Reborn in 2010, the AI ​​in my mind is too powerful.

CEO Steven Newman stood by the window, watching the protesters outside the company with a cold smile, then said to the person giving a presentation, "Stop talking nonsense and just tell me, how much money can we save?"

Treasurer Ikahamonen ignored him and continued rambling on.

"To put it simply, the current daily rental income of the Navigator is $550,000, while our costs, apart from $60,000 in depreciation expenses and $10,000 in general management fees, are all operating and maintenance costs."

Of these, manpower accounts for the vast majority. Taking the Navigator as an example, normally there are 180 employees on board, and their salaries, food, lodging and supplies are not insignificant. These alone require US$24 per day.

There are also some hidden expenses that are not included in the project but are recorded in the company's annualized report, which cannot be ignored. When these people work in shifts, they need to be reimbursed for hotel accommodations and meals, and they also need to pay for insurance and ambulance equipment maintenance fees, which are not cheap.

Another point is that Lao Zhang's work efficiency is too high. Previously, due to the aging of underwater equipment, the revenue efficiency of the Navigator was very poor this year. But now with Lao Zhang, we expect the revenue efficiency to be maintained at 98% for a long time.

Basically, our unplanned production stoppages each year will become very few, possibly even zero.

That means we can save $200,000 a day! And for Lao Zhang, it only costs $15,000 a day, which is a great deal.

From a financial perspective, although Baker Hughes' renovation costs weren't low—they charged us 15 million—it was absolutely worth it. It drastically reduced our costs, including hidden costs, saving us a significant amount on insurance, employee training, and even New Year's cards!

From a safety perspective, Lao Zhang's abilities are definitely far superior to those of ordinary employees.

To be honest, I never imagined that the world would really develop to this point. Traditional operators are no match for him. Ordinary people who operate by looking at the screen are no match for newcomers. We asked him, and he now operates the machine as if it were his own body.

The various fingertip sensors from Aurora are especially useful. I actually suggest that we could remove all the staff and just leave Lao Zhang alone, which would be enough.

We could even completely copy this model in the future! This year, oil prices have fluctuated too much, and with our depreciation expenses and the lingering effects of the fines from the 2010 leak, my initial estimate is that we may suffer a loss of 15 billion US dollars.

So my suggestion is to just sign the contract with Baker Hughes this year and make the payment this year, since the financial statements are already this bad anyway.

That way, next year's data will look much better.

After speaking, Ikahamonen did not look at CEO Steven Newman, but instead looked at Kieran Adamson, the Vice President of Engineering and Technical Support.

Of the three people present, Steven Newman was already showing signs of despair due to the company's predicament and the dissatisfaction of the upper management; Ika Haimonin supported giving the newcomers full control of the drilling ship; while Kieran Adamson had reservations about it.

However, Kieran Adamson's concerns were not primarily about security, but rather about the staff.

Kieran Adamson is different from the other two. He is not a Juris Doctor, nor is he a Harvard Business School MBA graduate. He is a true oil man.

He started as a drilling engineer at BP in 1991, and later served as the head of drilling platforms in many places, and also worked as a shipyard project manager in Singapore.

His engineering knowledge told him that, based on all the numbers, this was the perfect solution, but he still couldn't make up his mind.

It's because of the group of people demonstrating at the gate right now.

This technological upgrade came so quickly that the workers below were completely unprepared.

Drillers, mechanics, electricians, welders, deckhands, crane operators, crew, logistics staff—everyone has been replaced by Aurora's machines. The claim that with new technology, people only need to learn to operate the machines to survive is a complete lie. Old Zhang can control the entire ship's machinery all by himself!

Working on a drilling ship isn't easy, and often you can't contact the outside world for one or two months. But the pay is good; even the most basic, ordinary drilling crew member can earn up to $400 a day.

These people can only find such high-paying jobs at sea. Over the years, they have become accustomed to the life of rotating between land and sea.

Now, suddenly the sky has fallen.

The company hires mostly Americans, and those who know Americans are good at saving; they're the type to spend three hundred when they earn one hundred.

The main idea is to spend all your money before you die, ideally with credit card debt until you die, so the bank can come to hell to collect the debt.

However, this means that once they lose their jobs, their lives can easily fall apart.

Although it's unlikely that someone would actually become homeless and unable to survive as long as they don't use drugs.

But if you earn less, your family life might not be happy. What if you get divorced? Then, in a fit of anger, you might go on a trip or chase after other women, and your credit cards could be maxed out.

Normally, although the United States does not have an N+1 severance package, powerful labor unions will protect everyone.

However, the protection is limited, especially since most people in the oil industry do not have collective contracts with unions, so they usually only receive two months' salary, and then can only receive 26 weeks of unemployment benefits.

For ordinary people, this amount of money is enough for them to start looking for their next job.

But oil workers are really different. Many of them can't find jobs that pay more than 100,000 a year on land, and many of them give up due to the disparity.

Kieran Adamson was still reluctant and suggested, "How about giving them some time? Don't fire so many at once. Change the previous two shifts to four shifts, so that they can still go back to work at sea for a quarter of the year."

This way, they can gradually adapt to their new lives. It will also ease the pressure on public opinion. Right now, the news about new graduates taking jobs from ordinary people is being heavily publicized; who knows what kind of policies will be introduced in the future?

Moreover, if there are no ordinary people at all, only people like Lao Zhang on board, how should it be classified? The classification society hasn't even reached a conclusion on this matter yet. The drawings we submitted haven't been approved yet.

When the surveyor comes, he'll ask us: For newborns relying on wet-body brains, should we count them as people or equipment? If they're considered people, should we reserve a spot for them in the lifeboat quota? Should fire drills be included? If an accident occurs, should it be considered a workplace death or equipment damage?

