Changing reality
The last time the oil and gas industry tried to change its reality we came up with the "virtual corporation" named Enron, sold our kilowatts at midnight and bought them back in the heat of the afternoon. Presumably, Michael Minyard has tendered his resignation from the undisclosed integrated oil and gas company. He is to be forgiven his youth and ambition.
It is daunting to view the Model Career Progression on (OGJ, Oct. 20, 2003, p. 22) with its classic pyramid, 40 years, eight levels, and out. The first three or even four levels can be obtained with a reasonable "career velocity" perhaps not without changing organizations but certainly within the control of the individual. Talent has been sought after in every age, in every industry, regardless of demographics.
The upper levels become more problematic until the one president (trust me, there can be only one president), is dependent on the cumulative efforts of all those that came before and is judged at least quarterly by shareholders, directors, employees, regulators, analysts, politicians, media, and assorted plaintiff lawyers. I see signs, over the years, that the many-tiered management is gradually becoming broader based and somewhat decentralized, but a vertically integrated oil and gas company will always be a large, complex organization, utilizing many different skills and personalities.
I was fortunate to come of age in the Humble Oil & Refining (now Exxon) organization in the late sixties and early seventies. Day-to-day mentoring as well as formal schooling was a big part of the early years. Mentoring was both structured and informal from the field superintendent to the senior research scientist. A veteran secretary taught this engineering graduate to write a coherent business letter. Humble was serious about this effort but not wholly unique in the industry.
Not one of these mentors appeared threatened by my new engineering degree or dazzling brilliance. Some of these heroic characters even offered themselves up for my early attempts at supervision and management. Most of the old men and woman were venerated by their students and peers and rewarded by their management. Sadly, some were not. The idea of an employment contract, always rare in American oil and gas, is a valid one, but it would be best used at the tail end of the career, rather than in the beginning. The young lion almost immediately feels constrained upon signing a contract, and besides you can't guarantee him a company to run by the time he is 40. The only job you can contract for is one you have already demonstrated the ability to perform (pro sports contracts aside.) In the current upside down world, the most experienced, capable people take the golden handshake, and almost immediately begin making more, while working less.
The most efficient and ancient form of mentoring is the thoughtful question, followed by listening to the response. My aging staff and I have noticed a disturbing trend, which we communicate to each other as "no adult supervision," as a possible explanation of the inexplicable. I don't remember the last time I was asked for advice from a young oil and gas employee, and I'd rather not remember some of the responses to my unsolicited comments.
The following recent anecdotes will serve as illustrations: Million dollar plus, 10,000-ft gas wells are infilled on 80 acres, close enough for the fracture systems to intersect, resulting in near instant depletion.
A wellhead is removed from 6,000-psi Hackberry well with the downhole plug leaking. Fortunately, the sand in the string is able to plug off flow, sufficient to complete the operation. This phenomenon is know as "Coffman's Law of Compensating Errors."
An 11,000-ft directional gas well is perforated 200 ft off depth, due to confusion over the difference between measured depth and true vertical depth. The error is compounded by force-feeding a 6,000-bbl water frac to misspotted perfs. (Apparently Coffman's Law is not applicable in all cases.) I'm not making this stuff up.
What's an old man to do? A youngster might start by taking one of these old fossils to lunch. I don't think I'd be up to being locked up an entire Friday, even if the meals were catered. The worst that could happen, would be that, over time, you would learn to do a tough job well, if not in your current organization, then in another. If you are as fortunate as some of us, and one day have your own company, you will come to rely on these early mentoring sessions as one of the key factors in maintaining "career velocity."
Just because early tasks are viewed as low level and repetitive it doesn't mean that they are not vital to the endeavor's outcome. I predict that the required young talent will emerge on time and fully developed when needed. I further predict that much of the talent will come from failed "technology-focused" industries whose youth are seeking both a change in velocity and vector of their career.
J. E. Coffman
Sonora Minerals LP
Austin
Canadian gas plant
The article which appeared in your (OGJ, Nov. 17. 2003, p. 66) magazine is somewhat misleading as it uses the term "new" when referring to the turbine cooling technique. In 1970, I was project developer of a 150 MMcfd cryogenic ethane plus recovery gas processing plant in West Texas, designed and constructed by Hudson Engineering Co. of Houston. I am well aware that Hudson used this same technique to develop additional horsepower from a Westinghouse gas turbine in that project. (See "Reducing Fuel Consumption in an Expander Plant," Chemical Engineering Progress, November 1972.) I can report that the technique worked very well in the low humidity and higher elevation of the Permian basin.
Charles E. Collins
Barnes & Click Inc.
International Energy Consultants
Dallas