OKLAHOMA CITY—Member recognition and record-setting fundraising were just two of the highlights of the Petroleum Alliance of Oklahoma’s 2025 fall conference, held November 12-13 at the National Hotel in Oklahoma City. The organization honored its 2025 award recipients and announced it had raised nearly $700,000 through its annual fundraising auction.

Special Care was named Charity of the Year, SLB was recognized as Ally of the Year, State Sen. Kristen Thompson received Legislator of the Year, and Canvas Energy’s Justin Byrne was named Member of the Year.

In total, this year’s auction raised $670,000, Alliance President Brook Simmons said. The funds will be used to bolster the organization’s advocacy and outreach efforts.

Beyond the award winners and fundraising, this year’s speakers told members to expect progress in the year ahead, with new timesaving and cost-cutting innovations becoming more readily available and lobbying efforts boosting influence in Washington for the state’s oil and gas industry.

The conference included insights from Devon Energy CEO Clay Gaspar and talks from Oklahoma gubernatorial candidates Charles McCall and Gentner Drummond. A forum for the 2026 state attorney general race included candidates Jon Echols and Jeff Starling.

Garret Golding, assistant vice president at the Federal Reserve Bank of Dallas, provided an energy outlook, and Heather Leahey—CCUS Intelligence team leader at Enverus—discussed artificial intelligence and the future of power demand.

Safety was another key topic at the event. Sean Flynn, vice president of HSE at Continental, announced an oil and gas safety leadership training program being launched in Oklahoma, a collaborative effort between the Alliance, the Oklahoma Energy Resources Board, the Oklahoma Safety Council, and the Onshore Safety Alliance.

The OSA is a voluntary coalition of U.S. oil and gas producers and service companies whose sole mission is to reduce serious injuries and fatalities in U.S. onshore oil and gas, said Flynn, who is the group’s former chairman.

“We’re starting the program in Oklahoma first because it’s home, and we have great partners here,” he said.

In addition to founding companies, charter trade associations for the safety organization include the Petroleum Alliance of Oklahoma, the Independent Petroleum Association of America, the American Petroleum Institute, the Energy Workforce and Technology Council, the International Association of Drilling Contractors, and the American Exploration and Production Council.

New Leadership

The conference also gave Continental Resources an opportunity to introduce its new leadership. Shelly Lambertz assumed the role of executive chairman in August, succeeding her father and company founder Harold Hamm. Hamm will continue as chairman emeritus.

On day two of the conference, Alliance President Brook Simmons held a fireside chat discussion with Shelly Lambertz, Continental Resources’ new executive chairman and the daughter of company founder Harold Hamm. Lambertz said one of her main goals as chairman is to protect and continue her father’s legacy. She also touched on potential growth options overseas and the company’s current drilling operations in Oklahoma.

In a fireside chat with Alliance President Brook Simmons, Lambertz said the company remains open to more growth options overseas after it agreed to a joint venture in March with the Turkish national oil company to develop shale fields in the country’s Diyarbakır Basin.

In Oklahoma, Continental is drilling with five rigs in the Anadarko, she said, with additional work contingent on prices ahead. The in-state basin remains an integral part of the company’s U.S. focus along with work in the Williston, Powder River and Permian basins, she said.

Lambertz’s new role is the latest advancement in a career that includes work in public policy and at family enterprises Hamm & Phillips Service Co., Hamm Capital and Continental, where she has been a board member since 2018, most recently serving as executive vice president and chief culture and administrative officer.

The announcement of Lambertz’s appointment was timed to send a message to the community at large that the family remains bullish on Continental and the industry, she said.

Of particular importance to Hamm’s children is protecting their father’s legacy—a passion for oil and gas industry progress and a commitment to community support. No one, she insisted, can truly fill his shoes.

“There’s not another Harold Hamm. There just isn’t,” Lambertz said. “You have to choose the best path forward for the business, do what’s best, and find the best people. We have a great leadership team, which is phenomenal.”

A family council, which meets quarterly and includes Lambertz and four siblings, was formed four years ago to learn more about the company and responsible ownership at other private companies amid plans for succession. Hamm, now 80, assumed the role of teacher.

