Readers have their say

In the January issue, I asked OGFJ readers to give us their thoughts regarding a letter I received from a California resident who took issue with my comments about the aging workforce and rising shortages of qualified professionals, especially engineers and geoscientists, in the oil and gas industry. Our California subscriber accused me of "glossing over" what he called "the fact that the industry has shot itself in the foot over the years by consolidating their businesses to Houston and the Gulf Coast."

He went on to say that the "brightest young Californians" would have no interest in living in a place like Houston, which he described as "dreary, foggy, cloudy, polluted and ugly."

Really? Maybe that's why some six million people call the greater Houston area their home. We have hot and humid summers along the Gulf Coast, but much of the year is temperate. You can play golf year round, and many do. San Francisco is situated in a beautiful place, but it's foggy and cloudy much of the time. And how can someone from the greater Los Angeles area call Houston polluted?

I recently visited with an oil company president from Brazil. He said that his company, which has no petroleum holdings in the United States, located its technical office in Houston for two reasons: 1) In Brazil, he has to pay $2.12 in "social costs" for every $1.00 he pays in wages. He said the cost is only 25% of wages in Texas, which also has no state income tax; and 2) Houston is the epicenter of the petroleum industry and has more qualified potential employees than any other place on earth.

But enough from me. I'll let our readers, some of whom agree with our California reader, have their say. I've edited the comments for conciseness.

BK: "I had to laugh when I read your reader's letter. The only thing he got right was listing Stanford first among the top universities in the state (just kidding, although in the spirit of disclosure I graduated from Stanford and returned to get my MBA there as well). What I can tell you is that 6 years of studying business and economics in California taught me that it is the last place I should live if I want to accumulate any wealth whatsoever. I proudly live in a suburb of Houston and love it here…People in California con themselves into believing that it's the place where heaven and earth hold hands. Of course, when they have been unemployed for three years (like a close relative currently is) – they have plenty of time to conjure up superlatives for the People's Republic of California."

Mike T in Highland Village, Tex.: "This fellow should look around his state and see that our industry has been leaving California since 1969, when the Santa Barbara oil spill occurred, launching the punitive and regulatory atmosphere that has smothered businesses and continues today. Although California does not own a monopoly of unfriendliness to the oil and gas industry, it is perhaps the worst place to do business in our country."

LT in Scotland: "While having never worked in the USA and only having visited California, I must agree with the anonymous reader. My oil and gas career started with a masters degree in Edinburgh, Scotland, and then for work I moved 3 hours up the road to Aberdeen. Edinburgh is the Cheese to Aberdeen's Chalk. Edinburgh is one of the most beautiful cities in Europe with a network of cultural activities to rival any city its size in the world. Aberdeen is the oil and gas professional hub for Europe, and correspondingly, it has dreary architecture, a stagnant population, and all the vibrancy of a concrete brick. All the major and significant independent oil companies have set up camp in Aberdeen, along with the large service companies...There would be a flood of young petro-technical professionals to the first operator that moved their technical offices to Edinburgh."

David B: Probably the biggest contributor to our demographic hole was simply the health of our industry – middling-to-poor – over the last two-and-a-half decades or so, (the last few years excepted). We laid off so many, so many left for greener pastures in other industries, and fewer young people saw such an industry as a good bet for their futures. However, I believe our consolidation to Houston is at least a contributor to the problem…There are plenty of people who love living in Houston, and there are plenty who don't really care where they live and work. But our geographic consolidation to a single region is a part of the equation. I can't think of any other industry, or technical discipline, where geographic choice is so limited. Over the last 25 years, how many trained people did we lose, and how many younger people specifically chose other fields, because of the limited geographical opportunity in our industry?

Have something to add? Email Don at [email protected].

Have an opinion about this? Email Don at [email protected].