Water access bill moves forward
April 11, 2018
Lafourche Booking Log – April 12, 2018
April 12, 2018
The oil and gas industry reached a new peak today on the market.
The price of oil closed at $66.74/barrel on Wednesday – up more than $3/barrel from the $63/barrel price tag it carried at the start of the week.
The $66.74 price is significant. It’s the highest price that oil has carried since the start of 2015 – the beginning of the economic downturn locally, which has lasted for 40-plus months.
The current price is also double than the $29/barrel low point which the industry experienced in 2016.
Local economists say that the upswing is further proof that the worst of the economic downturn is over – a sign that industry may soon be getting back to normal in the Houma-Thibodaux area.
Since 2015, global oil supply has dropped, thanks to a deal reached by OPEC, which attempts to limit global supply.
Port Fourchon Executive Director Chett Chiasson has said multiple times on record in the past several years that the dip has been troubling, but that long-term forecasts are for a comeback.
“When there’s a downswing, it makes people uneasy, but there’s always a comeback and we’re waiting on it,” Chiasson said.
Several economists agree and released annual outlooks at the beginning of 2018, which had rosy outlooks for oil for the next 12 months, 24 months and beyond.
Those projections are far more optimistic than outlooks in 2015 and 2016, which questioned whether the economic downswing locally would end in the immediate future.
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