Thread regarding ExxonMobil Corp. layoffs

@xny we don't own the rigs we use, we rent them from drilling companies. Lots of idle rigs at the moment. I don't think rig costs are the main factor here.

Certainly an option for decrepit, yet critical, industries with foreseeable end-of-use date, along with a provable replacement, is Nationalization.
Or even multi-nationalization.
Maybe under the UN or related body.
Me - I could easily work with an ex-Chevron or ex-BP person in a new UNIOG organization, knowing we are a subsidized stub to keep the filthy carbon lights on for a wee bit longer.

That's not a Prognosis.
That's a shutting off of the iron lung, with one last thumb-punch of m0rfine or what-have-you.

Good job on laying out your ideas, and the good responses it produced

“Historically EM has been one of the most impressive companies I can think of”. I hope you understand that the company has been great for a white male American but failed to include diverse people in upper management. This company has gone to other countries to explore not only natural resources but also the workforce in there paying a fraction of what an American would make. Yes, this company has been successful but it’s necessary to call out the questionable means it leveraged to do so.

Historically, most businesses are not able to completely transform their business model. Think of GE, Kodak, IBM, Blockbuster, etc.

With those companies, it’s a lower barrier of entry to disrupt those industries. With O&G no one is going to build out a drilling rig in their garage, you need hundreds of millions. That is why EM and other majors will never have to worry about becoming a IBM, Kodak, etc. The only competition will be with each other but there’s only so much they can do.

I completely agree that the glory years are definitely behind us. Now, the question becomes what can be salvaged, and what shape does it take going forward. O&G will have to remain relevant for a while as societal, regulatory, investor, and consumer pressures change the future energy profile. Unfortunately. does anyone have any confidence in the sniveling sycophants in management positions today? We can no longer afford to “dollar cost average” our path forward. More of the same will no longer save us. Visionary leadership is what’s needed, not blind obedience to yhe WAEM cult leaders.

Great people are leaving or have left EMRE nothing left but a shell. Nothing technically significant or break through for years, clock is ticking on Annandale. (Max 2 years) Cost is just too high what ever is left if anything will be in Baytown, the rest can be outsourced. YL will take her lump and , Syrup will pop up somewhere.

The question everyone should be asking is - what's in it for me? How many years left for me here, if lucky?

From my point of view the company has been in decline for over a decade. The value proposition to employees has been eroded on all fronts.

• Opportunities for promotion (company no longer growing or hiring)
• Expat benefits
• Job security
• Education refund program
• Health insurance

One of the better posts we've seen on the board recently. Thank you OP.

Just to keep it short - power corrupts completely. and goes with a whimper.
Thanks, OP.

OP might be too optimistic. EM is currently going through a process of “negative concentration”. Wether it’s about managing projects or managing human potential, most positive aspects have shrunk or disappeared, while dysfunctional aspects are metastasing.
Think of ranking: it was bad before, now it’s simply impossible to deal with, as the removal of drop limits puts even the best, most respected technical people at the mercy of a dim or bitter supervisor. Technical quality in non-hipos used to be appreciated and represented a counterweight to the obsessive focus on hi-pos, but now nobody cares about it now. Any pretense of team spirit has been wiped out as everybody is desperate to survive the next PIP-off.
“Technical management” such as chiefs and STC are more agressive and pushy than ever, catering only to the perceived desires of the bosses above, to the point that it’s simply inconceivable that an idea originating from a simple “worker bee” would ever make its way up.
EM management has always been wasteful, the system being that a problem should be addressed only after it already has obvious, disastrous consequences that can be easily quantified even for the most obtuse boss; the solution was then to throw billions at it to get it fixed, but now the billions are gone.
Everything is deteriorating, but the upper management is absolutely incapable of any change, because it knows that change would eventually require rewriting the entire system that allows the reactive, often outright parasitic management to thrive and self-perpetuate itself.
If you look closely at the larger oil companies that got bought or “merged”, such as Amoco, Arco or Mobil, in their decline years they displayed the same “negative concentration” and eventually were wiped of.
In the case of EM we’re probably going to see a “merger”, as the company is still big, but don’t forget it’s rapidly shrinking. We’re on the way to becoming nothing more than a Guyana/Permian Production Company (sorry, not much Brazil).

I agree for the most part. Upstream will continue to shrink with most capital going to Guyana and Permian. Still a decade left in Sakhalin and Angola and maybe Hinernia/Hebron. Rest of the operated assets are end of life or asset sales candidates and probably KL or India bound. Gulf Coast chemical and refineries good. You are correct about innovation. The sad part is 25-30 years ago EPR and EMRE were innovating but somehow lost their way. I think the glory years are behind us.

Greatly summarized.