A Small Difference

ISBN: 0533165873

Author: Plank, Raymond

Condition: New

In the oil and gas industry, there are many exciting tales of wildcat discoveries. This memoir of Raymond Plank's methodical leadership in building Apache Corporation to a $50 billion global oil and gas company tells a more subtle and widely relevant story.Plank's parents instilled essential values that have served as his lifelong compass, his father urging him to "try to make a very small difference on behalf of others." Steeled as a bomber pilot in the Pacific, Plank graduated from Yale in 1946 and considered his business future. Invited to join his father's printing business, he chose instead to pursue an independent path.Apache sprang from Plank's successful accounting and tax practice in the Twin Cities. When the 32-year old Plank uncovered fraud in an oil and gas investment, the investors so admired his integrity and diligence that they asked him not only to clean up the program but to expand it. With this mandate, in 1954 Apache was born. It grew by carefully studying opportunities in tax and corporate structuring as well as in geology. Significant discoveries in Wyoming and Oklahoma, and transactions with Shell, Occidental Petroleum, Dow Chemical, and Amoco, augmented by breakthrough exploration initiatives in Australia, Egypt, and China, led to more than 5,000 employees and nearly 3 billion barrels of oil equivalent.This book chronicles the innovations Plank brought to bear in the growth of Apache Corporation and his fostering of lifelong learning. It demonstrates that Raymond Plank has made a very meaningful difference in the lives of others.