Still, the popular press has succeeded in painting the oil & gas industry as the ultimate villain, and in an era when a gallon of gas in the United States costs more than $4 and some of the multinational oil companies are reporting record profits, it's a fair question to ask, "So why should we care what technologies the oil & gas companies are using?" One reason is because the oil & gas industry is pursuing the same types of technological solutions that other manufacturing sectors are looking at under the pressure of public scrutiny to improve performance. Just as importantly, as oil & gas companies become more efficient at operating their enterprises, the long-term prospects for all U.S. manufacturing should also improve. That's the theory, anyway.
Source: Industry Week, http://industryweek.com