Volume 6 • Issue 6 • November 2006

Our Perspective The cost of losing an employee is high in this tight labor market. Opportunity loss due to work left incomplete, loss of experience of the employee departing, and the cost of recruiting a replacement are significant and tangible. No wonder one of the questions often asked is "What can I do to keep employees from leaving?" This is an important question we feel is worth a closer look. In this and upcoming newsletters, we will address ways to successfully keep your workforce together. We also are pleased to be participating in Hart Publishing's Recruiting & Retention Conference on December 7th, where the retention issue will be one of the key issues discussed. Please click on the link for more information. Your Friends at Collarini Upcoming Events     Hart's Recruiting & Retention Conference Presented by E&P, Oil and Gas Investor and IPAA   December 7, 2006 Hotel Sofitel Houston, Texas   Energy HR professionals will hear from peers within and outside of the energy space about their own trade secrets to recruit and retain talent capital.    Key topics to be explored: Recruiting: Poaching Inter-Industry vs. Intra-Industry Retention: Keeping Professionals within the Talent Bank Exit Interviews: What Could Draw Young People Today to the Energy Industry?     Deep Offshore Technology Conference   November 28-30, 2006 George R. Brown Convention Center Houston, Texas The Deep Offshore Technology Conference (DOT) is recognized as the leading forum addressing technical issues related to exploration, development, and production of oil and gas in deep and ultra deepwater basins around the world.   DOT provides an annual forum dedicated to the advancement of deepwater exploration & production. For the first time in its history, DOT moves to Houston, Texas, this year and is expected to attract over 2,500 attendees from the energy centers of the world, including Europe, West Africa, South America, Asia-Pacific, the Middle East, and Russia. Drawing on its wide base of experience, the technical conference will address the complex and changing role of deepwater E&P in an evolving energy market. Employer Tips The What, Who, and How of Retention Webster defines "retention" as "the power or capacity to retain" and "retain" as "to keep in possession or use." Despite understanding the words, employers often do not feel quite so powerful or capable of retaining employees. No matter how extensive you believe your employee retention programs are, you may still lose employees, because something elemental is missing.

FEATURED CANDIDATES Senior Geophysicist with 30+ years of experience in exploration, development, management and geoscience operations including new ventures exploration analysis. Expert in seismic modeling and inversion in both Hampson-Russell and Jason Geoscience Workbench. Experience in 2D & 3D interpretation with Landmark, Geoquest software and AVO/DHI. Geographic experience includes projects in Indonesia, the Australian Northwest Shelf, PNG, Celtic Sea, India, West Africa, Southern Alaska, East Texas and GOM. Ask for GP962. Geologist with a PhD in Geological Sciences with more than 16 years of industry experience. Strong in 3-D modeling and reservoir characterization. Specialized in fault seal analysis, structural geology, rock mechanics, and software development. Broad knowledge in geology, geophysics, and geochemistry. References characterize as loyal, hardworking, very intelligent and easy to work with. Workstation experience in California, China, Gulf of Mexico, Indonesia, Mexico and Texas. Ask for G1566. Petroleum engineer with a bachelor's degree and two years of experience, both onshore and offshore, working on reservoir, production, and drilling projects. Experienced in reserve estimation, field studies, portfolio and project economics, field development, decline curve analysis, enhanced oil recovery, and production optimization and cost reduction. Geographic areas worked include west Texas and the Gulf of Mexico. Proficient in various computer programs including MS Office and Lotus 1-2-3. Skilled in the use of ARIES, OGRE, Dwight’s/P.I., SAM, Fortran, UNIX, GASWAT, and OILWAT. Ask for P179. Senior Contracts Specialist with a bachelor's degree in business administration and 25 years of experience in the energy, regulatory, risk, finance, and technical industries. Experienced in negotiating energy contracts (remediation, environmental, oil, gas, and