They finally put the fires out in the rubble that was the World Trade Center at the end of December. That put some kind of finality to a year that we truly can call, in the best monarchial style, an annus horribilus. Enron down and out. Oil and gas prices in the dumps. Skating on the edge of worldwide recession. More tension and conflict worldwide than I can remember in a long time. Best not to dwell on it. Rather, there were some fairly nice things that went largely unnoticed last year, and some for many years before. That might be the stuff we want to remember.
One of those is the continued generosity of this industry to the community at large. For instance, I recently received the yearly statement for the Abell-Hanger Foundation, created by oil man George Abell and his wife Gladys Hanger Abell. Those of you outside the Permian Basin of West Texas and New Mexico might not be familiar with the Abell-Hanger foundation. It is a quiet group doing splendid work. Aside from being the primary agent for the creation of the Permian Basin Petroleum Museum, the foundation has gifted more than US $100 million - more than $8 million last year alone - to local and regional communities for health care, human services, public and society benefit, education and art, cultural and humanities programs. Super stuff.
Or what about the millions of dollars donated by our industry to relief efforts for the victims and kin of the World Trade Center disaster. Or the continuing programs by all of our industry to recruit and train indigenous people. Or the countless schools, hospitals and other local facilities built by this industry during the past 50 years. For an industry so much maligned in the world's press and by special interest groups, we have an amazing record of generosity. And that is a bright spot in an otherwise bleak year.
Another is the measure of stability - Enron discounted - that this industry illustrated in 2001. I have said this before, but still, the industry seems to have gotten its act together. Last year it did not respond to roller coaster oil prices as it always has done before - with euphoric spending sprees on the upside and painful, gory retrenchment on the downside. That fact alone might make last year an annus miraculus.
Yet another is the concerted effort by Opec to keep oil prices above an acceptable threshold. Although no one would disagree that Opec's performance has been spotty in the past, last year's performance did us all a lot of good. Opec deserves a solid round of applause for taking it on the chin once again for all of us.
So, yeah, last year was like brown shoes with a black tuxedo, but it wasn't so bad that you couldn't find a bright spot or two if you spent just a little time looking.
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