Even with the leadership change, Hamm retains a key advisory role at the company and is busy promoting the industry and philanthropy through the Hamm Institute for American Energy at Oklahoma State University and the Harold Hamm Foundation, Lambertz said.

He recently made trips abroad and to Washington, D.C., to promote industry interests and, being a Trump supporter, continues to have periodic conversations with the president, she said.

Keynote Address

In a keynote address, Matthew Lohmeier, undersecretary of the U.S. Air Force, detailed the Trump administration’s work to improve U.S. Armed Forces and fondly recalled his days as an Air Force pilot stationed in Oklahoma.

SLB was honored as the Petroleum Alliance of Oklahoma’s 2025 Ally of the Year at this year’s fall conference. The Alliance said SLB has demonstrated outstanding commitment to the state’s oil and gas industry, helping to advance the Petroleum Alliance’s mission through collaboration and continued support. Accepting the award is SLB Managing Director Andy Horner, with Alliance President Brook Simmons doing the honors. Also pictured, from left, are SLB’s Dustin Smith, Madison Kilcrease, Nate Rose, and Allliance Vice Chair Chuck Duginski.

“I’m grateful for places like Oklahoma where we have good patriot supporters who love our military and our men and women in uniform,” said Lohmeier, the second-highest ranking civilian official in the Air Force. “I get to talk to those troops all around the country and all around the globe, and when they live in places like this, they’re often fond of their assignment and fond of the community and know that they’re welcome and respected here.”

Lohmeier said the administration has two overarching goals in its defense strategy: to deter aggression in the Indo-Pacific and defend the homeland, both supported by an underlying philosophy of peace through strength, he said.

Lohmeier described a 180-degree shift for the better in Pentagon operations as a result of policies handed down by Secretary of War Pete Hegseth with Trump’s backing. The secretary is placing greater emphasis on fitness and grooming after the previous administration accepted lax standards for both, Lohmeier said.

Hegseth is working to eliminate bureaucratic hurdles in order to get needed materials to warfighters faster. Acquisition reform will help the government more easily enter into multi-year procurement and will incentivize the industrial base, Lohmeier said. Hegseth and other department leaders are also focusing on an aggressive ramping up of munitions production.

The department is also focusing on ways to recruit and retain trained personnel. Defense technology companies Anduril and General Atomics have successfully tested autonomous, collaborative combat aircraft to fly as wingmen or companions to crewed airplanes in the Pacific, Lohmeier detailed.

The unmanned aircraft can extend the range, reach, and power projection capabilities of the existing U.S. fighter fleet, he added. Additional moves to shore up defenses include aggressively developing a strategy to counter weaponization of space by China and Russia.

Wielding Influence

Independent producers have strong representation in Washington, and two of those groups—the American Exploration and Production Council and the Independent Petroleum Association of America—shared updates detailing their work in the nation’s capital.

Council President and CEO Anne Bradbury provided details on the group’s 2025-2026 federal outlook, and Edith Naegele, IPAA’s new CEO, discussed the importance of increasing membership to boost influence.

Naegele emphasized that IPAA plans to reinforce efforts on the regulatory side and further enhance communications on Capitol Hill.

When the federal government shut down on Oct. 1—just days after she started her new role—IPAA and other industry groups made the most of opportunities, she said. An American Petroleum Institute event on permitting reform with Senator Shelley Capito, R-W.V., Representative Bruce Westerman, R-Ark., and Interior Secretary Doug Burgum, drew 40 members of the media. IPAA staff routinely visited with Capitol Hill staffers who were not allowed to go to work or check email.

“It’s nice to have those relationships with the staffers so when they’re going stir crazy at home, they call you, because these relationships really matter,” Naegele said. “You want to build them before you need them, and we’re very proud of that.”

Quality relationships are a result of the work of what she described as IPAA’s “rock star” lobbyists, who include Dan Naatz, Ryan Ullman, and Mallori Miller. Ullman’s work with congressional staff and the industry was crucial to including language in the Big Beautiful Bill to delay collections of the Waste Emissions Charge on methane, Naegele said.

