The Laptev Virus

Angela had felt confident about taking the position after this conversation. Now, as she sat in her own office listening to Stan, she pressed the phone more tightly against her ear as she focused on Stan’s words.

“I gotta tell ya,” he said, diving to the heart of the matter as he always did. “The shareholders are putting a lot of pressure on us. I had a long talk with Dennis Perey, the Chairman. He said that they want results soon or they’ll be pulling out and selling their stock. If several of the big ones sell, Angela, it will be bad. Riesigoil could tank pretty quickly.”

Angela clenched her teeth in frustration. “But surely they understand that we can’t send people back up there to drill until we know more about the virus? It’s not just Riesigoil—any company would protect its workers. Can’t they see that?”

She remembered how distraught he had been when the Arctic incident had occurred in early May. He told her that he had hardly been able to sleep as the reports of the calamity had arrived. And he had quickly authorized the closing down of the barracks, against the wishes of the board, as well as generous funding for immediate research into the nature of the virus.

“I know,” said Stan, letting his breath blow through his lips noisily. “But it seems that the situation has gotten more complicated in the past few weeks. Apparently Glassuroil, the other company that has land holdings close to ours, has declared that it will be drilling in the Arctic starting next week. They finished all of the initial investigations that we were still working on. Then they went on to complete an exploratory well in record time and now Glassuroil plans to sink a permanent well in the next few weeks. So the shareholders are afraid that they will tap into a big reservoir before Riesigoil does. I tried to explain to them about the quarantine, but the shareholders are having none of it.”

Angela fidgeted in her chair and began running her finger over the edge of her desk. It was a nervous habit. “Stan, I know I don’t need to remind you that seven people perished up there. Seven out of a group of fifteen. Three others are still in intensive care, though, thankfully, it looks like they will pull through. But it’s abundantly clear that we shouldn’t send any workers back to that area before we get a better handle on what’s going on. I mean, what if drilling begins and more people get sick? I just don’t see how we could do that.”

“You’re preaching to the choir here, Angela. I totally hear you. The problem is that there is an awful lot of money invested in this venture. A staggering amount of money. And time’s a wastin’. If we don’t get at least a few more exploratory wells dug before September, we’ll lose another nine months as the winter sets in and closes up the Arctic till next year.”

“Winter will close the Arctic for everyone, though, right?”

Stan didn’t respond.

“Stan, what is it? Will Glassuroil…” she left the question open.

She could hear Stan tapping his pencil against the desk. Tap, tap, tap, tap, tap.

“Dennis says that they have learned that if Glassuroil gets a good well going, they’ll keep their people up there till December, maybe even later. They’ve signed a deal with Moscow and so they’ve got huge icebreaker ships already lined up. The Arctic is taking longer to freeze each winter lately, and thawing quicker, and that means that those nine months are becoming more tenuous. No one would want to go up there for the first time, in, say, late September or October, but an established group based in Siberia would have no reason to rush home. Anyway, according to our intelligence reports Glassuroil just issued an internal statement to that effect last night, so our shareholders are getting jittery.

Intelligence reports. Angela smiled in spite of herself. When she had first learned that oil companies had extensive spy networks set up, she had been quite surprised. But the necessity of these operatives had become obvious over the year that she had worked at Riesigoil, and she knew that larger companies went as far as contracting former CIA and FBI undercover agents to investigate all sorts of matters related to their competition. Big money elevated the stakes.

“And if a large enough group of shareholders were to get trigger happy and pull the plug…”

“There would go Riesigoil,” said Angela, completing his sentence. She heard Stan’s pencil tapping once again as they both contemplated the implications.

“Along with our jobs and the jobs of many, many people. We’d sink quicker than Enron did.”

“I get it,” said Angela, letting out a deep sigh. “Look, let me check with Oscar at the University. I’ll see if they’ve been able to shed more light on the matter. If I can find any way around our situation, any way at all to get those barracks opened again in the next couple of weeks…”