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The Crude Truth Ep. 121 Nikki Morris and Valeria Rodriguez Live at the NAPE Expo 2025

Video Transcription edited for grammar. We disavow any errors unless they make us look better or smarter.

Rey Treviño [00:00:00] Oh my gosh. We are just having a great time at Nape Expo 2025. We talked to the head of the TCU Energy Department and one of the up and coming graduates of that wonderful establishment. On this episode of The Crude Truth.

Narrator [00:00:15] In 1901 at Spindletop Hill near Beaumont. The future of Texas changed dramatically as, like a fountain of fortune, thousands of barrels of oil burst from the earth towards the sky. Soon, Detroit would be cranking out Model TS by the millions and America was on the move. Thanks to the black gold being produced in Texas, now that more than a century later, the vehicles are different, but nothing else has truly changed. Sure, there may be many other alternative energy sources like wind and solar and electric, but let’s be honest, America depends on oil and entrepreneurs. And if the USA is truly going to be independent, it has to know the crude truth.

Narrator [00:00:58] This episode is brought to you by LFS Chemistry, We are committed to being good stewards of the environment We are providing the tools so you can be to. Nape Expo, Where deals happen. Air Compressor Solutions, When everything is on the line Air Compressor Solutions is the dependable choice to keep commercial business powered up. Sandstone Group. Exec Crue, Elevate your network Elevate your knowledge. Texas Star Alliance. Pecos Country Operating, Fueling our future.

Rey Treviño [00:01:31] Future as we keep going at Nape 2025. I just want to say thank you again Nape and AAPL as we just continue to have a wonderful time here this year. And right now, this is definitely a Homer episode, something that just I had to do. I saw you yesterday. My guest today are Nikki Morris and Valeria. How are you all doing?

Nikki Morris [00:01:51] Great.

Rey Treviño [00:01:51] Doing. I would butcher your last name. Can you say it for me?

Valeria Rodriguez [00:01:54] Valeria Rodriguez.

Rey Treviño [00:01:56] There you go. Valeria Rodriguez, she says it’s so much better.

Nikki Morris [00:02:00] I know us Americans can’t do it.

Rey Treviño [00:02:02] And Nikki. Last year we had an ambulance run, but since then she has gone to the ham. Literally. And you are now running the TCU Energy Department as a whole. And what a change it has been. You have literally hit the ground running over there to where everybody’s like, what’s going on? Which way are we going, what’s going on? And yet everybody is like like pep in their step and just having a great time.

Nikki Morris [00:02:26] Yeah. Well thank you, Rey, and thanks for asking the question. But I’m loving being back on this side of the fence coming from the industry. I mean, I would have never guess I would be back at TCU after 20 years. But why not? And so running a really cool institute with great people. And we’ve got a lot of things we want to accomplish with our undergrads like Valeria. We have an energy club and the energy MBA with our professional students for the graduate program. So all things are moving very fast and it’s exciting. It’ll be really cool to see where we take it this year.

Rey Treviño [00:02:59] Well, that’s something that I’m excited about and that you brought in that you won. You are a TCU grad. And you know, we talked about it off camera. There’s so much oil and gas, I believe, in the Fort Worth area that, you know, this this program is great. The master’s program that I’m in that the people know about is amazing. And then when you talk about the minor, y’all call it minor and something major. You can’t major or minor in anything more major than energy as a whole. It’s not going away. Yeah. And so I think that is just something that is so awesome. And your position now that you’re running the show of an energy department, you’ve been in the industry industry for people wouldn’t believe this. But 20 years.

Nikki Morris [00:03:37] Yeah 17 years. And so I think what’s really cool when you come back to DFW, where you just started, your comment is now the challenge and what these legacy fields very mature assets is. You got to find solutions for the water. So we talk about the oil and gas, but the infrastructure and water and what else could these sites be reused for? What other energy sources could be a possibility to tie in to the grid, to help out or be behind meter? We’ve got options. We’ll see where it goes. But all things are on the table. So being where we are at TCU, we’re right in the middle of it. We’ve got the oil and gas background. We’ve got companies with hydrogen energy storage, lithium batteries, geothermal. Like it’s just like I mean it’s an element of oil and gas exploration. So many of those skill sets transfer to all of these other energy sources or nuclear or whatnot. So it’s an exciting time. And you’re right, there’s a lot of, I would say, challenges in the near term that we need to get the students getting to dive into some of these challenges and figure out these very innovative solutions with our partners to find ways to combat the economic hurdles that they all face.

