I've been thinking about this a lot lately. Short term, things look much worse. Who know what he future holds?
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4kvg- Totally agree with your comments. Mudrock mining is not a growth strategy; it's a retirement party.
JJMY
IMHO - from Oxy perspective - it would’ve been a much better option to have bought into the emerging Nanushuk/Torok trend in the Alaskan North Slope and also buy BP’s Alaskan assets (Interests in Prudhoe Bay and other reservoirs and interest in Trans-Alaskan pipeline). Note that Hilcorp bought said assets from BO for $5.6B, August 2019.
All that would’ve have been perfect fit for Oxy.
Instead, Oxy mgmt went for the APC acquisition instead of the above, chasing the Permian shale play, which is (IMHO) a loser’s bet.
Legacy APC here...most of us wish this nightmare never occurred, at least the ones who are still here and were not eligible for CoC or VSP.
I’m sure most of my OXY counterparts feel the same way.
None of us asked for this. It s—s all around.
Chevron would have been our best bet, but here we are. Just have to push forward :/
Legacy APC people are very interesting... I can’t understand what they want. If they are given CoC, they complain about how Oxy ‘kicked them out’ of the organization... if Oxy keeps them, they complain about not being let go and getting CoC.
Legacy-APC = big paycheck, no work to do they'd rather pay me for nothing than give me COC. They could hire 2 new people for what they're paying me. Just milkin' it. Retirement on the horizon. Yeah, thanks Aunt Vicki! :D
It's just a job. Life goes on.
Legacy APC here. You guys got screwed. Get fired with no CoC. Your 401ks take a 45% hit. Meanwhile folks in the GoM got a huge bump in our 401ks and we are still way over staffed with nothing to do because they don’t want to hand out more CoCs. $450MM budgets get almost nothing done in Deepwater. Thanks aunt Vicki!
It may end up being a "good" or "OK" decision, but it was hardly the best decision, and that decision hurt a lot of people and will continue to do so. What if Oxy had purchased a smaller company with acreage in West Texas instead of APC?
It would be like overspending on a house, taking much larger of a mortgage than you should have, when there were other great options available for a cheaper price. Sure, your children may be in better schools and you may like the neighborhood a bit better. But there are other expensive costs associated with it. More expensive upkeep on the home, a more difficult time keeping up with the neighbors. In the end, it leads to a long delayed retirement, the inability to save and put money elsewhere, vacations passed up, and missing out on other life experiences because you blew everything you had on the house and got in over your head with debt. It might even cost you by leading to constant financial stress and fights all the time, and leading to an expensive divorce. Broken home, broken marriage, unhappiness all around, because of that single decision. Meanwhile, a much smarter family bought a nice home that was more manageable, and is much more secure and happier. That's what this feels like to me. Only time will tell.
difficult to know... it seems like the decision was right but the price OXY paid was wrong, overpaid. I agree with you, in the long term probably a good decision.
For employees, a lot of pain and angst in the short term. If the gamble pays off, compensation will stay the same. If it doesn’t, more layoffs.
For EC, a lot of maneuvering and work in the short term. If it works out, huge bonuses, if it doesn’t, huge golden parachutes.
You could argue that the churn is inevitable and without this pain OXY would eventually be a takeover target. That’s little solace to those who get caught up in it.