It is hard to believe it is 2007. It seems only yesterday that I took my first job in the patch in 1967. That was a summer internship, followed by two more. My father, who took his first summer intern job in the patch in 1939, gave me plenty of warning about the business he spent nearly 40 years in. I jumped in anyway.

Over the past 40 years I have seen a lot and, based on this (and the fact that I have been hit on the head by more than one derrick bolt), I would like to make some observations on issues I have been pondering as we enter the new year.

• “In the old days, we did it right.” That is a phrase I hear more often as my age group and it predecessors — the old school — move farther out to pasture. I know I will hear from a lot of you but, balderdash. What we can do today, and do safely, has no equal in any of phase of our history. From 4-D seismic, to logging while drilling and measurement while drilling, to multiphase metering and intelligent wells, the industry is exponentially more productive and exponentially safer. Whilst I have an extreme fondness for all the time I spent on locations, on rig floors and on production platforms, it is almost all reserved for the people I worked with and came to cherish, not the technology.

• On the other side of the coin, I hear from a lot of young people that this industry is low tech. Again, balderdash. I frequently challenge audiences — especially teachers, to whom I speak on occasion about myths and realities vis a vis the upstream industry — to loan me a spare tire. Then I ask them to take the spare tire (in fun of course; if anyone takes this literally, I am sunk), haul it 5 miles from the spot we occupy and bury it 8,000 ft (2,439 m) in the ground. I then tell them that, using the most current technology, I can locate a drilling rig at our location and, from it, drill a hole through that spare tire 5 miles away and 8,000 ft under the ground. And that, folks, makes lunar exploration look like child’s play.

• “The oil and gas companies manipulate prices and supply and demand.” This one requires a bit of illumination. At one time they did. John Rockefeller was a master at it until the US Federal Government broke up his virtual monopoly with the Sherman Anti-Trust Act.

However, in doing what he did best, he brought order into the most chaotic business in late 19th century America. Now, it is hard to find much of a way that oil and gas companies can manipulate prices, especially at the forecourt. I was asked about that in one of my presentation recently — “why do petrol prices fluctuate wildly and go up, it seems, on a whim?” The answer is free market economics. Most petrol retailers — especially in the United States — are independent businessmen with a franchise license from the gasoline wholesaler. They are free to set prices at any level they believe the market will support. That is why gasoline is some 10-12 cents higher near the Hart offices (in an affluent section of Houston) than near my home (in a less affluent area). I can’t see a way to blame that on the oil and gas companies.

There is more but it will have to be saved for another time. From all of us at Hart, best wishes for the New Year, whenever it may begin for you.

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