YouSaid · the spoken record

Mike Wirth

lines on the record: 33
first: 2023-01-05
most recent: 2023-01-05
sittings or episodes: 1
sources: podcast

Every line below is reproduced as it was said and linked to the record it came from. Nothing here is summarised or generated. Directory · Search · Corrections

“Well, I would hope that people would say he thought of others first. He strengthened the culture of our company. He kept people safe and made the company a better company when he left than it was when he founded.”
2023-01-05 · The David Rubenstein Show · Mike Wirth · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Well, I think what would help David is to engage in this more balanced conversation about the benefits of energy. We hear a lot of people that have views on what some of the consequences are of the use of energy. But as you say, they had made advancements in the quality of life possible that we wouldn't have imagined two centuries ago. And I think as we go forward, it's absolutely likely that we find ways to meet the needs of a growing world and reduce the carbon impact.”
2023-01-05 · The David Rubenstein Show · Mike Wirth · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“I don't know exactly why it is. We're a big company. The numbers are big, sometimes big isn't popular. Big energy, big government, big tech, maybe big private equities, an exception to that. But although we're a big company, we represent less than 2% of global oil production. And so in the scheme of things, a very competitive market, and we're a relatively small player. And I think what's important to remember is we need to have a balanced approach to energy. And that means we have to focus on a Reliable supply for national security because energy security and national security are linked, and then protecting the environment. And I think as prices get high and it gets less affordable, you find people that are upset. And part of that is because we really haven't necessarily been able to find the right balance among those three.”
2023-01-05 · The David Rubenstein Show · Mike Wirth · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“You know, every day I get up and I worry about safety and protecting the environment. Are people working a demanding business and it's a highly technical activity? We have very talented people. We've got very strict protocols and standards to keep people safe and keep the environment safe. But you can never take it for granted.”
2023-01-05 · The David Rubenstein Show · Mike Wirth · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Yeah, absolutely. And I think the industry has continually improved operating practices, equipment, certainly the regulators in the U.S. have very high standards. We work very closely with the regulators on that. In the advent of newer technologies have continually made this safer. And so these are challenging, difficult operations in those kinds of pressures, water depths and environments. But the industry has a strong track record today. And there have been some notable incidents over time, but every company in this industry works really hard to prevent those.”
2023-01-05 · The David Rubenstein Show · Mike Wirth · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“It's an active field of opportunity in both. For us, it's really driven by strategy, asset quality, value. I mean, the typical things you would look at when you do a deal. But as I said, over the last two years, we've done a big traditional energy deal. We've done a big renewable acquisition. I think in the years ahead, we'll probably do acquisitions in both of those spaces.”
2023-01-05 · The David Rubenstein Show · Mike Wirth · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Some marketing. We have big market positions and brand positions, particularly in states like California, that encourage this, so the combination of the two makes a more powerful renewable energy business.”
2023-01-05 · The David Rubenstein Show · Mike Wirth · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Well, we had a renewable fuels business ourselves. This company, Renewable Energy Group, was one of the leading producers of biodiesel and soon to be renewable diesel in the United States. And they have great capabilities in the feedstock sourcing area. And so in any fuels business, raw materials are a very important part of the overall value chain. traditional petroleum products, we have deep expertise in the raw materials sourcing for that. In these products, you're talking about raw materials that are like used cooking oil, something called distiller's corn oil, various bean oils from soybean and other agricultural products. These are markets that we don't have a lot of experience in. The quality, logistics, commercial dimensions of those markets are things that Renewable Energy Group is very good at. They have manufacturing facilities.”
2023-01-05 · The David Rubenstein Show · Mike Wirth · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Well, we're focused on leveraging our strengths to deliver lower carbon energy to a growing world. And what that means is in the near term, we can find ways, and we are finding ways to reduce the greenhouse gas impact of the energy the world uses today. So we're reducing the emissions associated with oil and gas that the world needs today needs very desperately. And at the same time, we're building new inherently lower carbon energy businesses for tomorrow. So things like renewable fuels, hydrogen, carbon capture and storage, geothermal are all technologies we're investing in. Businesses were growing that will play a bigger role tomorrow. And we're going to need many solutions. There is no one solution for this.”
2023-01-05 · The David Rubenstein Show · Mike Wirth · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“There's never been a better time to come into the energy world. We're faced with this incredible challenge of meeting the demands of the world today and building a lower carbon energy system for tomorrow, the technology that's available to us, the innovation that's available to us is greater than it's ever been and the chance to make a difference is enormous. If I were my younger self looking for a job, I would absolutely come into this industry.”
