Houston region added 2,000 upstream jobs in June
Oil and gas production jobs in Houston rebounded last month after slipping in May for the first time in four months.
Some 2,000 exploration and production jobs were added in June in the Houston area, according to an analysis of Labor Department data by the Texas Independent Producers and Royalty Owners Association, a trade group. The region has 10,000 more of the so-called upstream jobs than this time last year, TIPRO said in its analysis.
In May the upstream sector shed about 1,600 Houston jobs, but the loss was expected to be a one month aberration and could be revised, TIPRO's President Ed Longanecker said.
“As expected, the dip in May upstream employment appeared to be an anomaly,” he said, “and June numbers reflect continued demand for talent and increasing exploration and production activities in the Texas oil and natural gas industry.”
Longanecker said he expects that global oil and gas demand will continue to outpace supply this year, and that paired with Russia’s ongoing war against Ukraine will continue to keep prices high.
The price of oil shot up to over $100 per barrel shortly following Moscow’s February invasion of Ukraine, and has been trading around or above the triple digit mark until recently. Now fears of recession fueled by worsening inflation has sent oil prices back into the $90s for the U.S. benchmark, West Texas Intermediate.
The TIPRO analysis shows that overall, Texas added 6,100 jobs in June, subject to revision, for a total of nearly 195,000 upstream oil and gas jobs.
The growing employment among producers follows the release of data this month showing that in June, oil field services companies operating in Texas added 2,142 jobs for a total of 308,553, according to analysis of preliminary federal data from the industry trade group Energy Workforce and Technology Council. The OFS sector is led by Schlumberger, Halliburton and Baker Hughes, each with headquarters in Houston.