Oil Closed Today in Negative Numbers

[Randy Wells]

Originally Posted by 63corvette

The oil patch in my part of the country is really hurting now.
Mostly small independent producers in the Texas Panhandle.
There will be many producers who will not survive this setback.
I grew up in the oil patch and have worked in the energy industry all my life until retirement and have never seen anything like this.
I remember oil at less than $10 a barrel for many years and I have purchased gas for my car for less than 10 cents per gallon for premium when in college in the 1960's. I was working at the Conoco refinery in Ponca City OK and I could get all the oil and grease products from the loading dock for free. I could just drive up and they would load what I wanted. I had a good stockpile of engine oil back then.
The oil industry has always been on a boom and bust cycle of 10 to 15 years it always would happen but nothing like this.
This is uncharted territory for a major industry and I worry more about a depression today more than ever.
Worry about going racing now is not a priority for many in the part of the country I live in today.
Rick Cates
Canyon, TX

Rick,

Like you the oil patch has been my life for 45 years, started in 1974 on the Trans Alaska Pipeline 18 years old. I have survived the ups and downs but not sure about this one, just returned to work in North Dakota, was in a meeting today and my project is still being funded, that was 9:00 am this morning now I am not sure. I work for an oil company out of Norway, they do have deep pockets but with no storage capacity your going to see a lot of wells shut in, the problem with that is when they our shut in to long they wax up because of the Parraffin. So when and if demand ever comes back these wells our done unless you bring in work over rigs and spend a lot of money to bring these wells back on line, oil will be back to $100 a barrel. Myself I was going to retire last year, it is looking like a good time now, just feel for all the workers that will loose good paying jobs, not good for the comeback.