(1) The company has a long history of exaggeration, going back to gas-to-liquids, carbon fiber, Exploration, Deep Water “discoveries”, etc. Just about every major project has come in needing a supplement, with more costs, delayed later first production, lower peak production, and less reserves. Are unconventionals the latest?
(2) Why have you been consistently caught off guard by lower prices? Isn’t your job to plan for both good and bad price uncertainties? You do realize that “embracing the volatility” is different than planning for volatility, right?
(3) The COS metric is forward looking and therefore susceptible to bias, uncertainty, and manipulation about forward assumptions. For real benchmarking, how are we doing with cost/BOE and production per employee vs our competition? How large were the ECO Team’s recommended reductions to make us competitive with our peers?
(4) Our CFO publicly said, “I’m not going to pay good people to leave” when discussing EOI. The last two ELT members (leaving last quarter) were “severed” and given packages. Can I assume these two were therefore not “good people”? If so, why were they kept so long? If Exemplary, why are we paying them to leave?
(5) The continual layoffs are continual torture. The value loss through lowered morale is significant. Can’t you simply just right-size us once and for all, then use contractors for ups and downs?
(6) The company has a history of external hires at the executive level, these executives survive for several or more years, then we reward them with a severance package. I’m thinking ELT member Production (hired from XOM), ELT Member HR (severed after a year), VP Exploration, VP Projects, etc. Could these positions have been filled internally with “knowns”? Total estimated cost of recruiting, training in internal policies, paying for a sub-standard career, then severing these failed executives, can be estimated at a quarter of a billion dollars; can you validate this number for our stockholders?
(7) At this meeting last year you said layoffs were behind us, that the company was strong going forward, and then proceeded to layoff more people 6 months later. Were you wrong a year ago or in September when you layed off more employees? Given the continued chronic layoffs, should “People” be removed from our values?
(8) The company rewards resources additions, projects approvals, and economic “value” / “cost” metrics which are easily manipulated with goal-seeked assumptions. Why not reward based on ATNI, which is accounting calculated based on strict industry consistent regulatory guidelines? For example, how much cumulative ATNI has come out of Eagleford? Niobrara? Permian?