OilFinancier Review

This is a copy of the review I wrote for Dave Volek, inventor of OilFinancier after taking part in the OF2 seminar.

I came across Oil Financier (OF) via a poster in the Petroleum Computer Lab at University of Alberta in late 2005. I read about OF on the website and decided it would probably be fun but I was a little skeptical about how educational OF would be. Nevertheless I set to work building a spreadsheet to handle OF using the knowledge gained in my engineering economics class (UofA Engg 310). Throughout OF I did learn a lot about negotiation, the best way to entice various other financiers into contracts and I used my spreadsheet to evaluate whether a deal was worth making or how to choose between two potential deals when cash flow was restricted. At the end of the seminar I was still skeptical how beneficial OF would be in a truly educational sense versus the every experience teaches you something kind of way. It was not until the second half of my oil and gas property evaluation course (UofA PetE 484) that I realized how valuable OF was. The concepts weren’t hard and I don’t think any of my classmates struggled with them but undoubtedly I had a keener sense of how to handle the problems. It seemed very natural to decide between two projects and the various tactics that could be used. While many companies have software to handle these decisions in industry it never hurts to be acutely aware of how to tackle the problems on the back of a napkin. OF can certainly be an enjoyable experience, but it is important to note that you get out what you put in. Further, OF in its own small way will help prepare young professionals for Calgary’s ivory towers.

www.OilFinancier.com