The soft underbelly is the costs. The costs are going up quickly for them. It's troubling.

It's a very strong result. They're doing exactly what they said they would and keep adding to it. Of course a lot of the growth comes from Vintage.

You're seeing the effects of an electricity pricing mechanism that's tied to the cost of natural gas. Companies that are larger producers from coal and nuclear are getting a higher-than-anticipated benefit.

There is coming the time, sometime in the next decade, during which our global ability to produce conventional oil on a daily basis will hit a peak. It will probably not be directly recognizable at the time, owing to ongoing improvements driven by technology, economic factors, and a gradual improvement of production of unconventional oils and other sources of energy.

Libya has been a fairly easy place for these companies to deal with, and I think they welcome the opportunity to get back and be able to operate there again.

They (oil companies) have become financial engineers rather than petroleum engineers. I'd like to see them show a little more effort in the development side internally than they have lately.