Showing posts with label Final-PS. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Final-PS. Show all posts

Tuesday, April 27, 2021

The Preliminary Specifications 13th Module, Artificial Intelligence (AI)

 With People, Ideas & Objects, our user community and their service provider organizations we have a powerful combination of proposed capacities and capabilities available for the dynamic, innovative, accountable and profitable oil and gas industry and producers. Assuming our budget is financed at some point in the future. Which I can only conclude at this time will occur as long as the associated difficulties in oil and gas persist. And therefore our funding is a certainty. When we add to this the incomprehensible list of capacities and capabilities of the products and services of Oracle Corporation. Add to these the models and markets that are built upon the use of the Joint Operating Committee in the Preliminary Specification. We will have a strong foundation in which to begin the resolution of industry issues and ensure that real profitability is earned everywhere and always throughout North America. I dare ask what the bureaucrats are offering? And will the cost of their option be any less than the trillions of dollars irretrievably lost so far?

People, Ideas & Objects have chosen our distinct competitive advantages to be our user community, Intellectual Property and research as the three areas of our domain to focus upon. These are how we earn our profits. We are a commercial operation and we will always be one as we’ve learned, as has everyone else in oil and gas, what the meaning and value of real profitability is. Without real profitability there is nothing. Within the Preliminary Specification there is the Security & Access Control module that sets out the necessary security and data access to those in the industry. Providing access to the right information at the right time to the right people with the right authority at the right location. Two other modules are the Performance Evaluation for the Joint Operating Committee and the Analytics & Statistics module for the producer firm. These modules are tools that build upon the basic data within the greater Preliminary Specification and Oracle applications in order to provide value to users. Organizing this data in an integrated matter and permitting two different perspectives of that same data. One perspective from the point of view of the Joint Operating Committee, accessible by each of the members of that committee. And the other perspective of the producer overseeing their entire proprietary accounting and administrative data. 

Recently we announced that People, Ideas & Objects would be developing as part of the Preliminary Specification, our own data model as a core part of our Intellectual Property. Our data model will be unique to our user communities needs and accommodate the data models used within the Oracle ERP Cloud products. In addition, another aspect of People, Ideas & Objects is the Technological Vision we set out on August 26, 2006 of this blog. It has four components that are in place today, and we feel they provide us with significant differentiation of our product and service offering and will provide real value to the oil and gas industry and producers, enhancing their profitability once implemented. These four technologies consist of Java, Wireless Networks, IPv6 and the application of what we describe as Asynchronous Process Management. A term that we developed that we won’t be getting into today, but will soon. We are wirelessly capable today with both WiFi and Cellular networks. Soon we’ll have the addition of space based networks such as Elon Musk's SpaceX StarLink network. As background these four technologies enable the Internet of Things (IoT) in an industry that is based on the earth sciences and the applied science of engineering. Where the chemical components of oil and gas are measured and monitored in terms of pressure and temperature. The capacity and capability to monitor and control an unlimited means of devices throughout the producers domain. Java and IPv6 enable the addressing capabilities to ensure that the device that is being sought to monitor and control, is the precise device that is being accessed. Java is a typed language which doesn’t confuse itself as to which variable is which, etc. IPv6 networks may appear as if they’ve not been implemented, but that is not the case. They are available through Oracle’s ERP Cloud offering. And the most significant IPv6 implementation to date has to be the cellular phone networks since 4G or LTE. Cellular phones such as Apple and Android devices are IPv6 based devices accessing network voice and data over an IPv6 network.

Therefore it is here we will have the total data set of the historical and proprietary data for the producer firm. The historical data of each Joint Operating Committee. Analytical tools to enhance the meaning of that data and generate the necessary ad-hoc information that the producer may find of value for their unique competitive advantages of their land and asset base, earth science and engineering capabilities. Although these will be used in ways that are unique and value generating in each of the producer firms. And within each of the members of the Joint Operating Committee. There will be a base infrastructure that’ll be prepared and provided to each of the producers on a continuous basis through the People, Ideas & Objects et al infrastructure that I’ve defined here. 

Let's talk about that data. The reason there is no production discipline in the oil and gas industry is that every producer is a spending machine focused on the “great science experiment” as I call it. Therefore it’s not a business and never will be a business with business objectives as long as the bureaucrats remain in place. Production discipline could be imposed by forming a North American cartel, (illegal) government production mandates where no one is ever satisfied with their allocation or implementing the Preliminary Specification. Only the Preliminary Specifications method of production allocation based on “real” profitability provides for fair and equitable means of production discipline. If the property continues to produce a profit then it continues to produce. Otherwise why would you continue to produce if a properties loss reduces the overall profitability of the producer firm, effectively destroying the value of the properties reserves, adding the cost of the ongoing incremental losses to the costs of the reserves and removing the marginal, or unprofitable, production from the commodities market so that they may find their marginal prices. Marginal prices not just for the unprofitable property but all properties across the North American continent. Markets provide one thing and only one thing, their price and bureaucrats refuse to listen to prices even when it's negative $40. They claim our method of production allocation is collusion which is laughable. If making independent business decisions based on detailed, actual, factual accounting that determines the state of the properties profitability is collusion, then bureaucrats belong back in the former Soviet Union. 

It is our user communities service provider organizations that provide the means to instill the production discipline across the North American oil and gas producers. Service providers are a reallocation of the existing producers administrative and accounting resources into approximately 3,000 individual companies. There the service provider will focus on one process and apply that process across the entire industry's data set. It will be at each of the service providers where the application of the individual process will be conducted on a standard, objective, actual and factual basis across the industry. This will be done as a result of each of these processes will be highly engineered during the development of the Preliminary Specification and continuously improved by the user community members in order to meet the requirements of the industry, regulators and all other stakeholders. And of course the producers and Joint Operating Committees needs. Therefore when the time comes to review the Joint Operating Committees individual, complete and comprehensive financial statements for the month, a feature of the Preliminary Specification. And they find that a property, for whatever reason, is no longer profitable they can confidently conclude the property needs to be shut-in. They’ll know that every other property in the industry has been assessed on the same objective, standard, actual and factual accounting basis and as a result each producer can accept that the accounting treatment they received on that property was no different in terms of being better or worse than any other property of theirs or any other producers. And therefore knowing that the focus of the producer is to maximize profits everywhere and always, any unprofitable properties only dilute their overall corporate profitability as well as collapse the commodity prices across their production profile and therefore will appreciate the value of this objective accounting information. They will be able to move the property to their inventory of shut-in properties where their earth science and engineering capabilities can be innovatively applied to rehabilitate the property in some manner to bring it back to profitability. All net positives for the producer and industry overall. 

In summary once again this infrastructure we’re building is to provide the North American oil and gas industry with the most profitable means of oil and gas production, everywhere and always. As discussed, on top of this data we have two modules, the Performance Evaluation, and Analytics & Statistics modules that will provide enhanced tools to analyze this framework for their competitive advantage. The Preliminary Specifications thirteenth module that we’re announcing today is to simply enhance this ERP framework with Artificial Intelligence and that is the name we will be applying to our thirteenth module. Why would producers and the industry be satisfied to continue with low grade and failing ERP systems and specious accounting practices? Each producer as a single entity has nowhere near the resources, capabilities or capacity in which they need to be able to begin developing the automation of their business processes, specialization and demands of this environment. An environment that will be a given from a technological architecture point of view. However, we do know bureaucrats are more than capable of muddling through these technical changes. Maintaining poor quality systems and specious accounting have fulfilled their purpose in oil and gas. Allowing the bureaucrats to continue with their charade will only take the industry into further jeopardy.

The structure of our user community is the means in which the producer firms enhance their ERP software. If they want or need changes to their existing systems, who do they go to in today’s environment, who has authority at the producer, who has authority at the software vendor? Good luck with that question. In the Preliminary Specification people will only need to speak to the relevant user community member(s). Only the user community is licensed to make changes and prepare derivative works of the Intellectual Property of the Preliminary Specification and any additions. Our developers are licensed to take directions only from user community members in terms of what to develop. They are blind, deaf and dumb to all others. User community members population is approximately the same as the service provider organizations they lead. They are focused on their area of expertise and are applying their specialization, division of labor, quality, automation, innovation, integration, leadership, issue identification and resolution, creativity, collaboration, ideas, design, planning, thinking, negotiating, compromising and using conflict and contradictions to get to the source of the issues as their key competitive advantages throughout their organization. User community members are the principles of the service providers whose role it is to provide their tacit knowledge as a service, in addition to the explicit knowledge that is captured in the People, Ideas & Objects Preliminary Specifications software, by the user community member, of which their service providers are using and providing to the industry.

