Midland's Latest Oil Boom Strains Housing, Schools
MIDLAND — In the desolate outskirts of this thriving West Texas oil town, two men recently showed off a new, 400-square-foot wood cabin they hope to rent out for $1,500 a month. A planned expansion includes spaces for 30 recreational vehicles and nine additional cabins — and maybe more.
“This morning the boss man was asking if we could duplicate this across the fence,” said Danny Wallace, who works for Jones Bros. Dirt & Paving Contractors, the company developing the site.
Housing as pricey as New York City’s has become the norm in Midland, amid an oil boom that is rapidly ...
Comments (13)
Russell Stone via Texas Tribune on Facebook
The oil boom is likely short lived for that land was sucked dry long ago. The people will go much like a tumbleweed rolling by in the west Texas wind.
Michael Giberson via Texas Tribune on Facebook
Sure, sucked dry long ago, and yet they are sucking more out. Amazing what a little technological improvement can do, isn't it.
Tom Davies via Texas Tribune on Facebook
Go to Carrizo Springs if you want to see economic impact and traffic jams. Amazing.
Luisa Inez Newton via Texas Tribune on Facebook
Earthquakes in Ft. Worth, the stink of gas flares burning 24/7, the damage to earth, the poisoning of water...
Stanley Moore via Texas Tribune on Facebook
Boom to Bust.
Russell Stone via Texas Tribune on Facebook
Not a fan of fracking in the land of so little water.
Papa Ray
Geologists have always said that West Texas had plenty of oil left to get. Just no way to get at it and bring it up and make a profit.
Now they can.
Those that know (or think they know) are saying that oil and gas can be profitable as long as oil stays above a certain price for crude. Anywhere from $80.00 to $90.00 a barrel.
And that is with existing technology. Not even considering the tech that will be here in the next few years.
West Texas has plenty of brine water (salty water) located at depths of 1000 ft or more. Way below the fresh not salty water. No fresh water is used in the oil field, except for drinking. Liberals take note of that please.
Drilling, fracking does not cause sink holes or earthquakes. There is no science to prove it, but years of drilling and fracking to disprove it. Even the dastardly EPA admits that. Flares burning and the smell of it is money and jobs. Learn to love it, it puts food on the table and a roof over thousands upon thousands of hard working families.
No it won't last forever but until then there will be jobs, prosperity and hope.
And that is more than enough for most.
Papa Ray (West Texas)
Papa Ray
Dang, forgot to comment on the article.
Well written with most things covered. But I would like to add a few things.
Land prices: Prices are unreal, even for uncleared land. $1800.00 to $2400.00 (per acre) for land that has little or no fresh water, no improvements, many on nothing more than dirt county roads.
Home prices: Existing homes prices through the roof. New homes...forget about it, but they are being bought up by those that can before they are even built.
Of course you have the normal and in some cases abnormal prices of everything else. The Feds would like you to believe that food prices are stable and not increasing. But everyone that eats and buys their own food know that that is a bald faced lie.
People are living in tents out here. Looks like I would imagine the gold rush days did in California. Speaking about California, driving around Midland, Odessa, you see license plates from almost every state in our Republic. And you can sure tell it. Wrecks, no courtesy, speeding, red light running and general traffic gridlock.
This ain't the West Texas your Grand parents knew.
Papa Ray
Papa Ray
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I forgot some decimal places on the land prices I put in above comment.
It is $18,000.00 to $28,000.00 an acre.
Sorry about that.
Papa Ray
jaime
Good article, overall. But like most who write about the O & G business, Ms. Galbraith leaves the impression that the fracturing process is relatively new. Not so. It was perfected in the Arabian fields in the 1950s, then brought to America. There were successful operators during the Giddings field boom and elsewhere in the 1970s who fracted every Austin Chalk, or limestone, well they drilled as a matter of course. And look closely at the spelling: f-r-a-c-t-u-r-i-n-g. Do you see a "k"? The proper spellings for the abbreviated oil field words are frac, fracing, and fracted.
Jim Lee via Texas Tribune on Facebook
We're having the same boom here in the Eagle Ford area. We've added 30 or 40 jobs with the possibility of 30 more. We've laid 100 miles of pipeline to gather oil into Corpus. But as the article says, the drop in oil prices may slow this thing down a bit.
The worst part is the traffic accidents. It is really bad in Karnes county. So many trucks with driver's who have no experience. You have to be extra careful driving in that area.
nick pell
$15/hour is generous pay? Doesn't seem like it to me.
Chuck Catchings
I am following this shale oil boom in no less than 6 different states and the story seems to be pretty much the same. But as with anything that's hot your going to get a different message depending on who's writing the article. Real estate one view, oil companies another, environmentalist yet another etc, etc, etc. I'm following this from an investors point of view and it amazes me the amount of misinformation out there. Let's stay with the the Midland-Odessa area and the cost of rentals and lack of. With a little, very little looking you can find affordable rentals all over the place, $1500 for a 400sq/ft cabin, give me a break. Yes there are a lot of people looking to rent but they are the ones not making the big oil bucks and have normal jobs left out or kicked out by landlords looking to make a couple $100 more per month. The worst of the misinformation providers are publications like this one that don't look at the whole story but just put out whatever will sell the rag. Sure if you go through all the various articles written you can get maybe a different perspective and that's how they cover their A$%. There are so many variables to this oil boom and as many boom and bust stories to go with it. Do your homework and don't get all caught up in the hype. Can you make $$, of course you can and many have. I'm just saying look at the whole picture and don't jump before you look, it's a long way to the bottom. Like they say, it ain't the fall that kills ya, it's the sudden stop. Good luck too all !!!