What is it all for? Am I actually making a difference? Ever ask yourself that? I have. [OK, I probably have more free time than you do. Maybe I can do some contemplating for you here?]
In the oil and gas production business we create a product but it is sometimes difficult to remember who our customer is. A company normally sells its product into a pipeline owned by another company. Perhaps for this reason, folks that work in the oil and gas industry do not appreciate the scale of the good that they do for actual people. In case you might be one of these folks, consider some numbers.
In the USA, the consumption of oil is 61 barrels per day per 1000 people. (http://www.indexmundi.com/g/r.aspx?t=0&v=91000&l=en).
That is the same as 16.4 people per barrel per day.
A typical medium to large oil and gas company produces a certain amount of production and employees a certain number of people. I think it is fair to assume that most of these people are necessary to obtain that production. Division will give us the barrels per day of production per employee. For example:
[The numbers above are approximate, probably not current and may be in error but I hope are good enough for the intended conclusion.]
By multiplying by 16.4, we can then calculate how many people each employee “helps” on average: Somewhere between 570 and 1450 people!!
Yes, oil and gas worker, you are "helping" as many people every day as a large hospital!
It is necessary to consider what I mean by “helping”. Despite all the global warming and pollution worries, oil and gas are currently sustaining the way of life for almost every person in the USA. Almost every mile every person or product moves uses oil and gas. Almost every bit of plastic used. Almost every product used. Almost all the food consumed. Imagine trying to live without these things, or at least to have the majority of people unable to afford the basics of life.
Is this is sinking in?
For the average person in the US, at least right now, if the oil and gas stopped flowing, life would be very difficult or impossible. Just like the folks that need a hospital today.
The person who works at the insurance agency or the grocery store or the bank thinks that their job is important too. And many are. But just consider a moment that several hundred people are very much dependent for their life on the often hard, dirty, dangerous, unappreciated work of each engineer, driller, pumper, welder, frac-unit operator and technician. Every day.
No applause necessary.
Because the US is still importing oil from other countries, many of these folks we rely on are in other countries too.
And some of you reading this don’t live in the US, so your numbers may be even more astounding. For example, I’m in India consulting at the moment and a barrel of oil here supports 379 people! That means that the extra 3000 barrels of oil per day that our team found this week by optimizing an oilfield will provide the daily oil needs of about ONE MILLION people in India!
Of course, there are other jobs that are critical to the daily survival of hundreds of us. Thank-you Mr. Airplane Mechanic! Thank-you Ms. Structural Engineer!
How many people’s lives did you sustain today?
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