Good news for the oil and gas industry, the latest Texas Petro Index shows the blood bath may finally be over.
Texas lost roughly 100,000 oil and gas-related jobs over the past two years, but petroleum economist Karr Ingham says it appears the industry has finally hit rock bottom and now is on the upswing.
“The Texas Petro Index, our measure of this thing, increased in December for the first time in 25 months, so that points us to a recovery in 2017,” says Ingham.
Some companies he says, are already hiring again.
“According to the best data we have right now, industry employment bottomed out in October 2016 and we added a few jobs back in November and December.”
Ingham credits the OPEC agreement for getting Texas oil companies back on track.
“Texas oil and gas producers are reaping the benefits of higher prices because of the OPEC decision to cut production,” he says. “That means they have effectively sceded market share to the United States and North America, and to Texas.”