And considering the reason, or part of the reason, oil prices collapsed was that Ronald Reagan and the King of Saudi Arabia colluded to drive down the price to bankrupt the the Soviet Union which depended on oil sales for hard currency you could make an argument that Texas, Oklahoma and Louisianan may have deserved some help.
BTW I’m glad Reagan did what he did.
That is quite a theory. Having been in the industry for over 40 years, and specifically involved in the drilling boom of the late 70’s and early 80’s, and the busts that followed, i propose to you a better reason: all of the exploration that was done when prices expanded from $3.50 per bbl to $39 per bbl and 25 cents per thousand c.f. of gas to $10 per mcf saw the national rig rate go from 350 rigs running to over 4000 rigs running. This produced a vast oversupply of product. At the time, we in the industry thumbed our noses at the Saudis and informed them we could supply our own oil and gas, thank you very much. They responded by opening flooding the market with cheap oil and drove the price down to less than S10 per bbl, which killed our exploration and regained their market share. That is actually what happened. Early on George H.W. Bush’s term, he came to West Texas and told us (and I quote) “sorry fellas, I wish I could help you.” I was there, and this is what I heard. We did such a good job that the Saudis had to punish us. The Saudis are not as Machivellian as you think - they are businessmen when it comes to oil. We were two gas corner gas stations competing for market share, and they dropped their prices to drive us out of the exploration business.
I was in Texas and Oklahom when it happened. It was bad but we made it.
It was really bad but we made it.
What doesn’t kill you makes you tougher.
Time for some others to get tough.