Australian Oil & Gas, LNG and Royalties: How One Executive Built a Career in Houston

Peter Brecht00:00

Hello everyone. On today's episode, we're joined by Sean Hanrahan and my good friend, Maceo Brown. Sean is a previous minerals and oil and gas executive out of Australia and now operates platypus brewing in Houston, Texas. He's planning an upcoming expanded venture and we get into some of the details of what he's creating. Maceo is a colleague of mine who I spent many days on the road with as well as a retired pro rugby athlete. This conversation was all over the place covering rugby, oil and gas and building breweries and ultimately felt like catching up with old friends rather than a formal interview.

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Peter Brecht00:33

All right. Welcome to the local energy podcast. My name is Peter Brecht. I am joined today by two guests. Very excited to get into this.

Our first guest is Sean Henry hand and our other guest who's kind of acting as co-host today because of our topic of discussion is Maceo Brown. So gentlemen, I'm so excited to have both you here in the same room. We are talking about oil and gas as we always do on the show, but I think of equal importance here is the topic of rugby. And then we have some beer conversation as well, So

First off, Sean, how are you doing and where are you right now?

Sean Hanrahan01:07

Yeah, thanks very much for that wonderful introduction. I'm based in Houston, in Texas at the moment. So I've been back stateside since about 2015. So can't keep me away. So yeah, based in Houston.

Peter Brecht01:20

Perfect. Macio, for our listeners that maybe have heard your name but don't know where you're located, where are you?

Maceo Brown01:26

Yeah, I'm located here in Riverside, California.

Peter Brecht01:30

Perfect. All right. So two Californians, one Australian in Houston, Texas. So here we go. Well, Sean, before we get into anything serious, our first question we ask every guest and throws them off a little bit, but did we land on the moon?

Sean Hanrahan01:43

Did we land on the moon? I wasn't

Alive at that point. So it's a bit like the Bible. I'm just going by what everyone tells me happened. I can only have full, full transparent trust in our governments that they would never lie to us and therefore that we had to have landed on the moon, right?

Peter Brecht01:51

Ha

I love it. Right. I'm kind of on the same wavelength as you may say. I'm going to throw the question over to you also. I've actually never asked you this despite many hours in the car with you. This is one thing we've never talked about, but did we land on the moon?

Maceo Brown02:13

I like your answer Sean a lot. I don't necessarily buy it. I'm not buying it. I'm not buying what they're selling.

Peter Brecht02:18

Okay. All right. Fair

Enough. All right. So Sean, this interview really revolves around what you're doing. And I brought Maceo in here cause he has a much more keen understanding of the sport of rugby

But I know so many Australians in Houston specifically. We have clients out there. Probably three of them are CEOs, CFOs, industry leaders. And maybe I'm just lucky to know all these guys, but what is it about Houston that's drawing the Australian crowd out

Sean Hanrahan02:45

Well, we do have quite the prolific oil and gas industry in Australia and obviously Houston being sort of North America's HQ these days in terms of oil and gas. But, for me, my journey was based with an Australian oil and gas company that, well, it's a minerals and at that time oil and gas company and it had its HQ of global petroleum in Houston. So that's what brought me here.

That's now sold and to another great Australian company, which is why you do see a bunch of Aussies here in that oil and gas industry. It's not just in that particular company, all the majors. At some point, if you're in the global oil and gas company, it's tough to stay away from Houston, regardless of your nationality. It's just the way that the industry gravitates.

And many of my good friends might be geoscientists or engineers or so forth, spend many time in Asia and Europe and so forth, but they all at some point in their career found themselves coming through Houston. Yeah, it's quite the draw card in terms of that, just the nature of the beast in terms of the industry.

Peter Brecht03:57

There you go. I don't know enough about Australian oil and gas. So we're to touch on that a little bit later. The first thing I want to talk about though is.

Rugby. So I did some research And it looks like you have had a podcast about rugby in the past and maybe even played. So tell us a little about your background there. And then Maceo, I'm here to kind of learn like how all this works together.

Sean Hanrahan04:18

Yeah, so in terms of rugby, given I have this wonderful audience here today who played at a much higher level than me. And look, I'm what you would consider a rugby tragic. And that means that I've played since before I could walk. My competence as a player was probably average to maybe a bit above average in Australia, but yeah, it was

Maceo Brown04:28

Thank

Peter Brecht04:36

You

Sean Hanrahan04:39

True, purely recreational for me, focused on career in mining and oil and gas. I did a podcast actually around the World Cup, the last World Cup, and it's great when it's in the Northern Hemisphere because you're of the time difference. And I had had my bar or the brewery, Platypus Brewing. And so I thought, well, what a great opportunity to showcase rugby. And really, we

Peter Brecht04:56

Okay. Yeah.

