Digging Deep

Rick Wilkinson, Twists in the Sand: 50 Years in the Turbulent Life of Beach Energy, (Media Dynamics, 2011), 431 pages, $25 plus postage through www.beachenergy.com.au 

Proponents of the resources super profits tax (notably Labor politicians and media commentators) seem to be under the delusion that making money from resources is easy. All miners have to do is dig a hole and the money rolls in, so they should pay extra taxes.

Twists in the Sand by Australia’s veteran (and best) oil industry journalist Rick Wilkinson should change that perception, assuming any left-wingers will read a down-to-earth corporate history.

Beach Energy is today ranked as one of Australia’s top listed companies. But the road to riches was tortuous and uncertain. In its half-century of corporate life, Beach has survived almost every possible disaster, from dry holes to international corporate knavery.

Two morals can be drawn from this book, both familiar to share market veterans. The first is that the…