Our Oil and Gas White Paper, Part X
The Preliminary Specification is a twelve module ERP (Enterprise Resource Planning) software system designed for the dynamic, innovative, accountable 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 for at least the next twenty five years.
Keep in mind while reviewing the Preliminary Specification that it is People, Ideas & Objects claim that we provide the oil and gas producer, as our competitive advantage, the most profitable means of oil and gas operations. And we do this in the following six fundamental ways.
1) Our Value Proposition
The Preliminary Specification provides the most profitable means of oil and gas operations. We have quantified the value of the difference between our system and the status quo at $25.7 to $45.7 trillion over the next 25 years. These are as a result of the ability of producers to avoid any losses on operations by knowing precisely which properties are losing money and which ones are profitable. Something quite remarkably they are unable to determine today. Then they’ll be able to shut-in any losing properties leading to the dynamic that is discussed below in item 3.
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, legal, and minor support staff. And that’s it. The rest of the administrative and accounting resources of the producers are reallocated and 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 one 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 service provider is billed directly to the appropriate Joint Operating Committee, not the individual producer. We are moving from the reliance on producers fixed administrative and accounting capabilities to a reliance on the industries variable administrative and accounting capabilities.
The advantages of moving to a system and methodology such as this is its 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 service provider would become specialized and reduce the time and effort in administering these tasks to a small component of the costs incurred today. Around 1776, 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 accounting processes of the oil and gas 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. All economic growth since the late 1700’s can be attributed to enhanced organization through specialization and the division of labor. Society today requires software to define and support any enhanced version of specialization and division of labor. People, Ideas & Objects software and our software development capabilities are critical capabilities for the oil and gas industries performance and future growth.
3) Capability to Remove the Marginal Production and Become Price Makers
With the high costs associated with exploration and production, and particularly shale, it’s no surprise that producers are reporting losses on operations. What is surprising is that producers have done nothing to mitigate the chronic and systemic overproduction that has caused the decline in oil and natural gas prices. The reason for this chronic overproduction is the producers have to generate the revenues to cover the overheads they incur in what is called 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 we have employed the “decentralized production” model. 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 accounting or administrative service. If the property is shut-in due to low deliverability, high costs or other reason then there is no charge incurred for the overhead item by any of the individual service providers as they’ve conducted no work on that property, and neither the producer or the Joint Operating Committee are incurring any of the accounting or administrative 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 unprofitable production based on an accurate, detailed accounting and attain their highest level of corporate profitability by not having their losing properties diluting their profitable ones. They can save those reserves for a time when they can be produced profitably. Those reserves will not have to carry the incremental costs of subsequent monthly losses that need to be recovered in the future. And finally, by keeping that unprofitable production off the market those commodities will find their true marginal costs.
If producers across the industry follow this process then oil and gas prices would not have the significant declines that we’ve experienced in the last number of years. If the downswing in oil and natural gas prices were averted by way of a reduction in unprofitable production volumes, the total revenues and profits of the industry would provide for profitable operations everywhere and always. People, Ideas & Objects believe we have a responsibility to use oil and gas resources effectively, and that implies that we at least produce them profitably from an appropriate accounting basis. Producer bureaucrats claim this is collusion and have used that as an excuse to lose effective control of the financial, operational and political frameworks of the industry. They will not listen to the fact that making effective, independent business decisions based on actual, factual accounting that determines profitability is not collusion. As a result they have destroyed the industry and are unable to provide an alternative strategy or plan to deal with the issues and opportunities they face.
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 American 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.