Just think how bad the business climate in the US must be if these companies will brave all the hardship of drilling in a war zone for $2 a barrel rather than try to drill here.
And just remember this the next time someone goes on about “Big Oil”. The “really big oil” companies are the ones who hire BP and Exxon and pay them two or three bucks a barrel. Make them put up all the investment money and then pay them a couple bucks a barrell for their trouble.
The “really big oil” companies are governments. What we usually call “big oil” are the very few and rare private oil companies who are mostly just contractors to the “really big” government oil companies.
Yeah, I’m trying to figure out exactly what the nature of these contracts are. On one hand, the fact that they’re getting a flat fee rather than any direct exploitation or profit-sharing rights suggests that it’s an oil services contract, which would be more in line with Halliburton’s business than ExxonMobil’s, and Halliburton doesn’t appear to have been involved in the bidding. On the other hand, the fact that the fee is per barrel suggests that the contractor is actually operating the oil field, which seems like much more than simple “development” as the article characterized the contracts.
I think I have some more brushing up to do on the oil business.