Despite a slight drop in monthly employment numbers in February, the Texas Association of Producers and Copyright Owners (TIPRO), citing data from the Current Employment Statistics (CES), noted that demand for Texas upstream talent persists.
Upstream Texas direct employment for February 2023 totaled 197,900, a decrease of 700 jobs from January’s employment figures, according to the TIPRO analysis. TIPRO indicates that this decline in employment is likely a statistical anomaly given the month’s positive job posting data, labor force trends, and that the revised CES numbers will likely show an increase in employment up in February
Upstream employment in Texas in February 2023 represented the addition of 20,100 jobs compared to February 2022, including an increase of 900 jobs in oil and natural gas extraction and 19,200 jobs in the service sector, according to TIPRO.
New TIPRO employment data also indicated strong job postings for the Texas oil and natural gas industry during the month of February. According to the association, there were 11,981 active unique job postings for the Texas oil and natural gas industry in February, including 4,601 new job postings added during the month by companies.
The top three companies ranked for unique job openings in February were John Wood Group (640), Loves (632) and Baker Hughes (575), according to TIPRO. Top industry occupations in February included maintenance and repair workers (374), heavy tractor-trailer truck drivers (356) and managers (320).
In addition, TIPRO reports that oil and gas production is expected to continue to increase in the coming months. Crude oil production in the Permian Basin is expected to hit a record 5.62 million barrels per day (bpd) in April, according to the U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA), and production in the basin is expected to increase by 26,000 bpd.
In the Eagle Ford Shale in south Texas, oil production next month will gain 9,000 bpd to a total of 1.13 million bpd. Overall, U.S. crude output is estimated to rise by 68,000 bpd to more than 9.21 million bpd in April, the EIA projects.
Natural gas production also to grow in April: EIA projections show that total U.S. natural gas production will rise by roughly 420 million cubic feet per day (Mmcf/D) to a record 96.62 billion of cubic feet per day (bcf/d). .
This will be driven in part by production gains in the Permian Basin, where production will increase by 93 Mmcf/D to reach an all-time high of 22.5 bcf/d. Natural gas production in the Eagle Ford Shale is also expected to reach 7.12 bcf/d in April, up 74 Mmcf/d from March’s projected levels, according to the TIPRO statement.
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