EDITORIAL FEATURE
Oil & Gas Bust –
Is Texas on the Mend?
By Sonia Clayton
W
e often hear the expression, “Everything in Texas is bigger and
better.” There is nothing missing
from this colloquial expression
when it comes to the Lone Star State, a
land known for its resources, generosity,
southern hospitality, and strong economy. Nevertheless, most oil and gas employers have being impacted by the punishing economic headwinds.
It is an obvious observation that Texas
has been responsible for the majority of
the employment growth in the country
within the last two years. Impressively
enough, 1.2 million jobs were generated
here. Oil, Gas, and Energy have consistently generated jobs in Texas and the nation for the last eight years and although
lower oil prices may help most folks pay
their bills in the short run, there is also
much pain in low oil prices for the state
that generated the most jobs in America
in 2014. The oil price collapsed during Q3
and Q4, 2014 and continued through Q1
2015, impacting refinery processing rates,
reduced imports, and a flattened domestic crude production as companies decommissioned 60 percent of active drilling rigs.
The domino effect was visible in the
Texas economy and negatively impacting
manufacturers of steel, construction materials, drilling operators, and many small
businesses that depend on them and act
as the job generators of this Southern
economy. Growth is stagnating in cities
such as Houston, San Antonio, Midland,
and Odessa. So, the first reality manifested itself in January when the Texas Workforce Commission announced that the
Texas jobs machine had slowed down as
a result of the impact of lower oil prices.
Texas has now moved down to the fourth
position in job growth after California,
Ohio, and Michigan
In Texas, we had news of layoffs from
some of the largest employers in America such as Baker Hughes, Schlumberger,
Chevron, BP, and many other oil and gas
co-depending enterprises and operations.
As of today and through a new panoramic view, oil and gasoline prices seem to be
on the rebound comparatively with last
month’s activity showing a small recovery
reaching a high on Wednesday, April 30th
when the international Brent benchmark
showed a value of $66.80. However, based
on the data provided by the Energy Department of the United States, this figure
is still 30 percent below its demonstrated
high during the summer of 2014. It also
represents an outstanding 40 percent increase compared with the price of March,
2015.
A POSITIVE NOTE
The prognosis is good and points to an
opti