This user community and their service provider organizations are the intellectual framework of the oil and gas industry in terms of accounting and administration. It would be my hope, my anticipation and expectation that one day this would provide the industry with the software and services that anticipated the needs, issues and opportunities that oil and gas would face. The Preliminary Specifications software would be dealing with what it is that’s concerning the industry. Taking a leadership role in the development of the administrative and accounting of the industry. Therefore leveraging this framework as I described it earlier would be a natural extension of what it could, but most importantly should be doing. Moving the Artificial Intelligence for ERP domain within the user community and service provider domain therefore is a natural and necessary fit. My thinking on this began as a result of the announcement by Mr. Thomas Siebel and his Artificial Intelligence firm C3.ai Inc. Thomas Siebel sold Siebel Systems to Oracle Corporation a number of years ago. The purpose behind C3.ai Inc is consistent with the theme that is present in the ERP marketplace. Individual companies can spend vast amounts of money and time internally on ERP systems or Artificial Intelligence with no benefit, wasted investment and unnecessary demand on critical AI and ERP resources. Mr. Siebel suggests that there is a 99% failure rate of internal corporate AI initiatives. We’ve seen this in oil and gas with their announced AI initiatives of a number of years ago being applied at the time to their chronic lack of profitability. The results of those initiatives are forthcoming, I guess. 

Centralizing the resources of the industry into Artificial Intelligence based ERP developments which will be developed and deployed through the People, Ideas & Objects et al framework that I’ve described in this post. Is an efficiency that is consistent with the theme of ERP developments. The demands of software development are no longer a capability that can be attained in-house in order to ensure the full scope of the organizations needs are covered. The same applies to AI. Therefore the Preliminary Specifications consolidation of the industries resources on one focused development in an objective, standard and compliant manner offers better functionality and capability at considerably less cost. Oracle has AI initiatives with their Oracle ERP Cloud, the base of our solution, and we will therefore be adopting those tools. I believe that the addition of the thirteenth modules AI capabilities is a natural extension of our user community and their service provider organizations and an efficient use of industry resources. Enabling producers to focus on their key competitive advantages of their land and asset base, earth science and engineering capabilities profitably. Incurring the time and energy to build the capacity and capability of ERP based AI once, and sharing the cost and this initiatives success across the industry. But there's more, the demand on the AI resources in terms of the practitioners would be too high to ensure that any producer was able to attain any level of AI competitive advantage or even competency in the industry in ERP based AI. It would also be duplicating the capability of the user community in this area. Just asking for a friend, why is there that 99% failure rate? What’s that saying; garbage in, garbage out. 

One of the aspects of the Preliminary Specification is that the administrative and accounting burden of each individual producer is substantially reduced as a result of the changes we will be instituting. These changes are a result of the burden of the producers' fixed, unshared and unshareable, administrative and accounting capabilities are reallocated to the variable and shared administrative and accounting capabilities of the industry. Variable based on production. Another key attribute that we’re using to reduce the costs of administrative and accounting, yet increase the performance and quality of our offering is by using specialization and the division of labor to be distributed across our service providers. These two elements of the Preliminary Specification will work to enhance the cost performance of the producers as we believe that overhead costs are substantial, and are one of the reasons responsible for their chronic unprofitability. Specialization increases the performance trajectory of the service providers administrative and accounting resources by increasing their capacity with the same or even fewer resources. We also apply this principle in the area of software development. More importantly is the unshared nature of the current, bureaucratic and redundant spending of the same overhead costs within each siloed producer organization in areas that are not distinct competitive advantages of the producers.

A key difference between what People, Ideas & Objects have proposed is the Artificial Intelligence module is properly constructed after the models, markets, architecture, infrastructure, functionality, organization and data is assembled. Bureaucrats have been using Artificial Intelligence to enhance their thinking for the past number of years. It has provided no results that we can see or are aware of. In fact it seems to People, Ideas & Objects that AI may have just been another viable scapegoat at the time to ensure their investors knew the bureaucrats were on the job. Except they haven’t any data that is usable. Without that data being organized and managed appropriately what purpose is AI? Oracle has recently stated that IoT may increase the volumes of data five fold by the year 2025. It may be a good time for the industry to start concerning themselves with such petty and annoying things like data and profits, but then I’m biased. Secondly each producer running around spending money on a new initiative that is the next great thing is consistent with the phenomenon we’ve seen repeatedly in the industry and have tagged with the “Keystone Cops” label. 

The Preliminary Specification, our user community and service providers provide for a dynamic, innovative, accountable and profitable oil and gas industry with the most profitable means of oil and gas operations, everywhere and always. Setting the foundation for profitable North American energy independence. People, Ideas & Objects have published a white paper “Profitable, North American Energy Independence -- Through the Commercialization of Shale.” that captures the vision of the Preliminary Specification and our actions. Users are welcome to join me here. Together we can begin to meet the future demands for energy. Anyone can contact me at 713-965-6720 in Houston or 587-735-2302 in Calgary, or email me here

Tuesday, January 20, 2015

A Quick Review of Our Plan

I made the statement last week that I would not work with the bureaucracy in the development of this software, its user community or the service providers. Seeing how they had chosen to concern themselves only with their interests when they had the opportunity to work with us for the past decade. That we were providing them with the opportunity to expand the oil and gas industries output through specialization and the division of labor and provide higher profitability through the “price maker” strategy that we enable in the decentralized production model. Their choice was to take what we had developed and attempt to eliminate it without any compensation towards us. Now that they have caused the oil and gas producers to lose money at a remarkable rate we don't need them and we certainly don't want to emulate their way of doing business. So why exactly do we want to work with them?

Our budget. The producers are the source of the financial resources that are necessary to make this community operate. One thing I can assure you is that the feeling of not working together is mutually held by the bureaucrats. And if the bureaucracy was concerned about the loses that the producers were incurring, don’t you think they would have begun the search for solutions to solve the problem? Maybe even five years ago when the natural gas prices declined. The only reason that they have the ability to stay in power in terms of the administration of the oil and gas industry is that there is no alternative for the oil and gas investor to turn too. And that is point that we have to make in this next year. That the failure of the bureaucracy will continue until an alternative is put in place. And we are that alternative. All that is necessary for this community to begin the transition is for our budget to be funded.

In order to do that we need to be prepared to provide that solution to the marketplace. We have detailed a vision that is complete within the Preliminary Specification. A method of how the oil and gas producer and their assets will be managed through the user community and service providers. We began January 1, 2014 in the development of the user community. This is the hard, expensive and time consuming work that most ERP systems skip. We have defined a leadership team for the user community and began recruiting for the 30 or so positions that make up that team.

Our plan is simple. Present our leadership team, the Preliminary Specification and our method of management to the investors in the oil and gas industry and have them fund these. I don't expect the investors to fund us directly from their pockets. I expect them to direct the oil and gas producers to do so.

As unreasonable and difficult as this appears in terms of it occurring. It is the best hope that we have of ever being funded. The bureaucrats will never fund a competing solution to their franchise. It is the equivalent of suicide to them. They intend to stay in power as long as possible and will not concede anything to anyone. For five years they have allowed significant losses to occur in the natural gas business without a word of discussion about what to do about it. Do you hear any discussion today about what they will be doing to “fix” the solution in terms of the losses that oil and gas companies are incurring today? And you won’t, ever.

Offering an alternative to the status quo is the best that we can do at this time. It is also what is being done in most industries by Information Technology. Some industries are far ahead in terms of the changes that are realized through technology. Some are far behind. Oil and gas needs to change now because of the difficulties that the bureaucracy are proving incapable of and too self interested to deal with.

