I Know, It's Ridiculous!

We have now entered the phase in which the bureaucracy have become untouchable. Annual report and annual general meeting season are over. Accountability is no more. As I mentioned the other day, thoughts move to the cabin and the pension benefits that will be earned over the next nine months of relative stress free living. Has anyone noticed that the level of discussion in the industry regarding the situation that it's in is non-existent! And isn't it odd that the “strength” in oil and gas prices seems to have abated. What to do? I guess one could join the crowded highways and enjoy the summer months with the bureaucrats. Or, depending on your point of view. That is if you agree with the points that I have made here before. And you are an investor in oil and gas, or are a potential user community participant there is much that we can do while the brain trust parties the summer away.

It is ridiculous to expect that our budget will be funded. Just as it is ridiculous to think that the bureaucrats will change and fix the problems in the industry. And just as ridiculous to think that the ridiculous tens of trillions of dollars of our value proposition will come about without the Preliminary Specification. And so here we sit and wait for that one unhappy individual that realizes that as ridiculous as all this is. Someone has to pull the trigger and fund these developments before it's too late. Too late being the bureaucracy find the pension benefits too healthy and the cabin too comfortable to bother with accounting for their actions three months of the year and retire. Then there will be no one and nothing in which to operate the industry. But that is a ridiculous assertion.

All of this doesn't seem too ridiculous to me. There are a large number of people who read these words each and every day. Some may be doing it for entertainment, others may agree with the ridiculous nature of the problem. In most cases they may be living with the difficulties in the oil and gas producers and know that there is a better way and see how the Preliminary Specification can help to solve those issues. They also know that their careers are not going anywhere with the status quo and are stuck in an unchanging environment that is unhealthy for all concerned. It is these people that the Preliminary Specification appeals to. And it is these people that I see as the potential market for the user community participant.

The banking crisis that we experienced in 2008 was evident to everyone, everywhere for many years. Watching house prices rise to levels that no sane person would want to participate in. Having mortgages for those houses being issued to people without full time work, or liar loans as they were called, and then having those mortgages “securitized” and sold to “willing” investors was a bad business model. Then they took it the level of creating synthetic derivatives of mortgages. And thats when people really began to make money. Anyway we all know the history and the fact that the banks are still not able to stand on their own without massive, unprecedented fed stimulus. Which has become about as normal as the summertime commute to the cabin.

The business model of the oil and gas producer is no longer functioning to provide any value to anyone. Except the bureaucrats. They need to keep full production to ensure that they can cover their salary, benefits, pensions and perks. Outside of that who cares what happens to the industry. The problem is that there is no fed to flood the market with deliverability if the oil and gas industry fails in the manner that the banks did in 2008. There is no “adult” supervision. There is only the energy that we depend on for everything that we are. But then again, in a very big way, that too is ridiculous.

The Preliminary Specification and user community provides the oil and gas producer with the most dynamic, innovative, profitable and successful 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. 

Our Solution Part XX

We have quickly gone through some of the highlights of the Preliminary Specification in this series called “Our Solution.” All of these blog posts can be aggregated by using the blog label PS-Solution. There are many other attributes of the Preliminary Specification. This list may best represent the attributes that I find are the most valuable to the oil and gas industry. The purpose in preparing this summary is to provide you with a better understanding of the Preliminary Specification and to encourage you to read the entire specification. I know it is rather long and people don't generally have an interest in the areas outside of their domain of knowledge. It is however somewhat necessary to get an understanding of the total specification to help you better understand how your domain fits within the bigger picture. At 175,000 words in the Preliminary Specification I know I am asking a lot however it will provide for a better user in the long run.

It may seem that we are several million light years away from becoming the manner in which the oil and gas industry operates. Now with annual report and annual general meeting season over. The ability to hold the bureaucrats accountable for their actions has once again ceased to be possible. Their window of opportunity to enjoy the cabin and count the value of their pensions provides a never ending level of satisfaction. This however does nothing for the profitability of the industry or deal with any of the issues that are certainly pressing. It is a “business as usual” situation in the oil and gas industry today. The looming financial disaster that the bureaucrats have engineered is well within sight of everyone in the industry. And their exit strategy from the industry at that time is well planned.

