Then & Now: Oil prices, US shale, offshore, and AI—Deborah Byers on what changed since 2017

In this Then & Now episode of the Oil & Gas Journal ReEnterprised podcast, Managing Editor and Content Strategist Mikaila Adams reconnects with Deborah Byers, nonresident fellow at Rice University’s Baker Institute Center for Energy Studies and former EY Americas industry leader, to revisit a set of questions first posed in 2017. In 2017, the industry was emerging from a downturn and recalibrating strategy; today, it faces heightened geopolitical risk, market volatility, and a rapidly evolving technology landscape. The conversation examines how those earlier perspectives have aged—covering oil price bands and the speed of recovery from geopolitical shocks, the role of US shale relative to OPEC in balancing global supply, and the shift from scarcity to economic abundance driven by technology and capital discipline. Adams and Byers also compare the economics and risk profiles of shale and offshore development, including the growing role of Brazil, Guyana, and the Gulf of Mexico, and discuss how infrastructure and regulatory constraints shape market outcomes. The episode further explores where digital transformation—particularly artificial intelligence—is delivering tangible returns across upstream operations, from predictive maintenance and workforce planning to capital project execution. The discussion concludes with insights on consolidation and scale in the Permian basin, the strategic rationale behind recent megamergers, and the industry’s ongoing challenge to attract and retain next‑generation talent through flexibility, technical opportunity, and purpose‑driven work. A focus on operational excellence - 2017 In 2017, Adams sat down with Byers—who was then a managing partner in Ernst & Young's Houston office and led the Southwest Transaction Advisory Services and the firm's US energy practice—to talk about her 30-year career with EY and her view of the industry going into 2017. Take a look back and review the interview that spurred the podcast.