At some point, there will be an oil glut again, with subsequent regional real estate depressions, etc. If you live long enough, you can actually see the cycle happen a few times.
Just file away this article away for when Texas politicians and special interests, etc., start cry-babying and lobbying again for federal government intervention to bail out their stagnant local economies after they overreach - just like they did in the 1980s after the price-gouging during the 70s.
But doncha think them rusty rigs up and runnin again, pumping good ole Texas crude out of the ground, won't look perty?
Bet there'll be plenty of once too expensive extraction methods suddenly able to turn a profit . . . While the steep prices are hurting motorists at the pumps, it's a boon for oil producers in West Texas. "If I can fix it, then I can start making him another 50 to 100 barrels a day, then he'll be happy!" Bell said. Bell has spent $200,000 on his wells in the last three weeks. The true sign of a booming oil industry is how many drilling rigs are running. In West Texas, more than 60 rigs have started spinning into the earth in the last 18 months. Don Sparks is drilling two wells a month, spending more than $1 million. But it's getting tougher to get the equipment he needs. He had to buy steel casings from a vendor in Eastern Europe. [. . .] There's an old saying in the West Texas oil patch, that life in the oil business means you're either eating chicken or feathers.
The gambling spirit is thriving again in the West Texas oil fields. In the Midland/Odessa area, oil field consultant John Bell is trying to bring two oil wells back to life for his boss.
These wells haven't pumped oil in more than five years. But high oil prices have inspired oil producers to upgrade equipment and get old pumps running again.
"With low prices I wouldn't be on this project. We wouldn't be out here. We wouldn't be talking about this," he said.