Thread regarding ConocoPhillips layoffs

Horizontal drilling and multistage fracs has redefined our business. High cost and high risk deep water exploration and drilling will fade away fro the next few decades. as horizontal drilling and multistage fraccing is applied to tight low perm formations in the Middle East and Russia abundant oil will be here to stay. This is not to say this is a bad development for our business but will decrease the profit margins and require companies to become much more efficient. High decline rates will require more drilling and fraccing and more plugging and abandonment. Coal will be phased out of our power plants as they are switched over to natural gas. We can compete and still make a reasonable profit. We have several big advantages here in the United States, the resources we are developing and producing are located near refineries and consumers, and we have tremendous drilling and fraccing resources available. OPEC can not compete in our market. If prices continue to remain low many of the OPEC countries will not be able to support their dependent populations and will become destabilized resulting in lost or falling production. This is just another cycle that our industry has seen many times in the past.