BTU Analytics’ annual conference, What Lies Ahead 2017, is next week on February 8 in Houston Texas. As the energy industry remains dynamic, there will be no shortage of healthy debate as we provide our outlook for energy markets through thoughtful analysis, including the impacts to producers, midstream and financial players. This year we will focus on the following key topics that will shape the energy space (full agenda here):

• What is North America’s place in the ever-evolving global oil supply picture: will increase North American production dampen the effect of OPEC’s cuts and relevancy?
• As activity in the Permian ramps up and builds momentum, will it dominate U.S. production growth and push out activity in other basins?
• Is the promise of the SCOOP/STACK real and repeatable? Will infrastructure become a bottleneck for this region?
• Regulatory risk and uncertainty continues to plague major pipeline infrastructure in the Marcellus and Utica – when (and if) these projects come online will have ramifications for the basin, producers backing these projects, and the US natural gas supply demand outlook as a whole. What scenarios might play out in the region?
• What do changing dynamics in the natural gas market mean for Henry Hub; will key points in the Southeast have ample capacity or will future bottlenecks create a rebirth of basis volatility around Henry Hub?
• These will all be tied together with a discussion of opportunities for investment within the energy industry.

The pieces are in place for a bullish few years, with strengthening commodity prices and increased drilling activity, as seen in the figure below. Will the interplay of the above factors help maintain this trajectory or push it off course? Last year, at the inaugural What Lies Ahead conference, we presented a key takeaway that low oil prices would lead to a strong rebound in natural gas prices in the second half of 2016 and that how the winter shaped out would determine how high 2017 prices would need to be – which has come to pass. At this year’s conference we will once again unveil our outlook for the next several years and welcome the audience to debate those views.

So, how will 2017 play out? Come away from the conference with a clear view of the impacts of the current energy markets’ most influential drivers. If you haven’t already done so, you can sign up for the What Lies Ahead conference HERE. We look forward to seeing you in Houston!