I've spent my whole career on the service side. Started with an E&P a little over a month ago. As for the exodus, I really don't think a lot of these companies are doing well and squeezing their employees. It's still a really tight market. That and every other industry has just about caught up in pay and benefits. My wife is in IT (same major as me) and makes more, works 100% from home and basically has unlimited vacation.

My company also started a permanent hybrid scheduled. Work from home Wednesday and Friday, with Friday being a half day.

Agree with all of this. Too many examples of CIC payouts with everyone else in the company getting cut. Also the "flex" work from home/office really doesn't mean that much in O&G. As long as the rig is running whether you're with the operator or service company you're working no matter where you are.

For me - my wife has finally had enough of calls during vacations, weekends, dinners out, etc and encouraged the move.

Bottom line - to stay in O&G in this environment you have to 1) love the industry and 2) think of it as a career. Unfortunately for me it became a job...

https://www-cnbc-com.cdn.ampproject.org/c/s/www.cnbc.com/amp/2021/06/13/shell-considering-sale-of-holdings-in-largest-us-oil-field.html

I was with NexTier when they laid off over half their employees but giving multi million dollar bonuses to the exec staff for hitting merger synergy goals.

MAROON said:

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So managers have to drive to the office on Friday to work four hours?

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Even better....everyone does...granted the half day Friday is summer only.

Joseph Parrish said:

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https://www-cnbc-com.cdn.ampproject.org/c/s/www.cnbc.com/amp/2021/06/13/shell-considering-sale-of-holdings-in-largest-us-oil-field.html

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Who's offset? OXY? guess it would have to be a major, chevron?

OXY should but not sure how they make that work. Would have to be equity issue

jetch17 said:

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Joseph Parrish said:

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https://www-cnbc-com.cdn.ampproject.org/c/s/www.cnbc.com/amp/2021/06/13/shell-considering-sale-of-holdings-in-largest-us-oil-field.html

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Who's offset? OXY? guess it would have to be a major, chevron?

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Shell isn't going to have anything left at this pace

I'm thinking BPX has the most to gain.

Imagine BP offloads BPX soon

Which part?

AgLaw07 said:

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I've been in the industry since 2007 and am leaving next week. I heard it put really well last week - at a lot of places the recovery has only been for the company not the people. I know a lot of people took demotions, benefit cuts, etc and haven't gotten them back.

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Oxy set a bad precedent by cutting salaries last year, thanks to their idiotic purchase of APC. My company followed suit around July 2020 and slashed salaries 20% and reduced PTO. At least Oxy got theirs back. We still haven't gotten our salaries restored. But it looks the c-suite folks are in no rush to return to office life. Can't complain about working remote since March 2020. We got rid of our jet so some us were assigned company cars to drive to the field....sucks but first world problems ya know.

We've lost a handful of finance/production folks to tech pursuing the data science/engineer role. Pay is on par if not better than O&G.

I don't know if you guys are referring to service or major employees but I'm still seeing a ton of people on the sideline looking for work. The consolidation has needed to happen for awhile. It's true, companies are tasked to do more with less. The game now for survivors is a race to the lowest G&A. The money is dictating headcount for many teams. Thankfully, it hasn't happened to us, yet.

I am considering flex scheduling. We are in week two of 100% in the office. What flex scheduling tools/apps are you seeing people use to keep track of who is in, when?

My apologies. I mean no disrespect to anyone still searching for a job within OG.

gougler08 said:

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jetch17 said:

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Joseph Parrish said:

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https://www-cnbc-com.cdn.ampproject.org/c/s/www.cnbc.com/amp/2021/06/13/shell-considering-sale-of-holdings-in-largest-us-oil-field.html

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Who's offset? OXY? guess it would have to be a major, chevron?

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Shell isn't going to have anything left at this pace

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at least not in Shales, but we haven't made any money really in this business either i don't think.

i was more surprised about the sale of Deer Park.

I had been in O&G for around 9 years, survived about 7 layoffs (I actually lost count), and a merger. I left the industry for a FAANG about a month ago and so far I'm happy with the change.

There were many reason for why I left but mainly because the instability was getting old, concern that I may not be able to get out if I stayed in much longer, very few growth opportunities, and I was so tired of seeing regular people lose their jobs and mgmt. compensation increasing.

I wish those that stay in the best of luck.

i don't think it's as much a focus on the US as it is on Shales performance in general.

i'm fairly sure permian by itself is cash flow positive now, but shales as a whole i don't think has been. pennsylvania wasn't a moneymaker, and the canadian assets we sold off were aging and more gas focused so i can see why we'd pare those down. argentina is still very early in its development, long way to go to be cash positive down here. especially given the economic climate in this country.

in the context of emissions, permian is a significant contributor given it's size so with these new objectives i can see how it would be targeted. as were the other downstream sites.

Silver, thanks for sharing your story. Do you mind divulging what main skill set you transferred over from OG to tech? Did you have to move as well?

sts7049 said:

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i don't think it's as much a focus on the US as it is on Shales performance in general.

i'm fairly sure permian by itself is cash flow positive now, but shales as a whole i don't think has been. pennsylvania wasn't a moneymaker, and the canadian assets we sold off were aging and more gas focused so i can see why we'd pare those down. argentina is still very early in its development, long way to go to be cash positive down here. especially given the economic climate in this country.

in the context of emissions, permian is a significant contributor given it's size so with these new objectives i can see how it would be targeted. as were the other downstream sites.

