Author: Mike Cline, T/X Resources
This posting is an update of the ”Active Domestic Drilling Rigs and Seismic Crew Count” statistics which I created, and originally posted on the HGS GeoJob Bank ”GeoJob & Energy Statistics” page. However, the HGS page has not been updated since I “retired” as Chair of the Personnel Placement Committee, so I have decided that I would continue updating, and posting the graph here.
See the larger Adobe Reader pdf file.
Author: Mike Cline, T/X Resources
For anyone who experienced the fluctuations in the oil business during the last 30 years or so, the descriptive “roller coaster ride” in the title only partly explains our adventures.
At the time of the hiring peak of the oil industry—December 1981—there were nearly 1.18 million people employed in the mining industry (a Bureau of Labor Statistics category which includes the oil industry), as seen on the blue employee graph in the image below (generated with Golden Software’s Grapher program).
Oil prices had just peaked at $34.59 per barrel (average monthly price) nine months earlier, but it was still selling at nearly $31 per barrel that December. During the same time period however, March to December 1981, industry unemployment had crept up to 7.5 percent, from just 4.4 percent (black graph in the image below)—an increasing trend that went unappreciated by most of us at the time.
See the larger Adobe Reader pdf file.
Author: Mike Cline, T/X Resources
Anyone who has visited the Houston Geological Society’s (HGS) GeoJob Bank, or more specifically the GeoJob & Energy Statistics page, is bound to recognize this graph. During my nearly six-year tenure (2000-2005) as Chair of the Personnel Placement Committee, I created and updated the industry-related graphs on the Statistics page (amoung my many other duties). However, since I “retired” from the Committee in late 2005, the graphs haven’t been updated, so I thought that this would be a good venue to revive some of the graphs, and keep them current with updated information.
This first graph, in a series to come, is the oil and natural gas price curves for 35-years—from January 1973, through the last available data in December 2007. It was created from downloadable data from the U.S. Department of Energy’s (DOE) Energy Information Agency, and the Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis, saved to a spreadsheet, and then graphed with Golden Software’s Grapher program.
See the larger Adobe Reader pdf file.
Author: Mike Cline, T/X Resources
Well, as Yogi Berra once said, “It’s deja vu all over again”. Here I am doing it again—it is nearly 4:30 in the morning (when I started this), and I’m back at the computer once more, after finishing up last night at 10:30.
The reason that I’m back at it so early this morning is partly due to waking up with wrist problems (aka. carpal tunnel syndrome / repetitive stress injury), brought on (again) by too much computer work, and thinking about what I still need to do to get ready for a client meeting later this morning.