Sean Hanrahan05:03

I did a bunch of podcasts with some of the greats of the game. South Africans and Australians, ex players through World Cups. And there was a wonderful list and I was quite surprised pleasantly that I could get access to the, and they're all fine gentlemen. And it was all through a good mate of mine who's a South African and basically through the university,

And he goes, yeah, sure, hang on, just leave it with me. And he goes, right, I can get you, guys who have capped in the country and going World Cup wins. And I'm like, my gosh. And just real fine gentlemen to talk to as well. Some wonderful stories that I couldn't actually air. But so it was wonderful going through and editing that. But what we did from that with the World Cup.

Peter Brecht05:37

Hahaha

Sean Hanrahan05:45

Is then, as there's MLR, which is the semi-professional, the professional rugby across North America, or across the United States. And there was a team at the time called the Houston Sabercats who, unfortunately, there's a pause in that, and we truly hope they come back. But a very successful team, and I was fortunate enough to be asked to be a sponsor, the beer sponsor for the stadium.

Peter Brecht05:52

Hmm? Yeah.

Mm-hmm.

Sean Hanrahan06:10

4,000 seat stadium. I thought, well, my gosh, here I am making beer and now I'm able to push it into a rugby stadium. It doesn't get much better than this. And just, it was a truly professional organization, great bunch of guys, always come the brewery. And it was just such a wonderful experience to be surrounded by people who've chosen to make rugby their career and talk to them about.

Peter Brecht06:21

Right.

Mm-hmm.

Sean Hanrahan06:35

The sacrifices they need to make in doing that. And in terms of whether it's family or location or in many times even economics, just for their sheer love of the game. And it humbles you in that sense that these guys are putting their entire careers on the line, doing something they love and like, wow, that's amazing. It's not something I ever did. So that's my sort of rugby tragic background. I played a bit of sevens in the States.

Years ago when I could actually run and then 15s in Australia at an okay level. I used to travel a lot, but nothing like this fine gentleman on the screen right now. And we've all have our wonderful rugby stories, some you can hear and some many you cannot. And just that rugby fraternity though, it is a true global thing. And it's wonderful to be a key part of that. And anyone who's part of it is a key part of it. And I'm just, very...

Peter Brecht07:07

Yeah.

Ha

Mm-hmm.

Sean Hanrahan07:29

Very happy to be part of that rugby fraternity.

Peter Brecht07:32

So I never played rugby but I've spent the past five years around, Bill Leversee hall of famer, Dave Hodges hall of famer. And now we got, Maceo and our president, Mike Tanghe he played for OMBAC and still plays to this day. Like he'll go down and play a game in Argentina and just take a beating. I don't know how he does it.

So i'm gonna throw it over to Macio yeah yeah you can't you can't

Sean Hanrahan07:50

It's in your blood. You can't stop. It's just, it's in your blood. It's,

Maceo Brown07:55

Yeah,

Sean Hanrahan07:56

Yeah.

Maceo Brown07:56

It's the greatest sport on Earth, right? I think what you touched on was a very important part and probably the coolest part about rugby in the States and that's a lot of us do have to sacrifice our careers and put really family and all that stuff on hold and really just play for the love of the sport. And I think that's where you get all those genuine people and all those amazing

Peter Brecht08:18

Mm-hmm.

Maceo Brown08:23

Like that fraternity style of wherever it's a, it truly is a brotherhood and there's nothing like it. You'll never run into any, any people, the best people in the world. And I think Peter started to come wise to that and he's been accepted in a, with open arms. So.

Peter Brecht08:39

Yeah,

I gotta play a game with some of you guys and get beaten down first, I think, before that happens.

Maceo Brown08:44

No, yeah, Bamsky.

Sean Hanrahan08:47

Think you want to be careful who you're playing against. I'm

Peter Brecht08:49

Yeah, yeah.

Sean Hanrahan08:50

Sure Maceo's the right guy to be setting up against.

Maceo Brown08:52

I'm

Peter Brecht08:52

Hahaha

Maceo Brown08:54

Happily retired. I'm just a touch guy now. But I was curious, Sean, what position did you play? I know you said you played a bit.

Peter Brecht08:57

Got it.

Sean Hanrahan09:03

Yeah, it's a great question. I was outside center, so 13, which I love that role. I played a bit of 10. The problem is you've got to think too much. Especially if you're a captain of a team, which I was for a number of years in Australia, it's a lot of pressure because you're managing personalities, referees, and then you actually have to do your own job. 13 is great because you can just get smacked and smack and run straight and you can sort of delay and look for gaps. And it's a really fun position.

Maceo Brown09:08

Okay, okay. Yeah.

Sean Hanrahan09:33

You go any further out and it starts to get a bit scary because it's a bit too one-on-one, and, but interesting from that, I then moved to, as I came back to the United States, I thought, okay, why not, I'm getting on in life, so why not lace up and let's go again, go figure. And the older I got, the numbers on my back went higher. And I thought, hang on, the older you get, you're meant to have a lower number.

Maceo Brown09:36

Yeah.

Sean Hanrahan09:59

And so they put me at fullback and I'll tell you what, fullback is the loneliest position on on a rugby field. You are out there on your own and it's, you you'd make any sort of mistake, it's magnified, right? And so here I am at the ripe old age of what I was body was just barely hanging in there. And they said, no, I want you to play fullback because you can talk to the wingers and you have experience in that. And I went, you make a lot of sense right up to the point that you need a really fast fullback.