Therefore from our point of view this should be good news. However, I can't think of a more disastrous situation. The last time the bureaucracy cut and run, it was the government that had to step in to mitigate the situation. I personally think there is enough government involvement in business today, we don’t need more. When the bureaucracy does cut and run the capacities and capabilities of the industry will take a decided step downwards. This is not what we should have to experience. The bureaucracy should responsibly deal with their exit by putting their replacement in place and manage the industry until such time as they are not needed. Then again who said we live in a perfect world.

It is our responsibility therefore to be prepared to take over from the bureaucracy when they do decide to leave. We are working on having our budget provided to us in the January 2017 time frame. Until that time we are working on our key priority of developing the user community. It is the user communities development that is the difficult and time consuming element of our solution. It is also something that we can do without the benefit of our budget in place. I have therefore made it our priority in terms of our activities for the next number of years.

In terms of priority of your time and energy during this time. As a prospective user community participant. The understanding of the Preliminary Specification in its entirety, helps significantly in terms of understanding why some things need to be the way they are. Your understanding of how the user community fits within the industry, its role and significance. Particularly the power they hold in terms of change and enabling the dynamic, innovative and profitable oil and gas producer. Also the user communities participant in terms of their role in the service providers that will be developed to provide the administrative and accounting services to the oil and gas producers. It is this model that is fundamentally different than what exists today. We will be changing the makeup of the industry and it is the user community that is at the heart of the industry. These are significant business opportunities for those that can see their way into the manner in which the industry will operate. Both as a user community participant and as a service provider. It is that these two roles are filled by the key individual who is the user community participant and the principle behind the service provider.

The Preliminary Specification and user community provides the oil and gas producer with the most dynamic, innovative, profitable and successful 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. 

Our Solution Part XIX

One of the more controversial elements of the Preliminary Specification is the Marketplace Interface. It is here that we are introducing and developing a new interface in which the users in oil and gas will interact, transact, collaborate, agree, and associate themselves with other users, companies, producers, leaseholders, service providers, service industry representatives, banks and governments. The Marketplace Interface is a single interface that is accessible through the Petroleum Lease, Resource and Financial Marketplace modules. The Marketplace Interface will enable you to extend your domain of influence beyond the physical presence that is a current constraint to your working environment. It is an enhancement to the current means of communication through telephones, email, tweets, meetings etc. Avatars of individuals within the Marketplace Interface will enable these interactions in real time from any distance and provide the full power of an ERP system to support the transactions, interactions and collaborations that could occur.

Pretty silly, I know. Until you realize that you can’t get everyone to the meeting until next Wednesday at 3:00. And to do so will cause you to disrupt yours and others schedules significantly. If only there was a way to get everyone together right now so that we can decide on this critical point… Certainly telephones are not going to provide the documentary value and group participation of a meeting. The Marketplace Interface, operating within the three marketplace modules of the Preliminary Specification, combines elements of both meetings and telephones. The ability to have them quickly, documented and with the full participation of the necessary individuals will be the capabilities brought about by this new interface.

Everyone is tired of the extensive number of meetings that they need to attend daily or weekly. If only they could attend some of them virtually, which is what they would be able to do with the Marketplace Interface. Cutting down on the time in meetings, which would allow for, wait for it, more meetings! Which is going to be one of the consequences of implementing the Preliminary Specification in the dynamic, innovative and profitable oil and gas producers. With high levels of automation in the transaction areas being conducted by the service providers. Their use of specialization, the division of labor and automation as their key competitive advantage we have stated here many times before that the types of work that people will be doing is going to change. We will be conducting different tasks that include leadership, issue resolution, creative, collaboration, research, ideas, design, planning, thinking, and generally making the computers work for us. Or in other words, many more meetings.

If we believe that our work will continue to remain the same in terms of how we interact with people then I think we are going to need a lot more people. Either that or new methods of communication are going to be needed. The endless meetings will need to end. Maybe some of the attendees can instead review a video replay of the Marketplace Interface recording at twice the speed. Other methods of communication are going to be needed to be introduced into the way that we work if we are going to do the work of the humans and leave the work that is better suited to the computers, to the computers. Our volumes of work will increase. The types of work will change. And the importance of that work will also increase.

