Full House. Real Conversation. Real Director

Thank you to you all who joined us in London for the Global Upstream Leaders Forum in London this week - it was a privilege and a pleasure to host you. A note of appreciation to our valued Sponsors, Viridien and ExxonMobil, and our incredible speaker line up of Jerome Serve - Viridien, Lewis McDonald - Herbert Smith Freehills Kramer, Shiva Kant - Boston Consulting Group (BCG), Carlos Bellorin - Welligence Energy Analytics, Eric d'Argentré - Panoro Energy, Claudia Napolitano - ExxonMobil, Nick Ingrassia - Seascape Energy Asia plc and Rahul Dhir - Former Upstream CEO.

It was genuinely a pleasure to host so many friends of Frontier - our Members, Sponsors and invited guests - a room full of people who are actually shaping this industry day to day. The kind of room where connections are made and deals are done.

We met under a clear theme:
“Global Capital, Global Strategy: Aligning Finance and Upstream Growth.”

And the discussion delivered this and more. Two very strong panels, a full room - and a very clear message from the market:
Upstream is not short of capital. It’s just much harder to access.

Key takeaways from our discussions:

1️⃣ Capital is stratified, not scarce
Majors are largely self-funded and disciplined. Independents are facing a much tougher reality and are getting creative.

2️⃣ The playbook has changed
Cheap equity and debt is gone. Financing is more complex, more expensive, and increasingly coming from non-traditional sources.

3️⃣ What gets funded has shifted
Capital is going to advantaged, fast-moving, gas and infrastructure-led projects. It’s no longer about resource alone - it has to be executable.

4️⃣ Competition is broader than capital
NOCs, local players and trader-backed entrants are changing the landscape. Access to deals is now as much about relationships and positioning as it is about balance sheet.

𝗧𝗵𝗲 𝗯𝗼𝘁𝘁𝗼𝗺 𝗹𝗶𝗻𝗲:
Capital is still flowing into upstream - but it is complex and challenging. And that’s why Global Upstream Leaders Forums matter. Because understanding where capital is going in the upstream, who can actually access it and how they do so, is critical.

Up next in the Global Upstream Leader Series:
📍Aberdeen at EAGE (European Association of Geoscientists and Engineers) - 9th June 2026