Maceo Brown (10:00).

Peter Brecht10:05

Hmm.

Maceo Brown10:10

Hello?

Sean Hanrahan10:27

So anyway, that's where I finished my career unceremoniously at 15.

Maceo Brown10:33

Awesome. I played all those positions and I think outside center was also my favorite.

Sean Hanrahan10:33

I wouldn't call it a career, I'd call it just a run.

And body types now, outside Santa 13, you you basically need to be a brick wall with eyes that can run fast. And yeah, so that's not really my physique. Yeah, other than the eyes piece, yeah.

Maceo Brown10:49

You

Yeah

I started the opposite way. I started at wing and then moved in farther and farther. I kept moving me in, moving me in.

Peter Brecht11:02

Maceo know you're fast. Like I've seen you move. But like every time, so, we would travel Maceo and I, we'll get in an airplane, in a car. And there's stories that Maceo will tells me.

And like, it's just like the team sports and like how you take a hit and like how the team works together in the camaraderie and the training. When I was introduced to rugby, I thought it was the most complicated sport in the world. Like, think about this, we're gonna tell somebody the first part, there's 15s and then there's 7s right? So first of all, there's two different versions of the game. Everyone's got a different role to play. Sevens is faster, there's more people in the 15. And it's kind of overwhelming, right? And you have to go to a couple of games. And I remember, so I'm here in San Diego.

We have the Legion, which is now the California Legion. But, there's been a lot of changes in the MLR in the last couple of years. If you go to a game and I'm just going to tell everyone listening, our, oil and gas folks go to a rugby game, experience it. Is.

Probably the most exhilarating game. It's just incredible. So I love the sport. I love watching it. And again, I need to go out there and play, but,

So, Sean, you, you go from rugby and now you're, I guess we'll move over to oil and gas, but my understanding is, you predominantly were working over in Australia or did you do anything here? Stateside? What's the story there?

Sean Hanrahan12:13

Yeah, so in terms of my career in oil and gas, it was actually in the United States. So I worked for a company out of university or college, and it's probably one of the world's largest minerals companies actually, but it had a global oil and gas arm. So I started off my career actually in manuals. And then they moved to me from a very remote part of Australia to straight to Houston. So that was quite the adaptation required there. But so all of my career and it was

Peter Brecht12:37

Yeah.

Sean Hanrahan12:40

It was relatively short in my overall career. It was based here in Houston. I looked after the global exploration portfolio, which is great. Being in your twenties, playing rugby and then traveling for work. So it was wonderful. And, it was a bit of a bag holder for a while with new ventures and so forth, but really got to explore a lot of the world and South America and so forth, talking with governments, fiscal terms and.

All that really lovely, exciting stuff. But it really was managing that portfolio across Australia, Europe, and South Africa and South America. That was back in the late 90s, early 2000s, and all based here in Houston, before I then moved back to Australia on the mineral side again and continued my career there.

Peter Brecht13:29

Okay. So before this, we kind of had a pregame and we're talking a little bit about just Australia and there's some things going on there now. And I don't know. My rabbit hole has been trying to learn about oil and gas in Australia. Okay, what are the fields out there and all that, but going into this podcast, I wish I was even more prepared, but could you teach us a little bit about what oil and gas is like in Australia? And then we can move into some current events there.

Sean Hanrahan13:55

Yeah, sure. It's just at a nosebleed level. Australia is very blessed with its natural resources. So it has been a net exporter of oil and gas for many, many, many years. There was a big field down in the Bass Strait and the Bass Strait is that area between Tasmania, which is that island, the state island on the bottom of the country and the mainland. And sort of that general region, there was a...

Big oil field there that had been going from the 60s, I believe. And that's now very, it's legacy now, but it's now all on the Northwest shelf. So if you look at the country, a picture of the country to the Northwest and all offshore predominantly, there is a lot of onshore as well, but in terms of, yeah, a lot of the offshore LNG exports and predominantly to Asia, given the proximity to markets there.

So yeah, that's really the nosebleed level of our industry. There is onshore as well in South Australia and various other parts and some wonderful companies that have been doing that for a while. And yes, it sort of leads into some current events in the Australian political landscape that we'll talk about in a second. But it's been a great industry for Australia. It continues to be a good industry. It's why we have a good standard of living over there is because we basically export everything.

We import finished goods and that's an issue for energy, but we export a lot. It funds our social programs as well. So it's why we tend to have a pretty good standard of living over there. And of course, a population of, I think it's 28 million these days, living in about four or five different parts of that big country. So it's good that we have those prolific industries and then able to fund the good sort of programs that we need.

Peter Brecht15:40

Okay. Yeah. I, so my knowledge of Australia is my son watches, this national geographic show. And there's this guy, his name is Jack Randall and this guy is just, he's crazy. He's following the Steve Irwin's footsteps So anyways, my son watches the show and now he's outside jumping on lizards and catching bugs and bring them in the house. And so my understanding of Australia is like, everything can kill you out there. So like,

Or is the offshore kind of the same? Like obviously offshore has its own risks, but I mean it's is that They're not the bugs and stuff aren't coming out onto the rigs necessarily, right? Like is that is that a fair assessment if I'm gonna go out there?