2023-01-05 · The David Rubenstein Show · Mike Wirth · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Over the last five years have been an interesting five years for people in just about any business. And so when the pandemic hit, we have people on ships, we have people on offshore platforms, we have people around the world, in developed countries and in developing countries navigating that, keeping people safe, keeping our business running, keeping the world supplied with energy has been no small task. It's been one of the most challenging things I've ever confronted. And during that same time, we've done a massive restructuring of our business. We've made a couple of acquisitions and integrated them to make the company stronger. We're a much better company today than we were a few years ago, and I'm proud of the progress that our people have made during this challenging and tumultuous time.”
2023-01-05 · The David Rubenstein Show · Mike Wirth · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Far from it. My wife is almost a scratch handicapped golfer. I caddy for her in big tournaments. I actually sometimes will take a couple of vacation days and carry her golf bags, so that tells you who the better golfer is in mind.”
2023-01-05 · The David Rubenstein Show · Mike Wirth · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Generally, anything that involves family. So I have four children. They're very active in outdoor activities. My wife is a good golfer, a good skier, so you'll find me on a golf course skiing, scuba diving, fly fishing with family when I'm not at work.”
2023-01-05 · The David Rubenstein Show · Mike Wirth · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“I love what I do. I love the company I work for and the people that I work with, and I don't have any ambition to do anything other than a good job”
2023-01-05 · The David Rubenstein Show · Mike Wirth · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Well, I get a lot of good advice, and you asked earlier about advice. These are people who have actually done my job. So I'm interested in their advice. They've lived through wars, the fall of the Soviet Union, terrorist attacks, financial crises. They've seen oil markets go through gyrations. They've dealt with geopolitical surprises. And so their advice is really valuable. During COVID, the first thing I did was call each one of them and say, what lessons did you learn during the crises you faced? How do you think I should handle things as we have this pandemic unfolding? So we have a great relationship, and I see them regularly.”
2023-01-05 · The David Rubenstein Show · Mike Wirth · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Actually, I'm really fortunate, David. The three people who have done my job immediately preceding me, each for roughly a decade, the 1990s, the 2000s, and the 20 teens, live within a few miles of where I live. I see them regularly. We have lunch together.”
2023-01-05 · The David Rubenstein Show · Mike Wirth · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Pumps back in the day. So these were smaller projects, but I could see the beginning, the end. I started to understand the commerce and how the business worked. And from there, a variety of roles primarily operating roles across different businesses and around the world.”
2023-01-05 · The David Rubenstein Show · Mike Wirth · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Started out as a design engineer and worked on big projects, so an oil shale project, not the type that we developed today, but the other kind of oil shale you used to hear about, built a plant that you can't find any trace of today, worked on a facility in California to help bring in oil from offshore, sold for pennies on the dollar, eventually a project in Africa that never happened because of a civil war. So I began by specializing in spectacularly unsuccessful projects. And at some point, I said, this doesn't look like a great career path. And so I moved into our marketing business where I built gas stations and replaced underground tanks that were made of steel with ones that were made of fiberglass so they wouldn't leak. And you and I remember the old clickety clackity wheels that would spin around on a gasoline pump. I used to put in the first electronic”
2023-01-05 · The David Rubenstein Show · Mike Wirth · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“I, at the time, chemical engineers could work in a number of different industries. I had a summer internship where I worked in a refinery in the Denver area, found the work interesting, I found the people interesting, and had an offer to come to the West Coast and work for Standard of California. And it looked like a fun place to live and a place where I could do interesting work”
2023-01-05 · The David Rubenstein Show · Mike Wirth · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“There are specifications, minimum standards that have to be met for the products. And then what you find is that different companies either exceed those by more or less than others. And also we have special additives. So we have a wholly owned additive company that manufactures an additive called Tekron that has a very special chemistry to keep engine parts clean. And as engines get more sophisticated, as the tolerances get thinner, you can have carbon deposits that can affect performance in your cylinders, your injectors. Techron cleans that up better.”
2023-01-05 · The David Rubenstein Show · Mike Wirth · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Founded in 1879 in Southern California, began as a company called Pacific Coast Oil Company, made the first commercial discovery in California in Pico Canyon in Southern California, became part of the Rockefeller Standard Oil Trust in the latter part of the 1800s and then became Standard Oil of California when the Standard Oil Trust was broken up. Our headquarters and home has always been in California. We've been around for 143 years and really a part of the world's history. We made the first discovery in the Middle East, first discovery of oil in Saudi Arabia, among other milestones and a long history of the world really reflected in our company.”