I suggest that, for safety and cost-effectiveness, we gradually adopt newborns. However, this needs to be done slowly.

Ultimately, the decision-making power rested with CEO Steven Newman, even though the board considered him incompetent at the time; he was still the company's CEO.

Steven Newman looked at the crowd demonstrating outside the company and suddenly thought of his father.

Although his resume is exceptionally impressive, he graduated with honors from the Colorado School of Mines with a Bachelor of Science degree in Petroleum Engineering and with honors from the Harvard Business School with a Master of Business Administration degree.

But his background was actually quite unremarkable; his father was an ordinary copper miner.

However, his father was very good at learning and eventually transformed from an ordinary copper miner into a skilled copper prospector.

But during his childhood, his friends were all from mining families, and he had seen this kind of protest countless times since he was a child.

This made him unconsciously treat his subordinates better in his later work.

This also allowed him to get along well with the workers, and he actually had a very high reputation among them.

He also used these connections to rise from a junior staff member in the planning department of a Swiss transoceanic drilling company to become the company's CEO. He was only 45 years old when he took office in 2010.

But fate played a cruel joke on him; just one month after he took office, the Swiss transoceanic drilling company suffered a major blow.

The Deepwater Horizon drilling rig, which they owned and operated, suffered a blowout while drilling for oil for BP, followed by an explosion, sinking, and the deaths of 11 people. It also triggered the worst marine oil spill in U.S. history.

Although in September 2014, the judge ultimately ruled that Transocean, the Swiss drilling company, bore only 30% of the responsibility for the accident, and the compensation they were required to pay was only $14 billion, compared to BP's massive $187 billion settlement, they were considered very fortunate.

However, this matter consumed too much of the company's energy over the past four years and severely hampered the company's development.

Newman originally took the CEO position with the idea of ​​expanding and strengthening the company, but who knew that he would be appointed to the position in a time of crisis.

Let alone development, bankruptcy is not out of the question.

However, thanks to his steadiness, he ultimately led the company through the crisis, earning him the title of "steady hand."

Then, the spoilers arrived.

In January 2013, Chen Yiran's number one follower on Wall Street, the most famous activist investor on Wall Street, the true Wolf of Wall Street, Carl Icahn, completed his position building and disclosed that he had acquired 5.6% of the shares of Transocean Drilling, becoming the company's largest single shareholder.

On March 7, Icahn issued an open letter outlining three demands.

He demanded that the dividend per share be increased from $2.24 to $4. He also demanded that his three nominated new directors be added to the board, and that the staggered board system be abolished, requiring annual elections to facilitate rapid personnel turnover.

After that, Icahn and the management began to clash fiercely. At the board meeting in May, the two sides split the score. Icahn did not receive the $4 dividend, but all three people he nominated were admitted to the board.

In subsequent clashes, the management suffered repeated defeats. Although it seemed that the two sides had reached an agreement and reached a settlement, it was basically all done according to Icahn's ideas.

By the end of 2014, Newman was no longer able to keep the company afloat. Since he took office, the company's stock price had fallen by 70%.

Even if he has many excuses, this number is still really too ugly.

He had originally planned to retire directly, since he was already financially independent and it would be good for him to go home and watch Icahn make a fool of himself.

Icahn fundamentally misunderstands the cyclical nature of the oil industry and insists on high dividends, which is detrimental to the company's development. Icahn himself bears the most responsibility for the company's stock price problems.

However, Iran and Israel have gradually escalated from initial mutual hostility to a real conflict, even causing fluctuations in oil prices.

As a veteran in the oil industry, he knew that this would still be negative for the company in the short term, with freight disruptions and rising war risks, but it was theoretically a positive factor in the medium term.

In other words, after he leaves, the company may improve within six months, and Icahn may directly say that he is incompetent or something like that.

Steven Newman made up his mind. This two-decade veteran, who was described by the Houston Chronicle as too conservative, lacking vision, and lacking bold ideas for the dramatic changes in the industry that began at the end of the last decade, was no longer going to play it safe. If he was going to make changes, he was going to do it right the first time.

He looked away from the crowd outside the window and sat back down in his boss's chair, saying, "Never mind, lay them all off. Starting today, we'll begin using new recruits to manage the drilling ships."

We started looking for suitable people in Hawaii, Singapore, and South Korea. We could even consider negotiating a partnership with Aurora to issue bonds and earn interest to pay salaries.

Forget about classification society certifications. There are plenty of second-line operators who secretly ignore them to save money! Just keep five support staff on each ship as a formality.

Shale oil technology is becoming increasingly mature. If we don't make changes, life will only get harder in the future.

This might be our only chance, haha, I believe Mr. Icahn won't oppose us this time.

Icahn certainly wouldn't object; he's willing to do anything related to the aurora borealis.

He even immediately started hyping it up, saying that the Swiss transoceanic drilling company was fully embracing newcomers and trying to find its place in the future.

The effect was immediate; on that day, the stock price of Transocean, a Swiss drilling company, surged by 19%.

This also signaled a full-scale attack by newcomers. As Aurora Group accelerated its pace, tens of thousands of smarter, more efficient, and even more outstanding people began to look for jobs.

The Wall Street Journal wrote on its front page that the newcomers are like a wave of mad dogs released from their cages, encroaching on the living space of ordinary people.

The critically ill patients in Hawaii and Singapore have all been reborn, but the aurora borealis has not stopped, and more patients are being allowed to be reborn.

In the foreseeable future, this will no longer be a means of prolonging life, but an essential skill for everyone.