Saudi Arabia to lower oil prices, the houston boom is over

Thanks, man. I really appreciate the support I've received in that thread, rep and in real life, of course.

I did get a good severance amount and Noble approved my unemployment request immediately. $479 a week isn't too shabby and my wife works too. I had just closed on my house 4 freakin days before and I was fully vested so there were some bright spots.

I've been lucky to have interviewed with a handful of companies. Only one was outside of O&G. I have a final round of interviews tomorrow morning and I have another interview in the afternoon. A fair amount of activity in the holiday season actually. It feels very close. I'll update once I find out more.

 

Cheers, good luck.

 

I also enrolled to finish the classes I need to take to sit for the CPA. That will help my profile in the long-term. LinkedIn is awesome and I'm finding that external recruiters are almost irrelevant in this environment. It's all about networking and applying directly on company sites.

 

Overly rosy depiction of the economic landscape in Houston, I would surmise. The engineer friends I talk to and generally everyone in oil and gas (including my dad who will retire next year after being a geophysicist for 35 yrs or so) still report ongoing, less publicized, layoffs in the industry. The reason the broad Houston market, including the housing bubble, have not yet reflected this is due to that unparalleled American pride, and year long severance packages of the people that did lose their jobs. We'll see the bubble burst, only when it's much too late.

 

Unless Kharg Island and Ras Tanura are engulfed in flames, I don't think it goes anywhere.

I of course enjoy the 2004 Guardian article because the notion in 2004 that oil would spike to $100 per barrel and destabilize the US and western Europe seems laughable - in hindsight, of course.

 

Think the Saudis did this on purpose, know any increased volatility in the region would cause oil to spike?

 

Saudis? To me it sounds more like CIA

 

When I hear that people in O&G get year long package to retire, I think of 2 possible scenarios:
1) The CEOs do not think oil price will recover before that.
2) The CEOs think you are overpaid, when oil price recovers, they will hire new graduates with less pay.

 

3-6 months is more common. Up to a year would mean that you were there forever before being let go. Noble Energy gave us 2 weeks for every 1 year worked with a minimum of 3 months with a full prorated bonus.

Marathon gave more from what I heard. Services company didn't give anywhere close is my guess.

 

If you're at retirement age I would imagine it would be harder to get a job. I know ageism isn't supposed to exist but I don't think anyone would say it outright. I don't know how good medicare and things are but I would imagine the benefits from a company would be cheaper and better for an older person. That might be why the retirement packages are made to be more attractive for the older worker to accept.

The other thing that might be coming into play is the compliance related to the liabilities that some of these companies have for retirees like pensions and things. These can be huge amounts on your balance sheet and might be better to get rid of it now while the industry is in the tank. But maybe someone with better financial analysis skills can comment.

 

Oil hit $35 a barrel and hearing it could go lower.

Will wait for $27 to start buying. Maybe $25.

http://www.bbc.com/news/business-35243442

 

that might be a very long play. Obviously hard to say because oil doesn't generally follow fundamentals and every time you think you have a new normal something changes and we see vast swings.

might be easier to short the stock market in the short term.

 

so much for that spike...

Oil has continued its rollercoaster ride into the new year, with Brent crude falling below $35 a barrel for the first time in 11 years.

 

anyone here who still work for an O&G company?? I got an interview with an O&G company coming and I'm kinda reluctant to go....

 

It's a broken commodity in my opinion. There is simply far too much supply that won't be worked out of the system for a long time. I don't see too much of a reason to buy unless there is a huge crash/panic/spike down/whatever for a trade. If you are looking to trade it then that area is fine, but I don't see any reason to buy and hold or anything like that.

 

Go. What's the worst that could happen? Even if they offer you the job, you don't have to take it. If you do take it, the worst that will happen is that you now have O&G on your resume which sets you up for later when the market does recover.

 

Definitely go. You have nothing to lose.

 

You're probably right. This will be a long term downturn. At least a year or two. The stock market is the way to go I think as the other poster mentioned. It's just so tempting.

 

Yes.

If you don't want to go, let me know what the company is and what position. I know some good people who need a job who would like to have that interview.

 

Go and if you get an offer then do your due diligence on the company like you would in any industry. Just because a company is in an industry that has a downturn doesn't necessarily mean it'll go bankrupt or be bad.