One of the other things I did with my free time on Saturday and Sunday during the wedding weekend was talking to Kelly's step father Dan's father. I know that is a confusing relationship line, but I couldn't think of any other way to say it. He is a very interesting gentleman who is around 80, I think. He is still actively working and has spent a great deal of time in the oil industry both in the US as well as previously in Canada.
One of the subjects we talked about was the company he worked for and was something along the lines of partial owner or partner in. He worked with this oil company in Canada in the 70's (if not much longer). We talked about what happened in Canada in 1973-74 when OPEC decided to change the world oil price from $2.50 a barrel to $10.00 overnight. This is known as the oil crisis basically. At this time Canada was self sufficient for oil and were exporting it to the other parts of the world. To protect the price of oil inside Canada the government capped the price in the country and slapped a $7.50 export tax on the oil. I think the reasoning and result of this is debatable. However I got to hear it from an insiders perspective. From his perspective the taxation instantly killed the oil industry in Canada. Suddenly his company went from making a profit of ~10% a barrel to losing ~25% a barrel. Needless to say he gave up on that venture and the company had issues.
Just before the oil crisis he had been preparing to go to China as an official representative of the Canadian government. He spent 2 years learning Chinese and getting ready to go. Once the crisis occurred and his profits vanished he went in and told the government in colorful language to take the job and shove it.
He later moved to Austin to start over again in the oil business in US. He continues to work in the oil industry to this day. He mentioned his worries about some of the ideas bouncing around in congress about taxing the "extreme" profits. He seemed to think that this could have a huge negative effect on the oil industry in the US. I am sure there are many that will disagree with his view, however it is a discussion worth having especially considering his historic knowledge in the area.
One other really cool story he told me was about a former next door neighbor of his. This neighbor used to come to Austin every year to join up with friends and go to superbowl. Apparently on one of these trips he was at dinner one night and was approached by a young man. The young man showed him a computer he was working on and wanted to begin selling. The neighbor asked him what he needed to begin the business and the young man said he needed some capital and hoped to find investors. The neighbor asked him how much he needed and wrote him a check on the spot. Fast forward many years later. The neighbor had passed away but his wife stilled lived next door. One day she came over and asked for help sorting out some paperwork. She brought over a box full of letters that she kept getting from Dell and other older paperwork. It seems that the neighbor was one of, if not the, original investors in Dell. The box was full of stock certificates, dividends and other related documents. Once they went through the box it was determined that there was something on the order of low 8 figures worth of stock. It was quite an amazing story.
Hopefully someday I will get to have some more chats.
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