Permian Doldrums? -- November 30, 2019

Hey, how about Auburn? Killed #5 Alabama's hope of any bowl games. Go Auburn! 

By the way, Texas high school football: regional playoffs. As good as anything the NFL has to offer. LOL.

Don't believe the hype: Texas wildcatters "scoff" at growth predictions. From Bloomberg.

Texas wildcatters, after years eye-rolling at shale skeptics, are now saying global analysts are underestimating just how severe the industry’s slowdown is.

What’s ticking folks off these days is how the International Energy Agency in Paris and the Energy Information Administration in Washington still predict robust U.S.production growth next year, despite the dire reality on the ground. The IEA expects an increase of 900,000 barrels a day, while the EIA forecasts 1 million, which would mean practically replicating this year’s expansion.

Those projections don’t jibe with the vibe in Texas, home to about half of U.S. crude output. Capital-hungry producers are being starved of funding, stocks have plunged and there’s been zero appetite for public offerings, making the downturn potentially more enduring than previous price-related busts.

“All I know is, after 47 years, they’re usually wrong.” Frank Lodzinski, an industry veteran of almost five decades who’s chief executive officer at shale explorer Earthstone Energy Inc., said of the forecasts. “I can’t remember another time when oil was $55 and the industry was in such shambles.”

A drag: the Permian Basin is dragging down jobs in Texas -- Dallas Fed.

The world’s biggest shale patch is now officially a drag on jobs creation in the Lone Star state.

Employment in the Permian Basin of West Texas has fallen by 400 jobs through the first 10 months of the year, a massive change from the 16,700 jobs added through the same period last year, according to a report Wednesday from the Federal Reserve Bank of Dallas.

“Permian Basin job growth has been sluggish this year,” according to the report. “This marks the first time since 2016 that Permian Basin employment has lagged Texas job growth.”

Two comments:

• Hey! That's the nature of oil booms, cycles; and,
• I still agree with Lynn Helms: the Bakken is still the best play in North America. But then, at least one of us is very biased. LOL.