Sean Hanrahan16:17

Yeah, on an offshore environment,

It'd be no different to offshore Africa or any of the others. You're gonna have the same hazards, except you may not have as many pirates. But in terms of onshore, yeah, it's a whole different beast.

Peter Brecht16:21

Okay. Yeah.

Okay, yeah, fair enough.

Who is kind of the unsung hero of these platforms and oil and gas? Who are people not talking enough about doing the actual work?

Sean Hanrahan16:40

That's a good question. My career was sort of in the corporate realm. And so there's not too many unsung heroes when you're talking about international conglomerates, right? They're all pretty sung. So yeah, that's a difficult one for me to answer in terms of unsung heroes in the oil and gas. I know there's a lot of onshore and there'd be entrepreneurs around that.

Peter Brecht16:48

Yeah, Okay.

Maceo Brown16:48

Thank

Peter Brecht16:57

Yeah.

Sean Hanrahan17:02

And certainly around degassing coal fields and reusing that gas and a lot of innovation in that space. But in terms of offshore, it's a tough one because as you say, the barriers to entry is so high given the costs that it's predominantly international conglomerates. There is a good point though that you're raising, might raise it here is

That legacy field that I was mentioned, down in Bass Strait, that area between Tasmania and the mainland. So that was found by a geo back in the 60s. A single geo found that and then kept a royalty, of course, for his family. But that just shows you one individual who's made a monumental discovery and that's been exploited over

Peter Brecht17:35

Yeah.

Sean Hanrahan17:43

50 years. So pretty exciting.

Peter Brecht17:44

Okay. All right.

The economics, it seems incredibly efficient and the more like I keep digging into that with different folks and asking, there's not one role, whether you're on the field or you're in the office or it is the efficiency is, is incredible. Just kind of seeing how that goes. Yeah.

Sean Hanrahan17:59

There is a heck of a lot of risk, right? Especially if you're doing these offshore wells, when you're

In that exploration phase, you're sinking a lot of cash in a single well. So that puts a lot of pressure on the geoscientists, right? To make sure that you're drilling in the right locations.

Peter Brecht18:14

It would be great to talk about here, the current events in Australia for oil and gas and get an update on what's going on there.

Sean Hanrahan18:21

Yeah, great. It's quite topical and it actually does, can you believe it, links into rugby. So there's a senator at the federal level in the upper house called David Pocock. And those in the rugby world would know, but he's a retired Wallabies, world cup player and a fine gentleman to boot. So he's an independent senator and he's now really pivoting the voice in Australia that

And he raised it in this tone, Australian government raises more revenue on beer tax than it does on the export of its gas resource. So that's just an insane notion, but it's all based on fact. And so that's quite topical because they're putting pressure on both sides of government. It's not just the current government, but the opposition as well, who for too long in his view,

Peter Brecht19:05

Yeah. Yeah.

Mm-hmm.

Sean Hanrahan19:16

And it's becoming a populist view that the international conglomerates, the oil and gas companies are not paying their fair share back to the Australian people for the gas that they're exploiting and getting billion dollar profits from. And that's, I wouldn't call it controversial. I think he's just called it out. And what he's done is, the citizens and residents are going, yeah, that's not right. We're paying.

Peter Brecht19:27

Mm-hmm.

Okay.

Sean Hanrahan19:44

The government's getting more in beer tax than it is on a prolific resource for gas. It just doesn't sound right. And you only need to go to somewhere like Japan, right? So Japan is an interesting model because it doesn't have its own natural resources. It imports everything, right? And it's a huge customer of Australia and that's iron ore, oil and gas, gets all these raw materials in and then exports steel and whatever. It's making more money off our gas than we are making off our

Peter Brecht19:52

Hmm.

Sean Hanrahan20:12

Because it buys it and then just sells it and makes more money. I mean, it's just, it's ludicrous and well done on the Japanese for doing that, by the way. That's nothing against them. That's just highly intelligent stuff, but it shows you that both sides of our political landscape has had the wool pulled over their eyes by the international wool companies for far too long. I think it may not happen this year, but I think it's going to become a central position of both.

Peter Brecht20:21

Mm-hmm.

Hmm.

Sean Hanrahan20:40

Sides of government and the opposition in order for them to get votes they're going to have to appease the citizens because it's starting to get a lot of momentum. So it's an interesting one and it's an ex rugby player who's doing it.

Peter Brecht20:48

Interesting.

Yeah, that's something to track for sure. It's interesting to hear. So I'm in California, Maceo's in California. Maceo, you've seen gas prices recently, right? I mean, we're, over $6. We're almost $7 a gallon right now. And yeah, you are. California has its own like ecosystem and challenges and it all goes back to the politics.

Sean Hanrahan21:04

Whew, I think we're $4 here.

