Although not necessarily what you think of when it comes to big oil, suppliers to extract and produce oil come in all sizes – including family run businesses. Take William Whitefield, for instance, who runs “a family-owned company that now serves a host of national and international oil field, pipeline and industrial clients.” He was one of about 60,000 attending last week’s Offshore Technology Conference in Houston, Texas. The mood was one of uncertainty but that had nothing to do with the swine flu or anything else in Texas. It …
