Impact Of Plunging Oil Prices On Oklahoma

Gas prices are down at the pump and continuing to drop, but that's the only upside anyone can find today with the collapse of oil prices. Emory Bryan explores the impact here in the state.

Monday, March 9th 2020, 6:32 pm

By: Emory Bryan

The plunge in oil prices overnight has put the industry into an immediate crisis.

The companies that drill for oil, now have a product that's worth about half of what it was 3 months ago, and a lot less than it worth just last week. Tulsa is more centered on oil services, refining, and moving oil, than exploration, but Oklahoma City is just the opposite.

Analysts believe the midstream companies will weather the price drop better than the exploration companies which will be unable to get financing to keep drilling.

Tulsa based WPX Energy says that over 70% of their 2020 oil output is on contracts in the mid $50 range, so they get that regardless.

One upside for drivers is that gas prices are going down, almost hourly, but for Oklahoma that is a short term gain. The larger problem may be the state budget - which depends on taxes from oil, and the salaries of oil industry employees.

","published":"2020-03-09T23:32:15.000Z","updated":"2020-03-09T23:32:20.000Z","summary":"Gas prices are down at the pump and continuing to drop, but that's the only upside anyone can find today with the collapse of oil prices. Emory Bryan explores the impact here in the state.","affiliate":{"_id":"5c784a0c4961cb23ad330098","callSign":"kotv","origin":"https://www.newson6.com"},"contentClass":"news","createdAt":"2020-03-16T19:16:06.360Z","updatedAt":"2020-03-31T17:28:17.938Z","__v":1,"breakingNews":[],"show":true,"link":"/story/5e6fd076f86011d4820c459c/impact-of-plunging-oil-prices-on-oklahoma","hasSchedule":false,"id":"5e6fd076f86011d4820c459c"};