2026 Dallas Energy Forum

“Below the Surface…Beyond the Barrel” A 2026 Energy Symposium Jointly Hosted by Dallas SIPES and UT Dallas The story of American energy has never been just about oil and gas in the ground — it’s about what we can see, what we can extract, and where the next barrel (or megawatt) comes from. This year’s forum goes below the surface, with new imaging and reservoir characterization techniques sharpening how we find and produce hydrocarbons, and beyond the barrel, into the plays, minerals, and power demands reshaping our industry’s future. We’ll cover advances in subsurface imaging and reservoir characterization that are sharpening how we find and produce hydrocarbons, fresh emerging plays across multiple basins, and the economics behind the critical minerals boom unfolding in our own backyard. We’ll also tackle the issues keeping every operator and investor up at night: the energy demands of AI and data centers, the strain and opportunity in our regional power grid, and where M&A&D activity and the broader macroeconomic picture are headed next. Yet some things don’t change. Oil and gas remains the backbone of U.S. energy, employment, and GDP, and the people in this room — the geoscientists, engineers, and independents who keep finding smarter ways to do more with what’s below the surface — remain the reason this industry keeps moving forward. The 2026 Dallas Energy Forum is dedicated to this theme: “Below the Surface…Beyond the Barrel” (because the next chapter of energy starts with what we haven’t looked at yet).