The International Energy Agency estimates that by April, 3 million barrels per day of Russian oil production could be off the global market “as sanctions take hold and buyers shun exports.”īut nearly all European countries that rely heavily on Russian oil haven’t followed the U.S. A handful of other countries like Britain and Canada, plus some major energy companies like ExxonMobil and Shell, have also stopped buying Russian oil. boycott of Russian oil on March 8, but only about 7% of U.S. The Biden administration announced a U.S. Motorists drive along Interstate 20 past a gas station in Odessa. “It’s not stable, especially now with everything going on in the world.” “I don’t want to go back into that up and down swing,” Cano said last week outside the auto shop. But even with oil-related businesses desperate for workers and the price of oil topping $100 a barrel following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, Cano said the appeal of more money isn’t strong enough this time. Like many people living in the Permian Basin, he’s been lured into oil field jobs during previous booms. The 57-year-old has worked many jobs over the years - driving trucks, laying asphalt and now fixing vehicles at a Midland auto shop. Juan Cano left the industry in 2019 and isn’t returning. “All those people that were working in the field, a lot of them just said, enough’s enough. “We quit drilling for a year, a lot of people slowed down,” Oestmann said. Oestmann said when the demand for oil and gas plummeted at the start of the pandemic, many oil field workers got out of the industry for good. Last: Motorists drive past a sign hiring workers in Midland. “I don’t know where these people went to work, Amazon?”įirst: A roofing crew begins to shingle a home under construction in a new Midland housing development as a pumpjack operates nearby. “Every one of our clients are trying to hire 20 to 40 people - field hands, labor for rigging pipe,” Volke said. John Volke, CEO of Crew Support Services - a company that houses oil field workers in temporary quarters known as “man camps” - says his company has filled every one of its 1,500 beds in the Permian. “And I talked to a guy yesterday - a bigger company than us - trying to ramp up his operation to six rigs, and he goes, ‘I don’t know if I can get all the things I need to do that,’” Oestmann said. Oestmann said his company has no plans to add more drilling rigs, but even if it did, he said it probably wouldn’t be able to find the supplies to do so. The price of steel has increased so much that supply shortages make it hard to get pipe for drilling wells, he added. He said frac sand - a key ingredient in the hydraulic fracturing process - has been particularly hard to find due in part to labor shortages, even though much of the supply comes from Texas. He said the scarcity of supplies, equipment and people “is unlike anything I’ve ever seen.” “It’s hard to get pipe, sand, crews for drilling rigs, truck drivers,” said Mike Oestmann, CEO of Tall City Exploration, a company that drills oil wells in West Texas and has two active rigs that drill 32 wells per year combined. On top of that, they say Wall Street investors have become more hesitant about pouring money into fossil fuels, and the Biden administration’s policies are hampering the oil and gas industry. production - people in the industry, energy analysts and local leaders say there’s no quick or easy way to make that happen.Ĭranking up production requires more workers, materials and money, and people in the industry say they’re facing the same labor shortages and supply chain issues that have plagued countless businesses throughout the COVID-19 pandemic. Lauren Boebert, R-Colo., wears a shawl with “Drill Baby Drill” printed on it before President Joe Biden’s State of the Union address on March 1, 2022.īut in Texas’ Permian Basin - the nation’s most productive oil region and the place that would have to lead any jump in U.S.
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