Sorry Luke. That comment was just a continuation of a point I made early. A large corporation such as XOM cannot perform profitably when dealing with small marginal fields. That has nothing to do with abilities. It's really hinges on manpower. The small stripper producers essentially pay themselves to operate these properties. XOM would have to pay their folks to do the same functions. But after they pay their staff there's essentially no profit yet. XOM could triple their staff and take on hundreds of stripper properties. But why would the board approve such a massive allocation of manpower to projects which bring no net income to the company. The same could be said for the NOC's. And that's the point I was stumbling towards earlier: the combination of small private mineral owners and small entrepreneurial operators in the US is rather unique and has given us an advantage in squeezing every little drop out of our marginal fields. From my limited view of the rest of the globe I see very few similar opportunities.

Damn -- I just realized why that statement was so confusing. I meant to type that "we WOULDN'T still be producing....." Sorry about that chief.