In 1901, Anthony Lucas struck black gold on Spindletop Hill in Beaumont. The massive gusher, which produced 100,000 barrels of oil that day, instantly made Texas the epicenter of American energy. Since then, oil’s allure has drawn hundreds of thousands of workers to the state, transforming Houston and West Texas’ Permian Basin into global energy hubs in the process.
Naturally, Austin, with its progressive support of green initiatives, is the last Texas town you’d associate with fossil fuels. Whether it’s new resident Elon Musk’s potential to transform the state with a giant battery connected to our energy grid or the city’s rapid transition from gas guzzlers to electric vehicles (EVs), Austin appears increasingly untethered from the state’s oil-rich days of yesteryear.
March saw the largest single month-over-month gain in a decade of Texas upstream oil and natural gas sector jobs, a report by the Texas Workforce Commission shows.
For the third consecutive month, the upstream sector of the Texas oil and natural gas industry has added jobs, the data reveals. The sector added 4,300 jobs in March – the largest single month-over-month gain since the summer of 2011. Five of the past six months have seen job gains in Texas’ upstream oil and natural gas sector.
The upstream sector is comprised of oil and natural gas extraction and support activities for mining. It excludes other industry sectors like refining, petrochemicals, fuels wholesaling, oilfield equipment manufacturing, pipelines, and gas utilities, which also support hundreds of thousands of Texas jobs.
TXOGA reports the Lone Star State added 4,300 jobs in March.
The Texas Oil and Gas Association (TXOGA) reported Tuesday that the state’s upstream sector added 4,300 jobs in March.
In addition to representing the third straight month of an upstream employment uptick in the state, the latest figure marks the largest single month-over-month gain since the summer of 2011, TXOGA revealed in a written statement emailed to Rigzone. The trade organization bases its findings on data from the Texas Workforce Commission.
“As our state continues to recover economically from the effects of the COVID-19 global pandemic, continued gains in the upstream sector of the Texas oil and natural gas industry are another sign that life is getting back to normal for many Texans,” remarked TXOGA President Todd Staples.
Natural gas production in Texas dropped by nearly half during the week of February’s historic winter freeze a significant factor in the widespread blackouts that contributed to dozens of deaths and billions of dollars in property damage but a new report paid for by the gas industry’s main trade group largely absolves it of any blame for the calamity.
The study instead pegs electricity generators as the main culprits, saying some of their plants failed first during the frigid weather and then triggered a wave of outages throughout the state s interconnected power grid.
“The initial catalyst (for the outages) was on the generation side, said Todd Staples, president of the Texas Oil & Gas Association. These were problems at the (generators) that cascaded across the grid.”
Natural gas issues during winter storm result of power outages
By FOX 7 Austin Digital Team
Published
Austin Energy: Around 32,000 customers without power due to weather
Kacey Bowen has the latest on power outages across the Austin area. Austin Energy is currently reporting around 32,000 customers without power.
AUSTIN, Texas - An analysis commissioned by the Texas Oil and Gas Association (TXOGA) reveals that power outages were the principal factor for natural gas production and transportation reductions or shutdowns during the February winter storm.
TXOGA says the analysis, prepared by Enverus, examined the performance of the upstream and midstream sectors of the Texas natural gas industry during the recent winter storm and factors contributing to performance issues. The report is based on data from ERCOT and the U.S. Energy Information Administration and surveys of upstream and midstream operators.