An ERP system that doesn’t introduce a new means in which to deal with these issues and opportunities is not doing its job. It is providing for yesterday’s ERP system needs. Our work is changing and the types of interfaces that we will use also needs to be changing. The Marketplace Interface is one of the opportunities that we will be using in the Preliminary Specification. It is based on the Open Wonderland framework developed by the former Sun Microsystems. Here is a video of the technology.

The Preliminary Specification and user community provides the oil and gas producer with the most dynamic, innovative, profitable and successful 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. 

Our Solution Part XVIII

In addition to a number of Joint Operating Committees. The dynamic, innovative and profitable oil and gas producer will operate in a number of marketplaces within the oil and gas industry. The Preliminary Specification has three marketplace modules, the Petroleum Lease, Resource and Financial Marketplace modules. It is within these modules that the Preliminary Specification virtually replicates those markets.

Without a P&NG Lease, or a concession there is no title or ownership to the oil and gas that is produced. It is the marketplace of P&NG Leases that the North American oil and gas producer seeks to earn their profits by applying their earth science and engineering capabilities as competitive advantages. P&NG Leases can be bought and sold, traded, swapped, developed into a Joint Venture, pooled as some of the many possibilities within the North American marketplace. The constraints on a producer's creativity, of how they approach the business, is limited by the laws of Canada and the United States, and their earth science and engineering capabilities. The Petroleum Lease Marketplace will reflect the available opportunities that exist in the oil and gas market space. And also provide the means in which to manage those assets consistent with effective and efficient business practices.

To facilitate that creativity and business need the Preliminary Specifications Petroleum Lease Marketplace will need to accurately emulate that physical market space and all of its characteristics. So that the dynamic, innovative and profitable oil and gas producer can address the entire oil and gas market space and seek out their role within the industry. If it is to post some land, or bid. Buy some established production or pool an interest in a promising area. They will have the interfaces within the module to provide for the ability to participate in those markets.

The second marketplace module seeks to replicate what we have called the Resource Marketplace. This consists of the marketplace of human resources, service providers, service industry representatives and producers. The products and services that are made available to the dynamic, innovative and profitable oil and gas producer. Within this module producers will be able to find the interfaces to enable the engagement of the resources to conduct any and all activities within the industry. It is through this module that the producer will interact with the service providers. Which in turn enables the decentralized production model to be implemented as the business model for the industry. And therefore it is here that the flexibility in the producer's production deliverability is enabled. Automation of the processes between producers and others is an underlying assumption regarding the transactions that occur in the module.

Lastly there is the Financial Marketplace module. With the level of activity increasing in the dynamic, innovative and profitable oil and gas producer. The need to have its financial capabilities increase their velocity and throughput are necessary. As well, the alignment of the financial framework of the Joint Operating Committee to the compliance and governance framework is achieved in the Financial Marketplace module. Opening up the producer to new avenues of financing and greater capabilities in terms of their overall financial performance.

I'm really struggling to articulate the abstract definition of what these marketplace modules mean within the Preliminary Specification. These hold a special role in the software and will provide new ways in which the producers participate in these market spaces. As I stated in the beginning of this post; the dynamic, innovative and profitable oil and gas producer has an interest in many Joint Operating Committees and these three marketplaces.

The Preliminary Specification and user community provides the oil and gas producer with the most dynamic, innovative, profitable and successful 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. 

No Posting Today

In recognition of the U.S. Memorial Day holiday.

No Posting Today

Bureaucrats can look forward to another day's pay and one day's vesting in their pensions. 

Our Solution Part XVII

The conflicted bureaucracy that are operating in the oil and gas industry have a fundamental belief in a theory known as spontaneous order. It is an economic principle that essentially states that markets will create the solution when it is required. Spontaneous order has worked in the economy on many occasions and could be argued that it is the competitive response to a company's offering. I think things have changed. Information Technology in organizations is the metaphorical cement that locks the elements of the organization in a permanent, unchangeable situation. The capacity and capability to change the organization is dependent on the capacity and capability to change the software first and foremost. Without the ability to change the software, none of the elements of the organization are going to change. Spontaneous order is therefore rendered inert in the digital economy.

Which is fine as far as the bureaucrats are concerned. Leaving the status quo organization in place is therefore simple. Don't change any of the software and the bureaucrats can retire fat and happy. This may also be one of the key reasons that there is little growth in the advanced economies. Everyone is dissatisfied with the level of economic growth these days, however, have they asked what a bureaucrat really thinks of this.

