OTC 2018: CEOs Talk Relevance, Strategy, Alliances
“I’m pretty sure that my enemy is not on this stage. It’s somewhere in West Texas. The truth is we have to stay relevant,” Larson told a full house gathered to hear CEOs of oilfield service companies speak Tuesday, May 1, at OTC. “Rather than working on incremental commercial models—figuring out how to get into each other’s pockets over a small market—you need to figure out how to have a bigger market, and that really is making sure that we are driving costs.”
But it’s more than that longer term. The industry must be safer and more efficient with resources, he said, adding the industry will be judged on its recovery factor. “Are we actually delivering energy for the footprint we’re making or the risk we’re taking offshore?” The industry must solve these issues to stay relevant, and “if we spend too much time arm wrestling with each other we may miss the real opportunity,” he added.
Larson was among the CEOs who shared thoughts on improving efficiency and economics through partnerships and mergers and acquisitions (M&A), implementing new technology and addressing other issues facing the industry as market conditions improve.