Crude is at record levels. Natural gas is over $10 mbtu. Which companies are making gobs of money right now?

The exploration energy companies.

Where are most of them located?

Houston (and, for some of the smaller independents, Louisiana.)

Go to any of the company websites, even of the small independents with 150 employees, and there is a virtual guarantee that there will be at least one job opening. And at the big boys like Conoco and Exxon? There are dozens of jobs.

And they pay good wages too.

I’m not saying your local Wal-Mart greeter would have the qualifications to do some of these jobs. Many require an engineering degree or other specialized skills.

But many do not.

Are you able-bodied and not afraid to get your hands dirty?

Do you have strong finance, accounting and human resource skills?

Houston has added 86,000 jobs in the past 12 months. From the AP:

In some cases, energy companies are having a hard time finding enough workers, particularly engineers. Last Sunday, the Houston Chronicle jobs section totaled 14 pages — BP, Occidental Petroleum Corp. and Plains Exploration & Production Co. among the advertisers.

But it’s not only oil and gas driving Houston’s economic engine.

Construction jobs rose nearly 5 percent in metro Houston on an annual basis in February, while manufacturing employment rose about 2 percent, according to the Texas Workforce Commission.

There is also the spillover effect from all of the wealth. Many of the small independents are going to have record years. What will they do with all the extra cash?

In some cases they’ll invest it in new wells and exploration. But the profits might be so big that they will be giving back to their employees.

Look at independent explorer Apache. They are headquartered in Houston and are hiring a few dozen in that location in all areas from finance and human resources to geology.

The company has long rewarded company employees for performance. In March, Apache announced that all company employees would be paid a special bonus in Apache stock.

People employed at Apache when the program began will receive shares equivalent to at least 50 percent of their annual salaries at that time; those hired later (but before July 1, 2007) will receive prorated awards. A total of about 2 million shares will be paid in four annual installments, providing a strong retention incentive.

The program began three years ago. So if you started in, say, 2004, and made $50,000 then, you’ll get $25,000 worth of stock.

Apache has 2,800 employees that will get at least part of the bonus.

Now THAT’S a stimulus check.

Houston last saw a big oil boom in the early 1980s and then it experienced a vicious bust. For now, the boom is on and the city is being cautious. Quietly, new oil millionaires are buying mansions in cash.

Is Houston the next Silicon Valley?

(In full disclosure, the writer of this article owns shares in Apache and is pleased to see the company rewarding its employees.)

I think I’ve talked in the past about the dearth of women as hedge fund managers. If I didn’t, then I’ll do a quick recap for you.

Women only make up 5% of all hedge fund managers.

A few months ago, when Warren Buffett was on CNBC, anchor Becky Quick asked him if any women were on the “short-list” for the top jobs at Berkshire Hathaway (those that would be in charge of investing the money.)

Nope. No women there.

No one should be surprised. Women are clearly in the minority in the investing world.

That’s what makes the announcement out of Harvard so encouraging.

Yesterday, they appointed Jane Mendillo, 49, as Chief Executive Officer of Harvard Management Co. She’ll be in charge of investing $34.9 billion. It’s the largest University endowment in the nation.

The job is widely regarded as among the most prestigious in fund management.

Ms. Mendillo who has two Yale degrees, including an MBA, has run Wellsley College’s investment fund since 2003. The fund has risen from $1 billion to $1.7 billion during her tenure (including gifts etc.) It has returned 13.5% after fees during that time.

From Bloomberg:

“She has the reputation as a savvy investor and she has 15 years of history with Harvard,” Harvard Treasurer James Rothenberg said in a telephone interview. “She has a great set of skills that we need. She has been involved for quite some time with asset allocations and endowments, and she has a real passion for the work that universities do.”

But apparently, women are making inroads among University endowments. From the NYTimes:

Ms. Mendillo, who was appointed after a six-month search, joins a growing number of women who are running some of the nation’s largest university endowments. Ten years ago, just 2 of the nation’s 25 largest endowments were run by women. With Ms. Mendillo’s appointment, that number has jumped to six. After appointing Drew G. Faust as president last year, Harvard now has women serving in two prominent posts.

