Low-Intensity Conflicts

This is definitely not a story I was going to link. But then the irony was too good to ignore.

This is the title of the three-part series: "Oil and Gas in the Crosshairs," at PennEnergy.

Based on the source of the article I was absolutely convinced the article had to do with the Federal government and the permitorium.

So, I was quite  blown away -- which might be a great phrase to use in this case -- to see that the article has to do with the "shooting wars" that the majors often find themselves in:

Energy companies are increasingly conducting up and downstream business in areas where they wouldn’t have gone 10 years ago – low intensity conflict zones (LICs), to be specific. The lure of profits is too great. But the physical, financial, and PR risks can be high. As Steve Coll’s recent book, Private Empire, points out, energy companies such as ExxonMobil have an increasingly critical need for threat intelligence and security not only to protect their people and assets in LICs, but also to make sound business decisions on where and where not to drill and refine.  

Just what are LICs? There are technical military definitions, but for the plainspoken oil and gas industry, LICs are “light wars” without defined front lines. The antagonists are typically non-state armies that don’t wear uniforms that might be fighting for religious, tribal, or extreme political causes. Their style of fighting customarily involves light weapons and hit and run tactics. LIC battlefields range from jungles and mountains to rural neighborhoods and cities. Besides fighting age men, LICs pull everyday people into the fight, including women, children, and the elderly. These type wars, sometimes called “peoples’ war,” “irregular war,” and “asymmetric war,” include guerrilla warfare and terrorism. 

LICs were (was?) a major topic of discussion during my two years at Air War College.  

One has to chuckle. A lot of us are concerned about the WTI-Brent spread, the cost of completing a well in the Bakken, housing, etc., but, in general, the one thing we do not have to worry about (yet) in the Bakken, is a "shooting war." I guess, on a Friday, it's nice to be able to put something into perspective.