The Preliminary Specification and user community provides the oil and gas producer with the most dynamic, innovative and profitable means of oil and gas operations. People, Ideas & Objects Revenue Model specifies the means in which investors can participate in these user defined software developments. Users are welcome to join me here. Together we can begin to meet the future demands for energy. And don't forget to join our network on Twitter @piobiz anyone can contact me at 403-200-2302 or email here.

Thursday, November 06, 2014

"Its Just a Flesh Wound"

Those were some of the last words of the “Black Knights” in the movie “Monty Python and the Holy Grail.” They're what immediately came to mind when I read the response of the oil and gas producers to the Saudis discounting of oil for import into the U.S.

What happened on Tuesday was the Saudis began discounting the oil that they sold into the U.S. marketplace. This was in contrast to price increases that were made in the rest of the world. Isolating the U.S. market, and I think specifically the shale producers. Making it unquestionably the shale producers that are the focus of the Saudis concerns regarding the global overproduction of oil. That if the shale producers in the U.S. want to produce at capacity, then the Saudis will produce at capacity, as will the whole of Opec. That is the message that was sent on Tuesday.

On Wednesday the producers responded in a consistent fashion. In a Bloomberg Businessweek article. Saying more or less that “Its just a flesh wound” is not far off from their actual comments. Here is a quote from the Businessweek article.

Executives at several large U.S. shale producers, including Chesapeake and EOG Resources Inc. (EOG:US), have vowed to maintain -- and even raise -- production as they reported earnings this week. They say their success in bringing down costs means they can make money even if prices slump further.

Its obvious to me that the Saudis are playing the long game and the shale producers are playing the short game. This is how I see the situation playing out in the next few quarters. First of all the oil prices are trading on rumor and innuendo. There is no stated policy at this time by anyone in the marketplace. Once there is a stated policy the market will move to reflect that policy. Opec is meeting on November 27, 2014. Which very interestingly happens to be three days after the Americans announce their negotiations with Iran regarding nuclear weapons. What we might see is no change in the announced production quotas and no concern by Opec for the markets pricing. We might also see no date for another Opec meeting set. This will throw the bottom of the market open for a freefall. Finding the low of the oil price market within the 2014 year end period of time. Just about the time that the accountants will retrospectively be looking to value the reserves of the producers for their annual reports. Creating even larger losses for the producers.

Playing the short game when they should be playing the long game, the producers are falling into the Saudis hands here by making the foolish comments that they are making. The investors who are concerned at the losses that the producers have been creating in the gas side of the business, are now beginning the process of losing money on the oil side of the business as well. Investors have already had enough of the fiscal irresponsibility created by these bureaucrats. They don't need to increase, and by a substantial margin, their losses by these fools losing money on both the oil and gas sides of the business. The investors will be forced to act and within a short period of time to deal with the problem within the oil and gas bureaucracy. And that’s where we, the Preliminary Specification, the user community and service providers come in.

The Saudis are playing the long game and can do so for a significant period of time. They have almost one trillion U.S. dollars in reserves. An effective weapon when you consider the enemy is screaming at you with no arms and no legs.

The Preliminary Specification and user community provides the oil and gas producer with the most dynamic, innovative and profitable means of oil and gas operations. People, Ideas & Objects Revenue Model specifies the means in which investors can participate in these user defined software developments. Users are welcome to join me here. Together we can begin to meet the future demands for energy. And don't forget to join our network on Twitter @piobiz anyone can contact me at 403-200-2302 or email here

Tuesday, October 21, 2014

The Age of Abundance

To review the natural gas reserves of the producers these days is quite a change from the past. In the past you would see how the producer would struggle to increase their oil and natural gas reserves year over year. Doing everything within their power to expand the reserves base of the firm was a challenge that took many of the best minds in the business. Now producers have so much gas that they have difficulty comprehending the implications of the change. And the business has changed from one of difficulty and scarcity to one of abundance. Where not only do you have several tcf of gas, but all your neighbours do as well. Rushing to get that gas to market is the current strategy for each of these producers. And thankfully for People, Ideas & Objects we have a solution for this situation and the investors who are very disheartened by the producers financial performance.

Producers are jumping ahead of each other offering their gas at lower prices in order to be able to make the sale. This has caused the price to collapse from 6 to 1 when priced to oil to 20 to 1. And some producers seem determined to drop the price even further. This has caused the price of natural gas to fall below the margin for the past number of years. The only remedial action that has been taken by the producers is to reduce their overhead costs. As it is deemed that the costs of carrying the overhead for their production profile is the issue that the investors are concerned about. Not that there is significant overproduction of natural gas in the marketplace. The investors real concern is that the shale gas reserves are unproven as a commercially viable venture.

What is needed is a new business model in which to operate the business based on the changes that are reflected in the business. If there is an abundance of natural gas, and potentially oil as well, then the industry needs to have a business model that deals with that situation. A business model that would allocate production based on profitability would be the most reasonable approach. It would also be the most fair basis in which a producer could approach their business. An easy to enforce business model from the perspective of the investors. With unprofitable producers not being funded, or participated in, by the investment community.

People, Ideas & Objects Preliminary Specification business model is called the decentralized production model and addresses specifically the issues that are raised as a result of the abundance from shale based reserves. It enables a producer to shut-in any production that is not profitable without any financial penalty. It sets out a revised organizational structure of the producer and the industry in which the overhead costs of the producer become variable with their production profile. Therefore as the natural gas price declines in the marketplace, producers can shut-in their unprofitable production, reducing their losses on individual operations and actually increasing their firms profits. This will also save those shut-in reserves for a time when they can be produced profitably. And reduce the amount of production in the commodity markets placing a floor in the pricing structure.

When a producer shuts in production the overhead for that property is not incurred in the decentralized production model. What the Preliminary Specifications decentralized production model does is reconfigure the industry to change from a producer based administrative and accounting capability to an industry based administrative and accounting capability. The fact that each and every producer has to develop the capabilities to be compliant with all of the administrative and accounting regulations are what are causing the producer to lose money. These capabilities are not shareable at the producer level. By establishing industry wide capabilities through the People, Ideas & Objects software, user community and service providers we can specialize on each of the individual processes and bill the individual Joint Operating Committees the overhead costs for each process. If the property is shut-in there will be no charges incurred by the service providers and no billing to the Joint Operating Committee during periods when a property is non-producing.

This is the manner in which the industry needs to operate in the era of abundance from the shale based reserves. Production allocation based on profitability is the only equitable manner in which to proceed in the industry. A method to deal with the fact that everyone has trillions of cubic feet of natural gas in reserves means that some of it will have to be kept off of the market some of the time. The current methodology isn’t working and there is no solution to the situation other than the decentralized production model of the Preliminary Specification.

The Preliminary Specification and user community provides the oil and gas producer with the most dynamic, innovative and profitable means of oil and gas operations. People, Ideas & Objects Revenue Model specifies the means in which investors can participate in these user defined software developments. Users are welcome to join me here. Together we can begin to meet the future demands for energy. And don't forget to join our network on Twitter @piobiz anyone can contact me at 403-200-2302 or email here

Thursday, March 20, 2014

It Was a Cold Winter Wasn't It

Natural gas prices have been strong for the winter months of 2013 and 2014. Its been cold and the gas inventories have been drawn down significantly during the January and February time frame. And prices have responded. At the low end of $6 they eliminated much of the value of the decentralized production model would provide. If you recall we have used the industry supplied price of $6.70 as the factor where profitability begins, and therefore how we have calculated our opportunity costs. The last few days has seen the price fall precipitously back into the mid $4 range as the weather forecast is for the spring season.

I have stated repeatedly that the industry operates on the basis of the two human emotions of fear and greed. Fear of the bank manager calling the loan when gas prices are low. And greed when the gas prices show some strength as they had been. We will see which emotion is the operational mode when the fall in natural gas prices begins and the market has sorted out the cold winter of 2013 and 2014.