Peter Brecht21:13

And then, what is, what's the current, the, the current energy environment in the United States, and then Australia has its own conversations, like all this stuff around energy all the time for different reasons. And so it's kind of interesting to see, something we need to track, I guess. And I need to just start following Australia more. I need to understand both sides of it. I'm really curious on, how that's being portrayed on both, both ends, but.

Very, very interesting.

Sean Hanrahan21:35

Well, it's interesting too

That we had this discussion 25 years ago about possibly raising the amount of tax off this resource. And it toppled the prime minister. The prime minister got voted out because they said, oh, you can't do that. That's terrible. Fast forward 25 years, another generation of voters and they've gone, well, this is reasonable. So it's amazing how our political landscape has really done almost a 180 in 25 years.

Peter Brecht21:40

Okay.

You

Hmm. Yeah. Yeah.

Do you think the outcome there would have any impact on, let's say, another nation's economics there. So for example, will it affect the United States if it goes one way or the other, or does it not really matter as much? Yeah. Okay. Yeah.

Sean Hanrahan22:12

No, I don't think so. In

Senator Pocock's argument for pointing this stuff out, actually referenced Norway as doing a wonderful job in terms of getting its right amount of rental tax back to the people. And he wants to not go as high as Norway has, but he wants to at least bridge the gap. We're a country of 28 million and we have our social issues, but I think they're

Peter Brecht22:25

Okay. Okay.

Sean Hanrahan22:41

It's quite a different matter in the United States with 330 or 350 million, right? It's a hockey stick in terms of the impact of your social issues. So I don't think that would be in any way influential in the United States political landscape.

Peter Brecht22:55

Okay. I

Got you. There smaller independent producers in Australia? Like there are here in the States or is it like, Hey, just, we just have Exxon out here and they dominate or do we have smaller producers that are being set up and operating, out there as well?

Sean Hanrahan23:10

Definitely

In the onshore space. Yeah, there's some smaller, because it's cheaper to do the wells. But when you're talking offshore, you need the internationals because it's just far too expensive. In Exxon, you mentioned one of the big ones for Australia would be Woodside Energy. They actually purchased the oil and gas assets off BHP, who's the biggest miner in the world.

Peter Brecht23:12

Yep. Yep.

Of course. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. The Capitol's insane. Yeah.

Sean Hanrahan23:32

And there's a lot of joint ventures between Chevrons over there on the Northwest shelf. But in terms of the onshore, probably one of the big players is a company called Santos. You'll probably see that splashed across a rugby jersey in Queensland, which is my home state. And Santos do a lot of onshore stuff there. And Beach Energy are some of the smaller guys who will come in as well. It's not quite, it's a different landscape, especially

Peter Brecht23:36

Yeah. Okay.

Okay. Yep.

Yeah, yeah.

Maceo Brown23:51

And flan.

Sean Hanrahan23:59

We just, I just had this conversation last night, actually with a couple of guys in the bar. And we're talking about royalties in the United States and how that's calculated versus how we do it in Australia. And you have a lot more little players here than you do in Australia because of just the sheer breadth of the industry here.

Peter Brecht24:15

Yeah. Yeah. There's a, I work with an operator myself and it's just like, the math they send over and like it, there's so many things like compliance wise that you have to do on top of everything else. But the competition to go buy some wells up as insane, like it's there's, and there's a lot going on right now. So it's been fun to kind of be a part of that, side of things and learn it too.

Yeah. Go ahead.

Maceo Brown24:37

Queensland, that's the Reds, right? Are you following Super Rugby at all, or do you watch often?

Sean Hanrahan24:39

Queensland Reds, yes, that's right.

I do not as often as I'd like because the games are the time zone difference. But each time I go back, I try and go back probably in July-ish or June-ish, which is our winter in Australia. I do try and catch a game. So I think they played the Auckland Blues last year and it's great going back and watching. It's good to see what they're doing.

Maceo Brown24:49

Right, right.

That'd be awesome.

For sure, that'd be awesome. You can watch the Blues. I'm a fan. I'm actually a Chiefs fan and we just beat the Reds.

Peter Brecht25:12

Ha ha ha.

Sean Hanrahan25:12

You did. Thank you for

Bringing that up. That's great. Actually, my good story with the Reds is, think, gosh, what year was it? It was 2011 and it was just before the World Cup. All the Reds actually won the, I guess, the Super Rugby Series and they were playing in our stadium in Brisbane, Suncorp Stadium. And we're playing against the Crusaders and a powerful team centered around Christchurch in New Zealand.

And anyway, we ended up winning and my wife reminded me while we're there that it was actually a wedding anniversary, but we had, we were season member tickets. So I said, love, we've got to go. I mean, I'll give you a finals grand final win that, that's a great engagement present surely. Not engagement, a anniversary present. She wasn't as enthused, but she still enjoyed the win. Yeah, it runs in your blood.

Peter Brecht26:05

Ha

No kidding.

Maceo Brown26:09

For sure, for sure. I actually want to go. I've never been to a Super Rugby match, that's on the bucket list for sure.