That’s 24% women, which is certainly an improvement.

Maybe Ms. Mendillo will change some perceptions about women and investing. We hope so.

Are you still encouraging your kids to be engineers so they can go to Silicon Valley, get stock options and be rich?

Maybe there is another area they should be looking at instead of tech. How about chemical engineering for the oil companies?

I’ve heard that the oil companies are hiring right out of college with starting salaries of $65,000 plus bonuses.

Not too shabby.

But there’s an area that’s even more lucrative.

Geology.

With the mining sector down on its luck for decades, geology was the last thing that an ambitious young person would want to study. But now that metal prices are soaring and the mining companies expanding, there are suddenly thousands of job openings but not enough people to fill them.

Lots of demand and little supply means high salaries.

Geologists right out of college are now earning, in some cases, more than MBAs.

From Bloomberg:

But since 2004, salaries for geology undergraduates in Canada, home to three of the world’s largest gold producers, have jumped about 50 percent to an average of $91,654 U.S., according to Norman Duke, a professor at the University of Western Ontario, who has been a consultant for companies including Teck Cominco Ltd.

Geologists’ pay tops the average for new U.S. M.B.A.s, which, according to an August 2007 survey by the National Association of Colleges and Employers, was $86,696. Those with mining skills are also catching up with Harvard University M.B.A.s, whose average starting salary rose 15 percent over three years to $115,000 in 2007, according to the university.

This year there will be about 1,200 geology grads in Canada to fill 9,000 positions in the country’s mining industry, said Ryan Montpellier, executive director of the government’s Mining Industry Resources Council.

In the United States, the number of jobs open to geologists will rise 22 percent in the decade ending in 2016, about double the average for all occupations, according to the U.S. Department of Labor.

Forget hedge funds or law school.

Geology is where it’s at.

“There is a chronic shortage of skilled people, and wages have skyrocketed,” said Bart Melek, commodity strategist at BMO Capital Markets in Toronto. “There’s no relief in sight.”

But is anyone talking about geology? Of course not. It doesn’t seem glamorous.

Maybe perceptions are about to change.

Geology: the new plastics.

The highest paid lawyers in the country make about $1100 an hour. These are the brainest, smartest of them all. The ones that you want to hire if you’re facing 10 years in jail for, well, money laundering.

Apparently, Eliot Spitzer allegedly paid one of the women escorts in the prostitution scandal about $4,300 for two hours worth of “work”.

That’s $2150 an hour.

Is there something I don’t understand here?

Prostitution has to be the only profession where women actually make MORE money than men.

Press reports are saying that Spitzer allegedly paid up to $80,000 on his illicit activities. Charlie Sheen, who was allegedly involved in the Heidi Fleiss ring, supposedly paid $50,000. These are quite enormous sums for a roll in the sack. Apparently, Spitzer can afford it. From the Associated Press:

Spitzer’s vast personal wealth would have made it easy for him to spend thousands of dollars on prostitutes. The scion of a wealthy Manhattan real estate developer, Spitzer reported $1.9 million in income to the IRS in 2006.

The law of economics says that price is controlled by supply and demand. Maybe there isn’t enough supply of this and too much demand. Hence the high price.

But the talk around the water cooler today was, by both men AND women, “I’m in the wrong profession.”

Because to many people, $4,300 for two hours seems incredible.

But let’s not glamourize prostitution. For every woman charging $4,300, there are others that charge $5. Or get nothing.

It does make me wonder, though. What was it about these women that was special? Was it like the Mayflower Madam- an upscale service that had women of a certain caliber? Were they college educated? Speak french and russian? Look like models?

Several years ago, there were rumors of an alleged madam who was a student at Stanford’s Law School. Stanford Law is one of the most prestigious law schools in the country. Graduates can earn $165,000 upon graduation and more as their careers advance. Why would one of the women students run a prostitution ring?

Apparently, it was much more lucrative than the $165,000 a year. Much more.

And, in America, money talks- right?

More details are sure to emerge about Mr. Spitzer and his alleged activities with this prostution ring. In the meantime, the rest of us are left to wonder: $4,300 for two hours?