If we look at the past five years of pricing information we see a fundamental change in the pricing structure of natural gas. Gas has traditionally been priced in the range of approximately 10:1 to oil. This recognizing the differences on a heating value basis. As a result of shale, this range has ballooned to over 23:1 on average over the past five years. A fundamental breakdown in the manner of natural gas pricing. It is this breakdown in the pricing that will not be resolved in the term of one cold winter. It is this breakdown in natural gas pricing that requires producers to adopt a new business model to bring pricing back in line with the traditional heating value basis of the commodity.

The average price of natural gas for the past five years has been $3.77 / MBTU in the North American marketplace. If we were fair and reasonable about our claim as to the amount of opportunity costs that the Preliminary Specification provided to the oil and gas industry we should make that claim based on the past five years. Then we can factor in the positive effects of the cold winters and remove any negative bias in the number. We will continue to use the industry cost factor of $6.70 / MBTU as the threshold to profits. And in doing so we find that, on average, the total opportunity costs for the past five years would total $380 billion U.S. And I believe that is a fairer representation of the value of the Preliminary Specification and the decentralized production model.

If we are going to be as ridiculous as to think that one cold winter is going to solve the natural gas pricing problems. I am going to promote the decentralized production model as providing that value. Producers need to think what it is that they are doing. They are wasting good resources and capital while they dither. They have forgone ⅓ of a trillion dollars without even thinking whether it is a concern or not. This is why the bureaucracy has to be removed from the scene and sent down the river. Their way is too destructive to continue.

The Preliminary Specification and the decentralized production model provide the oil and gas producer with the most profitable means of oil and gas operations. It does this through an innovative business model that uses the Joint Operating Committee as the key organizational construct. What we do is we strip down the prototypical producer to the C class executives, the earth science and engineering resources, some land and legal, and some support staff. The remainder of the producers resources are reorganized into service providers that are focused on a process or subprocess and use specialization and the division of labor to provide their clients, the industry, with the administration and accounting capabilities.

When a producer determines that a property is not profitable, they will shut that property in until it can be produced profitably through some innovation or higher commodity prices. As a result none of the service providers in the industry will be charging the Joint Operating Committee for any of the administrative or accounting services for that property, as there was no activity generating any work for the service provider and hence no billing for services. As a result the property records a null operation, no profit but also no loss, the reserves are held for a time when they can be produced profitably and the commodity is held from the marketplace keeping a floor on the commodity prices.

This is a far more effective plan than going to Church on Sunday’s and praying for another cold winter. $380 billion is a reasonable amount to assign to the decentralized production model as that is how long the pricing structure has collapsed as a result of the shale gas effects. The only solution to the shale gas effects, in the long run, is a new business model that deals with overproduction. That is what People, Ideas & Objects decentralized production model does. It provides the industry with a means to allocate production based on profitability. And is the only reasonable method to use. Some might think the Preliminary Specifications key drawback is that it also eliminates the bureaucracy. And it does. However, I feel that is a feature.

The Preliminary Specification provides the oil and gas producer with the most profitable means of oil and gas operations. People, Ideas & Objects Revenue Model specifies the means in which investors can participate in these user defined software developments. Users are welcome to join me here. Together we can begin to meet the future demands for energy. And don't forget to join our network on Twitter @piobiz anyone can contact me at 403-200-2302 or email here

Friday, December 20, 2013

Executive Summary

The Preliminary Specification is an eleven module ERP (Enterprise Resource Planning) software system designed for the innovative and profitable oil and gas producer. It uses as its key organizational focus the Joint Operating Committee. The legal, financial, operational decision making, cultural, communication, innovation and strategic frameworks of the industry. By moving the compliance and governance of the hierarchy into alignment with the seven frameworks of the Joint Operating Committee we achieve a speed, innovativeness, accountability and profitability that is necessary in the era of insatiable energy demand.

Keep in mind while reviewing the Executive Summary and the Preliminary Specification that it is People, Ideas & Objects claim that we provide to the oil and gas producer, as our competitive advantage, the most profitable means of oil and gas operations. And we do that in the following six fundamental ways.

    1) Our Value Proposition

We are the lowest cost ERP systems provider in the marketplace. That is by charging for the one time costs of software development, plus an element of profit as our fee structure. Therefore the industry is only paying for the one time cost of software development.

    2) Specialization and the Division of Labor

If we review the Preliminary Specification there is a defined restructuring of the industry that takes place throughout the modules. The oil and gas producer is a stripped down version of itself that has the C class executives, earth science and engineering resources, land and legal, and minor support staff. And that’s it. The rest of the producers needs are provided by service providers. And each of these service providers are focused on one process, or one element of a process using the industry as its client base. So for example there would be a lease rental payment processor that handles all of the industries lease rental payments. Where the cost of the lease rental payment, and the billing for the lease payment processor is billed directly to the appropriate Joint Operating Committee. Not to the individual producer.

What the advantages of moving to a system or methodology such as this is the lower cost and efficiency. The costs associated with the lease payment processor would be a small percentage of what is incurred by the industry today. By focusing on the most efficient way to process lease rental payments, and only lease rental payments, the processor would become so specialized as to reduce the time and effort in administering these tasks as to be a small component of the costs today. In Adam Smith’s pin factory, his research yielded a 240 fold increase in productivity from the changes that he made in the process of making pins. Having the lease rental payment process, and most particularly the administrative and overhead processes in the industry subject to this type of analysis, complete with a software development capability as proposed by People, Ideas & Objects, similar results in productivity would be attained.

    3) Capability to Remove the Marginal Production

With the costs associated with exploration and production, its no surprise that producers are reporting losses on operations. What is surprising is that producers have done nothing to mitigate the overproduction that has caused the decline in natural gas prices. The reason for this chronic overproduction is the producers have to generate the revenues to cover the overheads they incur in the “high throughput production” model they employ. This model has the overhead costs of the producer firm being incurred whether there is production or not, and as a result, it makes their operation a high cost operation, even at full production. At lower production volumes it skews their earnings and their overhead costs appear out of place.

In the Preliminary Specification the “decentralized production” model is employed. As we mentioned in the second point above, the service provider charges for their services directly to the Joint Operating Committee the costs of their service. In most cases if there is no production, there is no charge for the overhead item and neither the producer or the Joint Operating Committee is incurring any of the overhead during times of shut-in production. Therefore the only costs that are not covered during times of shut-in production are the costs of capital. The producer can therefore shut-in production that is not meeting the marginal cost and save those reserves for a later time. And keep that production off the market until the prices rise to the point where they cover the marginal cost.

If producers across the industry follow this process then prices would not have the significant declines that we have experienced in the last number of years. If the downswing in natural gas prices were averted by way of a fifteen percent reduction in production volumes, the total revenues and profits of the industry would have been $94 billion higher in 2012 than what they were. Making the production that would have continued exceed the marginal cost and be profitable, and for that production that was shut-in, no loss on operations would have been incurred because there would have been no overhead or production costs.

    4) Innovation for Profits

As the fourth element of our competitive advantage of providing the innovative oil and gas producer with the most profitable means of oil and gas operations. We focus on innovation as the way in which to enhance the profitable nature of the producer. Innovation for profit, particularly from the science basis of the business, is the successful perspective for the 21st century oil and gas producer. It is within the DNA of the Preliminary Specification how the processes of innovation are identified and supported that enhance the ability of the innovative oil and gas producer. From Professor Giovanni Dosi.

In the most general terms, private profit-seeking agents will plausibly allocate resources to the exploration and development of new products and new techniques of production if they know, or believe in, the existence of some sort of yet unexploited scientific and technical opportunities; if they expect that there will be a market for their new products and processes; and finally, if they expect some economic benefit, net of the incurred costs, deriving from the innovations.

    5) Lower Costs of Exploration & Development

The oil and gas industry needs a successful, dynamic and innovative service industry in order for it be successful, dynamic and innovative. Today we have producer firms accusing the service industry of being greedy and lazy due to the high costs that are being experienced. There is a gap between what is required and what exists. The Preliminary Specification works to mitigate this conflict by addressing the issue of how the producer firm deals with the generation and management of ideas in the service industry. Currently the producers ignore the rights of the ideas developers and as time has passed, the number of companies that have initiated new products, services and competition have dwindled. Leading to the situation today where the producers have a limited number of participants who have the pricing power on their side.

