RE:RE:Here is the problemGood posts from multiple angles; and the discussion is valuable. There's a lot of discussion about what company xyz should have done or could have or is doing. Hindsight when you're in any market slump let alone the magnitude that is in play today is easy to say and easier to ridicule the decisions of executive teams and board members. Everyone makes the best decisions with the information they have at the time; these people are no different.
Has the oil patch asked for government bail out in the past 5 years of this horrible downturn? No. Have companies filed for bankruptcy and are others running on borrowed time? Yes. Ultimate demise of all producers and service companies are functions of the commodity markets and activity. This situation we're in now with Covid and the commodity plunge is VERY different. IF you think in the lofty board rooms that executive members are and should have planned for $5 WCS and the impacts of a world wide pandemic occuring at the same time, then you better look elsewhere. The energy industry is based on demand and supply curves, no different than your local grocer, coffee house or pub. If you think the O&G companies should have known better, then you should shake that same finger of royal descent onto the 500,000 canadians that applied for EI this week.
With well over 170,000 oilfield workers out of jobs since the 2014 crash, and many 100's of thousands left there's an underlying piece of the discussion that everyone needs to be aware of. It's not just the employees of these companies that are losing their retirement savings when companies xyz file bankrupcty, it's everyone. It's every hotel, grocer, restaurant, and service employee that has employment because of the work brought in when each company xyz decides to take the risk to be active in not only the industry but in our confederation with all of the headwinds.
this isn't just about corporate bail outs, it's about the livelhoods of the 3:1 that service these companies, it's the permanent loss of wealth and ramifcations of an old work force that cannot retire and make room for educated, fresh blood to enter the industry and build a future. Everything is related yet we look at this singular; open your mind and think of what a future looks like with no small to medium sized producers that took on the risk of capitalism.