Called Staybridge Suites. It’s in the upscale tier of extended stay hotels similar to Residence Inn by Marriott. Right next door a Woodspring Suites is also under construction which will be midtier extended stay hotel.
These hotels are expecting a steady stream of oil/gas related workers for a long time for these developments to make sense. This is NW corner of 285 & I-20, the main road into the city.
Most of you are not old enough to remember the Crash of 1986, when the price of oil went from $75/bbl to $5/bbl overnight. They fired us all the next day. The oil/gas production company I worked for called us in, took the keys to the pickup trucks, the GasCard for fuel, and paid us to the day with a check that bounced. Everyone I worked with lost their homes, their trucks, their furniture…everything they ‘owned’ with a mortgage of any sort attached. The office buildings in Odessa and Midland were empty, the motels and hotels empty.
I have a degree in electrical engineering and electronic engineering with a minor in chemical engineering. I went to work for Texas Instruments in Lubbock building and testing semiconductors…and never missed a beat while all my former associates were struggling to even get a job flipping hamburgers.
If something like that happens again (all the oil and gas exploration/production companies were leveraged to the max…operating on borrowed money…borrowed against their projected sales of oil and gas still in the reservoirs). So, when the price dropped precipitously, the banks called in their loans for insufficient collateral. That could happen again…and that’s exactly why Clayton Williams sold all his holdings and equipment to Noble Permian for 7.5 Billion. Now, if the same conditions recur, he is totally without debt and still owns the equipment to drill, frack, and produce wells without much overhead…so he’ll stay solvent while everyone else is foreclosed, then he can move in buying up leases and equipment for 1 cent on the dollar. .
Pecos is over built if those conditions as in 1986 recur. So, beware!
oil field trash born and when I die, I’ll be oilfield trash dead
That reminded me of a similar deal I handled where a pipeline contractor called all the employees together and did the same thing. Last paycheck bounced and they filed Chapter 7. Except the pipeline company failed to collect pickup truck keys, so all the employees took off in their company pickups and held them as ransom to get paid. The bankruptcy trustee was chasing pickups all over East Texas for months.
I do notice a difference this time, in that the proliferation of mancamps and other portable buildings should not leave Pecos littered with as many empty buildings when the bust comes.
Right on, Ole Lawrence, I agree. I remember those days. The petroleum industry is just like the stock market, it goes up and down all the time. When I did my first lease on my land, the nice landman I worked with told me ‘Now don’t go out and buy a mansion and a rolls Royce, hang onto the money’.
Good advice. Thank you for all you do.
You are so appreciared appreciated.
I got out of the patch in late 1982 (Austin Chalk) and used my oil field savings to pay for school at A&M. Graduated in Dec. 85 and there were no oilfield jobs ($9/bbl in Jan. 86).I was hoping to use my field experience with a degree to land a job. Had to go the aerospace route for a while.
I was in Shreveport, Louisiana when the 1986 bust happened - a young Landman with only 8 or so years of experience, it was my first one. Every Oil and Gas Company went belly up, which took down dozens of other related businesses and even other businesses. Every bank went under, every Savings and Loan closed, every second or third house had a For Sale By Owner sign in front of it.
A friend who worked at Sam’s at the time told me how the Sam’s in Shreveport was holding more hot checks that the three Sam’s in New Orleans had.
A friend who was the SVP for a bank in Shreveport told me how people he had known since Kindergarten were sitting across from his desk crying as their houses and cars were being foreclosed on. How friends he had known all of his life would come through the front door of the bank and throw their keys at his head from across the room before storming out.
I lost overrides in 136 oil wells and two gas wells. Went for over 14 months where the only work I could find was 4 nights up on a ladder cleaning the false ceilings in a Mall Cafeteria and was glad to have the money. Had friends asking me if I was dieting after noticing how I had to pull my belt tighter to keep my jean up.
Left Shreveport in a then 20 year old Chevy Stepside pickup with no heater on the coldest day ever recorded in the area to take a Land Ticket in Paris, Texas, and have never looked back. I still visit family in Shreveport once a year, sometimes twice, but each time I can’t wait to hit the highway back to Texas. It’s been 32 years and the place still makes my stomach churn.
Wade, that’s a really great story! I’m gonna be chuckling about that one the rest of the day. That poor Trustee!
Good Story Charles, I remember it like it was yesterday. It was really bad. Wasn’t the year 1982? At that time, I was covering Texas, Oklahoma, and Louisiana selling cutting tools to all the machine shops making parts and equipment for the oil patch. I remember being in a shop in Sand Springs, Oklahoma that built Mobile Work-Over Rigs when the Purchasing Agent received a phone call cancelling orders for the one on the lot ready to ship, and the second one in the shop, half finished. I have never been in the room when someone passed away, but it could not be much different than the feeling walking through the shop on my way out. Everyone in the shop knew they were out of business with that phone call. When this last Boom started, I was amused that this time it was Hummers instead of Cadallacs, but no Nuget jewlery. So far in my carrier, I have seen three Boom and Bust episodes. They all seem to start and end the same way. Regards, Jack Tyler
I just checked with my ex banking Buddy and he says '87 - '90.
