Fracked by Morris Denton

Author:Morris Denton [Denton, Morris]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Morris Denton
Published: 2023-09-26T18:41:18+00:00

GLOBAL EXPRESS

Wesley Kirkland finished off the last of a lightly toasted bagel with lox and cream cheese that was sprinkled with capers and caviar and handed Angie, the flight attendant, his plate. “Thank you, Angie,” said Wesley, in his southern drawl. Angie was his favorite flight attendant, for a variety of reasons, some more personal than others.

Angie smiled and disappeared into the front galley of the Bombardier Global Express, a $75 million flying masterpiece that carried Wesley and whomever he deemed lucky enough to travel in his private lap of luxury.

A descendent of the monopolistic breakup of Standard Oil, Mesaco was the world’s largest oil and gas company with revenues that exceeded the gross domestic product of all but the world’s largest and wealthiest countries. It was a global behemoth. An empire. And as CEO, Wesley was its king.

Wesley, in his mid-50s, liked to travel in comfort. Once onboard the private jet, he took off his dress shoes, his suit jacket, his tie and his dress shirt and put on a pair of leather sliders and a cardigan over his white undershirt. The cardigan, either black or navy, had “Wesley” embroidered over his left chest and an “Air Mesaco” logo on his right chest. It was like Mr. Rogers had discovered oil. Except Wesley didn’t care about other people’s feelings.

Kate Austin, Wesley’s chief of staff, was seated at the head of a conference table in the front section of the plane and was leading Wesley’s daily morning briefing. Wesley’s morning briefings were presidential in nature, as the topics ranged from political unrest in developing countries to inflation to currency valuations to emissions to upstream operations to carbon footprints to his daily schedule. Wesley often knew more about what was happening on a global basis than many members of the White House, including the President.

Today’s discussion was ending with an update on Horizon, Mesaco’s annual thought-leadership conference. These visioneering things, as Wesley liked to call them, were only for elite, global players. While he was a man of power and that power commanded the respect of business and industry and political leaders, what he wanted most was to be acknowledged as a global visionary. He desperately wanted to be the Steve Jobs of the energy industry, and that was going to require that he started thinking bigger and deeper. It wasn’t just about his leadership of Mesaco, but his global stewardship of energy, with a capital E.

“Are you sure about the fireside chat?” asked Ian McGregor, one of Wesley’s top executives and head of upstream operations for Mesaco.

“We always start Horizon with a fireside chat,” stated Wesley.

“Yes, but it’s usually you with an industry analyst talking about the oil and gas industry and our highlights from the year.”

Mesaco hosted these exclusive retreats in locations like Sun Valley, Monte Carlo and Davos, ferrying in high-level speakers and thought-leaders representing different industries, cultures and points of view. This year’s conference was held at the Yellowstone Club, a private, members-only ski area and retreat near Big Sky, Montana.

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