User Community Developments, Part XIII
Whether the new oil and gas producer is a startup or an intermediate they will be able to maintain profitability of their oil and gas production at all times. The startup producer can begin operations by reselling their earth science and engineering capabilities they’re developing prior to owning any oil and gas properties and remain profitable. The shareholders can begin their involvement as soon as the management have shown commercial use of their capabilities. In addition, participation in a few small properties is the beginning of an oil and gas producers production profile. In today’s environment this requires the staffing of administrative and accounting resources necessary to manage the firm's interest in those properties. With the Preliminary Specification and service providers in place shareholders won’t see millions of dollars being consumed in the maintenance of overhead during the startup phase of the organization. Only the fees for the service providers will be charged on the few properties that are owned by the producer. Attaining a 100% effectiveness of the administrative and accounting resources being charged on those properties vs. the extremely low percentage utilization the full time administrative and accounting resources the startup producer has to take on in today’s market. Unlike today, this will have proven to the shareholders that the management of the new oil and gas producer have an understanding of business and profitability, and will not indulge in development of a spendthrift organization such as today’s oil and gas producers.
This is not to say there will be no overhead that is not incurred at all times. The CEO, COO and CFO salary and benefits are not included in either of the two categories we mentioned. When the differences are analyzed between the overhead that is incurred by today’s producers and that which is incurred by a producer in the Preliminary Specification. They will not be carrying any of the costs to maintain and build their competitive advantages in the earth science and engineering capabilities. These would be self-supporting activities as they are a separate business model in the Preliminary Specification from oil and gas production. Direct overhead of the Joint Operating Committee will be incurred for any production that is profitable. This will involve the producers share and be offset by the revenues of oil and gas sales. Lastly there will be some overhead that the producer will be incurring above and beyond these areas in the management areas of the organization. These are not incidental costs and how the producer chooses to report them, as capital or costs, would be to their discretion.
Bureaucrats have been fooling themselves about how much they spend and where it should be classified. “Large explorers outspent their cash flow by 117% over the past seven years,” according to Barclays. “The top 15 oil companies have paid executives $2.8 billion over the past decade while delivering a smaller return to shareholders versus other industries.” That averages $18.6 million per year / producer. I can state unquestionably these are not the statistics that drive the day to day or any conversations anywhere in the industry. It is the pursuit of the engineering and earth sciences technical difficulties that occupy the minds of the oil men these days. Increasing their production profile in the face of such technical obstacles is the only thing that excites and challenges the people who work in the business. The financials will do what the financial will do.
Today the U.S. production sits at 10.5 million boe / day. This number is expected to be 10.65 million by the end of May 2018. That is 2 million boe / day higher than when OPEC implemented their production sharing agreement in November 2016. In shale the US natural gas production over past 50 years equalled.
1968: 51 bcf/d
1978: 52 bcf/d
1988: 47 bcf/d
1998: 52 bcf/d
2008: 55 bcf/d
2018: 81 bcf/d (forecasted)
Shale, in the past ten years, is responsible for a 47% increase in the deliverability of natural gas in the U.S. Is it any wonder why the prices are so low? If industry increased deliverability by 8% in the prior 40 years, is this considered out of control? The fundamental collapse of the natural gas marketplace would seem to indicate that it is.
Conversely I don’t think producers have thought through the implications of implementing the Preliminary Specification. What happens when the $1.6 trillion in capital that currently resides in property, plant and equipment is retired through the decentralized production model? Clearly their legacy costs of oil and gas exploration and production / boe are going to go down. But only after the investors who have supported the industry are compensated and the assurance is given that they will not be directly subsidizing the consumers again. Destruction of the natural gas business was quickly followed by the destruction of the oil business. Today the financial health of the producers, when you consider the bloated nature of property, plant and equipment on the balance sheet, is astonishing. It is worthless and demands capital to maintain an operating deficiency. Even though the investors are not returning there is no discussion or understanding in the industry of what is happening or what to do about it. Returning money to shareholders who provided it in the past certainly doesn’t stir any discussion outside of this blog. There must be wells that need to be drilled.
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. Setting the foundation for profitable North America’s energy independence. People, Ideas & Objects Revenue Model specifies the means in which investors can participate in our future Initial Coin Offering (ICO) that will fund these user defined software developments. It is through the process of issuing our ICO that we are leading the way in which creative destruction can be implemented within the oil and gas industry. 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.