Posted on 02/20/2014 2:17:58 PM PST by thackney
The US oil and gas drilling boom is creating jobs far faster than the general economy and generating enough wealth to prevent a lapse back into recession, according to a report published this month by the conservative Manhattan Institute.
Here are key findings of the report, by Senior Fellow Mark P. Mills, who also is founder and chief executive officer of the capital advisory firm Digital Power Group, from the institutes web site:
Overall US employment has yet to return to its prerecession level, but the number of oil and gas jobs has grown 40% since then.
In the 10 states at the epicenter of oil and gas growth, overall statewide employment gains have greatly outpaced the national average.
A broad array of small and midsize oil and gas companies are propelling record economic and jobs gainsnot just in the oil fields but across the economy.
Americas hydrocarbon revolution and its associated job creation are almost entirely the result of drilling and production by more than 20,000 small and midsize businesses, not a handful of big oil companies. In fact, the typical firm in the oil and gas industry employs fewer than 15 people.
The shale oil and gas revolution has been the nations biggest single creator of solid, middle-class jobsthroughout the economy, from construction to services to information technology.
Overall, nearly 1 million Americans work directly in the oil and gas industry, and a total of 10 million jobs are associated with that industry.
Oil and gas jobs are widely geographically dispersed and have already had a significant impact in more than a dozen states: 16 states have more than 150,000 jobs directly in the oil and gas sector, and hundreds of thousands more jobs due to growth in that sector.
In recent years, Americas oil and gas boom has added $300400 billion/year to the economy; without this contribution, GDP growth would have been negative, and the nation would have continued to be in recession.
The resources, technology, infrastructure, and thousands of small and midsize businesses are capable of producing even more growth and many more jobs, so long as policymakers do not obstruct progress in the oil and gas sector.
The oil boom in western North Dakota’s Bakken basin has been felt all the way into central Minnesota. St. Cloud area businesses are involved in building roads, selling appliances to all the new apartment buildings, manufacturing tankers for shipping oil across country, mining for silicon sand, and on and on.
Only Obama and his henchmen would look at these jobs and belittle them.
Time to sick the EPA on them. We can’t have any of that. No, no, no.
In recent years, Americas oil and gas boom has added $300400 billion/year to the economy; without this contribution, GDP growth would have been negative, and the nation would have continued to be in recession.
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Yeah this is the number that I’ve been seeing lately. Unlike the IEA which thinks production will peak at a bit under 10 million barrels @ day —I think that production will peak at over 13 million barrels @ day—or more—sometime in 2019 or 2020 —mainly because of the size of the Permian basin deposits and because they havn’t really really got to the production phase there in horizontal drilling & fracking using 30 wells to pad plus all the bells and whistles the drillers are using in eagle ford and the baaken. That may not even start until mid 2015. But when it does—judging by the effects of the new production procedures in Eagle Ford and the Baaken—and the size of the deposit in the Permian basin — the effect should be just awesome.
Plus, there’s other formations. I’ve heard talk that sometime in the next year we’ll hear an announcement about a new big strike in northern arizona. I personally think that there is a lot of shale oil maybe —4 billion barrels— in Nevada...that alas is under government land. Its not accessible under the current administration. But might be if a pubbie gets in after the 2016 elections.
In any case, these are the reasons that I believe the estimates that I’ve seen that expect the oil/gas boom from 300-400 billion today— will be adding an extra trillion dollars annually to the economy in 4-5 years.
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