Energy: Strike It Rich

A gusher for geologists

Next to oil itself, the hottest commodity in the energy business these days is the person who knows where to drill for oil and gas. Small independent firms and major corporations alike are aggressively fighting over geologists, petroleum engineers and geophysicists as though they were free-agent baseball players batting .325. Budding geoscientists with no more than bachelor's degrees can now command starting salaries of $24,000 a year and more. At the Colorado School of Mines, energy firms are booking choice recruiting dates on campus more than a year in advance. Says Joseph Finney, chairman of the school's geological engineering department: "It's a hot market. Everyone's trying to crowd in."

Experienced people are in such heavy demand that the large oil companies have serious difficulty keeping prized employees. Shell Oil is rumored to have lost some 100 geologists and geophysicists since the beginning of the year. McMoRan Oil & Gas Co. of New Orleans, for instance, has lured five scientists away from bigger firms since 1977 by offering them stock options of up to 30,000 shares each. The company's strong Wall Street performance has now made all five of them millionaires.

Some energy prospectors set up their own companies and then staff them with geologists and engineers hired away from the majors. M. Raymond Thomasson, 50, once chief geologist at Shell Oil, easily raised the money to start his own exploration firm, Spectrum Oil and Gas. William M. Chappelle, 45, left his job as an assistant manager for offshore drilling at Exxon to set up Chappelle Exploration Co. in Houston. Says he: "At Exxon you find oil for Exxon. On your own, you find it at least partially for yourself."