The alternative to spontaneous order is the hideous sounding central planning. Which is what had been done in the former communist countries with little success. Even the Chinese successfully abandoned this method of organization. There has to be a middle ground and I think that the Preliminary Specification, our user community and service providers offer that middle ground. First by providing the dynamic, innovative and profitable oil and gas producers with a software development capability. Secondly by establishing the user community vision to enable the needs of the producers, the industry in general, the service industry and all the users with the means in which to change the Preliminary Specification.

An analogy to our current situation in oil and gas would follow along the lines of this. If we had a donut shop that made its own donuts. Where the manager continued to purchase new equipment that was faster and more productive. And he kept all of his machines producing all of the time. The parking lot would be full of stale donuts and there would be no customers. This for all intents and purposes is the oil and gas industry today. No one can impress upon the donut shop manager, or in the oil and gas industries case our friends the bureaucracy, that they are wrong and need to change their ways. It is because the donut shop manager has a vested ownership interest in the donut machine manufacturer, or in the bureaucracies case, their cabin and personal fortune.

Review of the user community vision shows the user community is endowed with the power and capabilities to solve issues and enable opportunities for the dynamic, innovative and profitable oil and gas producer. As a replacement to the current conflicted bureaucracy. In the current industry no one can point to anyone who has the power to deal with the overproduction issue. In our user community the users will be able to see the opportunity, organize the resources to make the changes to the software and the service providers and enable the value to be earned by the oil and gas producers.

Everyone can see the issues in the oil and gas industry. Yet no one can currently do anything about them. The only solution being offered is the Preliminary Specification, our user community and the service providers. At some point the realization that the only solution being offered is probably the right one will be accepted. Particularly when the value proposition of that solution is valued in the tens of trillions of dollars.

The Preliminary Specification and user community provides the oil and gas producer with the most dynamic, innovative, profitable and successful 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. 

An Operating System for the Industry

Maybe one of the best ways to describe the Preliminary Specification, the user community and service providers is that it is an operating system for the industry. One in which the producer, no matter their size, can manage their interests in any and all oil and gas properties. An operating system that provides the producer with the opportunity to implement whichever strategy they believe to be the most effective. Based on the most advanced earth science and engineering capabilities that are available from the partnership making up the Joint Operating Committee. How this will work is through the interactions, transactions and collaborations between the people and the electronic devices they use. Everyone knows that we can have these types of applications. Those that are readily available for consumers that use these devices. Why are they not available for the oil and gas industry? Its simple, we need to organize ourselves, our data and processes to enable these new types of devices and applications. We need to build the operating system for the industry in order for this vision to take hold.

Certainly everyone can access their files and work from anywhere there is an Internet connection today. We've all been able to do this for years. That is not where we need to go, nor is it what I want to discuss today. What we need to do is to begin to provide the oil and gas producers with the ability and capabilities to conduct their business securely, anytime, anywhere and on any device. A means in which producers would be able to work together, indirectly, to better manage their interests. Based on information and data that is accurate and reliable. And to have the capability to make the business decisions, at the Joint Operating Committee level, that need to be made.

It is this new way of operation brought about by the Preliminary Specification, the user community and service providers that the producers will be able to attain the most profitable means of oil and gas operations. Today everyone knows what the problem is. Overproduction. Everyone knows the solution. Shut-in the unprofitable properties. Yet none of the producers are able to do so due to the inability to know which properties are a financial drain, and they can not be the first in the marketplace to voluntarily reduce their production profile. If, with the Preliminary Specification, all the producers know that their production is profitable. And any that isn’t profitable has been shut-in. Then they know their profits will be the highest they can attain as a result. They will also know that all producers will operate in the same fashion as that is the most profitable means of oil and gas operations. There is no collusion over prices. There is only the self interest of the producers at the Joint Operating Committee making the decision to produce or not in their own best interests.

Making clear business decisions based on accurate and reliable information and data is not the method in which the oil and gas industry operates today! Overhead and capital are ignored as costs so they don't have to account for them. Bureaucrats let these costs accumulate on the balance sheet for eternity. That way they can justify producing everything they own no matter how much it might really cost. Its the modern version of the shell game.

