EVP, E&P

My scouting trips in 1992 had clarified a number of things about oil opportunities in the FSU, the Former Soviet Union.

First, there were no realistic opportunities in Refining and Marketing. Second, oil and gas resources were enormous, so known producing areas were where Western companies concentrated their search for business. And finally, while Russia, Azerbaijan and Kazakhstan all needed massive amounts of new investment in their oil industries, the greatest swath of such opportunities existed in West Siberia. As these opportunities were in conventional producing fields, it made sense for Mobil to move me and my responsibilities back to the E&P division. But when I moved back, in addition to the search for business in the FSU, I was also given responsibility for Mobil’s existing businesses in Europe, Africa and the Middle East. Hence my unwieldy title of Executive VP of ERAME (Europe, Russia, Africa, and the Middle East)! But this also meant that I was reporting to Paul Hoenmans, the Head of E&P (Exploration & Production). He was happy to have my previous business under his purview but I believe he was ambivalent about having me around as a possible “crown prince” for his job.

So this was another job change without having to change houses!

Of course this was very welcome by me and the family.

When I came down from Calgary in the fall of 1990 I left behind the Calgary house I owned even though I wasn’t supposed to, because I was then an American expatriate in Canada! I could see the company’s wisdom in not facilitating this type of dangling problem after an employee relocation. But now with my return to the US, the shoe was on the other foot. Now I was an American in America (Green Card since 1986 in New Orleans) so I had to take care of my own housing needs. The housing stock around Langley in Northern Virginia, where Mobil’s new office was located after its move from Manhattan, seemed to me a bit dated and a little too suburban. Ironically, before Mobil moved down from New York I think the biggest employer in the area had been the CIA! We visited Langley High School (the CIA is based in Langley) to see if it might work for us, but so many students were the kids of CIA spooks that we decided to look for schools elsewhere. The search was successful and the kids did attend good schools.

In time the realtor I was working with showed me a 2-acre lot in a nice quiet area and I decided to take the plunge into building a new house. I sketched out what I thought I would like and found a builder who was agreeable to firming up my plans and building the house. The build was going to take 12 months so in the interim we had to find a rental house nearby, which we did. It seemed like the time we spent in this house was unusually eventful. It was on a corner location with unfenced lawns running from the house to the road, as is the American suburban dream. There were some kids living across the way whom our kids interacted with from time to time. Unfortunately one of the boys was killed in a car accident nearby. In or around the same time we had our own tragedy when our beautiful Wheaten terrier was killed by a car as she chased a squirrel across the road.

Then new tenants moved in to the house next door. This turned out to be a Mobil guy named Bryan Williams. He was semi-notorious in Mobil for what he appeared to do. He was some sort of crude oil trader, which seemed to involve buying crude from “suspicious” government entities and then selling the parcels onward. There were strong rumors that some of his activities were illegal. I had two specific interactions with him.

One occurred when I had responsibility for Nigeria. He came to see me and wanted my help with a questionable proposition involving large volumes of Nigerian government crude, which I declined. The next event happened when I had the responsibility for Russia. I went to see the Minister of Natural Resources in Moscow and after I presented my business card he said “Oh, we had another senior Mobil exec here yesterday”. I asked for his business card and was astonished to see “Bryan Williams, President of Mobil Oil”! Ultimately, in 2003, the US government caught up with Williams and he was tried and found guilty of tax evasion on $7 million kickbacks he received between 1993 and 2000 for schemes involving the government of Kazakhstan.

Evidently, he was sneakily up to no good while Kazakhstan was under my area of responsibility.

One bright spot while we lived in the rental house was the arrival, courtesy of Vince Connelly, of a new Wheaten puppy.

These breeds were very difficult to find in the US and generally involved waiting months for the chance to buy a pup.

Cara turned out to be an absolute delight and won all our hearts.

I just noticed that the mustache I had for ages (since Abu Dhabi days) disappeared over the first year of Cara’s life.

There’s no doubt that 1991/’92 was a very busy and challenging time. I was away a lot, primarily pursuing business in Russia and Kazakhstan. At the same time, when I was home I had an ongoing involvement in the new-build house.

I bought the land in March 1991 and selected the builder soon after. The house ended up being some 8500 square feet surrounded by mature trees.

And after some pushing and pulling it was completed in Summer 1992. There was certainly room for all of us in the house and we had some memorable parties in the basement level which had a nice dance floor and an antique bar which had been built for us in Indonesia.

A particularly attractive feature which got a lot of use was the outside Jacuzzi.

My responsibilities in the ERAME portfolio, while extensive, involved a lot of routine because the long-established businesses in Europe and Africa had seasoned execs running them. There was some travel to them but nothing onerous. However, the Russia/Kazakh businesses still commanded a lot of attention and a good deal of travel.

As it happened, the one remaining prize for the big western oil companies lay not in Russia but in Kazakhstan. I had spent a lot of time courting the Kazakh authorities over a number of years, so when rumors circulated that a megaproject was being considered I went all out with my lobbying. The Kazakh authorities confirmed that they had in mind to form a consortium of around 5 major companies who would be given a very large area offshore in the North Caspian to explore and develop. Many American companies participated in the bidding process including Exxon, Chevron, Amoco, Unocal and Arco. I had a really good rapport with the minister conducting the selection process and, long story short, I was successful and Mobil was the only American company selected to join Shell, Total and Eni in what became the North Caspian Operating Company, NCOC.

Its area of operations was located in the North East corner of the Caspian Sea, offshore from Atyrau.

It turned out that the rumours of a big prize were validated in 2000 when a giant field was discovered called Kashagan. It is the largest oil field in the world outside the Middle East. It is also the most expensive, having cost in excess of $150 billion to develop.

By 1994 it appeared that the last mega opportunity had been secured. My portfolio was pretty much running on autopilot and I was 48 years old. My boss, Hoenmans, was around ten years older and had certainly made it clear that he had no intention of moving over. And just at that time the headhunters called again.

The job on offer was CEO of BHP Petroleum, the biggest oil company in Australia. I went down to Melbourne and was hosted lavishly. And this time, for a variety of reasons, I decided to accept the offer. The reaction of Mobil’s senior management, after efforts to get me to change my mind failed, was one of bewilderment.

Even now, 30 years later, I still look back fondly on the many career opportunities Mobil provided me. The people I worked with were smart and exceptionally helpful, and the jobs were always challenging. It seems hard to believe, but I was being moved along so quickly that I was always struggling with a new job. And the burden was such that I never appreciated that the powers that be might have had an exalted career destination mapped out for me. Now, at this distance, it’s easier to see how that might have been the case. I was never ambitious but I always wanted to be sure that any job I did was the best that I could do.

Occasionally these days I find myself reminiscing nostalgically about places and people I had the chance to see and meet. The experiences surely started in Libya in the late 1960s and remarkably spanned the next 40 years. And I was even lucky enough to have had a chance to revisit Tripoli around 2007. Of course I mustn’t forget the good fortune I had to have made some lucky career choices along the way. But there’s no doubt that leaving the parameters of my long-established life with Mobil in 1994 was terribly wrenching.