[Chron] Oil-field services companies cut another 8,600 jobs in June

It looks bleak now, but it will rebound. I’m in this industry and have been for many years. Granted I’m not in the upstream side in particular, but it all plays a part in midstream and downstream.

Upstream (Welheads, etc,) is a big roller coaster with midstream (pipes) and downstream (refining/petrochemical) following suit, and always has been. The players in the upstream market know this and the smart ones plan for it the second the market turns starts the climb up again. The biggest problem in upstream is the fly by night ones, and there’s a lot of them.

Additionally, It’s an election year and then throw in Covid. It just adds to the turmoil. The industry is getting smarter though which will eventually lead to less jobs.

 

It's not coming back. It will never be the same. its more about fracking. Fracking has changed the supply dynamic. They have unlimited supply in old wells. More than they ever thought. Peak oil theory is a thing of the past

 

The virus is only expediting the inevitable. The fact that producers are naming their bottom line price is the main takeaway.

Read the article this is a six year trend at this point.

 

Unfortunately, this is a cycle we are bound to repeat at least one more time due to frackings low cost of extraction.

 

Hopefully it rebounds. I work in the oil and gas industry doing IT support and we've seen layoffs recently. Smaller company , but still concerning always.

 

Time to start pricing the risk into staff salaries: choose between layoffs or lower wages in line with identical job functions for other commodities in less demand. You'll probably need to automate the heck out of administrative data gathering functions as well. This is Detroit before the rest of the world or country figures out how to bend sheet metal and glue a plate of glass on top of it.

 

Feel another cycle like the 2000s will happen in a few years. Global capital spending way way way down since 2014/2015 bust and major producers like Mexico, Venezuela, and Iran way down along with minor producers in unstable developing countries (Libya, Algeria, Sudan, etc).

 

Agreed, hence the lower spending in Houston and globally.

Agreed, too many of the independents were also horribly run. The supermajors bet too much on offshore pre shale boom and were late to the party, but I bet there's still a lot of consolidation. Domestic wells are capped and can be quickly "turned on" unlike many politically unstable producing regions. Also, seems like interest rates are going to be lower for the foreseeable future.

Trump couldn't use our energy exports to his advantage when there was an opportunity, which was surprising to me considering he started off with Tillerson. Hopefully Biden pushes a balanced approach and doesn't take punitive measures against natural gas. The irony of having an energy renaissance and starting a global trade war....

 

That last sentence scares me as a Houstonian. We are going to have to figure that out.

 

Can a Renewables Boom Put Texans Back to Work?

https://www.texasmonthly.com/energy/renewable-energy-boom-texas-work/

Other interesting articles in their "Where do we go from here?" issue: https://www.texasmonthly.com/the-pandemic-has-changed-everything/

 

Natural gas is the wild card, oil is more obvious about its decline in demand over the next few decades.

 

My wife lost her job in June for a large oilfield service company in Houston (geoscience). She was just hired in November as they were expecting a huge year in 2020. She is very torn on whether to wait for the market to rebound or to change her career altogether while she is still young. She graduated in 2015 from UH with a geoscience/geophysicist degree and the market has been junk for her entire career so far. Quite frustrating.

 

How has the rental market and housing market been doing in Energy Corridor and general Houston area? Has it taken a hit over the past few years due to O&G downturn? Last time I was in town, I noticed a bunch of brand new apartment complexes on that west side.

 

Well i learned i was a casualty today

 

That sucks. Sorry.

 

Sorry man =(

 

sorry to hear. this economy in general has been brutal to many of us. hope you can bounce back stronger