The media has been full of reports that this year, the first of the huge and influential baby-boom generation turns 60. Closer to home, the median age of the members of the Society of Petroleum Engineers and the American Association of Petroleum Geologists is 53, so they are not far behind. They'll turn 60 in roughly the same amount of time it takes a major to find, appraise, develop and bring onstream an ultra-deepwater discovery. But until then, boy howdy. Nabors Industries is so busy it has ordered 51 new rigs to be built in China. Our cover story this month illuminates just how stretched all the service and supply companies are, and what they are doing about it. Can large companies afford to offer buyout packages to so many retirees who have given so much, and who all retire in the same five-year period? Even if they do, many of these geologists, engineers and landmen will not be gone for long-they will find themselves in lucrative consulting roles with their former employers for years to come. After all, somebody has to find more oil and gas to bridge the gap to the eventuality-in 20 years?-that we transition away from oil as a transportation fuel. A manager working for a major told me recently that the company strongly believes the world will transition away from crude oil long before it runs out, due to societal and environmental pressures and a much-higher oil price. For the rest of this decade, though, oil and gas are hot commodities whose worth is rising in dollar terms, and psychological ones as well. Katrina, Rita and Middle East politics-not to mention a flurry of new books and movies-have given the general public and politicians a new appreciation for the importance of oil and gas to our economy and lifestyle. Their scarcity and the difficulty of finding and producing them are becoming better known. As the worth of oil and gas rises, the investment community has a renewed appreciation for the returns these commodities now generate, and so, it flocks to the industry in myriad ways. Capital is so abundant as to be the least of our worries-indeed, it causes the new worry that poor decisions could soon be made, eventually souring investors' mood. For more on this, see the February issue of Oil and Gas Investor. For a subscription, call 713-993-9325, ext. 129.