Orienting the Field for Profit Development
Authors: Walter John V. 
Published: December 2007

This paper was prepared for presentation at the 47th Annual Fall Meeting of the Society of Petroleum Engineers held in San Antonio, Tex., Oct. 8–11, 1972. Permission to copy is restricted to an abstract of not more than 300 words. Illustrations may not be copied. The abstract should contain conspicuous acknowledgment of where and by who the paper is presented. Publication elsewhere after publication in the JOURNAL paper is presented. Publication elsewhere after publication in the JOURNAL OF PETROLEUM TECHNOLOGY or the SOCIETY OF PETROLEUM ENGINEERS JOURNAL is usually granted upon request to the Editor of the appropriate journal provided agreement to give proper credit is made. provided agreement to give proper credit is made. Discussion of this paper is invited. Three copies of any discussion should be sent to the Society of Petroleum Engineers office. Such discussion may be presented at the above meeting and, with the paper, may be considered for publication in one of the two SPE magazines.

Economic and operating pressures, caused by inflation, the knowledge explosion and labors' accelerated trend away from acceptance of authoritarian direction, continually face the petroleum engineer turned production supervisor. In a production management assignment the petroleum engineer can effectively cope with these forces by:

organizing effective training and profit programs, and implementing a job enrichment program which allows a climate to permit "every man to become a manager".

Using these techniques, Texas Pacific oil Company, Inc. is fulfilling its growth commitment and utilizing its human resources for optimum profit development of its physical assets.

ORGANIZING FOR PROFIT DEVELOPMENT

The successful initiation of a profit development plan or expansion of any existing profit development program requires profit development program requires recognition of:

the existence of an opportunity for improvement, and the setting of goals based on previous performance to measure relative success.

In other words, the management staff must know its goals, decide how to reach them, and be able to recognize the results of action taken to reach these goals.

In 1965 Texas Pacific's operating and management team became acutely aware of the accelerating trend of inflation, the knowledge explosion, the emerging permissive trends of today's labor force, and the highly competitive industry in which they labor. Recognition of the opportunity (a problem discovered before it happens) eventually resulted in the initiation and use of three new programs for operational personnel. These were:

an extensive foreman training program, initiation of a unique foreman profit development program, and a job enrichment "total job concept" experiment including hourly operational personnel and first line supervisors.

The personnel and first line supervisors. The programs have had a positive influence on Texas programs have had a positive influence on Texas Pacific's growth goals. Pacific's growth goals. The primary company objective of these programs is to develop and attract in field programs is to develop and attract in field operations the kind of individual who, with support of fellow employees, will build total technical and business competence with the enthusiasm of a private entrepreneur. The basic operating unit will eventually consist of one line supervisor with only that responsibility which can be attended without subdelegation. Fiscal authority to this unit is being expanded beyond previous limits, the actual final amount of which can only be determined with experience.