Rey Treviño [00:04:48] Yes. And and Valeria, as she talks about these challenges, the students, you’re getting ready to graduate with your undergrad and you’ve already got a job lined up, and you still got 2 or 3 months before you walk straight. Is that right?

Valeria Rodriguez [00:04:58] Yes. That’s right.

Rey Treviño [00:05:00] I mean, look, let’s talk about that and what your experience has been like.

Valeria Rodriguez [00:05:03] Yeah. Of course. So I’ve been at the Institute for about three and a half years now since my freshman year. So it’s been a long way, and I can’t deny that all of my like, internship experiences and networking experiences has been because of the institute and all of the resources that they’ve provided. I also all of my internships, the people I’ve met have helped me get to where I am right now, and that’s what basically led up to my, well, job offer for after graduation.

Rey Treviño [00:05:32] So with your networking and your internship, you know, we’ve got that teach you a lot of great companies that are there with us, you know, where was your internship at and what were you doing?

Valeria Rodriguez [00:05:42] Well, I have had three internship experiences. I worked at a renewables company in Honduras, and then I worked for the petroleum, a small oil and gas company in Fort Worth. I got it through one of our board members, Johnny Brumley. He’s been a great mentor. I don’t work for him right now, but I still see him very often, and he’s been a great guide for guide for what I want to do in the future. And last summer I interned at East West Bank and their commercial and industrial lending team. And after graduation, I’ll be working for both a commercial, commercial and industrial team and also the energy finance team.

Rey Treviño [00:06:21] So you’re going to be able to start your own oil and gas, our energy company, and get it financed all in t he same day.

Nikki Morris [00:06:27] I just remember the broad.

Rey Treviño [00:06:28] Yes, yes of course. Yes. That and I’m glad you brought up the mentorship even in our program. You know, I hear nothing but great things about for the master’s side. It’s like, hey, there are people that do want to come back, give back. You know, Mr. Brumley is definitely one of them. And I think that is something that’s so strong. And and what an opportunity for three internships when, you know, most individuals are lucky with one. And for you to be at TCU in our energy department, we joked in the pre pre-production meeting of like do my best stay energy, not just oil and gas. And that it all comes together that you’ve seen so many sides of it from a renewable side and an oil and gas side. What an experience to have before you even out of college.

Valeria Rodriguez [00:07:08] Yes, Definitely. And something that I have to acknowledge is that as an undergrad, I’ve had a lot of opportunities to be able to go to grad students, like classes, and attend all of those. For example, I had the opportunity to go to Johnny CEO forum class, which has been a great experience to get like the MBA side of things, not just the undergrad.

Rey Treviño [00:07:31] Yes. Yeah. And Nikki, that’s of that you guys put together on that. Well y’all, it’s an eight week class that you just boom y’all got CEO every every Tuesday. Yeah I’m looking forward to that one starting I think in a couple of weeks. It is.

Nikki Morris [00:07:43] And I’m talking to Johnny Brumley on Monday about the speakers and who he’s bringing in and what that looks like. And you’re right. I mean, the other thing that internships bring, which is so great, is this experiential learning you’ve got to do. And so what we want to bring also to all undergrads without an internship is field trips and getting to see things not in a spreadsheet, not in a textbook, not a theory, but to actually go see them working with our partner. So take them to sites. We took them him to Brazos Midstream gas processing plant. We took him to a drilling rig. And then here we’re looking at some CSS projects and hydrogen and Bitcoin and all of these things that are evolving and just in our backyard. You don’t have to go very far. And so when we can take the students in the field and go see what’s actually happening for these companies is really impactful for them. And then they get curious and motivated on a particular topic because then they’ll gravitate where they want to go. But they got to see it first.