It is through the Preliminary Specification that the producers begin to respect, sponsor and support the ideas of the service industry. In this way the marketplace will respond with new and innovative products, services and competition. Through a variety of interfaces in the Resource Marketplace and Research & Capabilities modules the producers are able to participate and lead the creation of new and better products and services by clearly expressing their needs.

When the oil and gas industry has a successful, dynamic and innovative service industry supporting the oil and gas industry then the profitability of the oil and gas producer will be enhanced, further contrasting People, Ideas & Objects business model to the current bureaucracies.

    6) Earth Science and Engineering Resources

It is through the use of innovation, specialization and the division of labor that we leverage the earth science and engineering resources of the producer firm. As with the fourth and fifth point above, investments in innovation are undertaken with the express intent to return a profit. Innovation on the sciences of oil and gas are the express purpose of the modules within the People, Ideas & Objects Preliminary Specification.

In terms of specialization and the division of labor, the producer firm must approach the issue of the limited resource base of earth science and engineering resources. People, Ideas & Objects have developed the pooling concept to eliminate the unused and unusable surplus capacity that is trapped within the silo’s of each bureaucracy. In addition we have used specialization to reorganize certain skills within these professions to service providers who can specialize on the specific skill. It is with the pooling and specialization that the demand for engineers and geologists will be more manageable in the insatiable energy era.

    A quick note about software

All of these components of our competitive advantage require the software known as the Preliminary Specification to be built. As we learned in the Preliminary Research Report (2004), software defines and supports the organization. Without the software to run the industry as described above, it will not happen.

The Preliminary Specification is a development phase that will determine the scope and detailed requirements of the system in its first commercial release. “What” will the system do and “how” will it do the things that it sets out to do. These specifications will be as a result of user community input and be detailed and comprehensive. The budget for this phase of the development is set at 5 - 10% of the total overall budget and estimated to be $200 million and 200 man years of producer contribution to the user community. Producers are a key aspect of the user community and should consider joining to ensure that the system considers their needs. Waiting provides no cost advantage and there will be disadvantages to those that do not actively participate. Please review our Revenue Model for more information.

Hosting of the People, Ideas & Objects application, and Oracle modules, will be via the cloud computing architecture. Please review our Hardware Policies & Procedures for further information on how these affect the producer firms.

Security & Access Control

What we have with using the Joint Operating Committee (JOC) as the key organizational construct of the innovative oil and gas producer. Is the interactions of many producers and suppliers who are involved in the day to day commercial and strategic concerns of a JOC. What we need to concern ourselves within the Security & Access Control module is that the right people have the right access to the right information with the right authority at the right time and at the right place.

Throughout the Preliminary Specification we discuss one of the premier issues of the oil and gas industry. That being the demand for earth science and engineering effort is increasing with each barrel produced. This is best represented in the steep escalation of the costs involved in the exploration and production of oil and gas. At the same time the critical earth science and engineering resources are somewhat fixed and are difficult to expand in the short to medium term. Add to that, an anticipated retirement of this brain trust in the next twenty years, and the problem becomes of critical concern.

There are few short term solutions to the short fall in geologists and engineers over the next twenty years. It takes the better part of that time to train them to operate in the industry. What we do know are several “things” that are being applied in the People, Ideas & Objects Preliminary Specification. Key to a number of concepts application are what we call the Military Command & Control Metaphor. Which is a method developed in the Security & Access Control module of imposing command and control over any and all Joint Operating Committees, working groups, producer firms or organizations the producer may need to add structure to.

The concept of specialization and division of labor is well known as a principle of economics that brings about greater amounts of economic productivity from the same volume of resources. Given that the volume of earth science and engineering resources are known for the foreseeable future, specialization and the division of labor will provide us with a tangible means in which to deal with the productivity of the oil and gas industry. In today’s marketplace to approach a heightened level of specialization and division of labor, particularly from a scope and scale point of view, without the use of software to define and support it would be downright foolish.

The pooling concept is the solution to the current desire that each producer firm acquires the earth science and engineering capabilities necessary to deal with all the needs of their “operated” properties. This creates unneeded “just-in-time” capabilities for the scarce scientific resources. When each producer within the industry pursues this same strategy substantial redundancies are built into the industries capabilities. Redundancies that are left unused and unusable. What is proposed through the People, Ideas & Objects software application modules is that the producers operational strategy avoids the “operator” concept and begins pooling the technical resources through the partnership represented in the Joint Operating Committee. That way the redundancies that would have been present in the industry can be made available to the producers and used by the producers through an advanced specialization and division of labor.

What these concepts require therefore is what the Security & Access Control module is designed to provide. The system must provide access to the right person at the right time and the right place with the right authority to the right information. With the Military Command & Control Metaphor there will also be a manner in which the technical, and all the resources, that have been pooled from the producers, interact with an appropriate governance and chain of command.

Oracle’s products provide a strong layer of mission critical capabilities in the Security & Access Control module. Although this comes with additional costs, I am certain that no one will argue with the quality and secure knowledge that these products bring.

Resource Marketplace

To deal effectively with the resource marketplace the producer will need tools to effectively engage with the suppliers for the resources they need. The Resource Marketplace Module provides a window on the “Resource Marketplace” for Joint Operating Committees (JOC) and producers. Anything of value that is contracted between “actors” in the oil and gas, service, service provider, software and user community generated businesses will be found, contracted, managed and developed through this module. It's simply a virtual representation of these marketplaces. Therefore the negotiation, determination of available resources, determination of transaction costs, contract execution and effective software tools to monitor and verify compliance to the contract are all part of the Resource Marketplace module and its interfaces to other modules of the Preliminary Specification.

Similar interfaces will be provided to the service industries. After all transactions have two parties, the efficiencies of the producers would inherently include the efficiencies to the service provider. Since we have an accounting system, then certainly offering these services to the suppliers would only make sense. It is not just producers in the Resource Marketplace. Key to the efficiencies in the Resource Marketplace are the mitigation of transaction cost friction. Friction on both sides of the transaction, because transaction costs in the Resource Marketplace are costs that will ultimately be borne by the producer or Joint Operating Committee.

Contained within the marketplace will be all of the producers and suppliers who will be able to define, create and conduct business in this virtual marketplace. The scope and size of the Resource Marketplace should accommodate the needs of Exxonmobil and their $250 billion annual operating costs down to the single entrepreneur starting out in the business. To preclude any group, profession, organization, or person from the Resource Marketplace would limit the value available to the industry.

Also, to call this just a Human Resource Marketplace would be incorrect because it would limit the participants in the market. Whatever service, product or solution is provided to the energy industry, from either individuals, those employed by producers or JOC’s, or companies providing services to the producers. This should include Schlumberger and anyone directly or indirectly employed in the energy industry.

It is the use of the Joint Operating Committee and the “Marketplace Interface” by the Resource Marketplace that provides the value to the innovative oil and gas producer. Enabling the service industry to grow thick markets for their products and services. Producers have a role in defining and supporting a dynamic, competitive and healthy service industry. However, before that happens, the need for the software that is defined here in the Resource Marketplace has to be built for the producer, the Joint Operating Committee and the service sector to support these markets.

The division of labor and specialization play a large role in the Resource Marketplace as well. By outsourcing many of the administrative functions from the producer firm to specialized service providers. The producer firm is able to focus on those core competitive advantages of their land and asset base, and their earth science and engineering capabilities. Having the land, accounting, production and other administrative functions sourced from the Resource Marketplace by specialized service providers.

With this change in the administrative function of the producer firms we are able to transition from the “high throughput production” model to the “decentralized production” model where production and overhead costs more accurately match revenues. As a result we are able to initiate pricing related production decisions that better manage the producers oil and gas reserves. What this means is with the service providers focused on the process, such as production accounting, they will be engaged by the Joint Operating Committee not the producer. When the decision is made to temporarily suspend production, the associated costs of production accounting and other accounting, administrative and overhead costs are not incurred.

The Resource Marketplace module is an active participant, as is the Petroleum Lease Marketplace and Financial Marketplace modules, in the “Marketplace Interface”.

