For most of my working career I have been in the oil field industry. So I know a little bit about South Texas oil history.
One of the best times for the state and oil companies was 1980 and 1981. The price of oil was $40 a barrel and everyone was working and making good money. We had a very large and strong middle class. At nighttime you could see the skyline polka-dotted with drilling rig lights every few miles in all directions. The drilling rig count was 4,521 at its peak.
Then in December 1981 the price of oil started to go down and it kept going down until September 1986. We went from a boom cycle to a bust cycle within six years.
But this oversupply of oil helped create other mini booms and demands and large increases for: divorce and bankruptcy lawyers, equipment auctioneers, food stamp assistance, state unemployment checks, lawsuits, crime, family violence, auto repossession, home foreclosures and lots of angry/depressed/confused people.
Thanks to technology changes and fracking, a second boom started in 2009 and ended in 2014. It was followed by a bust from 2015 until 2020, when the price went below $70 a barrel all the way down to a -$37 a barrel in 2020.
Today the price of oil is above $70 a barrel thanks mostly to President Biden’s economic policies, which are designed to help oil companies survive and find increase investments for green energy simultaneously.
Tomas Cantu
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