Why is the oil industry so scared?
Looking around the #oilgas industry over the last couple of years and I have noticed an alarming trend. Most companies and people are scared. I was not sure what it was for a while but it is obvious that it is fear now. Fear of failure, fear of inadequacy, fear of being the bad guy, fear of screwing someone over, fear of letting down our families, fear of providing for our children, fear of the government overreaching, fear of the government not doing enough, fear of investors, fear of risk, fear of being wrong, fear of perfection, fear of not being perfect, fear of environmentalists, fear of many, many, things.
I do blame some of the #unconventional and #shale mind set in this. How many in our industry have never drilled a dry hole. How many run the statistics game on pad development. How many teams, full of talented people, ignore the data they have because this is what we were told to do.
When we tell stories of the great pioneers and people in our industry do you think that they were not scared? I had a conversation with a young man the other day at a scouting event and I asked him what point of the scout law he embodied. He mentioned bravery (very unusual). I asked him to define bravery. He said that it was not "not being scared" but to do what needed to be done even after weighing the risk.
Fear does not just keep us doing the safe choice, it quite often sees us doing nothing. We don't get in trouble from nothing. We can't be wrong if we do nothing. And we also don't win if we do nothing. How many conversations are held around the NAPE floor of I had acreage in Karnes county in 200x and I couldn't get it done. I knew the oil was there, now look at it.
George Mitchell knew it and changed our entire industry.
Now I am not advocating recklessness. We have some of the brightest people in the country working. I would put our hands out in the field at being able to accomplish almost any task. The things I have learned from my connections here and friends in the patch have enriched my life so many times over.
We need to act. Together. Oil is over $70/bbl as of this morning and has been over $65 since 2021. We have never had such stable prices. (I am not going to talk about gas). Let's make smart choices.
Do you have an idea you think would work, a well you want to try and drill? Maybe you want to invest? I would be glad to have a discussion with any of you and try to match you up. I think it is time our people get a bit of their swagger back and realize that the world runs on oil and energy.
Time to make the world better.