Petroleum Lease Marketplace

The Petroleum Lease Marketplace (PLM) is I think the most interesting marketplace module as its objective is to replicate virtually what the physical oil and gas marketplace is. That begins of course with Petroleum Leases.

When we are replicating the physical oil and gas marketplace, the Petroleum Lease is the source document that is the common denominator of all activity and ownership within the industry. Any physical oil and gas assets will be attached to some lease, agreement, rights or concession granting the holders the rights and privileges of ownership, lease or rental. These are the things that are contained within a marketplace. They are what are purchased and sold, bargained and traded for. They are the things that people are recruited to provide services for. Generally a marketplace is a dynamic and evolving commercially oriented hub of activity. That is what we are replicating in the PLM.

When we look at the types of work that is carried out in the PLM we see a large group of administrators working within different areas within a producer firm. Whether it be the Land or Legal department, Production or Exploration Operations staff or Accounting people; all of these groups have an interest in the information, people, assets, documents, processes and functionality contained within the PLM. The primary concern of the people in these groups is the information and data contained within the module. Its accuracy, access, and use by those within their firm, but also within the Joint Operating Committees that their firm has an interest in. Some of this data will be similar to the data that is held by their firms partners, and much of the data has been generated in a cooperative and collaborative manner by those partnerships.

One of the greatest opportunities that we have in developing this system is to address the division of labor and specialization. To take these people’s work and to reorganize it across the industry, so that it was focused on the Joint Operating Committee and very specialized in terms of the tasks that they conduct. To apply those skills across the entire industry, or a geographical region, or some other classification. Which is something that could provide significant increases in oil and gas industry productivity and overall cost savings. That is to say that an individual would work for a process that is billed to 1,000 Joint Operating Committees that might represent 200 Companies.

The types of documents that are generated within the Petroleum Lease Marketplace are somewhat self-evident. (Recall we are including Land, Legal, Production Admin, Exploration Admin, Accounting and Others in the classifications.) Most of them are created in collaboration with the participants of the Joint Operating Committee and include: Authority for Expenditures (AFE"s), Capital Budgeting (Firm and JOC), Construction Ownership and Operating Agreements, Mail Ballots, Daily Drilling Reports, Lease Bonus, Lease Rental, Lease Taxes, Areas of Mutual Interest are some of the forms, processes and attributes of the Petroleum Lease Marketplace module. A more detailed specification will be the result of the communities contribution and commitments.

The innovative oil and gas producer relies on their competitive advantages of their land and asset base, and their earth science and engineering capabilities. The Petroleum Lease Marketplace is the module that provides the producer and Joint Operating Committee with the tools to build their land and asset base. But there’s more, using the “Marketplace Interface” and the service providers that support the innovative producer. The Petroleum Lease Marketplace provides the producer with the competitive advantages to compete in the 21st century.

Financial Marketplace

With many of the world's financial markets continuing to be illiquid and nervous about certain situations. The capital and debt markets have been very negative towards the oil and gas industry with many of the independents being shut out of those markets. The rise of the Asian Joint Venture is a direct result of the inability to raise any money in the “normal” capital markets. I would expect to see further fall out as the Euro situation seems to be far from resolved, the U.S. is deeply indebted and demanding a lot of capital with only the quasi-government groups in Asia holding any significant amount of capital to invest.

The primary point that the Financial Marketplace module is making is that there are competing interests and motivations in the industry in attempting to get things done. With different strategies being deployed by different partners within a Joint Operating Committee, is it any wonder that the financing of a project can ever fall into place. What the Financial Marketplace module proposes is that instead of the property being funded by several different company bankers, each taking a working interest share claim against the firm. The Financial Marketplace module would see one bank fund the property in its entirety on behalf of the partners represented in the property. Aligning of the bank and investment financing to the innovative oil and gas producers and Joint Operating Committees legal, financial, operational decision making, cultural, communication, strategic, innovation, compliance and governance frameworks.

Today that may or may not be an objective or opportunity worth pursuing. However, I think that the freedom of having the attributes of the Financial Marketplace module still reside within the oil and gas market, and possibly even more as a result of the financial meltdown of 2008. Why? The demand for capital will continue to be strong, and the supply will continue to be tight. What we seek to prove in this module, is that through its use we can provide the innovative oil and gas producer and the Joint Operating Committee with the ability to ensure that their capital structures are more efficient than what can be attained in any other system. My two criticisms of the management are that the velocity at which the management operates at is too slow, and the innovativeness is non-existent. In the financial marketplace the pace of activity will need to accelerate in order to address both of these issues. I think we have addressed these with the changes we have documented in the Financial Marketplace module of the Preliminary Specification.

The future requires that we are able to provide for the markets demands for energy. The financial crisis is providing relief in terms of overall global economic growth. Eventually the increase in demand for energy will resume and that is not something that we can currently contemplate. What we have proven here in the Financial Marketplace module is that the innovative oil and gas producer will have more efficient capital structures. Those structures lead to the overall performance of the producer and the Joint Operating Committees they participate in. We need to get our head around this energy demand situation and start to deal with a solution. Muddling through just seems to be too much of a risk.

A note about the “Marketplace Interface” that is a critical component of the Resource, Petroleum Lease and Financial Marketplace modules. The “Marketplace Interface” is a virtual representation that the user has of each of the marketplace modules. It uses avatars where firms and producers establish a virtual representation of their firms offerings. This provides a means in which people have to conduct their business virtually as well as through the traditional means. The avatars are supported through the People, Ideas & Objects ERP system that provides them with the ability to conduct any and all operations that they are able to conduct in the Preliminary Specification modules. It is the ultimate collaborative interface. The following video is a demonstration of the technology by the project owners Project Wonderland.

(Please review the video below.)


Partnership Accounting

The Partnership Accounting module is a pure “accounting” module from the traditional sense, however, I think there are many attributes and concepts in this module that make it unique and of interest to everyone in the industry. The standard list of output from an accounting system is provided and this is standard fare for any software provider in oil and gas. And the user community will fill this list with much more. As we will see in subsequent discussions the difference in the People, Ideas & Objects software application is substantial in that the Joint Operating Committee is treated as the partnership that it is. It also recognizes that the costs of the property for each of the producers within a Joint Operating Committee are as unique as the strategies that are employed.

When we talk about the scope of operations that would be managed under the Partnership Accounting module I would say that it includes just everything. Simply the cut-off would be the inlet to any refinery. Therefore the total scope of any upstream oil and gas operation. Let me be more specific about that from the point of view of geography and type of operation managed by the People, Ideas & Objects application.

If we look at the North American oil and gas infrastructure we see a variety of oil and gas installations designed to serve both producers and consumers of oil and gas. Wells, gathering systems, gas plants, pipelines, storage facilities etc. At each point along these systems there may be additional deliveries of product, or sales of product or products inventoried. What seems to be an obvious and simple business becomes incredibly complex when it's realized that each asset may be owned by a Joint Operating Committee itself and hold product on behalf of owners of other Joint Operating Committees. This summary glosses over the incredible complexity of this business when the volume of transactions that occur in these businesses make it an important part of the oil and gas operation.

Critical to controlling the business is the “Material Balance Report” that is part of the Preliminary Specification. It is the central document that so much of the subsequent process activity is based upon. If someone is to be charged for storage of butane for example, or if someone is to be charged a marketing fee for delivery of product to a customer. Or simply if a sale of a raw gas stream is deemed to have occurred at the wellhead. The Material Balance Report captures these transactions and initiates the flow of documents that need to be generated. It is these documents that also need to be captured and generated in the People, Ideas & Objects Preliminary Specification. To state this as simply as possible is that the scope of the Partnership Accounting module captures all of these activities for all of these facilities as its purpose. Each Material Balance Report must balance. And each reports inputs and outputs balance to other Material Balance Reports. The key to the Material Balance Report is that it provides a means to ensure that the volumes that are reported are factual. Which is the necessary requirement for much of the subsequent process automation.

