How Ensign meets the challenge of staying independent and alive

Pete Taylor has made a career of steering his own course in the seismic business, notably keeping Ensign Geophysics in business as an independent seismic data processing company for the last 15 years. He tells Andrew McBarnet a little about his time in the industry and characteristically asks some searching questions on oil company strategy in times of crisis. Anyone whoís wondered why UK seismic processor Ensign Geophysics has never been swallowed up by a larger organization hasn't reckoned with Pete Taylor, the company's independentminded, resolutely British managing director. Meeting him at Petex last December, he was expressing some characteristic exasperation at the way oil companies were reacting to the oil price crisis and, more self-interestedly, proposing a saner way of charging for seismic data processing jobs. He says he can't understand why integrated oil companies should be worried about the price of crude oil. 'It's an internal cost, so why does it matter?' he asks. 'I can see if you're an exploration only company, there's a problem. But the integrated oil companies control everything from finding through to refined product prices. The demand is still there - we're still using petrol, chemicals, aviation fuel, everything.' Taylor challenges someone to tell him why these companies are so bothered. One senior executive told him it was all about infighting over which division was getting its costs right. To which Taylor retorts, so what!