I am not saying that I understand the whole truth.  I am only trying to give the readers of TOD a peek from inside these companies.  I know some of the people who are at the top of these companies.  They are insecure, very fallible, and not in control of a whole lot.  The vast majority of these people started out as technocrats (geoscientists or petroleum engineers).  I guess it is conceivable that as some point in their rise through the bureaucracy they were given the key to the inner sanctum and taught the secret handshake.  It just seems implausible to me.  

If they were in more control, then they wouldn't have gone through the last 20 years canabalizing themselves.  In the 1960's the major multinational oil companies controlled upwards of 50% of the world's oil production.  Now, depending upon how many companies you include, they control 10% to 16% of this production.

I am reminded of a quote that Lee Iacocca made after he left Chrysler.  I don't have the exact quote but I will try to paraphrase:

"Picture an ant on the top of a log racing down a flooded river.  That ant thinks he is steering that log.  Now replace your visual image of the ant and the log with a bean counter trying to manage a company like Chrysler."