Oil plunges below $50 — What's ahead for Texas?

[Gman]

Call it a hangover from $150 oil.

After six years of growth, Texas' mighty oil and gas industry is bracing for what could be a sharp downturn in activity as falling commodity prices and the broader economic meltdown prod energy companies to cut back.

A stark reminder came Thursday, when crude fell below $50 a barrel for the first time since May 2005. Its closing price of $49.62 was down almost $100 from the record close of $145.29 on July 3. And weak global energy demands threaten to keep prices low.

The first signs of a pullback are just now showing, but the picture is expected to worsen in coming months as companies curtail spending on drilling programs, lay off workers and send less tax money to state coffers.

http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/chronicle/6124447.html

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Let's see... how did it go? Drill here, drill now, pay less??

[gratuitous]

1. How did Cheney's thing go?

Conservation was a personal virtue, but there was no way it could affect the prices on the market? 300 million Americans start planning trips, taking mass transit, cutting back on driving, and the price of a barrel of oil drops by nearly two-thirds.

Right as usual, GOP.

[davidinalameda]

2. let's sell it to Mexico

:shrug:

[SharonAnn]

3. This will hurt Alaska, too. I think it has to be at least $60 a barrel for Alaska's budget to be

in balance.

Less than that and Alaska has to look at cutting the state budget.

[eleny]

4. Don't know about Texas, but....

They might have a hard time filling rooms at the new Atlantis Hotel in Dubai

[charlie]

5. Property prices

on that wonderopolis palm island of theirs have fallen by as much as 40% since September.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/newsbysector/constructionandproperty/3489393/Dubais-Palm-Jumeirah-sees-prices-fall-as-crunch-moves-in.html

[eleny]

6. "...buyers are struggling to get mortgage loans in the region..."

Scheudenfreude washes over me.

[whistler162]

7. At the end of January the village idiot returns....

[global1]

8. From Peak Oil To Peaked (pronounced 'P Ked') Oil .......nt

[girl gone mad]

9. Texas is not as dependent on oil revenues as it once was.

Though it will be interesting to see what happens with the Barnett Shale. They've been drilling for natural gas in people's front yards and taking property through eminent domain, destroying neighborhoods in a frenzy to cash in on the rising prices. Just as in our 80s oil boom, a lot of development was planned and built on the promise of money flowing in from these deals.

[Hubert Flottz]

10. "What's ahead for Texas?"

They are about to get back a 6 foot tall mega-turd on or about, January 20th...

[dysfunctional press]

11. who cares?

i don't give a rat's ass about texas- how much did they help us during the first oil embargo? i seem to recall them selling american oil to americans at hyper-inflated world market prices.