Thomas Boone Pickens, Jr. (born May 22, 1928) is an American businessman who chairs the hedge fund BP Capital Management. With an estimated current net worth of about $3 billion, he is ranked by Forbes as the 117th-richest person in America and ranked 369th in the world.
Pickens was one of the first independent oilmen to grow his company by acquisitions rather than by just exploration.[citation needed] Before reaching the age of 40, Pickens led Mesa’s first big acquisition, the Hugoton Production Company, which was 30 times the size of Mesa.[5]
By 1981, Mesa had grown into one of the largest independent oil companies in the world, and Pickens shifted his focus to acquiring other oil and gas companies. This made Pickens a celebrity during the ‘deal-making’ 80s. His most publicized deals included attempted buyouts of Cities Service, Gulf Oil, Phillips Petroleum, and Unocal.
Since 1980, Pickens has made over $5 million in political donations.[2] He was a financial supporter of President George W. Bush and contributed heavily to both his Texas and national political campaigns. In 2004, Pickens contributed to 527 Republican groups, including a $3 million contribution to the Swift Vets and POWs for Truth attacking Bush’s rival, John Kerry, and $2.5 million to the Progress for America advocacy group. In 2005, Pickens was among 53 entities that contributed the maximum of $250,000 to the second inauguration of President George W. Bush.[12][13][14]
On July 16, 2007, Pickens wrote an article for the National Review supporting Rudy Giuliani for President. "In Rudy Giuliani, a gracious and committed public servant I’ve known for many years, we see that rare blend of big-picture vision and proven track record of achieving the “impossible.”
Last week, we reported Lester Brown’s comment that oilman and corporate raider T. Boone Pickens responded to a question about why he was investing in the wind-power industry by saying, "Because I’m tired of reading oil depletion curves."
http://blog.seattlepi.nwsource.com/environment/archives/143104.asp
He knows the energy business – especially oill -he has ‘bankable’ success, and he’s putting his money where his mouth is and his proven business sense takes hime!
Love him or hate him, he is not a dummy and has access to information we will never have.
I think he is right about this, not just because he is Pickens, but because of seeing over 50 years of geology reports.
There are no huge discoveries to be made. There are not even any likely places to look for them.
When you look at fields like the Bakken and realize this supposed huge reserve is only 25% extractable at best, and that is at a wellhead cost of over $75 a barrel (add refining)
you start to recognize the reserves problem.
When you think about the increasing demand for oil in other countries it gets even worse.
Mexico has pretty well quit exporting.
Canada has depleted the conventional oil to the point they are going after deep tarsands oil. They are hoping they can extract using horizontal drilling and steam extraction instead of strip mining it like their three biggest tarsands plants do.
Alberta has actually put limits on natural gas extraction because it has reduced the underground pressure on the remaining oil to the point it interferes with getting the oil out.
December 27th, 2009 at 8:00 am
pretty much. untill we find a cheap alernative than we have were stuck in our whole.
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December 27th, 2009 at 8:11 am
YES, its great to see an expert admit it. All the hydrocarbons need to go away ASAP – not just because of the cost and political dangers of dependency on foreign oil and gas. The enviornment simply cannot take it anymore.
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December 27th, 2009 at 8:52 am
Yep. He’s right. However, we can process coal and shale, of which there is no shortage in this country. T. Boone Pickens is now pushing wind turbines since he invested $2 billion in a wind farm.
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December 27th, 2009 at 9:31 am
Of course T. Boone is right, he is an expert in this area. So why does John McCain and Republicans want to drill off-shore so bad? Is it because they work for the oil companies, who will benefit most from off-shore drilling.. or is because McCain’s Advisers think that America will equate off-shore drilling with lower gas prices, giving him votes? Sorry to answer a question with a question.. but I believe I am right.
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December 27th, 2009 at 9:42 am
Your cite says he never drilled. One company he raided and took control over required the employee pension fund be emptied. The man is a control freak. He hires private Pinkertons to spy on everyone.
He’s into private water as of late — the water under his ranch. And he wants to pump it dry for profit thereby destroying the area surrounding his holdings. Cheney is a frequent guest to his ranch for duck hunting on the artificial lakes.
Anything you read about him is self-generated publicity. To ship the water out, he wants right-of-way for his new wind turbines.
In a word evil.
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December 27th, 2009 at 10:24 am
T Boon was asked by a member of the press if he was pushing wind power because of his investment in them. His answer was "I am worth 2 billion dollars, and I am 80 years old I do not need the money" I think TBoone has a realitic view of what the energy emergency we are in is. The foreign dependency has got to stop. Also, I read your comment on TBoon being one of the first to grow his company by acquiring other companys, Rokerfella was the master of this in refinineing oil he consumed every competitor. I hope that the politicians will adopt TBoones srategy it is the best one I have seen, also did you know that 4 pounds of trash when burned creates the same amount of energy 1 pound of coal does? (they also clean the polutants out of it by a filtration proces) This is another thing that the politicans could put in every state…….
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December 27th, 2009 at 10:58 am
yes, it takes years to drill and produce wells, it doesnt happen in a few days or weeks,we import most of our oil even though theres alot in the usa and canada-the tricky part is its very expensive to get to our oil or usa canadas which is in sand. Pickens wants to advance different technologies, like wind to take some of the demand away from oil, still use natural gas and others energies. He is putting together one of the largest wind turbine farms in north texas, and the wind definitely blows all the time there,lol. In las vegas natural gas has been used in all the cabs, buses and city vehicles for years-few people notice it, drilling is not the answer for the long term
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December 27th, 2009 at 11:27 am
Love him or hate him, he is not a dummy and has access to information we will never have.
I think he is right about this, not just because he is Pickens, but because of seeing over 50 years of geology reports.
There are no huge discoveries to be made. There are not even any likely places to look for them.
When you look at fields like the Bakken and realize this supposed huge reserve is only 25% extractable at best, and that is at a wellhead cost of over $75 a barrel (add refining)
you start to recognize the reserves problem.
When you think about the increasing demand for oil in other countries it gets even worse.
Mexico has pretty well quit exporting.
Canada has depleted the conventional oil to the point they are going after deep tarsands oil. They are hoping they can extract using horizontal drilling and steam extraction instead of strip mining it like their three biggest tarsands plants do.
Alberta has actually put limits on natural gas extraction because it has reduced the underground pressure on the remaining oil to the point it interferes with getting the oil out.
References :