North of Houston is Tomball, Texas. Baker-Hughes has a big presence there. There is land next to their campus that was to be developed into some kind of high tech business park to the tune of $50 million. It’s now on hold.
I wonder what Exxon’s plans are now. They built a huge complex just north of Houston. It’s so large it got its own freeway entrance and off ramp.
I’m amazed Houston has held up this long. It is like a snake with its head cut off and is still wiggling with the head watching. Surely the crap will hit the fan soon.
I drove clay and eldridge today. The plants are shuttering. They so over built for shale. So many new buildings that will soon be facing nearly empty parking lots down to maintenance workers and partial shifts. Two guys said goodbye today.
For the first time in 40 years the oilfield is collapsing and the rest of the economy is following it. Mid stream and the petrochemical downstream seem to still be doing OK. That is the East Side. North and West are going to become like a ghost town. Exxon will go on but there will be lots of empty offices. GE has three buildings on the West loop. I saw a lot of empty there today.
The EIA 2014 basis gasoline price is the lowest it has ever been since 1974. Inflation adjusted it is actually lower. This pit, compared to the lean winter years of ‘86 to 2000 look mild. That was 14 long years of living on shoe leather and creating solutions against the financial odds that finally capped with a hammering in ‘98 when OPEC / Saudi decided to euthanize the industry for a rebirth that got hammered again in 2001.