As we explore the Partnership Accounting module further we see the reasons why we are taking such a broad scope of operations into considerations. It would be an understatement to state that the Material Balance Report has been poorly served by IT. To approach it from a global perspective that includes production operations, accounting and the other areas that depend on this information would be “ideal,” however, the complexity of the business has always been in the way. The engineering of software has never been available to approach the type of problem that this area presents. I think it exists now. And I think that the Partnership Accounting and Accounting Voucher modules of People, Ideas & Objects provides the vision of how this engineering solution solves this problem.

We also introduce the “Work Order” in the Partnership Accounting module. The “Work Order” enables producer firms to participate in informal and ad-hoc working groups to conduct studies and research. These informal groups are able to be established and formed without the traditional accounting nightmare that they have normally created, that are the impediment to their formation. An innovative oil and gas industry needs to have these studies and research working groups form and develop in order to expand the overall science of the industry. The “Work Order” is also an internal cost control mechanism that producers and Joint Operating Committees can rely on to manage their projects.

Accounting Voucher

We now shift our attention to the Accounting Voucher module. The interactions between the Accounting Voucher and the Partnership Accounting modules of the Preliminary Specification are naturally quite significant. They both being accounting modules, it is natural that they have high levels of integration. The Accounting Voucher is unique in that it brings to the producer the ability to design transactions and the Material Balance Report. These are not innovations that the producer will use to become more innovative but are provided to ensure that the innovative producers processes are actively defined and supported through out the People, Ideas & Objects application modules.  When the business is a science, as it is in oil and gas, it would be in the producers interest to remain open and flexible in both its scientific and business approach. The Accounting Voucher and Partnership Accounting modules provide that organizational flexibility.

The manner in which these two modules operate is the Accounting Voucher captures the transactions. Partnership Accounting reports on the transactions. Accounting Vouchers remain open for one accounting period and are subject to the same closing process that is familiar and traditional in the accounting world.

We noted in the Partnership Accounting module how the Work Order enabled the producer with the ability to form and participate in working groups. Providing a flexibility in participating and accounting for these working groups. This flexibility is what is being sought after in the rest of the producer firm and Joint Operating Committee from these accounting modules. Elimination of the bureaucratic inertia that impedes these activities today makes these modules critical to a producers innovation as much as the Research & Capabilities or Knowledge & Learning modules do.

The People, Ideas & Objects Accounting Voucher Module will provide the means for the application to “manage the disparate inter-dependencies of modularity theory and Transaction Cost Economics.” That is a summary application of Professor Baldwin's comments and theories. And therefore this Accounting Voucher is one of the key cross roads to all other modules in the People, Ideas & Objects application. What this means is it’s necessary for people to cease in processing transactions, by way of automation, and move toward the definition and design of transactions to optimize the business of the producer and Joint Operating Committees performance. Designing transactions is best described in the Preliminary Specification as coordinating the marketplace.

As a result of the pooling concept that is a basic assumption of the People, Ideas & Objects Preliminary Specification. Some of the Accounting Vouchers will be open to charges from multiple producers represented in the Joint Operating Committees that your producer firm is a participant in. The revenue, capital and operations of each of the Joint Operating Committees accounts are open to the direct debit and credit charges of all of the participants in the JOC.

The pooling concept has been developed as a replacement to the “operator” designation that currently exists. The ability for each producer to have the just-in-time capabilities available for all the properties they manage requires, on an industry wide basis, to have unused and unusable earth science and engineering capabilities. The ability to pool these critical resources from participating producers into the Joint Operating Committee releases these hoarded unused and unusable capabilities. The pooling concept also implies that some producers will provide other resources to the property in disproportionate amounts to their working interests. All producers need to contribute the skills, knowledge, experience and ideas that they have in an innovative oil and gas industry. Therefore each of these producers need to have the ability to charge their capabilities to the joint account. All charges are subject to the AFE or Work Orders budget requirements and cost control remains the domain of the Joint Operating Committees.

Professor Dosi (1988) states that profit motivated agents must involve both “the perception of some sort of opportunity and an effective set of incentives.” (p. 1135) Professor Dosi introduces the theory of Schmookler (1966) and asked “are the observed inter-sectoral differences in innovative investment the outcome of different incentive structures, different opportunities or both”? (p. 1135) Schmookler believed in differing degrees of economic activity derived from the same innovate inputs. It is People, Ideas & Objects assertion that the “different incentive structures” and “different opportunities” are facilitated or constrained by the administrative ease in which the producer operates.

The same can be stated for the Material Balance Report. If the producer is confident that the deal that was conceived is accurately captured in the Accounting Voucher. And the operation is therefore also reporting a substantial profit. Then they know that their innovations are working, their systems are working and the alignment of the legal, financial, operational decision making, cultural, communication, innovation, strategic, compliance and governance frameworks is achieved.

Research & Capabilities

The Research & Capabilities module enables the producer firm to structure a division of labor between those people that will develop the research and innovations within the producer firm (Research & Capabilities), and those that will implement the innovations within the Joint Operating Committees (Knowledge & Learning). This is one of the major processes of innovation that is carried out in the module. Another major process is that it provides the innovative oil and gas producer with the ability to move the knowledge and capabilities to where the decision rights are held. This module is at the core of the innovative oil and gas producer. Identifying and supporting the key elements of “what” and “how” innovation requires. The Research & Capabilities module is the focus of the producers competitive advantages of their earth science and engineering capabilities.

There are a variety of interfaces in the Research & Capabilities module that enable and encourage the innovation, and develop the capabilities of the producer firm. These capabilities are ultimately captured in the “Dynamic Capabilities Interface” which is the key to both the Research & Capabilities and Knowledge & Learning modules. What the “Dynamic Capabilities Interface” does is capture, document and enable the deployment of the capabilities of the producer firm. These are the knowledge, skills, experience and ideas of the firm. The deployment of these capabilities is by way of their pertinent geological zone, or geographical area, and as a result these capabilities will be populated into the various Joint Operating Committees that meet that criteria in the Knowledge & Learning module.

The objective that we are fulfilling in the Research & Capabilities and Knowledge & Learning module is we are moving the knowledge to where the decision rights are held. The Joint Operating Committee is the operational decision making framework of the industry. With the current method of designating one of the producers in the Joint Operating Committee as the operator there is an attempt to move the decision rights to where the knowledge resides. In the Preliminary Specification we have eliminated the concept of the operator and replaced it with the pooling concept and therefore are able to align the frameworks of the Joint Operating Committee with the compliance and governance of the firm. This requires that we move the knowledge to where the decision rights are held. By doing so we eliminate one point of conflict between the partnership represented in the Joint Operating Committee and the producer who was formerly designated operator.

Knowledge & Learning

We now move onto the Joint Operating Committee focused Knowledge & Learning module of the Preliminary Specification. This module shares many similarities to the Research & Capabilities module, and in fact is populated with the capabilities from that “Dynamic Capabilities Interface” as its base of information. Recall that the objective that we are working to achieve is to move the knowledge to where the decision rights are held.

As I noted the Research & Capabilities module should be organized based on geologic zones. This is so that the information that is pertinent to each zone can be separated into its own “packaging” within the Knowledge & Learning module. Additional ways in which data may be sorted in the Research & Capabilities module might include geographical location. Where all the vendors who operate within a certain geographical location are referenced only in those regions in the Knowledge & Learning module.

With each Joint Operating Committee being concerned with one or a handful of geologic zones. The focus of the Joint Operating Committee can be limited to just those specific areas and or capabilities. What is particularly different about the Knowledge & Learning module, however, is that the information that is contained within the module is aggregated from multiple producers. Any of the producer participants who have information contained within their Research & Capabilities module will have that data and information for those geologic zones of that specific Joint Operating Committee populate the Knowledge & Learning module.

With the potential to have multiple companies contributions of research and capabilities about that zone. It is important to have the information organized within the Knowledge & Learning modules in a manner that when multiple producers data is merged, use of the data is probable. Each capability contains the knowledge, skills, experience and ideas of the people who are part of that producer firms and the service industry representatives. People, Ideas & Objects have developed the football analogy where the decision makers are presented with a list of these capabilities in the "Dynamic Capabilities Interface" and can select and deploy them in much the same fashion as the head coach in a football game.

As we have learned “knowledge begets capability, and capability begets action." Quotes are from Professor Richard Langlois book “The Dynamics of Industrial Capitalism: Schumpeter, Chandler and the New Economy.”

