Despite a slew of events—war, tariffs, regulatory policy—that have rocked the energy markets in the first half of 2025, the broad picture remains relatively stable, an energy banker said at Hart Energy’s Energy Capital Conference on June 4.

“It’s an interesting kind of teeter-totter that is out there in the world economy right now,” said Mari Salazar, senior vice president and director for energy banking at BOK Financial.

Salazar appeared on a panel discussing investment strategies at a time when volatility has become a daily feature of the energy marketplace. But U.S. energy capital markets have adjusted, or expect E&Ps to adjust as WTI settles into the $60-$70/bbl range.

Patti Melcher, founder and managing partner of EIV Capital, said she hopes that big public E&Ps maintain fiscal discipline and focus on investing in their company needs. Investors most likely won’t be drawn to a company that increases its debt to make stock buybacks.

Instead, the best path for a company is to reinvest in new resources, considering that wells will always decline in production, she said.

One sector of the market that has continued to heat up is natural gas. Upcoming demand from LNG plants and power generation, plus rising summer temperatures, have boosted Henry Hub prices. On June 4, the Henry Hub price reached $3.73/MMBtu after mid-day trading—more than 50% above May 27.

“On natural gas, people are pretty gung ho,” Melcher said. “We all feel pretty good about the long-term outlook for natural gas and, hopefully, we’re past the $2 era.”

The market as a whole also shows signs of recovery from one of the biggest shocks of the year—the implementation and non-implementation of tariffs following President Donald Trump’s “Liberation Day” executive order on April 2, said Jeff Treadway, senior vice president and director of energy finance for Comerica Bank.

Treadway discussed EOG Resources’s $5.6 billion acquisition of Utica player Encino at the end of May as a sign that the M&A market may be returning to more typical levels.

“There was a little bit of a pause there, but it didn’t take long for it to come back,” he said.

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