Leslie’s Notebook

In the past two years, legendary Dallas oilman and investor T. Boone Pickens has donated close to $600 million to various charities, formed a foundation to continue this giving, and has been named one of the top donors in the U.S. by the Journal of Philanthropy.

Later this year he’ll publish his second book, this one tentatively titled “The First Billion was the Hardest.” Turning 80 this year, he jokes that some people tell him, “Hell, I thought you were 85!” An avid fitness buff, he said he hopes to reach 90 as his father did. Meanwhile, he works hard at investing as chief of the multibillion-dollar BP Capital in Dallas, ranching and water development in the Texas Panhandle, wind power and natural gas vehicles, and on and on.

As he proved last night at a dinner and Q&A session in Houston, Pickens never lacks for humor or insight or strong opinions. The event was hosted by Deloitte and BreitBurn Energy Partners LP.

Emcee and BreitBurn board member Thurmon Andress opted for a Tonight Show format as he asked Pickens about a range of topics from the oil business to politics to sports.

Question: If you were named Secretary of Energy, how would you fix our energy dependence problems?

Answer: “I wouldn’t be the secretary, I’d take the title of Energy Czar and I’d only report directly to the President one time a year on what I had done. Seriously, our energy policy has been a joke for years. First thing I’d do is take stock of what resources we do have and that means coal, then natural gas is second, and you know we’d have to have nuclear in the mix.

“I’d say, ‘Get your ass off foreign oil!’ It costs us four times as much as the Iraqi war. Every president going back to Nixon has said the same thing and not a damn thing has happened any differently. This is the greatest transfer of wealth from the U.S. to other countries in history.”

Question: What about the oil price in 2008?

Answer: “It’ll be sloppy in the second quarter, between $95 and $100, but in the second half, it’ll go above $100, and I don’t know where it’ll go after that. I agree with Matt Simmons 100%. I think 85 million barrels a day of production is about all you’re ever going to get and you’re going to struggle to keep that up. You’re going to see $200 oil [eventually].”

Question: You were an early backer of Rudy Guiliani for president. What happened?

Answer: “Rudy who? Yeah, I guess that was a bad call on my part. Rudy kind of rode up to the grandstand and then fell off his horse. I’ve never seen somebody come and go so quickly.

“You know, these presidential candidates–I think Obama could be president but I think McCain can beat them both. But all three of them, they don’t understand anything about energy, so how can they have an energy policy? Oil will never go to $60 again…it’s going to be interesting because they are going to have to face it.

“If you asked me about my three best decisions I ever made, not running [for Texas governor or any other office] was one of them.” 

–Leslie Haines, Editor-in-chief, Oil and Gas Investor, lhaines@hartenergy.com

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