Quote:
Originally Posted by fotze
I have always thought and continue to think you have a warped view of the oilpatch. There is a reason these oilmen build and sell companies over and over and are worth vast sums of money that they do not have to work for generation. Like Jim Gray, 80 yr old guy starting a new company. I am sure you will say its greed and its part of that, but it is extremely exciting. Its like VLT's but with much better odds and your skill actually determines how well you do.
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Maybe I do have a warped view of it. I see everyone trying to get into it (we are in Calgary, after all), and yet everyone will tell you it's because they are highly interested in it. Sure. I'm positive that if the nuclear waste disposal industry, or the retail industry, paid just as much as oil and gas these people would be 'highly interested' in that, too.
My GF works in O+G, and from what I see and what she's told me, there's alot of people making alot of money. Maybe too much for what many of them do / how smart they are, and always going to 'industry events', getting time off, not really ever having to work THAT hard. It's very money-dominated, and very buddy-buddy, 'you ain't gettin' in unless you know somebody'. That's fine, it really is... definitely not knocking that, that's how business works.
As for starting oil and gas companies, it is greed-dominated, you bet. That's exactly why rich oilmen do it - to turn a profit. If they were so interested in the entrenpreneurial aspect as a challenge, as you say, they'd try starting a company in a non-traditional industry or market for the sole purpose of being challenged and making it succeed. Unfortunately, your example of it being exciting doesn't really hold much water in this argument given the industry that they're in / the connections they have / the end result they've come to expect over several times. It is very money-dominated.