I know most of us dont like the yesteryearesk Bruner's management, but not all of what he said was not true. Well, maybe exaggerated a little such as:

He did say they had most of the 15 worlds largest oil companies looking at their data room. Hess is no minor player but the best I could tell in Platts is that they are ranked 24 only in the America's in E&P. Alright, maybe the top 15 looked at it and passed and Hess picked up what others didn't want, or when Bruner said "Most" but not all of the top 15, meaning Hess was not one of them.

Hess is 1/10 the size of Exxon and Exxon is 273% more profitable for it's size. I have considered that economy in production comes with size to Hess's credit in there relative to Exxon lack of profitability.

I don't want the mighty Exxon jinx to hit us a second time. Let's be a little less bold with our partners heading into the second round of drilling a new prospect. Maybe it will change the game and give the market a surprise.

Nevertheless Hess still profited $740 million. They are building a natural gas electric generating station in New Jersey. Along with many other assets to add to their arsenal. Not that Hess is planning on using a LNG plant in Darwin if everything is successful to ship to New Jersey, I just thinking that they are being somewhat proactive.

It's interesting listening to him in hindsight with Hess now on board. I think current management by not saying anything is prudent and careful, much better to be surprised than to overstate what me have. Bruner was desperate to get the stock price up and it didn't work. With hope McCauley he will have the same success as did Michael Watford did with UPL in 1999.

I hope that his old salespitch is right, have a look at it again for grins.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iW2X7dG8jQA