2023-01-05 · The David Rubenstein Show · Mike Wirth · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“People have said that over time, and then we've always been surprised. And so the US has been explored more than any other place in the world. I think the industry has a good idea, but technology allows you sometimes to recover things that you haven't been able to before. That's the story of shale. The other one that continues to be a positive story is Deepwater Gulf of Mexico, where we'll go out and drill in a mile or more of water depth and then go down several more miles, six, seven, eight miles into the earth, and find large, large fields. And the Gulf of Mexico is still relatively underexplored compared to the onshore. So I think there's still room for more discovery.”
2023-01-05 · The David Rubenstein Show · Mike Wirth · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“There are other pipelines that have been built in years gone by, and sometimes it flows by rail. And so it comes by ship. You can bring it down through pipelines into ports along the west coast, for instance, or into the Atlantic basin and bring it by ship. So Canada is the largest supplier, and then other people in the region. And we still bring some oil to this country from the Middle East, but much less than we did back. Now,”
2023-01-05 · The David Rubenstein Show · Mike Wirth · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Neighbors are the largest suppliers of oil. I mean, you heard all the controversy around the Keystone pipeline. We're a big customer of Canada who's a large resource country right next door.”
2023-01-05 · The David Rubenstein Show · Mike Wirth · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“As a company, you could say that our U.S. production is about 1.2 million barrels a day, so we're less than 10% of U.S. production.”
2023-01-05 · The David Rubenstein Show · Mike Wirth · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“A little bit over three million barrels of oil equivalent per day. So mostly oil, some gas, and we convert the units on the gas to give you the energy equivalent. So about 3 million barrels a day.”
2023-01-05 · The David Rubenstein Show · Mike Wirth · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“We're seeing some of that happen again, certainly. What has really changed in the last decade, David, is what we see in the U.S. and the Permian Basin, but also in some other parts of this country and in other countries now, is the ability to produce oil and gas from rock that is very, very dense, very hard, and historically has not been very productive. But with directional drilling and the ability to fracture these formations now, we're seeing the ability to produce from areas that we couldn't before and at prices that are lower than some of these very complex, difficult projects. And so the need for the ultra-deep water, the Arctic has been reduced as we see these other resources come in at a lower cost.”
2023-01-05 · The David Rubenstein Show · Mike Wirth · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“The industry's been struggling to keep up with the rate of growth once again. And so the market was already in a pretty tight situation before this war began. I do think when eventually it's resolved and all conflicts eventually are resolved, I think that uncertainty and the risk to supply from one of the world's largest suppliers will be reduced, and I think we'll see markets reflect that.”
2023-01-05 · The David Rubenstein Show · Mike Wirth · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Well, the war and the associated actions have definitely had an impact on energy markets. But if you step back and look at the broader context, in 2020, we saw demand collapse with the pandemic when the world really locked down. In fact, companies in our industry had to shut in wells and stop producing because there was no place to store the oil that wasn't needed by the market. So investment levels came down. And then nobody knew how long this would last. As the economy recovered post the pandemic, we got vaccines, demand returned.”
2023-01-05 · The David Rubenstein Show · Mike Wirth · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“I disagree with that characterization. I don't think it's accurate. We're an industry of price takers, not price makers. These are global commodity markets and prices go up, prices come down. We allocate billions of dollars of capital our company does every year just two years ago. We were losing billions of dollars as prices plummeted. And so through the cycle, it's an industry that generates a kind of 10%-ish returns on capital employed, which is, I think, by the standards of many other industries a pretty modest return.”
2023-01-05 · The David Rubenstein Show · Mike Wirth · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Well, I have empathy for people that sit in these roles. They have often broad responsibilities and they may not have personal expertise in depth in some of the areas they're responsible for. So I view my job is to come in and try to provide objective input and help them understand the consequences of things they're considering to avoid unintended consequences and help achieve the goals that they're looking to achieve.”
2023-01-05 · The David Rubenstein Show · Mike Wirth · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“I do have to go to Washington. Uplifting is probably not the first word that comes to mind. I mean, there are detailed discussions, and we need to help regulators understand the potential consequences of some of the things they consider.”
2023-01-05 · The David Rubenstein Show · Mike Wirth · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Well, it's a cyclical industry, David. We see prices go up, we see prices go down. A windfall profits tax is not going to encourage more supply. It's not likely to reduce prices. In fact, it could do quite the opposite. President Carter tried a windfall profits tax in 1980. It was rescinded several years later, had collected a lot less revenue than was expected, and didn't result in more investment. It resulted in less investment and less production. So normally, if you want less of something, you tend to put more taxes on it. You want less smoking, you tax cigarettes. If we want more energy production, we want more supply to bring prices down, putting taxes on energy production is probably not a good idea.”
2023-01-05 · The David Rubenstein Show · Mike Wirth · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source