April 18 Speaker - Bob Goldsmith
On April 18,Fellow NxNE Austin Rotarian Bob Goldsmith spoke to us about the Oil and Gas Industry in 2016. Bob is a Texas board certified specialist in oil, gas and mineral law and has been practicing law in that area for almost 40 years. Bob provided the background of oil and gas drilling in TX and the US. Production peaked in 1970s and imports started going up at that time. However, there were problems with the countries selling oil - many of the leaders were bad actors, which led to such things as the Arab oil embargo in the 1970s. Prices dropped to $10/barrel in late 90s when the Saudis flooded the market with oil. Around 2005, a revolution occurred in U.S. with horizontal drilling and fracing. This led to increased production in the US and the opportunity to become less dependent on foreign oil. However, in the last couple of years there has been as small amount of overproduction leading to a dramatic drop in the price of oil. Usually, the Saudis would adjust production to stabilize the price but now they won't take care of the small amount of over-production by themselves. The lower oil & gas prices are causing economic distress in industry and oil producing countries. Hopefully, the price of oil will increase and stabilize in the coming months.