With the Preliminary Specification our user community and service providers in place the industry would operate in a more rational manner. We use the Joint Operating Committee as the key organizational construct of the dynamic, innovative and profitable oil and gas producer. In doing so we align the compliance and governance frameworks of the hierarchy with the legal, financial, operational decision making, cultural, communication, strategic and innovation frameworks of the Joint Operating Committee. This alignment is the beginning of the Preliminary Specification. From there we are able to take the issues and opportunities of the industry and deal with them effectively. And not just in the administrative and accounting domains, but also in the operational domain.

Time will tell if the commodity prices are in the early stages of a recovery. I’m on the record stating this is not the case as the bureaucrats can’t change their means of operations. They will continue to overproduce. I am also on record as stating that the current accounting is bogus. That the ability and capability of these allegedly profitable producers to fund their negative margins and unprofitable operations is limited. Particularly in an environment where the investors are not investing, and now the bond holders are not investing. The only real place for a producer to get their hands on some cash is to produce! And around we go again. It is the definition of insanity.

The Preliminary Specification and user community provides the oil and gas producer with the most dynamic, innovative, profitable and successful 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. 

Status Update

As difficult as our task appears to be, we are making progress in terms of spreading our message throughout the North American oil and gas industry. People can see the Preliminary Specification and understand its logic. Most importantly they can see how they will be able to fit into the revised oil and gas industry. What is difficult for many people to appreciate is the scope and scale of change that we have to exercise to enable the Preliminary Specification, the user community and service providers. It is my opinion that the bureaucracy is a method of organization that has ceased to build value in all industries. It is why we are no longer growing. Just as the former Soviet Union found that their system of organization could no longer function, the bureaucrats need to understand that their days are numbered in this the 21st century.

It is our focus on developing the user community for the next 18 months. At which time we should be able to shift into the development of the Preliminary Specification. This assumes that we are successful in convincing “someone” to fund our budget and proceed with these developments. It may appear that we are a significant distance from having our budget funded, however, watch and learn. The real priority right now is the development of the user community as this enables us to lose nothing in terms of time. If we had our budget now, we would be doing the same things, developing the user community. It is the critical qualitative difference in our software offering and will be the method in which the oil and gas industry solves its issues.

Oil and natural gas prices have shown some strength in the past month. The bureaucrats are thinking all is well and they dodged the bullet, so to speak. Others outside of the industry may be thinking the same thing. Why then would it be necessary to conduct such radical surgery as implementing the Preliminary Specification if everything is on the road to renewal. To me commodity prices are displaying characteristics of a classic dead cat bounce. Last week the EIA announced that natural gas storage levels are 65% higher than they were last year. One look at the production profile of the United States and it is clear that the storage capacity for natural gas will be reached this summer / fall injection period. Taking 100 to 110 bcf per week of demand out of the market, suddenly, will cause the natural gas prices to take a further step downward on a semi-permanent basis. And as for oil, there is no good news anywhere that can support $60.00 prices.

What needs to happen is a method in which producers can allocate production based on profitability. Only the Preliminary Specification provides our decentralized production model. The bureaucrats are conflicted against themselves by having to produce everything they can to offset their overheads. To determine which properties are profitable is impossible for each and every producer on each and every property. They use estimates of what the overhead at the property is and these are based on best guesses from the 1960’s. The actual overhead of the producer is capitalized into the ballooning asset base. Therefore to determine the actual cost of a property, forget it. The only number they can provide is the gross margin. And as long as the gross margin is positive then they will produce. However, don't be surprised if, in the future, the margins do turn negative.

Hope springs eternal. So the saying goes. The alternative is that the bureaucrats face the reality that they have failed and begin dealing with the consequences. Not something that anyone wants to see. So we assume that things will be alright when the commodity prices rise to these levels. We need to extract our emotions from the work that we have ahead of us. And focus on the job that we need to do. A very difficult and hard type of work in building the Preliminary Specification, the user community and service providers. Alternatively we will see the continued failure of the industry leading to the breakdown of its capabilities and capacities. Who knows, we might have to go there before anything happens with People, Ideas & Objects budget being funded. And we're prepared for that too.

The Preliminary Specification and user community provides the oil and gas producer with the most dynamic, innovative, profitable and successful 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. 

No Posting Today

Taking the day off in recognition of the Canadian Victoria Day Holiday.