It is ironic that the oil industry, whose excesses
have helped distort economies in many parts of the world, including ours, now
has its hand out to the same governments they have “played-off” against each
other for decades.
Still, two groups of local workers – operations and
construction - rely heavily on the industry for their livelihood and,
understandably, want it rescued. This post is a commentary on the plight of the
latter category.
While oil will be in demand for many years yet, the
problems of the industry, including price, are not going away. No matter how you feel
about environmentalists, many of whom naively believe that economies can switch
to other job producing opportunities as fast as turning on a light bulb, the
replacement of dirty oil is both necessary and unstoppable.
But naivety isn’t the exclusive purview of just
one group. The oil industry, prohibited from engaging in monopolistic practices
in free enterprise economies, have for years climbed on the backs of OPEC,
particularly Saudi Arabia, to keep benchmark prices as high as possible. The
added fear is that countries like Iran and Venezuela, who have vast unproductive oil
reserves, will get their act to together.
Those realities, and others to be described,
announce that on the jobs front: “Houston, we have a long-term problem”.
