‘State of Oil’ examined at OC
May 8, 2024
Odessa American
by Bob Campbell
The Permian Basin’s energy industry is a very complex equation, but the region shows every sign of being well able to manage it.
That’s part of what speakers at Wednesday’s Texas Tribune forum on “West Texas: The State of Oil” in the Zant Community Room at the Saulsbury Campus Center at Odessa College where 40 people heard three experts on the subject.
Moderated by the Tribune’s Basin correspondent, Carlos Nogueras Ramos, the noon luncheon featured Permian Basin Petroleum Association Executive Vice President Stephen Robertson, Midland Hispanic Chamber of Commerce CEO Savannah Morales and John Wood Group Director of Decarbonization Katherine Zimmerman of Houston.
Robertson began by noting that the Basin last year produced 42 percent of America’s oil and 20 percent of its natural gas, meaning that if Texas were a nation it would be the fourth-largest oil nation in the world.
“Twenty years ago in this region, the joke was who will be the last to shut off the lights?” Robertson said, adding that the development of technology spawned the turnaround. “People thought we were at the end of our life.
“We’ve been producing oil and gas here for over 100 years and this is just a continuation of where we came from.”