Sean Hanrahan26:16

It's very exciting, mate. You'd really appreciate the speed and the accuracy and just the sheer skill, certainly in the levels that you played. Yeah, and it's just wonderful to see. Even when they kick the ball, you barely even hear it come off the foot and it just sails. It's just everything's done really, really well. And I'm sure, you'd have a keen eye for it given that level you played. Yeah.

Maceo Brown26:32

Yeah.

For sure.

Speaking of David Pocock, I fell in love with watching Aussie New Zealand go at it all those years. Honestly, it was great to watch. My favorite player growing up was actually Israel Clough. Granted, all the things that happened there, but it was an amazing watch.

Sean Hanrahan26:56

Yeah, for that.

Yeah, that sort of off field stuff. In terms of his on field, just a brilliant player. Looks like he's barely moving, but he's just ripping through guys. Yeah, amazing.

Maceo Brown27:09

Yes, seriously.

Seriously.

Peter Brecht27:12

It's such a sport.

Sean Hanrahan27:12

Excellent. Yay.

Maceo Brown27:15

It's

Cool to see David Polk. I didn't know he was Senator. It's cool to see that he's making strides and actually giving back to the community. So that's awesome.

Sean Hanrahan27:22

Yeah, look, he's even when he was playing for the Wallabies and he he's originally from the Brumbies, which is in Australian capital territory, Canberra, which is actually where HQ is in parliament. And he I think he's originally from Namibia. And in his off seasons, he would go back and do a lot of charity work in Namibia with orphanages and building this and building that. Just an all round, really nice guy and that you really don't like to like, but you sort of have to like.

Because he's so successful and he's so nice and he gives so much back to the communities he's with. And what I like about is an independent Senator in Australia and without getting into politics, the way Australia tries to keep all the parties honest is to appoint smart independents and that gives us a balance of power. And David's doing that properly and everything he's doing is going back to the community. So yeah, he's working tirelessly and...

Obviously incredibly successful on the rugby field and he's continuing that off the field, which is great.

Maceo Brown28:22

Yeah, love to see that.

You, are you Aussie rules at all or not really?

Sean Hanrahan28:29

I am these days in terms of spectating. No, growing up, I'm sort of from a country area, west of Brisbane. And back in the 80s as I was a kid, played league and then getting into union. Was you either play league or union. I was your rules. You do not do that. That's what people in Melbourne do. It's an incredible, successful story about what AFL, Australian Football League.

Maceo Brown28:31

Yeah.

Sean Hanrahan28:56

It is now everywhere in the country and they did this in the nineties and it really overtook rugby actually. And it surprised a lot of the country areas now that are all playing Aussie rules and that when you could never really speak about it, it's never spoken about is now commonplace. And it's, it is by far the largest sport in Australia, which is why rugby suffers a little bit because all of our six foot eight guys who can run like the wind are all playing Aussie rules. They're not playing.

They're not playing rugby. And that's why you see so many punters in the NFL and in college, that are Aussie. And it's because the guys who don't quite make it to the top level of Aussie rules, they go down to this NFL clinic or school in Melbourne and learn how to kick that funny ball. And because they can just launch it in the next week, it's amazing their skill. That's why you're seeing so many Aussies as punters in the American football leagues. Yeah. So.

Peter Brecht29:30

Mm-hmm.

Hmm.

Sean Hanrahan29:51

And earning more money probably than being a professional Aussie rules player. Yeah. Go for it,

Maceo Brown29:55

That's it.

Peter Brecht29:57

We're going to talk about, our subject of, beer and platypus and what's going on there. And

So my, and this was really cool. It brought up a lot of fun memories for me, but growing up. So my grandmother, her family was fauerbach brewing, which was in Madison, Wisconsin. And they were in business for about 40 years closed in 1966. So there was always like, they, and they used to ship the beer in these, it wasn't cardboard boxes. They actually had like wooden crates that they would ship the beer bottles in. And so we had all these leftover marketing materials throughout the house and my grandma's house and our house.

It's just kind of around me. So I really enjoyed the marketing. And then I kind of got into Platypus and it's obviously an Australian marsupial, but tell us a little bit what's going on with Platypus. And I think you have some new plans as well.

Sean Hanrahan30:42

Yeah, that's right. So Platypus Brewing, we've been going for just under 10 years and it's brewery and restaurant here in near downtown Houston. But we've actually made the decision, the three partners, we've made a decision to actually close it as of May 31st of 2026. And that's predominantly, it's for two reasons. Timing could have been a bit better with the next opportunity, but that's just the way that it rolls.

But really it was the end of lease. We said, I've just, had this new opportunity, which I'll talk about the Oasis. And I thought, well, why not use the end of lease as the exit point. And then I can basically all of my time and attention can go into this new play. And I'm, very happy about that. Cause it means I'm not torn in 52 different directions, but what it means is the platypus lives. He's just going to be on the bench for a period of time, give him a break.

