Watching Government Cleaning up industry's image

With Patrick Crow from Washington, D.C. [email protected] How can the industry improve its oily image? Two industry groups not known for cooperating with each other, the American Petroleum Institute and Independent Petroleum Association of America, have formed a task force to work on that problem. The driving force behind the effort is IPAA chairman Lew Ward, president of Ward Petroleum Co., Enid, Okla.

July 29, 1996

3 min read

How can the industry improve its oily image?

Two industry groups not known for cooperating with each other, the American Petroleum Institute and Independent Petroleum Association of America, have formed a task force to work on that problem.

The driving force behind the effort is IPAA chairman Lew Ward, president of Ward Petroleum Co., Enid, Okla.

He said Oklahoma's check-off program, a voluntary volumetric assessment on production, has met with success in cleaning abandoned wellsites and the state industry's image (OGJ, Apr. 1, p. 19, and Jan. 15, Newsletter).

Last spring Ward made an impassioned plea to API members for a national program to improve the public's perception of the industry and won their grudging cooperation.

Image task force

A 17 person task force was created, chaired by Ward and Phillips Petroleum Co. Chairman Wayne Allen, to perform a feasibility study costing as much as $375,000.

It invited five partnerships, each consisting of public relations, advertising, and research firms, to submit detailed plans for campaigns that include PR, advertising, educational, environmental cleanup, and other programs.

The task force will review those proposals in August and make recommendations this fall. If it decides a national campaign is feasible and desirable, then API and IPAA face an even larger problem: how to fund it.

The majors adamantly oppose a national check-off program. They fear they will be stuck with the bulk of the costs of an open-ended campaign that might not do any good.

Ward stressed that check-off is only one possible financing option. But he thinks an effective campaign must be long-term and thus needs a reliable funding mechanism.

He said, "The industry got whipsawed during the recent flareup in gasoline prices. If we let that sort of thing happen without commenting, it's no wonder we have trouble getting legislative relief on the things we need.

"I don't think we're going to make the American people love us or anything like that. But they should realize the contribution this industry makes to their daily lives.

"We just have to reestablish this industry as a socially acceptable industry. This is an ambitious undertaking, and I think something this industry should have been doing a generation ago, perhaps two."

The "Dallas" dilemma

In this generation, the industry's image has suffered from three negatives: the oil spills off Santa Barbara in 1969 and involving the Exxon Valdez in 1989 and the stereotype created by the J.R. Ewing character on the television show "Dallas" in 1978-91.

When a "Dallas" reunion special airs in November, the Oklahoma Energy Resources Board will be ready.

It is preparing a 30 sec. commercial with actress Susan Howard, who played J.R.'s sister-in-law. She will stress that independent oil operators are conscientious small businessmen, not slimeballs like J.R.