Before joining IPAA, Naegele was vice president of membership and strategic development and corporate secretary of the American Gas Association. She previously worked in fundraising and development at the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, focusing mostly on energy companies.

Market Optimism

As insiders work in Washington, the industry has more to look forward to when it comes to markets—despite pessimism over current oil prices, said Trisha Curtis, president and CEO of PetroNerds, a Denver energy consulting firm.

The negative outlook is rooted partly in a lack of understanding of the global oil markets and the geopolitical influence the United States wields as the world’s leading producer, she said.

U.S. crude production is 13.8 MMbbl/d with natural gas output supplying enough fuel for 132 bcf/d in withdrawals. Domestic crude exports are at 4 MMb/d. Combined exports of crude and refined products are 11 MMb/d, which is more than Saudi Arabia and Russia, Curtis pointed out. There could also be more impacting current prices than meets the eye, she added.

“I think you have a lot of short positions pumping this narrative,” Curtis offered. “I don’t think it’s accurate. We should easily get $65 a barrel, and that makes me bullish.”

The Trump administration doesn’t want to raise oil prices much, but Curtis insisted that $70 oil wouldn’t hurt the consumer.

“When you’re producing 13.8 million barrels a day, you’re a huge boon to the U.S. economy, and that message needs to be across the administration,” she said.

The upbeat judgment is reinforced by an appropriate lowered emphasis on ESG and climate policies, an increase in LNG exports with more growth ahead, and the administration’s moves to make drilling easier on public lands and elsewhere.

Additionally, drilling and completion advancements are allowing producers to achieve more with fewer rigs and frac crews, and the U.S. industry has held steady on the number of completions, with greater results from more intense designs. Higher gas prices also will reinforce oil values, she said.

Despite predictions of limits on U.S. production growth and specific prognostications that oil production in New Mexico’s Lea and Eddy counties would fall, production there is holding steady at 2.3 MMb/d, Curtis said.

Downstream Growth

Sustained U.S. oil and gas output is being reinforced by growth in midstream and downstream segments, and refining, petrochemical and midstream company Phillips 66 continues to expand and count on Oklahoma operations, said Don Baldridge, executive vice president of midstream and chemicals.

Spun off from ConocoPhillips as an independent company in 2012, Phillips 66 continues to upgrade pipes, pumps and compressors across a central corridor that includes various integrated refining and midstream assets at Borger, Texas, Wood River, Illinois—near St. Louis—and Ponca City, Oklahoma.

About 80,000 b/d of local crude daily supplies a portion of 230,000 b/d processed at Ponca City, Baldridge said during a session with Simmons. The Midcontinent basin also supplies about 20% of the gas for Phillips 66’s total 5 Bcf/d natural gas processing capacity across all regions, he said.

Improving natural gas prices will boost Oklahoma plays the company serves as it continues to build out its overall gathering and processing footprint and take more gas and NGLs to market on the Gulf Coast, home of the company’s largest refining, petrochemical and fractionating complex at Sweeny, Tx, Baldridge said.

In April, Phillips 66 announced its acquisition of EPIC Midstream’s NGL business, including various subsidiaries and long-haul NGL pipelines, fractionation facilities and distribution systems. They acquired the remaining 50% interest in the Borger and Wood River plants and associated pipelines.

In October, Phillips 66 and Kinder Morgan announced a binding open season for transportation service on the Western Gateway Pipeline, a newly proposed refined products system establishing a corridor extending from St. Louis to Southern California, Baldridge said.

The project is important because the West Coast has a growing supply deficit and refineries have closed. Phillips 66 recently shut down its Los Angeles plant, the highest-cost facility the company owned, he detailed, but the company is still committed to resupplying the market.

AI Deployment

On the upstream side, operators considering implementing artificial intelligence to improve operations should consider starting small, said Todd Bush, chief operating officer at AI software company collide ai.

“We’re coaching all the companies we’re working with to start small and really get focused on something they can measure,” Bush said. “That’s the easiest way to see some value and then focus on the outcome.”

AI can be a major time saver, with some companies reporting spending as much as 75% of their time searching for information, he said.

After determining an initial, limited focus, producers can build an internal AI team and expand relationships with experienced AI partners outside the company, Bush concluded.