Rey Treviño [00:08:38] Man. You know, as you talk about all these great things. I even did a trip to Midland, like, I think a term around your charter bus.

Nikki Morris [00:08:44] I know we took the geology vans.

Rey Treviño [00:08:46] The geology vans.

Nikki Morris [00:08:48] Loaded up, went to Midland and came back same day.

Rey Treviño [00:08:50] Yeah, that was a turnaround trip

Nikki Morris [00:08:53] Yeah.

Rey Treviño [00:08:53] Oh, y’all get like, real oil and gas, people. Just those janky vehicles coming back.

Nikki Morris [00:08:58] Exactly. Hey, it worked. And they wrote it down here, too. So why not?

Rey Treviño [00:09:02] The doctor seeing was wasn’t driving, was he?

Nikki Morris [00:09:04] Yes.

Rey Treviño [00:09:04] Oh my gosh. And just to comment on him real quick, he’s done the show before but he also brings. Yeah I think this is his second or third year.

Nikki Morris [00:09:12] Yeah third year.

Rey Treviño [00:09:12] Experience. And as somebody that does all the hedging and he’s been doing that in North Texas and Oklahoma and that’s again what you guys, you know, y’all are bringing to this were you know, Valerian and the undergrads are just so excited. And again, with the master’s program that y’all have, it’s been such a great opportunity to bring in great other professionals that say, hey, let me talk to you about what a real investor relations person does. Here’s what business relations does. And I’m kind of looking around because, you know, when you really are talking to business development, business relations, it doesn’t mean a salesperson. It means somebody that’s talking to the lending people. Right? They’re talking to the actual multi-million dollar investors out there on a here’s what’s going on. Yeah. And it just shines a whole other light in this. And I just think it’s just amazing. And again, as much as I love oil and gas, there’s so many more asset avenues, right, that oil and gas can bring you in like you were talking about. That was something that we just had on with George at Black Mountain. He goes, hey, we started in oil and gas, but now they’re doing the same thing the data mining, the they’re doing some kind of brine. And it’s like, here’s all the other things that come because of that. Yeah. And I think that is just amazing. You know, as you get your foothold there now at TCU and I think your office is set up, I don’t know, you know, what are you excited for. Come, come the fall of this year.

Nikki Morris [00:10:30] You know so come the fall I would say short term though is our global energy symposium. So we got it. We got to nail that one. It’s April 3rd. So information will be going out starting on Monday on that. And so we’re really excited about the lineup that we have going forward. Really great discussion and great people that are going to be attending that. And it’s it’s well represented. I would say longer term as a matter of getting our energy club, which Valentino was very much a part of as the president of that and getting that in case competition. So we have undergrads and grad students. And so now we need to go put them to work and share this energy education around our community. So Fort Worth, I see they can walk to umpteen schools from campus. Why not send some students to go talk about energy in the classroom or participate in the case competition every fall with Switch Energy Alliance, Scott Tinker’s group. I mean, it’s fabulous. So I think there’s a lot of cool stuff, not just in the course curriculum, that we’re going to just talk about energy and use the club, because we have a lot of flexibility. So we can base it off what the students need or what their assets are, and we can adapt it. We’re really flexible with that. So that’s what TCU can offer undergrads and graduates to participate in some of these things that we’ll we’ll kind of pivot depending on the topic, but we can share the word and get people more educated on all the energy sources that we have.

Rey Treviño [00:11:52] This is not your first rodeo. You are coming. You are awesome at this whole. I think there’s obviously a Reason.

Nikki Morris [00:11:57] corporate America.

Rey Treviño [00:11:59] And you’ll have an event in Midland in a couple of weeks is that.

Nikki Morris [00:12:02] February 19th. We’re going to meet with Laurie Blong, the the mayor, and then the Permian Strategic Partnership Group and Midland Corporate Development to talk about how energy played such a key role in the development of Midland Odessa. I mean, having started out there in zero seven, it’s a it’s a different city. It’s a different town. The camaraderie is fabulous. The community engagement is great, and they’re just doing awesome things. And I want them to share that with young professionals and say, hey, how do we make sustainable business solutions in the right way? And it takes it takes everyone. It’s not going to be one person and they’re doing a really good job of that. So we want to highlight it.