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This seems to be the biggest driver right now, for right or wrong

PermianBasinAggie said:

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AgLaw07 said:

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I've been in the industry since 2007 and am leaving next week. I heard it put really well last week - at a lot of places the recovery has only been for the company not the people who do the work. I know a lot of people took demotions, benefit cuts, etc and haven't gotten them back.

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FIFY. I was at apache when they announced their re-org in 2019. They initially said that payscale would be adjusted. Employees went nuts, and they "clarified" that they meant executive payscale. Of course, everybody who was in Midland immediately got a $24k paycut, and they used the Saudi price war as an excuse to get rid of a couple hundred more people. But John Cristmann, possibly the worst CEO in the entire industry, still pulled in $14 million in 2020. Maybe executive payscale is still under review. In his defense, I'm pretty sure most o&g companies are the same. Upper management is still getting super rich, while the workers are being paid less to do more work and those who were laid off are left wondering if anybody will ever start hiring again.

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Apache has been a dumpster fire since they opened the larger Midland office in '08 or '09. Prior to Apache staffing up in Midland, Endeavor was the bottom of the barrel for managers. From the outside, Endeavor appears to be a well run company the last several years. Maybe Apache attracting all the underperformers forced Endeavor to upgrade their staff.

I'm sure there are some good, talented managers at Apache, but 95% of them give the rest a bad name.

Another that left O&G about two months ago. Not FAANG but tech consulting. Had spent my whole career (just shy of 14 years) in various technical and leadership positions in IT (both commoditized and specialized)

Agree with every single one of the points one MEEN Ag made. Money is better, flexibility is better, but I am definitely working more than I did before.

Comeby! said:

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I don't know if you guys are referring to service or major employees but I'm still seeing a ton of people on the sideline looking for work. The consolidation has needed to happen for awhile. It's true, companies are tasked to do more with less. The game now for survivors is a race to the lowest G&A. The money is dictating headcount for many teams. Thankfully, it hasn't happened to us, yet.

I am considering flex scheduling. We are in week two of 100% in the office. What flex scheduling tools/apps are you seeing people use to keep track of who is in, when?

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I work in consulting mainly for O&G (and chemicals), but while there are people on the sidelines, many don't have the skills needed to do work.

My issue is having to do jobs that the 'old timers' did, but I never got trained; more of thrown into the fire. While that isn't bad, the people I know who got let go and are looking for work, they couldn't do it (the trial by fire). So short-sightedness prevented training of staff so that if/when things picked up in the future (or the person who did it got hit by a bus and couldn't do it anymore), there wouldn't be a skills gap.

So not only are the remainders doing more, we are having to do it with less. Less pay (took cuts to stay on), less people (because we can't increase salary) and less resources.

And god forbid the higher-ups actually start bringing in kills (at least consulting). When I see the same people who aren't business development brining in prospects vs. the BD team/leaders who are supposed to bring them in, I wonder why we can't eliminate them, get their pay or hire back the staff we used to have to finish the work we have and look competent....

~egon

I did M&A in O&G and transferred those skills, project mgmt., and negotiating to the new company. I also have a J.D. and now I'm in their legal department. Yep we're moving to Seattle this summer.

Completely agree on the points you made in your previous post. I do think that people with transferable skills are leaving if they can now that pay is around what you can make in O&G plus an objectively better outlook on career longevity. I do work harder for sure and the learning curve is super steep, but I'm happy and grateful.

I've got a buddy who does M&A for a big corporate firm in Houston. Their name is tied, behind the scenes, to a lot of deals talked about on this board. Not a partner, not an L1 either. They are interested in potentially jumping out to an OG general counsel role in a year or two.

Any advice I can pass along to someone considering making that jump? We go back and forth on equity compensation in OG. Stock options are how they lure talent away from the firm, but its tough to take OG future RSU offers seriously when governance plays a smaller fiddle compared to the global commodity environment. Bad companies get rewarded during high oil prices, good companies still get hammered during low prices. Any advice about navigating the transition out of big law to general counsel?

nm

Cyp0111 said:

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OXY should but not sure how they make that work. Would have to be equity issue

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Would need to sell the DJ and GOM and then issue equity, but my money is on Vicki making one last acquisition before kayaking off into the sunset.

don't forget that OXY also bought shell's mcallen assets several years back, so there is some history there

If it was tech they're interested in then I have a lot of strategic advice. For O&G I'd say the best thing that they can do is network; LinkedIn, professional organizations, industry events, etc. Even then it's getting hard to land those jobs. I know several lawyers that have been laid off and changed industries because the number of GC roles are dwindling.

Honestly equity comp wouldn't be enough for me. Maybe a more lucrative bonus structure would help but for now O&G RSUs wouldn't mean much.

Anybody know where I can find credible & preferably free rig count forecasts? Know a lot of the sell side shops do them but hard to access if you aren't a client

shiphunt said:

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Anybody know where I can find credible & preferably free rig count forecasts? Know a lot of the sell side shops do them but hard to access if you aren't a client

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Forecasts? Don't know about that. Is Baker Hughes' rig count not detailed enough for your needs? Its not a forecast, but its good data. What your asking for is an integration of all operators models and habits, that takes a team and is usually attached to trading.

https://rigcount.bakerhughes.com/na-rig-count


Your second best bet is to ask around on twitter under the #EFT hashtag. I wouldn't use the term free though, might get more meme answers than real ones.