Posted on 09/03/2025 11:22:31 AM PDT by Miami Rebel
“Companies often lay off workers after making big purchases.”
So they wrote a story about nothing?
They usually hire back many "friends and family" when the dust settles. It's just the way things are.
With secure, high wage jobs...It isn't about WHAT you know
in the petrochemical industry, it's about WHO you know.
Leave it to the Marxists at the NY Times. There are, no doubt, plenty of Times articles escoriating the evil, rich oil companies and their high, price gouging energy prices.
"Mediocre Oil Prices"
Most of us would call that the free market at work. We can also celebrate, except for places like the People's Republic of Kalifornia, the less expensive energy prices.
I share with you this search result: Nov 22, 2022 — On President Biden's first day in office, he shut down the Keystone XL pipeline and eliminated 11,000 good paying American jobs with the ...
I’ve been there and I’m glad I’m out! Glad? No, Overwhelmed with joy!
I spent 40 years in the oil field. 20 or more of those were layoff years. I worked every day I wanted to and a lot I didn’t want to because there was nobody else all the years and was often the last man standing but it was very hard. I went for nearly a decade without vacation and few days off. I also went for years at a time with paltry or no raises.
If you want to be in the oil business go into refining. Base hits almost every day for decades. Slow, sure, dull but it will get you to the end. Drive the delta or any of the refinery areas along the Gulf Coast. Lots of very nice houses with nice boats and cars. Refinery or chemical plant workers for the most part.
Can you imagine the gnashing of teeth at NYT if these were run-of-the-mill agency deep state bureaucrats?
Yes
The New York Times not much on real stories or news.
The woke DEI mandatory classes have been canceled world wide. Your services as pronouns principal in the refinery are no longer needed. Bye Bye
But, unfortunately, while oil may be at ~$64 a barrel, gas is still $2.50 or so a gallon.
Want to explore why these job losses go on?
Go to an AI and ask:
Is the Permian peaking?
Related (ahem):
Landman season 2 premieres 11/16.
$3.00 a gallon was threshold for me. I didn’t like it when prices went over that during the Biden years. I was happy when prices fellow below $3.00 a gallon this year.
This is “drill baby drill” (really “merge baby merge”) and “bribe the Saudis to flood the market,” in action. You actively suppress commodity prices long enough and the folks who will pay the price are the rank-and-file engineers, geologists and operations guys trying to feed a family and build a retirement - usually the older ones.
It has always been a boom and bust business, but if you want a healthy domestic energy industry, product prices have to justify keeping people employed. The price pendulum will swing back, as it always does, and there won’t be enough people left who have the knowledge and experience to find the new reserves needed.
Trump doesn’t seem to understand that a viable domestic energy industry requires a fair market price for oil and (natural) gas.
Montana's oil industry is experiencing a resurgence, particularly in the eastern part of the state, driven by activity in the Bakken Formation. Although the Bakken is often associated with North Dakota, it was first discovered in Montana, and recent developments show a shift in drilling focus back to the state.
The Bakken Formation, part of the larger Williston Basin, extends into northeastern Montana, where the Elm Coulee field, which began production in 2001, was initially the most prolific in the basin.
While production declined from its 2006 peak of nearly 100,000 barrels per day as activity moved to North Dakota, Montana's annual crude oil production has increased for three consecutive years, reaching 74,000 barrels per day in 2024, the highest level since 2015.
This resurgence is fueled by new data indicating that the Upper Bakken layer in Montana, previously thought to be less productive, is yielding wells with a better oil-to-gas ratio and slower decline rates, making it economically viable.
This has led to a rise in drilling activity, with Montana's rig count increasing significantly and the state issuing a record number of oil drilling permits in recent years.
The boom has transformed towns like Sidney, Miles City, and Glendive, bringing rapid population growth, infrastructure strain, and economic development, though also challenges like rising rents and traffic.
The economic impact is substantial. In 2021, the natural gas and oil industry supported nearly 57,000 jobs and contributed over $7 billion to Montana's economy.
Oil tax revenue has surged, increasing from $13 million in 1995 to $92.7 million in 2024, with additional income from corporate and individual taxes, as well as royalties from state and federal lands.
However, the boom's sustainability is tied to oil prices, and the state's pipeline capacity is already at or near its limit, forcing some operators to temporarily close wells due to a lack of transportation options.
Okay, very good.
But you have to understand the numbers.
74,000 barrels/day is pretty much nothing. It generates a “boom” but the boom is measured in dollars to pay truck drivers and drillers. And it gets taxed, yes. That’s revenue. Good.
But 74,000 bpd is pretty much nothing. The Permian in Texas and New Mexico is doing 6.5 million bpd. There are very few, if any, people who think the Permian will grow production next year. And if it’s down just 5%, that’s 325,000 bpd. It erases any new flow from Montana entirely.
It is the nature of oil discussions that people go looking for new fields being announced to generate new barrels/day. But people have to learn to go looking for fields that are decreasing. Not just the ones increasing.
Here’s a quick list of dying locales:
Alaska is losing about 2.8% per year of production since 2020 (somewhat shocking because that means no bounce since Covid disappeared)
California down 7% per year since 2020, and no, not politics. It has been dying for decades, including the years of GOP rule. (this is 130,000 bpd decline, 2X Montana’s add)
Louisiana -30% 2020 to now. -6%/yr. Onshore.
Anyway, good going to find the Montana add, but it tells you nothing without the broader look.
I fully understand that, however, it was you pointed to the the drying of the Permian basin hitting peak as the cause. Now you are arguing that it’s the price. I’ll agree with that argument, to a degree, because there are other factors at play also.
Usually duplicate administration personnel.
That’s not bad.
I don’t think I said price at all in that reply.
You might have seen it from someone else.
BTW, there is a tendency to interpret “peak” as zero. It’s the opposite. But it does point at zero either soon or not.
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