Rey Treviño [00:12:39] And, you know, maybe embellish the number a little bit. But in my cohort alone, I think a third of our cohort is in middle and now. So we need to have huge places. Diamondback can’t go not Concho. Kind of ConocoPhillips I mean and then some of the even bigger family offices. And it’s just so cool to see that. So there’s this is a good a good for.

Nikki Morris [00:13:00] The I-20 corridor. It’s going to be a thing. So we’re going to make sure that we make that link very strong and and work with our partners that are out there for sure.

Rey Treviño [00:13:09] You know, Valeria, you were you guys were all part of that TCU Energy Club this year. You know what was the highlight of that? And why would you recommend other students to go be a part of that in the future.

Valeria Rodriguez [00:13:17] Of course. As I mentioned, a big part of the club is connecting students with important industry leaders and help them basically get internships, land their dream jobs. And that’s the main incentive as to why I was there, and that I know that a lot of current members are there too. So we help all of them connect with people so that they can get internships and jobs and network.

Rey Treviño [00:13:44] Network. The networking is strong at TCU, and I think and I’ve said this before on other people, it’s like, yeah, the TCU Energy Department may be small or young, but just the TCU network alone, in my opinion, puts you right up there with you and UT of their energy.

Nikki Morris [00:14:00] You know what’s crazy with that, right? I don’t know if you guys know this stat, but I think just this past year we had 100,000 alums. So keep that in mind how small TCU is. I mean, one class at A&M is how many 50? I mean how many students who have A&M right now 50 or 60,000, right? I mean, we just hit 100,000 alums for our university. And so I think it’s really impressive how our network does work and how much they give back. I mean, the alumni group is is fabulous and everyone’s willing to help. And it’s a really it’s a really cool team family to be a part of for sure.

Rey Treviño [00:14:36] Yes. Though Nikki, you know, for those out there that are looking to possibly get into a the energy MBA program, which I think has been great for me as a small operator with a with a small family office, is like, how do we scale and how many classes, like with the Pegasus lend Frank. And even with a gentleman named Mr. Warren with his economics class lessons like these are things that I can take that allow us to grow and become the next Diamondback or Double Eagle and things like that. And those are the things that I think that I’m really going to take away from. I remember when the recruiter was like, well, what do you want to do? And I was like, I just want to I want to build a better business. Like, even though I love my business, like, well, we want to scale and you go, so you’re not here to try to get as far as I know, you know, build a better business and I recommend that so much for everybody out there. It’s like it’s been a great program and I look only continue to move forward with it. Well, you know, for anybody out there to think about going to TCU or is thinking about minoring in this energy, what would you say?

Valeria Rodriguez [00:15:32] Oh, you can see in our in our slogan minor in something major energy is something that’s not going anywhere. And it’s not just about choosing one thing, it’s about thinking about the big picture and finding sustainable solutions to have an effective and sustainable energy mix.

Rey Treviño [00:15:49] That’s used to be good PR for, you.

Nikki Morris [00:15:51] Know, like that. That was a great response.

Rey Treviño [00:15:53] Wow. You haven’t you been hanging out with some cause?

Nikki Morris [00:15:56] That was great.

Rey Treviño [00:15:58] Well, I cannot thank you all enough. And yesterday I saw you with Doctor Blanchard. Yesterday you were look like you’re in the conversation. I was not dressed like this. And I was like, I gotta get you on the show. I’m sorry to interrupt. And, you know, I. I love to do it. And so thank you so much and looking forward to even more coming from TCU just in general. And best of luck to you and all that you’re doing. So again, thank you all so much for a few minutes.

Nikki Morris [00:16:20] Absolutely.

Rey Treviño [00:16:21] Oh my gosh. And everybody out there again the Nape Expo. And check out TCU, Go Frogs. And we’ll see you again on another episode of The Crude Truth.

Narrator [00:16:30] Again the crude truth. Would like to thank today’s sponsors LFS Chemistry, Nape Expo, Air Compressor Solutions, Sandstone Group, Exec Crue, Texas Star Alliance, Pecos Country Operating, and Real News Communication Network.

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