Indeed, the job of the entrepreneur is precisely to introduce new knowledge. The “Circular Flow of Economic Life” is a state in which knowledge is not changing. Economic growth occurs at the hands of entrepreneurs, who bring into the system knowledge that is qualitatively new – knowledge not contained in the existing economic configuration. p. 27

Here we begin to see the role that people take in the makeup of the oil and gas industry. And to sum it up is to state that it is everything. One also needs to consider the role of computers in these “actions” and that it amounts to not very much. People, Ideas & Objects divides the jobs between what people do well, the thinking, generation of ideas, leadership, collaborating, deciding and learning and leaves the memory and processing to the computers.

There has to be a mechanism by which new knowledge enters the system. And that mechanism cannot be rational calculation, for as David Hume (1978, p. 164) long ago observed, “no kind of reasoning can give rise to a new idea.” p. 27

There is much to be done in the industry and a lot of it involves blazing new trails. The hard work is what the people will need to be involved in doing. The challenges and opportunities are of historical significance and will require the dedication of a lot of people.

What has been done already has the sharp-edged reality of all things which we have seen and experienced; the new is only the figment of our imagination. Carrying out a new plan and acting according to a customary one are things as different as making a road and walking along it. p. 27

Analytics & Statistics and Performance Evaluation

The Performance Evaluation and Analytics & Statistics modules have similar interfaces, the Performance Evaluation is focused on the Joint Operating Committee and the Analytics & Statistics module is focused on the producer firm. Essentially these are user based tools that enable analytical and statistical calculations run against the data and information that are contained within the People, Ideas & Objects ERP systems and other unstructured data. Providing users with the ability to analyze data in new and innovative ways in seeking value for their firm or JOC.

The types of data and information that are prepared and presented in these modules is dependent on the individual users and will in most instances be unique, based on their needs and interests, their scope of authority and the type of work they do. When it comes to who will come up with the next great innovation we should expect that it will come from anywhere. Part of the process of innovation is discovery of the problem and we all see the situation from different perspectives. Therefore the point of view and the innovation will depend to a large extent on those different perspectives. Someone working in the trenches may find innovations that affect their work materially, which may not interest others and vice-versa. This process of discovery should be assisted by the types of tools that include the Performance Evaluation and Analytics & Statistics modules. Professor Giovanni Dosi notes.

Thus, I shall discuss the sources of innovation opportunities, the role of markets in allocating resources to the exploration of these opportunities and in determining the rates and directions of technological advances, the characteristics of the processes of innovative search, and the nature of the incentives driving private agents to commit themselves to innovation.

Irrespective of the source of the innovation the fact that it materially affects someone's work should indicate that it should be followed through. These opportunities are hard to discover and we need to be able to evaluate them and assess them based on their impact and their ability to build value. What sometimes appears to be a good idea can also sometimes become an area where the firm could be exposed to unnecessary risk or loss. Having the historical data available is necessary, however, in the 21st century it is also necessary to have these advanced analytical tools available to analyze that data.

In the Preliminary Research Report, People Ideas & Objects determined two important findings. One was that the process of innovation can be reduced to a quantifiable and replicable process. Analytical tools are part of that process. And two, that the Joint Operating Committee is the key organizational framework for innovation in the oil and gas industry. Therefore having analytical tools in the Joint Operating Committee and producer firm are critical.

Work in the 21st Century will be different. The tools that people will use will need to be different as well. The Performance Evaluation and Analytics & Statistics modules are the beginning of these new era tools for the way in which people need to work. We frequently speak of specialization and the division of labor in the Preliminary Specification. There is also a specialization and division of labor between what the people and computers will be doing and that is reflected here in these two modules. Computers will be responsible for the storage and processing, and people will be responsible for the thinking, the ideas, the decisions, the creating, the collaborating, the innovation and the many other things we do well. Much of these things being generated based on the facts that are determined through the Performance Evaluation and Analytics & Statistics modules.

Compliance & Governance

Compliance & Governance, the module everyone loves to hate. It is my hypothesis that it is here, at compliance and governance, that everything went wrong. What I mean by that is in the 1960’s when the first computers were being introduced into oil and gas companies. The question was asked what will we do with them. And of course the answer was accounting. Then as they became ever more powerful and more capable they began to add more tasks to their duties and added the natural follow on concerns of tax, royalty and compliance. Soon the culture became focused on those “compliance” requirements of the “firm” and the Joint Operating Committee became something that was used over there. Soon after this engineers and geologists began speaking a different language to the “business” types. Divisions grew and the business of the business was focused on the corporation and its need to file the appropriate paperwork to the appropriate agency in the appropriate time frame on the appropriate colored form.

Anyway the real business of the business, the Joint Operating Committee somehow survived and if we align its legal, financial, operational decision making, cultural, communication, strategic and innovation frameworks to the compliance and governance frameworks of the hierarchy everyone can start speaking the same language as the engineers and geologists and start to get some real business done. And as People, Ideas & Objects research has shown this would provide the oil and gas producer with greater speed, innovation, accountability and profitability.

Compliance & Governance is the eleventh module in the eleven module Preliminary Specification. It’s also no accident that I added Compliance & Governance last, as the question that should be asked is. How are we going to ensure compliance to all the regulations for all the module specifications that we have discussed so far? And I would assert that is why these are user based developments. But seriously, one thing governments seem to be fond of today is regulations on oil and gas companies. With Information Technology enabling various governments to issue technical business rules, technical specifications, XBRL syntax’s and other technological frameworks for these regulations. The ability to write these “frameworks” only seems to have encouraged them to write even more regulations. The larger point is that these frameworks do provide software developers with distinct advantages in enabling the regulations within the software.

As we had indicated earlier regarding the user communities determination of the scope of the People, Ideas & Objects application. Part of that determination of scope will include which regulations it will need to be in compliance too. With so many jurisdictions requiring compliance, each transaction may need to be assured to be in compliance with multiple jurisdictions. Add to that the transaction may be generated through a Joint Operating Committee owned by a variety of producers. And those producers may be composed from an international background and the Compliance & Governance module takes on an enhanced importance.

From the point of view of a producer maintaining the database and applications for all of the compliance frameworks that you have to be concerned with is a difficult task. The number of people you need to have to keep your applications up to date is significant. However, People, Ideas & Objects, as one software developer acting on behalf of the industry as a whole, the job becomes much more specialized and therefore manageable. Then again if we were building these applications with the purpose of serving an industry we will use the division of labor and specialization to manage these tasks in a way that would significantly lower the costs of compliance, and increase the quality of the producers compliance.

I foresee just the royalty compliance requirements of these applications potentially including many dozens of different jurisdictions. To approach this from a software engineering point of view as a sole producer is not cost effective in the least. To consider these costs are replicated across each producer firm, then we begin to see the costs of compliance escalating to the levels that they are today. There is another way, and that is what is being proposed here in People, Ideas & Objects, along with the many other innovative ways we are proposing to deal with the issues of the oil and gas industry.

Here we have the beginnings of compliance and governance for the innovative oil and gas producer and Joint Operating Committee. What we need to do is to deal with the compliance of an innovative oil and gas producer with the tools of the 21st century. Those include automation, specialization and the division of labor. And in terms of governance, we can begin to provide the producer firm with the appropriate operational governance that is consistent with the demands of innovation. For we have learned that innovation does not arise from sloppy compliance and governance.

Oracle Corporation

The Preliminary Specification details the modules, applications, processes and functions of the Oracle Database, Java, Oracle Fusion Middleware and Oracle Fusion Applications that have been specified and will be used.

Miscellaneous 

People, Ideas & Objects is soliciting commitments to fund the completion of the first phase of development, the Preliminary Specification. This phase has been estimated at $200 million and 200 man years of producers contributions. Producers interested in supporting these developments should review our Revenue Model and contact me here.

The Preliminary Specification provides the oil and gas producer with the most profitable means of oil and gas operations. People, Ideas & Objects Revenue Model specifies the means in which investors can participate in these user defined software developments. Users are welcome to join me here. Together we can begin to meet the future demands for energy.