, tells Energy Focus that the company’s strategy is to glean understanding from the front line and those with their hands on the pump.

“At RBN, we strive to be the most insightful source of energy information for US and Canadian markets,” he begins. “We do that primarily by offering a ‘boots on the ground’ type of analysis. When we hear of salient topics in the industry, we go to talk to the people who are in that line of work. If there is something going on in the Permian, we are not just going to look at the stats, we typically go and speak to one of our friends there and find out exactly what is happening. If Cushing is getting full of crude, we will find out quickly what the situation is. It is a very practical way of looking at energy markets.”

From the RBN hub in the downtown area of America’s oil and gas centre, Houston, observations flow from the fingertips of Rusty Braziel and team. The result is better connections and more informed decisions.

“The main way we communicate our insights is through our daily blog, where the goal is to have people walk away with one primary insight. We want to describe things in a way that anyone in the energy industry can understand, without using language that is too technical, and simplifying the message down to a small word count so that you can read it in the morning and understand something that you didn’t understand the day before while using that fresh knowledge throughout the day,” Braziel says.

FEEDBACK LOOP

Technically astute, and with a long-developed understanding of market economics, RBN Energy knows the industry inside out, but it is the analytical nature of the company and its founder that help it to stand out from the rest. Able to display and communicate complicated and daunting information in a friendly way, RBN Energy easily generates ongoing enquiries.

“The wonderful thing about our business is that when we write about really important topics, we typically get inbound leads for the consulting side of our business,” smiles Braziel. “For example, if we write about Anadarko natural gas, we will get an inbound from someone asking for more info so that we can help them make a strategic or business decision. We then go and handle consulting with that client, but if we get three or four calls on that same topic, we begin to see trends and we then go and develop our knowledge.

“We have a very nice feedback loop in that way. We write an article, we get feedback, people continue to ask questions, and we develop that knowledge, which we can sell through consulting. The more we consult, the more we get an inside look at the beast, which drives further insight.”

Currently, the panel of contributors on RBN’s platform reads like a roll of honour for the energy industry. Aaron Imrie, Abudi Zein, Callie Mitchell, Chris Shearon, Donovan Schafer, Peter Howard, Spencer Dale, and Terry Virts are just a few of the omniscient thought leaders delivering wisdom.

Unsurprisingly, this insight is in demand. “We have 36,000 people who sign up for our free daily blog and a subset of that is part of the premium content,” details Braziel. “After five days, our blogs move behind a paywall. We have written things on all of the fundamental topics in energy. If you wanted to know what the CMA roll is or how crude oil gets priced, we have written an in-depth series on that, but you would have to pay $75-90-per month for access to that.

“We track all crude oil, LNG, and NGL export cargoes out of the US, and that is a separate subscription product. We also track refinery performance across the US, and we have various specific publications.”

Making use of reliable public sources or data aggregators, the reports developed at RBN guide decision making and connect the physical markets of energy commodities to financial markets to ensure effective management of risk.

“We work to curate various well-level production data. We have a relatively narrow focus, primarily the US and Canadian markets, so anytime we go out to international markets, we work closely with our partners,” says Braziel.

Data generated from RBN research is used by the likes of Bloomberg to keep large audiences up to date with developments that would otherwise be kept under wraps or overlooked.

“We work across the value chain. We try to simplify our message so that if you are, say, a natural gas professional you can understand what is going on in crude oil markets,” explains Braziel. “We have executives who read our material and their focus is to understand what is going on in markets that they don’t typically focus on day-to-day. They’re looking to us to tell them what is important and what they should be paying attention to. It filters down from there and we get business development people who hear things and then reach out to us. They are looking for market insight so they can go out and make deals, sometimes they end up hiring us for one of our consulting offerings. We also have analysts who watch us and tune into our fundamentals blogs where we look at how one very nuanced aspect of the market works, for example how natural gas processing economics are calculated. From time to time, we will release spreadsheets that a lot of others will try to keep private. We’re about lifting the veil and showing how our models work and providing those same powerful tools to our clients.”

RBN hosts dedicated exhibition events where leaders can come together to discuss trends and make agreements. All of the activity is fuelled by the delivery of RBN’s knowledge through its blog. RBN’s School of Energy is another tool for clients to ensure employees have full understanding of the markets in which they operate.

“We take what we have learned in consulting and blogging, and we stitch that all together for conferences that we hold throughout the year. There, we try to knit the whole narrative into one cohesive unit and that is called our School of Energy,” says Braziel, adding that this area holds growth potential for the company particularly in the wake of the pandemic, when most conferences had to be rescheduled, moved to an online format, or cancelled altogether.

STRONG IN 2022

Recent years have been challenging for the company, along with the rest of the energy industry, with pricing under pressure and uncertainty a major theme as the Covid-19 situation – and all of its associated upheaval — rolled on. But with the fallout seemingly under more control, energy industry folks are meeting once again, exchanging information, and investing in learning experiences. Projects are underway, and the need for insight to fuel decision making is strong.

“Year-on-year growth is strong in 2022. We suffered in the downturn of 2020 and 2021, just like everyone else. Everybody says when money gets tight, the first thing that goes is consultants, and we were not immune to that. When gas prices hit $9 in the US and crude oil hit $100, the phone started ringing. We are doing much better this year,” Braziel highlights.

Going forward, RBN’s offerings will become more vital as the global energy transition takes hold and brings change, even in Texas. The US is beginning to invest heavily in offshore wind infrastructure, the use of coal has dropped significantly, and renewables are expected to make up more of the energy mix as the decades go by. Natural gas will remain crucial in the transition but $48.5 billion was spent on renewable projects in 2018 alone, highlighting the demand for change. RBN Energy provides trustworthy insight across the mix and Braziel sees the transition as an opportunity.

“Energy markets are in a huge transition, we know that,” he states. “I don’t think we can understate the importance of the decisions that are being taken right now that affect everybody. We are of the opinion that we need a balanced energy portfolio to be able to provide energy security, affordable energy, and more. Everybody needs it — it’s important in places like the US and UK, but more important in developing nations where energy insecurity is a major detriment to quality of life. For me personally, that is an important goal for RBN.”

With high rates of inflation globally and interest rates skyrocketing, now is the time for careful consideration and informed decision making — risk-taking (even for smaller organisations) is not responsible with many economies teetering around recession in an increasingly connected global market.

“We are developing a new practice called RBN RFA (Refined Fuel Analytics). We are trying to go deeper into the refined fuels markets because there is such a global shortage and the root causes of that are widely misunderstood by the public. That is paradoxical because we all rely on these things every day. We want to help carry the message. We want to help people understand energy markets,” Braziel says of RBN’s future plans and underlying goal.

With more contributors, more partner organisations, more events, more educational opportunities, and more insight set to come from RBN in the near future, the wheels will keep turning for this important cog in the major US energy industry network. Importantly, David Braziel and his father, Rusty, hold a long-term vision for the company and aim to power an increased number of relationships every year.

“We connect energy data with the information needed to understand that data,” the company concludes