What's Ahead - Comments on benchmarking.

There is no business like the oil business! We are very fortunate to be working in oil and gas. I believe it is the best industry in the world and that there is no better time than now for YPs in oil and gas to develop their careers. However, this issue of TWA is not about self-promotion; we started planning our content with the vision of benchmarking our industry. Essentially, we wanted to know what we do differently and what we can learn from other industries to become even better. There is the old story of a guy who asks a friend, “What is the most profitable business in the world?” The friend answers, “The most profitable business in the world is a well-managed oil company.” The guy asks again, “What about the second most profitable?” The friend answers, “A poorly managed oil company.” This story, which I first heard some 20 years ago, is a reflection of the single most important fact keeping our industry from making an improvement breakthrough: There is not enough drive to generate a major change. The funny thing is that this story is no longer true. Nowadays, there are other industries that are as profitable and valuable as ours; and, as we all know, the economic reality of most emerging hydrocarbon sources (shale, deep water, heavy oil, etc.) is that they will not be profitable without greater efficiency in delivery. The driver for change is now looming on the horizon. There is no more easy oil being discovered, other competing energy sources are being developed at a faster pace, and we face a workforce shortage fueled by the “Big Crew Change.”

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