Oil & Gas Publishers Note: $40 a barrel for one week does not count as a come back. It takes months of higher prices, and then you just cannot easily turn production. Crews re-hired, equipment pulled from storage, and shut-in wells may not come back on line with the same production. Clifford does have some great points in the article.
Businesses were reopening in recent weeks and oil prices had climbed north of $40 a barrel before coronavirus infections accelerated in the state.
HOUSTON — Things were looking up for Texas in recent weeks. Oil prices had managed an impressive rebound, more than doubling to just above $40 a barrel. Restaurants and small businesses were opening up in Houston, Dallas and elsewhere. And tens of thousands of people were getting back to work.
But a recent surge in coronavirus cases in the state is messing up that neat recovery story. Small businesses that had just reopened are closing again and oil prices have slid below $40 a barrel after weeks of gains. Energy executives say they remain optimistic, but some analysts are worried about the Texas economy, which would be the world’s 10th biggest if the state were a country.
Since businesses began reopening in early May, after a four-week statewide stay-at-home order by Gov. Greg Abbott that was only loosely enforced in some areas, optimism spread that the coronavirus pandemic was under control. People returned to their dentist offices, gyms and hair salons, and bars began doing brisk business, especially in the oil production hub of West Texas.
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Many residents of the state, which last backed a Democratic presidential candidate in 1976, considered mask wearing a form of opposition to President Trump. And many business owners were reluctant to force their customers to cover their faces or stay apart.
But starting just after Memorial Day, Texas began to report a rise in coronavirus cases, a trend that has accelerated over the last 10 days. The state has recorded 130,000 cases, and nearly 3,000 deaths. Hospitalizations are on the rise.
Fears of the disease spread as grocery stores and restaurants reported that employees were getting sick, and Apple this week closed seven stores in Houston again. Other large retail chains like J.C. Penney, Ikea and Nordstrom said on Thursday that they were monitoring the situation but were keeping their Texas stores open.
Restaurant reservations on OpenTable have been dropping in recent days. Data from another online platform, the Home Base scheduling app, showed total hours worked by employees at small businesses were rising until Monday, but then stalled as the week progressed, according to analysts at the Federal Reserve Bank of Dallas.