But we'll bring him back on. He'll be brought on as a, in the second half there as an impact player. And so we will still have the beer. It'll be brewed. I'll do it off premise. So I'll do it under a contract brew type arrangement. But then launching into my new one, I had some land and building under contracts, like two and a half acres. So it's a much more expansive play in terms of a community centric hub.

Peter Brecht31:53

Wow.

Sean Hanrahan31:58

Bringing in green space families, young professionals, old professionals. Definitely the rugby, we'll still be rugby central of Houston. But in a more relaxed, sophisticated, of community-centric environment, which you can do on two and a half acres. That'll be called the Oasis by Platypus, or something around that, I need to finalize it.

Peter Brecht32:02

Okay.

Yeah.

Mm-hmm. Yeah.

Yeah.

What brought you into thinking like, I'm going to go start a brewing company. Like that's not.

Not everyone makes that pivot. I'm curious what drew you to that.

Sean Hanrahan32:29

Yeah, a lot of it was based on where we were in life. So we were living in Australia, my wife and I, this was 2014. And we knew that we had to move back to the United States for family reasons, which we did at the beginning of 2015. I was with a company there and I said, hey, this is a wonderful time for us to say goodbye. I've been working for like 16 plus years at that company and...

I said, look, I'm countries. And they said, well, we'll get your job in that new country. And I said, thank you, but this might be the right time just to take a breather. And I said to my wife, look, to be honest, I wanted to stay in Australia. And I think we both did, but for personal reasons, we said we better come back. And so we did. So here I am in 2015 and my wife's so busy. She's consultant, director of consulting company, big one does all that and was allowing me to run around and

Peter Brecht33:20

Yeah, yeah.

Sean Hanrahan33:23

And do what I was doing. I had this feasibility in Australia on this brewery. So it's been a passion of mine for a number of years, probably going back to about 2010, 2011. And I wouldn't have called it the platypus in Australia, I would have called it something else. But here we were and I thought, okay, I need to put all this on hold. So I've done full feasibility and I thought, darn it. No, look, we need to go to the US. If I'm going to own a business, it needs to have my fingerprints all over it.

And so here I am at the beginning of 2015, just not doing a lot, which is great. Was having a break and I said, you know what, there's a gap in the market here in brewing. I literally dusted off the feasibility, Americanized it, grabbed a wonderful consultant. He's a good friend of mine today who lives at, he's in Portland. And I said, Hey, sort of Americanize this for me. And then I, from there, I adapted it to the Houston market. And then.

I had property, was it October of 2015? And that's where it all started. Yeah. So that was, it was just a passion of mine. I really wanted to do something different. I didn't want to be a 65 year old, ex corporate guy who says I had a great corporate life, yawn. And that, that was just my journey. I just didn't want to be that guy. And I thought, if life's going to give you an indication of doing something different.

Peter Brecht34:23

Yeah, that's awesome.

Sean Hanrahan34:46

There's nothing quite like moving countries mid-career and having, there were so many signals where I said, screw it, let's do it. Good old Richard Branson, I speak. Screw it, let's do it. Otherwise you'll have regrets on this. And that's why I took the step that I did.

Peter Brecht34:55

Yeah.

Those are the best moves, man. I love those. Yeah, I think you had a question there, sorry.

Maceo Brown35:08

I was just curious how you came up with platypus. What made you settle there? Because I think you nailed it, especially rugby, beer.

Sean Hanrahan35:18

Thank you very much. Yeah, that's very kind of you. And why platypus? So obviously, we're in the American market in the Houston market. There's this something different, unique about Australia, of course. And then I thought, well, what's the most unique thing of within Australia itself? And it to be the platypus. I mean, it is is so weird that thing. And egg laying mammal and all various other things which I won't go into now. But if you

Peter Brecht35:37

Mm-hmm.

Sean Hanrahan35:42

Google or look up the platypus and its unique characteristics, you'll have a bit of a laugh. And it sort of went back to our personalities as well. We're doing this for, it's a serious business, don't get me wrong, but we want to have fun with it. It represents our personalities. And I think from a branding standpoint, it's not something that you forget pretty quickly because it's so unique. And, we did the logo that we did with some good indigenous sort of style.

Peter Brecht35:55

Mm-hmm.

Sean Hanrahan36:10

Painting on there and that just sticks in people's minds. So was sort of a combination of uniqueness, branding and having a bit of fun.

Peter Brecht36:19

It's interesting. Like rugby is such a niche sport and yet you have been able to get in with, the Sabre cats, by any measure that's successful as you're looking at your next sort of iteration of this, are you planning on tying this into rugby as strongly or and I know there's a conversation here to be had about the MLR and what's going on there with the Sabre cats, but

I mean, do you still tie it into rugby? I hope you do because I want to see the sport continue to grow and thrive. But what does that look like?

Sean Hanrahan36:49

Yeah, good question. Look, I'm still quite active in the local rugby community, obviously not playing, but we have good affiliations with the clubs I've played for here and some, some very, close friends on both teams. We put on a barbecue and beer after the, after one of the local amateur games each time they play at home. And so we're, still that, whether or not

Peter Brecht36:54

Okay. Yeah.

