Oil is booming again in the Permian Basin, and so are the fortunes of sun-bleached Hobbs, New Mexico, and other towns like it in the Permian Basin.
In Hobbs, job postings for truckers and electricians cover billboards and chain-link fences lining the highways, The Wall Street Journal reports, and hotels are filled with oil-field workers. The civic coffers are recovering from the recent oil bust.
From Texas to North Dakota, oil-producing regions of the U.S. are surging now that America is pumping record volumes of crude—10.9 million barrels a day during the second week of June, according to the Energy Information Administration. The leap from 9.4 million barrels a day a year ago is helping lift the U.S. economy as a whole, redefining the sweet spot at which oil prices are a tailwind for the country
The cost of a barrel of crude has risen roughly 60% in the past year, to about $68 a barrel, while gasoline prices have climbed roughly 25% over the same period. Yet the economy is still firing on all cylinders. Â
Texas has flourished, closing last year as the nation’s fastest-growing economy, with fourth quarter seasonally adjusted growth of 5.2%. In New Mexico, which has struggled economically in recent years, the economy grew 0.8% last year after declining 0.1% in 2016, when oil prices slid below $30 a barrel. State revenue, meanwhile, soared 14.5% through March, thanks to increased oil and gas activity, according to the state legislative finance committee.
That is benefiting places like Hobbs, which long has ridden the booms and busts of oil.
