The old Seven Sisters were Exxon, Mobil, Royal Dutch Shell, British Petroleum, Chevron, Texaco and Gulf Oil. Exxon became ExxonMobil. Chevron and Texaco merged, BP and Chevron picked up respective portions of Gulf Oil.

Now there are four: ExxonMobil, Chevron, Royal Dutch Shell, and BP. The reality being that they account for as little as 10% of global oil and gas production. The American based sisters are down to ExxonMobil and Chevron.

The new Seven Sisters account for about a third of the globe’s oil and gas production. They are Saudi Aramco, Russia`s Gazprom, CNPC of China, NIOC of Iran, Venezuela`s PDVSA, Brazil`s Petrobras and Petronas of Malaysia.

Although some of the new sisters gather equity in the globe’s stock markets, these entities are generally adaptions fitted to the now inevitable nationalization of national resources occurring throughout the globe. This nationalization is people based and endeavors to return a significant portion of equity for social purposes. Energy is a particular dynamic requiring huge infusions of investment capital, and hardly tolerant of social diversion.

The told sisters and their sibling smaller independent companies may just wait in hope that their engineering expertise will be solely missed by various nationalistic upstarts. On the other hand, these very suppliers just might proceed at a pace all their own with little regard to the global energy picture.

So perhaps drilling, both land and offshore, will soon become a portion of our nationalistic fabric, whether it evolves into the point player in a full court press with alternatives in pursuit, or just that downright yearning to get close and personal in an exploratory manner with our naturally endowed basin areas.

Except for one thing: people.

A study of American oilfield personnel by the University of Houston found that about "40 percent of the work force is between the ages of 40 and 49, and another 32 percent are 50 or older," According to the American Petroleum Institute, "the petroleum industry lost almost half a million jobs between 1982 and 2000."

Nowhere to go is an apt description, most especially for American based global energy companies even considering a homecoming of sorts. Yet, we will always have James Stewart in "Thunder Bay" and John Wayne in "Hellfighters."

Passe to the core, but most enduring.