One short follow up story. When I eventually landed in Dallas about 6 months later, I was the 7th Wheel at a night out dinner party with 3 married couples that I had met.
I was still Walking Wounded at that time and was reiterating all of the nightmares I had lived through and losses I had suffered when I suddenly realized that everyone there had suffered substantially worse setbacks. But that they weren’t dwelling upon it - just getting on with their lives.
That’s when I realized that everybody in Shreveport whines and complains when tough times come around, but nobody in Texas does.
I shut up, pulled my Big Boy Boxers up and haven’t whined about anything ever since.
You know what the best part about Texas is?
It’s not Louisiana.
That’s always what’s been attractive about west Texas to me, too. Texans don’t whine about their misfortunes…they roll their sleeves up
and pitch in to help their neighbors without being asked. How many truckloads of food, clothing, water, portable shelters, and such have you seen Texans bring personally to people in Texas, Louisiana, and Mississippi hurting from a hurricane, tornadoes, flooding, etc?
In Texas there is a spirit of ‘we’re all in this together…and we will overcome!’ that you don’t see so much in other states or nations.
And another thing I really like about Texans…they carry guns and are not afraid to USE them to defend their neighbors from enemies both foreign and domestic.
I was born in Kermit, Winkler County, Texas and raised in Wink, Texas…
the home of Roy Orbison. I KNEW him personally. West Texas oilfield
workers are the toughest anywhere in the world, but they have hearts of
gold towards everyone, but especially fellow Texans.
I’ve been around the world and met lots of interesting people…but I always came back to Texas because there is no other place like it on
the Earth.
MAGA. Don’t mess with Texas.
Will there be corrections in the future? Yes, always has, always will. Just like in 2014. A bust like the 80s? - let’s hope not. Thankfully on macro level the Permian in general and Delaware in particular is better suited than lots other places for long term development. Many of the break evens here have dropped below the Midland Basin. The state legislature here supports o/g development, unlike Kern County, California. It doesn’t snow here and slow things down, unlike the Bakken in North Dakota. The oil is good quality, cheaper to extract and doesn’t require special refining, unlike Alberta’s tar sands. The Permian population density is less than the Eagle Ford, causing less friction between town folk and drilling activities. And few places have closer transportation to the gulf coast for refining than us.
Lawrence, I always love to hear everything you have to say. You are a VIP on this forum as far as I am concerned, so knowledgeable and willing to answer everyone’s questions even driving to check on a stranger’s O&G interests. But now you really got my attention…knowing Roy Orbison personally…my all time favorite! If you are not already aware, there is a spectacular old movie you would enjoy if you can find it called “Blue Velvet” that featured Roy Orbison’s song “In Dreams”. I only became aware of it in 2017, but never can get the song out of my head for days after watching! To make this forum comment legitimate, I feel compelled to ask you an O&G question…when oil is at $60 barrel and gas at $3, how much gas does it take to equal a barrel of oil?
One last story. During the 1970s boom, a lot of dentists in Abilene got into the oil business and quit their practices. When the bust came in 1981 a bumper sticker appeared that said, “At least now I can find a dentist.”
Humor from the oil and gas crash of 1986:: Know the difference between a Texas oil man and a pigeon?
…The pigeon can make a significant deposit on a new Lincoln Towncar…
The oil bust of the 1980’s was how the United States broke the Soviet Union.
Lol. That was a good one.
Louise, Lynn is correct. I am sure the details are available online.
Good 1 Lawrence
Clint Liles
In 1986 i was running an Instrumentation/process control company out of Ventura, CA. We had been running crews all up and down the Santa Barbara channel and even doing some papermill work for Willamette. Several of my major oilfield customers called me and let me know I had two options. I could either spool everything up right then and there or I could begin doing seminar work teaching their employees how to do the instrumentation work that my company had been doing for about 7 years.
I picked the seminar work and got busy right away. After doing some work for Chevron and Sun Oil and Shell, I got a call from Shell in Houston who wanted to know if i would meet them in Taft, CA. That led to a several day seminar and then I got a call from Berry Holding Co who had a lease in the Taft Field just down the road from Shell. And so that worked into some more seminar work.
But before long all that came to an end and even the paper mill was cutting back. I decided it was time to head home to Texas. In the fall of '97 I arrived back in Corpus and rented a brand new townhouse that was four years old (never lived in). My folks and brother still lived in Corpus or I would gone somewhere else. I was broke but free, all I had to work for was enough money for rent and beer. And I was fortunate to meet some people who were also suffering but hadn’t given up. By '88 I was working with a group who was drilling some some spec wells with out-of-state-investor money. And I began flipping oilfield equipment.
We all managed to live through it. Most of us anyhow. I met a few that lost it all, and then their own sense of worth. Some even lost their lives from the despair.
The two new extended stay hotels look to be topped out now. I wouldn’t be surprised if the bigger and more upscale one of the two is now the largest building in all of Reeves County. Also another hotel is going up across the street from BHP Billiton’s offices. And nearby one of the biggest Domino’s Pizza locations I’ve seen just opened.
And their rates start at $320/night for a room. That’s ridiculous.
,Reeves county, Tx 