2025 Speakers
2025 Permian basin water in energy conference
The University of Texas Permian Basin facilitates collaboration and innovative strategy development for the improved use, recovery, and recycling of water in the oil industry. The PBWIEC is a program of The University of Texas Permian Basin and housed at the University’s Shepperd Leadership Institute, allowing students at UT Permian Basin to directly benefit from the conference proceeds.
keynote speakers
Dan Pickering

Day 1 Lunch Speaker
Dan Pickering is the Chief Investment Officer at Pickering Energy Partners (PEP). PEP is a financial services firm focused on Investments and Advice in the energy sector – both traditional oil and gas and energy transition. Prior to PEP, he served as the President of Tudor, Pickering, Holt & Co., and Chief Investment Officer of TPH Asset Management. He has spent 29 years as an Energy Portfolio Manager, Researcher, and Analyst, first at Fidelity Investments, then as Head of Research at Simmons & Company and as the founding partner of Tudor, Pickering, Holt & Co.
He currently serves as the Portfolio Manager for several of PEP’s energy equity strategies, is on the Investment Committee of PEP’s energy co-investment and private equity strategies and serves in various business development and oversight roles across the firm.
Dan is the Board Chair of Merge Electric Fleet Solutions and also serves on the Advisory Boards for the Houston CFA Society, Capital Creek Advisors, Dynamo Energy Hub, Midway Companies, as well as the Posse Foundation, the Board of Trustees for Texas Children’s Hospital and the Texas Children’s Hospital Foundation.
He holds a BS in Petroleum Engineering from the Missouri School of Science and Technology and an MBA from the University of Chicago.
Colin Fenton

Day 1 Final Keynote
Colin Fenton is the co-founder and managing partner of Blacklight Research, LLC, and the senior managing director for commodities at 22V Research, LLC. He previously served as the global head of commodities research and chief commodities strategist for J.P. Morgan Chase & Co., where he was a member of the ten-person global management committee overseeing approximately 1,000 research analysts worldwide.
On the buy side, Colin founded Curium Capital Advisors, LLC, a registered investment adviser that he sold to J.P. Morgan Chase & Co. in 2010. Curium served as a subadvisor to hedge funds run by Soros Fund Management, Makena Capital, Raptor Capital, and other firms. Prior to founding Curium, Colin was the managing director responsible for commodities and cyclical industries at Stanley Druckenmiller’s hedge fund, Duquesne Capital Management, LLC. Colin also worked for two years as the Chief Intelligence Officer for Ospraie Management, LLC, then the world’s largest commodity hedge fund by AUM.
Colin began his Wall Street career in 1996 as an original member of the commodities research group at Goldman, Sachs & Co. Before joining Goldman, Colin was the research assistant to Ambassador Chester A. Crocker, the former U.S. Assistant Secretary of State for African Affairs and then-Chairman of the U.S. Institute of Peace.
Colin holds a Master of Science in Foreign Service (MSFS) degree from Georgetown University’s Edmund A. Walsh School of Foreign Service, where he is presently serving a three-year term on the Board of Advisors for the MSFS program. He was previously a Non-Resident Fellow at Columbia University’s School of International and Public Affairs in the Center on Global Energy Policy. Colin earned his A.B. in early modern history at Princeton University.
William “Billy” Murphy, Jr.

Day 2 Lunch Keynote
Billy is the Chief Executive Officer of University Lands. University Lands is a company inside of the University of Texas System that manages 2.1 million surface and mineral acres in West Texas, known as the Permanent University Fund (PUF) Lands. University Lands generates billions of dollars annually for the benefit of 28 higher education and health institutions in Texas within the University of Texas and Texas A&M University Systems. Based in Houston and Midland, UL has over 25 active operators (currently developing), about 220 operators that have wells producing on the lands and averages 380 gross MBOE/day (12-month average). UL’s acreage makes up roughly 8% of the total acreage on the Texas side of the Permian Basin.
Prior to joining University Lands, Billy worked at King Ranch, Inc., where he was a Vice President and Executive Officer handling a variety of responsibilities, including land and minerals, environmental, legal, special projects, and governmental affairs. He previously worked at Bracewell LLP as an attorney in their oil and gas acquisitions and divestitures group.
Billy grew up in Houston, where he graduated from Memorial High School and received degrees from Texas Tech University and South Texas College of Law. He currently serves as a Commissioner on the Memorial Villages Police Department and on the Board of Visitors for the South Texas College of Law and the Bureau of Economic Geology at the University of Texas at Austin.
Billy and his wife of 23 years, Margaret, a former elementary school teacher, live in the Memorial/Villages area of Houston with their three children, Will (19), Molly (17) and Griffin (12).