Thread regarding Chevron Corp. layoffs

The oil exploration business is in a long term lower price funk. Giant megaprojects are a thing of the past. Every 1-2 months another large discovery is announced. Only a political/military catastrophic event in the ME that curtails production will be able to significantly increase the price of crude oil. Of course, only after the stock market recovers from the corresponding crash.

OP, I lost interest in the YouTube video 1.5 minutes into it. Neat idea, but not practical for long roadways. I can see some usefulness in high traffic urban areas, but it is costly. Maintenance will be an ongoing cost. Let me see cash rich and modern places like Dubai and Shanghai adopt this idea first before the USA goes into 4 trillion in infrastructure debt and make a handful of people multi-billionaires on he backs of he taxpayers. Don even think of privatization. Toll roads using this technology will cost the roadway users too much money an only lead to more congested freeways as an alternate route to get around.

I watched your youtube video on road solar energy. I like it, but is it really practicable to change our all our roadways for solar? I highly doubt it!

Yes, you might be able to do it in your driveway but I am sure the cost of doing something like this is cost prohibitive for most applications. Think of the expense. Building roads takes tons of gravel. literally tons and tons. And gravel is as cheap as...well rocks.

How much would the cost be to build a road with the materials required to make a solar road? The cost to build high tech solar roadways everywhere just does not make economical sense. Sorry man, but I think renewables have a long way to go, much more than you make it out to be. I hope I am wrong, but I doubt it.

Anonymous, I'm 41 years old now and I don't plan to retire for another 25 years.

I don't doubt there will be rough times ahead, this is true for any industry. I used to work in the auto industry back in 2006/2007. Back when they were asking for bailouts from the government. Guess what? I got layed off. Yeah it s---ed. Yeah, it wiped out my retirement I had up to that point and I had to start over again. It was tough, but I got over it. While things are much peachier now, I don't take for granted my job anymore,

You seem way pessimistic though. You don't know the future price of oil. Could it fall to the 20's again? Yes, Could it go back up over $100 again? Yes.

My point is, quit sitting on your butt and b--ching about what happened to your job. Forget yourself and go to work. This is life, stuff happens. Go do something for yourself. Go find another job, get in another industry or stay in the oil industry with another company. Start your own business. Do something.

This is oil, it is the nature of the business.

To 1hyr, you are exactly correct. It is easy to say this industry has ups and downs as an unaffected employee, outside observer, or someone who retired 2 or more years ago. The current industry downturn is more like a major recession. For everyone who is 5-20 years into this industry, retirement is a very long way off and many will still not make it. There is a big difference between getting laid off with a generous severance package and being fully retired with a nice pension.

Hey Chevron Boy, how old are you? How many more years do you need in order to retire comfortably? Forget about the histor of oil over the last 100 years or your memory of 20 years ago. The question is how much longer do you think Chevron can afford to keep you employed. US Oil prices will be reaching $42 by the end of next month. We'll be in a low oil price glut market for the next 2 years at least. After that, don't expect to ever see $60+ oil again.

This is the oil industry people. There will be ups and downs. I would like to see it stay high, but one thing is for sure, it is not going to stay low forever. Look at the history of oil over the last 100 years.

I realize it is hard to do after you have been laid off, however, history has been repeating itself over and over again. It will go back up, and maybe not as quickly as I would like it too. But it is what it is.

I remember driving through oil city, LA about 20 years ago. The town had about 1000 residents. I was told during the 30's it was a boom town with about 40,000 residents and then the oil dried up, jobs were lost everyone thought it was the end of the world and we would no longer be dependent on oil like we had. Guess what? Nothing changed, the population is growing, yes renewable are too, but they are not economical enough yet to over take oil. They might get there one day, but very unlikely in the near future.

Well, I see the price of oil is down again on the futures market to $48.25/barrel. Read a news article today about how the Saudi led production cut has amounted to nothing. It worked in the short term, but US production is way up and prices are falling again, possibly to the lower 40's. This price is still profitable for Permian basin drilling. Last fall, Chevron management anticipated an average price of $55 For 2017. Doesn't look good right now. So much for all the 'experts' predicting $60/barrel or higher for this year. JW stated this week that the goal is to have a strong balance sheet and continued increases in the dividend. Look forward to more layoffs this year, especially after 3rd quarter if prices don't significantly improve.

As long as my gasoline stays under $2.15 a gallon, I'm a happy retiree. I'm for anything that keeps it under that price forever. I'd love to see $1.35 regular octane gasoline return and stay.

Many in the oil industry will continue to disregard growth in renewable energy markets. They say it's still small compare to coal and gas for power generation and electric vehicles are a small fraction of vehicles sold. However, in terms of new capacity generation, it's mostly renewables in the U.S. and Europe. Low carbon energy and transport is where the growth is and climate change and air pollution regs will drive their growth. Chevron will be much smaller in the future because of their lack of low-carbon technology and inability to execute LNG projects. JW will be fine so let's not cry for him.