Conference

Begin early and work overtime to keep what you got — that was the advice of an Offshore Technology Conference panel last week on how to recruit for the oil and gas field. Demand is especially high for experience from top to bottom, which has led to a high turnover as companies aggressively go after other company employees.

Begin early and work overtime to keep what you got — that was the advice of an Offshore Technology Conference panel this week on how to recruit for the oil and gas field. Demand is especially high for experience from top to bottom, which has led to a high turnover as companies aggressively go after other company employees.

Williams CEO Keith Bailey thinks his company has the best ofboth worlds: a 90-year-plus energy heritage that keeps its approachto communications “firmly footed in the direct, no-nonsense style”of its founders, coupled with a e-business edge that keeps it”young thinking.” However, as important as e-business is, Baileysaid there are two other “E’s” as important: energy and education.

As it ended its annual conference in San Antonio last week, theInterstate Oil and Gas Compact Commission emerged with an agendacalling for new tax and public policy incentives to increasenatural gas production in the United States. The 30-stateorganization re-issued its call for a national energy policy andurged Congress to give tax breaks to exploration and developmentcompanies.

As it ended its annual conference in San Antonio this week, theInterstate Oil and Gas Compact Commission emerged with an agendacalling for new tax and public policy incentives to increasenatural gas production in the United States. The 30-stateorganization re-issued its call for a national energy policy andurged Congress to give tax breaks to exploration and developmentcompanies.

Enron Chairman and CEO Kenneth L. Lay got in a few shots at theelectric industry in general, and the California marketspecifically, during a conference earlier this week that was calledto address spiraling winter gas prices.

At the Republican National Conference in Philadelphia last week,Republicans unveiled an energy platform that was highly critical ofthe existing policies of the Department of Energy (DOE), theFederal Energy Regulatory Commission and the EnvironmentalProtection Agency (EPA).

At the Republican National Conference in Philadelphia this week,Republicans unveiled an energy platform that was highly critical ofthe existing policies of the Department of Energy (DOE), theFederal Energy Regulatory Commission and the EnvironmentalProtection Agency (EPA).

The Senate unanimously passed two economic relief measures forindependent oil and gas producers last week. The bad news, however,is that the initiatives are part of a supplemental spending billthat President Clinton has threatened to veto because theexpenditures – mostly for foreign aid efforts – would cut intospending for domestic programs that he supports.