JF 4144: How To Underwrite Oil And Gas Like A Pro ft. Bob Fraser

The Best Ever CRE Show

Best Ever CRE

Business, Investing, Entrepreneurship

4.7 • 996 Ratings

🗓️ 8 January 2026

⏱️ 65 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Pascal Wagner interviews Bob Fraser, CFO and chief macro strategist at Aspen Funds, to break down how oil and gas can (or can’t) fit inside a diversified portfolio. Bob explains the three parts of the industry (upstream, midstream, downstream), why most LP horror stories come from drilling risk, and why he prefers buying already-producing, non-operated working interests to reduce geology/engineering/operator risk. He also walks through what tax benefits investors often misunderstand (IDCs vs. depletion allowance), the importance of low leverage + hedging in a volatile commodity business, and the key red flags he’d watch for when underwriting deals (vertical wells, unrealistic pricing assumptions, and weak operator quality). Bob FraserCurrent role: CFO and Chief Macro Strategist, Aspen FundsBased in: Overland Park, KansasSay hi to them at: Website: https://investlikeabillionaire.org Company: https://aspenfunds.us LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/bobfraser10/ Join us at Best Ever Conference 2026! Find more info at: https://www.besteverconference.com/ Join the Best Ever Community The Best Ever Community is live and growing - and we want serious commercial real estate investors like you inside. It’s free to join, but you must apply and meet the criteria. Connect with top operators, LPs, GPs, and more, get real insights, and be part of a curated network built to help you grow. Apply now at⁠ ⁠⁠⁠www.bestevercommunity.com⁠⁠ Podcast production done by⁠ ⁠Outlier Audio⁠ Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Transcript

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1:28.6	of Slack Business Plus. All right, if you've been exploring oil and gas as an investment lately,
1:34.0	it probably feels like two completely different worlds. On one hand, the tax benefits are some
1:39.9	of the most powerful in the entire tax code, and you can offset active income in your first year
1:46.7	in many of these investments. On the other hand, every investor forum makes it sound like it is
1:52.6	the Wild West, blown out pro forma's, you know, delay distributions or deals that just take a decade
1:58.8	to even just return your capital. And so you are stuck in the
	...

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