Sean Hanrahan37:13

We do it as part of Platycle. So I'm still a key part of that amateur rugby, that community, the real backbone of rugby. And that will continue. In terms of the Oasis, it gives me a lot more sort of breadth in order to maintain a focus on rugby, but not to the point that, I shouldn't be focusing on US college sports and other things that are just good business, right?

Peter Brecht37:18

Mm-hmm.

Yeah. Okay.

Sean Hanrahan37:39

But it allows me to do both because it's such an expansive grounds where, yes, I can still be hopefully a focal point of rugby within Houston. And hopefully that continues. And I'll do that at the local level, amateur level communities and hopefully the professional level. But it doesn't sort of it doesn't take us out of that market of college sports and the other wonderful sports that happen here in the United States.

Peter Brecht37:39

Course.

Sean Hanrahan38:05

And so I think we want to focus hard on those as well, because it's just good business sense to do that.

Peter Brecht38:09

Sure,

Of course, Yeah, I would agree. Me say we're have to go out there and you're gonna have to put a jersey on and just play in one of these games. See you can get thrown in, you know?

Sean Hanrahan38:19

There you go. Get your run.

Maceo Brown38:21

As

Long as I can enjoy a platypus afterwards, I think I'm keen. Who is the local club up there?

Peter Brecht38:24

Hahaha

Sean Hanrahan38:25

There you go. And make sure you sit and then you'll be right. Yeah.

Peter Brecht38:28

Yeah, 100%.

Sean Hanrahan38:32

Austin, Austin Blacks. They're a wonderful organization up there, very successful actually. And the Huns have done a great job. But down here in Houston, actually Hurt, H-U-R-T, they're doing an excellent job in the current national championships actually. I think they're D1 or D2. Then the one that I played for was HARC We love our acronyms here. H-A-R-C, so Houston Athletic Rugby Club.

Maceo Brown38:48

Okay

Sean Hanrahan38:57

And more recently, when I came back to, that was when I was my first stint here in the United States. But when I came back to Houston, I joined a club called the Arrows and they're a D3, a really good community club there and have their own field and facilities there, which really helps. It's commonplace in other countries, but it's a bit tougher in the United States to find clubs that have their own facilities. And a club that does tends to be more successful as...

The Austin Black showed and the Huns as well up in Austin. So they've done very well actually, quite a success story in having rugby facilities and that means having your own fields, showers, gym and maybe a bar or something there. It's so part of the rugby culture to sit there after a game and talk to the opposition and trade war stories while you're having a beer or something in the dressing sheds before you even go up and do your three, two, ones.

It's a key part of that rugby culture and clubs that don't have those facilities tend to miss out on that a little bit, I think. Yeah, sorry, Masara.

Maceo Brown40:03

100 % and I hope that we see an uprise and clubs taking that mantra because it definitely makes a huge difference and I was lucky enough to play a part of some great local clubs and they didn't quite get that part right and I think they're hurting for it now where if they just did the hard part, invested in it early, they'd be in a much better place.

Sean Hanrahan40:30

Yeah. Yeah.

Peter Brecht40:31

That's awesome. Well, I want to be respectful of your time and you've been more than generous. But before we let you go, so you're building the Oasis and what's one lesson that you learned from building platypus that you are hardwiring into this new venture? There, is there like, what's the one thing that you're like, man, I got to absolutely do that. And just again, what's that theme?

Sean Hanrahan40:53

Yeah, other than staying corporate because it's easier. Yeah, less stress. What would be the one thing I take into the Oasis? Look, it's the one thing is that community centric. It's make sure you have that atmosphere. I've been at the pub or the bar the last couple of nights just talking to people and they're all coming in and it's wonderful conversations and it's where you meet friends. It's really a good part of your local community.

Peter Brecht40:55

Yeah, yeah.

Mm-hmm.

Sean Hanrahan41:18

The big piece that I'm taking into the Oasis that we definitely got that right. And we're actually only going to expand on that because it's in a slightly different part of Houston there. But it is the central core when I talk about being community centric or a community hub. I very much mean that. And that's what I'm focusing hard on and be the one hard wire from the Platypus restaurant and brewery.

Peter Brecht41:39

Love it. Sean, thank you for coming on and guys, I'll tell you right now. I can tell you from spending time kind of firsthand with all these, with this rugby culture, when Sean says community, there is a level to that with rugby that you just don't get anywhere else. It truly is.

You. I'm excited to come out and visit your new place when it's up and going. How can people get a hold of you? Is LinkedIn a good place to reach you or where else should people find you?

Sean Hanrahan42:04

Yeah, LinkedIn is a great spot. I have a profile on there. And yeah, that's probably a good place for people to get a hold of me.

Peter Brecht42:06

Perfect. Okay.

Awesome. Awesome. Well, thank you so much for coming on.

I can't wait to come out there and check everything out in Houston, but

For everyone listening, go to localenergy.com. I will have Sean's LinkedIn and Maceo's in there as well if you want to connect and we'll see you again next week.