Oil Boom Won't Bust: You're in it for the Long Haul, San Angelo

The West Texas Energy Consortium met in Big Spring on Tuesday to discuss the economic impacts of the oil and gas industry.

Dr. Tom Tunstall of the University of Texas San Antonio Institute of Economic Development Center for Community and Business Research was the keynote speaker, and presented the baseline impact study for the Cline Shale.

Other speakers from various aspects of the industry supplemented the information Tunstall presented, some of it bringing forth new perspectives many hadn’t considered yet.

“They’re not going to spend a lot of money exploring the Cline Shale yet because they don’t have to, they’re already making bank in the areas they are already in,” one person present stated.

The Wolf Camp Shale, the Spraeberry Shale, the Eagle Ford Shale, and the rest of the Permian Basin are still so lucrative that companies have no need to drill the more expensive wells that reach the deeper Cline Shale.

That doesn’t mean that Cline is out of the picture, just that it’s not the highest priority for many companies.

Companies have trade secrets and don’t always share how lucrative their wells are, or how exploratory wells are doing, so information doesn’t arrive in a timely fashion to gauge the growth.

Alyssa Yingst, Regional Outreach Coordinator explained that Tunstall mentioned that his baseline study was very conservative in its initial projections.

That is to be expected from a baseline, with phase two having a more detailed projection for the region.

One thing that might surprise many dreading the ‘oil boom’ is that the industry doesn’t think in terms of ‘boom’ and ‘bust’ anymore.

The consensus from the presenters is that this a much slower moving machine than what they’ve seen in the past. Industry leaders talk about it differently now than they used to.

The industry are trying to break the perception that the bottom is going to fall out and that technology has progressed to where they can figure out where oil is and how to get it.

The purpose of the presentations at the consortium was to get all 49 counties on the same page.

“[The] main goal is to be a forum for industry reps, individuals, land owners, businesses, organizations looking at impacts of economics, [and] health care facilities, where everyone is coming together to have a unified voice,” explained Yingst.

The unified voice holds more sway in Texas and national legislature and ensures that the rural communities are not left behind.

San Angelo has heard repeatedly that money is needed to fix roads and explore water projects, and as a group of smaller, rural communities, the weight behind the voice is higher than if each worked toward these goals independently. 

As time moves on, many sub-committees will meet and discuss the impact of the Cline Shale in their communities and have questions and information to offer when the next meeting is.

All this together will help communities prepare and deal with the continued industry and economic growth in the area.

For more information about the Cline Shale economic impacts, visit http://www.westtexasenergyconsortium.com/

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