Could they care less about how the dynamics of oil consumption plays out as long as they get a paycheck?

WHT- you hit the nail on the head, at least in my industry. I am a facilities maint mechanic/stationary Eng, and the new kids comming in "don't give a f..."
Thats what they say.

They seem to not care or are not curious as to thier surroundings, what happens when this is done, or simply, explore the mechanized department. Personally I find every day interesting in my world at work, trying to push the machineries limits and still maintain order. I know more than the lab when it comes to oil filtration and water/oil separation than they do! Why?, because I try and understand why and how when something doesn't work. If I don't I look it up on the net and watch where I get my answer from.

This is a very good article on E & P times ahead! SLB knows as they studied the SPE guys, so it will be interesting as time goes on.

Oilcan

O.C.
Kudos to your commitment. I am fortunate where I work that some of the fresh grads are highly motivated and surprise a lot of us with their enthusiasm.

Thinking about this some more, I also have to think that BigOil companies don't necessarily condone their engineers venturing out and potentially bad-mouthing internal operations. I imagine a lot of the employees just as soom zip their lip and put the nose to the grindstone.