Archive for the ‘media’ Category

Caltex Australia shows its feminine side

By Christine Forster | October 12, 2012 09:38 AM Comments (1)

In what is traditionally a male-dominated industry, one of Australia’s oil refiners is showing its feminine side, recently unveiling what is believed to be the nation’s most generous workplace support package for new parents.

Caltex Australia, which is chaired by a woman, says the move is “ground-breaking” because it goes beyond corporate Australia’s traditional focus on giving employees paid leave just before and after the birth of a baby, to focus on providing cash for parents to make their own childcare choices after they are back at work. Read the rest of this entry »

Australia’s Woodside: a tale of two CEOs

By Christine Forster | July 9, 2012 05:39 AM Comments (0)

Former Woodside Petroleum chief executive Don Voelte made a surprise return to the Australian corporate scene in late June when he was appointed chief executive and managing director of Perth-based Seven West Media, the largest diversified media business in the country.

Analysts, who professed to being shocked by the announcement, were quick to point out Voelte’s lack of experience heading a business which owns Australia’s largest commercial television network and its second-biggest magazine publisher. Seven West Media also owns The West Australian, the leading metropolitan newspaper in the state of Western Australia, of which Woodside’s home Perth is the capital.

Read the rest of this entry »

In the energy debate, is there hope for a “rational middle?”

By Gary Gentile | July 3, 2012 02:02 PM Comments (0)

The Kid’s Page in the July 3 Washington Post features a story with an intriguing headline: “Where does electricity come from? Hint: Not from that switch on your wall.”

Documentary film maker Gregory Kallenberg, maker of the 2009 film “Haynesville,” found while promoting the movie that many adults were equally in the dark about vital energy issues. ”Running into people who didn’t understand where energy came from or how much we used of it was a common occurrence,” Kallenberg says in one of several new short films he is making under the title of “The Rational Middle.”

Read the rest of this entry »

Back to the future: “Dallas” and the oil biz returns to TV

By Steven McGinn | June 20, 2012 04:51 PM Comments (0)

The saying goes, what’s old is new again. Certainly fashion trends follow this notion, as bright-colored articles of clothing are everywhere again, like blinding lights from a disco floor.

Look no further than television: “Dallas” is back. 

Read the rest of this entry »

The 1920s oil boom, a booted-out oil executive and film noir

By Starr Spencer | June 5, 2012 09:23 AM Comments (0)

Had an oil executive not been fired during the Great Depression 80 years ago, some of the greatest 1940s film noir detective movies might have never been made and screen greats Humphrey Bogart and wife Lauren Bacall might never have achieved such renown as one of Hollywood’s most sizzling couples of that era.

The booted-out oil executive was Raymond Chandler, one of the greatest writers of hard-boiled private eye fiction, who penned such classics as “The Big Sleep,” “Farewell My Lovely,” and “The Long Goodbye.”

Read the rest of this entry »

Checking back in: what’s the relationship between oil and gold?

By John Kingston | December 21, 2011 03:15 PM Comments (0)

A few months ago, we took a look at the oil to gold relationship. The two have no obvious physical relationship: one being the industrial lifeblood of the world, as well as a financial proxy, and another a minimally important commercial product but one as a historical barometer of inflation and fear.

Read the rest of this entry »

Notes from The Oil Council assembly: rebalancing, soaring land prices and candles

By John Kingston | October 5, 2011 07:16 PM Comments (0)

A few notes from this year’s Americas Assembly of The Oil Council in New York.

(Unfortunately, no media breakfast this year; the prior two were interesting affairs that you can read about here and here.)

(With contributions from Platts staff members Sheela Tobben and Leslie Moore Mira.)

Read the rest of this entry »

La Apertura, The Quest, and the man who tried to reverse Venezuela’s oil slide

By John Kingston | October 1, 2011 01:33 PM Comments (0)

There have been reviews published recently of Daniel Yergin’s new book, The Quest: Energy, Security and the Remaking of the Modern World. Only a professional reviewer, given an advance copy, could have finished this massive tome by now; it was released less than two weeks ago.

The little meter on my Kindle tells me I’ve read 12% of the book. And already, I’ve encountered a terrific tale of one of the oil industry’s more significant developments in recent history: la apertura.

Read the rest of this entry »

Julia’s billions of barrels of oil raise more than a few eyebrows

By Margaret McQuaile | August 23, 2011 05:55 PM Comments (0)

A billion barrels here. A billion barrels there. Pretty soon you’re talking about a lot of oil. 

When it comes to ExxonMobil’s Julia discovery in the Gulf of Mexico, however, the only projection the company actually has ever provided is one vague word: “significant.”

But that didn’t stop industry analysts and journalists from freaking out recently at the language used by ExxonMobil lawyers in a lawsuit against the US government contesting rejection of an extension on the company’s lease at that prospect. More specifically, in the first paragraph of their pleadings, the legal team charged the rejection is “depriving ExxonMobil of the right to produce a reservoir believed to hold billions of barrels of oil.”

Read the rest of this entry »

Why don’t more women man energy field jobs?

By Joel Hanley | July 11, 2011 01:52 PM Comments (2)

My journalism career started with writing food articles for the “Women’s News” section of my local newspaper, but eventually ended up covering what might be called “Men’s News”: the energy sector.

Solid statistics on women in the energy field overall are scarce, but a glance around the room at any industry event will confirm it is probably not much higher than the 20% or so that has been bandied around as an estimate. To pick a random example, ExxonMobil says women make up 26% of its worldwide workforce.

Read the rest of this entry »

« Older Entries