From the Permian to the Appalachian, NAPE attendees shared which U.S. basins they thought would be the most active in 2023. Here's what some of them had to say.

Chris Smithson, CTO, Croft Production Systems: The Eagle Ford is our backyard, so we're happy to see increased activity out there. You know, we hope that that one does come back to, you know, some of its former glory. The Hayesville has been a big growth area for us, and that's, you know, a nice local play. And we we're seeing a lot of activity from a lot of our clients there.

Wood Allen, managing partner, Swenson Minerals Group: I think the Permian will be the most active.

Meredith Roth, CMO, PakEnergy: Hey, we're West Texas – Permian all the way.

Denna Arias, chief corporate development officer, Opportune: Of course Permian is going to continue because there's still quite a bit of players in the area. So as far as M&A is concerned, I think that will continue.

AJ O'Donnell, director of equity research, East Daley Analytics: All eyes are on the Permian. Rig counts are floating around 340 to 350. We also see pickup and activity in the ArkLaTex, and that's really part of our call right now is all this rig activity that we're seeing – how that incremental supply push is going to affect the supply and demand in the market, as well as effect prices.

Andrew Graham, attorney at law, Steptoe & Johnson: My attention's probably more on the Appalachian Basin than any place else.

Hesketh Streeter, executive vice president, Viking Engineering: Gas is going to become more and more important and unless, you know, for example, when you get Freeport LNG online could be additional capacity. So I think the gas basins' actually going to get more focus than the oil.