E&P executives should keep watch for meddling hedge-fund managers, such as Carl Icahn, which prompted Kerr-McGee Corp. last year to restructure its asset portfolio and debt/equity profile. Be keen to "how these groups can be activated or motivated to interrupt your business, particularly if you're a public company," Jim Parkman, chairman and co-founder of investment-banking firm Petrie Parkman & Co. told a group of NAPE Expo attendees in Houston recently. The new buzzword for these hedge-fund managers is "investor provocateurs," he added. In some circles, they're called champions of shareholder rights. "In the 1980s, we called them corporate raiders," Parkman said. While world energy demand is growing, Parkman notes that consumers have been highly elastic in their satiation level. In 1978, U.S. oil demand was some 18.9 million barrels per day, according to the Energy Information Administration (EIA); by 1985, it fell to some 15 million. Today, it is roughly 20 million. "I really recommend you use that EIA web site," he added. "You're paying a lot of money for it and it has a lot of good information."

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