Earlier quoted context omitted.
I think people often don't realize the scale at which energy companies use contractors/etc. The "boots on the ground" folks are almost entirely contractors or hired through another company. Plenty of companies exist purely to provide employees to one oil company in one field. Exxon/Chevron/Total/BP/etc each have around 50-100k employees (I may be a bit off there, but it's in the ballpark). The workforce required for…
Sounds a lot like mining, although you could go a step further and say that (depending on where in the mining boom/bust cycle we are) mining companies are actually finance companies. They find a location (by paying geological survey companies, or by just buying an established claim from someone else), they pay other companies to design and build a mine site, then they pay yet other companies to staff and operate the…
Most of the materials from the mine are presold.