power), oil field service agreements, proposals, bids and tenders, and IT vendor license agreements. Recently responsible for ensuring compliance with client policies in negotiation of master service agreements, tenders, and bids. Implemented appropriate contracting policies guidelines and a contracts manual. Computer skills include MS Office and Project, Visio, SAP, data warehousing, system integration, data marts, and CRM solutions. Ask for PU447 Electrical Engineer with a master's degree and 15 years of experience in the operation of large facilities, including both technical and administrative responsibilities for the management of personnel and material resources on large projects. Experienced in plant instrumentation, automation, control, measurement, and allocation. Recently, as a measurement engineer, was responsible for the gas and oil allocation measurement for a deepwater Gulf of Mexico platform. Fluent in Spanish and English. Knowledgeable in AGA measurement and Sarbanes Oxley standards. Ask for IE29 Petroleum engineer with five years of experience in well planning and design built on a strong foundation of hands-on experience as a rig site supervisor managing drilling operations. Demonstrated ability to analyze issues on a practical and strategic basis, plan appropriate actions, and implement successful solutions. Ask for D361

We have spoken previously about factors that will convince people to join an organization. The same factors will entice a person to stay. Many articles have been written about what companies do to motivate and reward their employees, to create positive morale and recognize their employees, and ultimately to retain them. It's really not hard for any of us to make a long list of positive programs:Fair compensation, incentive plans, stock options, retention bonuses. Comprehensive insurance, flexible spending programs, pension plans. Programs encouraging wellness and generally good health, such as gym membership, flu shots. Flexibility in work schedules to address the individual's needs to care for a child, an elderly parent, participate in their favorite charity or church. Clear career planning for all members of the organization, i.e. those in technical, management, support roles, mid-career, new hires. Community involvement with and for the employee in organizations such as United Way, The American Cancer Society, Dress for Success, The Houston Ballet, Habitat for Humanity and others. Support with personal and family duties where possible, such as onsite day care, dry cleaning services, field trips for children on those school vacation days that are also work days, special parking for the employee of the month and for expectant mothers. Each employer's ability to introduce and maintain appreciation programs is limited by its resources. But, it is impossible to provide company-wide programs that address the needs of every employee at every point in his or her personal and professional life. Retention is like "herding cats" or "trying to put a cloud in a wicker basket"; easy to start, difficult to know when enough is enough, and impossible to be 100& effective. If your company focuses only on the "What", its retention program will ultimately be less than totally successful. The most important issue is who is responsible for Retention? Effective retention programs recognize that individual decisions to leave are unique to that person. The solution to keeping good employees is not found in the "what" but in the "who". No matter the size of the company, one person is responsible for retaining each employee,, and that person is the direct supervisor . Only the supervisor can be close enough to an employee to understand his or her individual personal and professional motivations, to provide a positive environment that takes those motivations into account, and to detect whether an employee is unhappy and looking for a change. Simple and short, the "who" is certainly easier to define than what programs your company should implement to improve retention. If your company focuses on empowering its supervisors to improve retention, your retention program will ultimately succeed. By focusing on the "Who" of retention, you have accomplished much of what a company can do to retain its people; however there are critical things a company should do to empower its supervisors. In our next newsletter we will focus on "The How of Retention".

