Oil Change

摘要

By profession, james t. Hackett, chief executive of Anadarko Petroleum Corp., is a wildcatter. By temperament, he is more of a portfolio manager. He has ordered his 150 geologists and engineers to think like risk managers and to weigh each oil and gas investment with the eye of a money manager who builds a diversified stock and bond portfolio. That means assessing a multitude of factors: political risks in the Middle East; currency and weather fluctuations in the frigid Northwest Territories; logistical concerns in Wyoming; storms in deep water off the Louisiana coast. The latest 3-D seismic data can give you a clear picture of rock formations, allowing pretty good guesses about oil and gas deposits. But such data alone can't help you decide how to drill or when. Using modeling software developed by oil services giant Schlumberger, Hackett can figure out what kind of projects he needs and when. "You want to fill up the gaps," he says. "If you need returns in five years, you don't get into a ten-year project."