While much of the United States—including Texas—is taking steps to reopen the economy, oil and gas jobs are still on a downward spiral, with oil and gas jobs in Texas this week seeing another 1,000 oil and gas jobs vanish, the Houston Chronicle reported on Thursday, amid the effects of the coronavirus that has stripped demand out of the market.
ProPetro Services—a Midland-based oilfield services company, laid off nearly 400 people, the Houston Chronicle said, citing a company filing with the Texas Workforce Commission.
Tenaris, an oilfield pipe manufacturer just south of Houston, cut 200 employees this week.
The oil and gas industry in Texas had already shed over 30,000 jobs as of a few weeks ago, according to BW Research.
CEO of Texas economic research firm Perryman Group estimated that Texas could end up shedding nearly 100,000 oil and gas jobs. But the true toll could be much higher, when you factor in all the retail and hospitality businesses that will be affected by the contraction of the oil industry. All told, Perryman forecast that Texas could see 1 million jobs lost.
Overall, the U.S. oil and gas industry lost 51,000 drilling and refining jobs in March alone.
While the situation for oil country still looks dire, the price of WTI perked up on Thursday afternoon, rising nearly 10% to $27.74 per barrel as IEA suggested that the outlook for Fall 2020 oil demand wasn’t as grim as it was before as lockdowns begin to ease. The IEA now sees bloated crude inventories falling 5.5 million bpd during the second half of the year.
By Julianne Geiger for Oilprice.com
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Julianne Geiger
Julianne Geiger is a veteran editor, writer and researcher for Oilprice.com, and a member of the Creative Professionals Networking Group.
Published at Thu, 14 May 2020 22:30:00 +0000-Another 1,000 Texas Oil & Gas Jobs Vanish