Career Advice As the demand for the Petroleum Landmen and land support people increases, the availability of qualified candidates is decreasing. How is our industry going to meet the demand? One way it can happen is by hiring people with the right capability, from other areas, then helping them to apply their knowledge and skills to land related positions. You, family, or friends may be interested in making a move. For example, people who are analytical, detail-oriented, and like to work independently might enjoy working as a lease analyst. These specialists review mineral leases (contracts) to determine payment obligations to the mineral owners and other terms agreed upon by both parties. People who are also good at math might enjoy being a division order analyst. They are responsible for analyzing and determining the interests in energy producing properties. Their work affects the legal and proper distribution of revenues and billing of costs to the owners of the minerals. People who are currently employed in accounting, banking, real estate, and legal support might be very good candidates for adaptation to these positions. People who are good communicators, negotiators, and researchers, and who have some legal knowledge, might find becoming a landman, responsible for many aspects of the business end of oil and gas, and interesting and challenging direction. They take on various roles in our industry, from negotiating leases with farmers, ranchers, and other mineral owners to finding new opportunities to acquire drilling and production assets. If you or someone you know has an interest in changing or enhancing careers in the petroleum land profession here are some training ideas you may want to consider: The University of Houston - Downtown offers a six-course PLM Certificate Program for people desiring to pursue a career in Petroleum Land. The program is designed for landmen, lease and title analysts, attorneys, and others involved in supporting exploration and development activities. The courses have been approved by the American Association of Petroleum Landmen (AAPL) and the National Association of Lease and Title Analysts (NALTA) for continuing education credits for recertification. For more information contact Gary Junco at juncog@uhd.edu. AAPL provides curriculum guidance and program support for six universities in the USA and Canada and encourages the infusion of new talent to the profession through student scholarships. They award approximately $40,000 annually in student scholarships through its Landman Scholarship Trust. Additionally, AAPL provides to its members a variety of programs, classes, seminars and certifications (CPL) that can provide education and advancement opportunities. For more information, here is a link to their website: http://www.landman.org/ Other colleges and universities offering Professional Land Management degrees are: Texas A&M University Louisiana State University University of Texas University of Louisiana Texas Tech University University of Oklahoma Mississippi State University University of Tulsa University of Mississippi Oklahoma State University In the September/October issue of "Landman" published by AAPL, you will find a compensation study with data strongly suggesting that compensation reacted favorably to years of land experience and to landmen who are certified (CPL). About Us Connecting the Industry's Experts... Collarini Energy Staffing Inc. is a full-service agency specializing in the placement of energy and EPC personnel and including the disciplines listed below (other supporting personnel are managed upon request): Accountants and finance personnel Administrative and clerical personnel Business analysts Civil and architectural engineers Drilling engineers Drilling operations supervisors Executives Geologists, geophysicists, and petrophysicists Health, safety, and environmental personnel Human resources personnel Instrument and electrical engineers IT professionals Land, legal, and supporting personnel Materials and corrosion engineers Naval architects Operations supervisors Pipeline, riser, and subsea engineers Process engineers Procurement engineers Production engineers Project managers and support personnel Quality control and inspection personnel Reservoir engineers Sales and marketing professionals Technical writers Technicians, drafting and graphic Technicians, engineering and geoscience Reservoir Solutions the Industry Trusts... The Collarini Associates petroleum engineers and geoscientists specialize in evaluating oil and gas reservoirs. Specific projects include integrated field studies, acquisition evaluations, independent reserve appraisals, and exploration and exploitation prospect generation and assessment. Our full divestment services include creation and hosting of electronic and physical data rooms in addition to the technical evaluation. Our teams in Houston and New Orleans are very experienced and stand ready to help you on projects of any size. Try us! Guiding Careers to the Next Level... Collarini Career Management applies its deep understanding of the career paths of technical professionals in the E&P and EPC communities to help companies and professionals build successful organizations and careers. We leverage Collarini's unique combination of industry knowledge and technical expertise to guide companies and individuals during transition, training existing employees for high performance, and designing customized technical training plans for companies and individuals. Contact Us 11111 Richmond Avenue, Suite 126 Houston, Texas 77082 832.251.0553 4200 South I-10 Service Road, Suite 230 Metairie, Louisiana 70001 504.887.7127 Comments This newsletter is produced six times per year for employees and friends of Collarini. If you would like to add a friend or colleague to our mailing list, please send us his or her email address.   If this page did not display correctly, or if you would like to be removed from our mailing list, please email: news@collarini.com. Visit us on the web! www.collarini.com