Boomtown
Port Arthur, Texas. Were you expecting this label attached to a nicer place?
I just got back from a business trip to that fine metropolitan area. I’ve never been there before, so I can’t claim witness to the transformation taking place there. My colleagues say the growth is simply amazing, and everyone there is benefiting, down to the sandwich shops. New restaurants, hotels, subdivisions and shopping are all around. On the east side are the true agents of change: the refineries. On that side of town, you can scarcely throw a rock and not hit a refinery distillation column, storage vessel or furnace – it’s like a forest of metal tin cans, pipes, pots and pans straight out of Dr. Seuss.
Some of the largest refineries in the United States live here (One is sprawled on 3500 acres operating at peak production of 400 million barrels of oil per day), and they are ALL expanding. We were there helping one such refinery do just that. Their goal is to meet the increasing demand of oil and gas fuel products, including gasoline. And although I am not one of the over 2 million direct employees hired by the domestic petroleum industry, I am, along with my colleagues, a part of the countless that indirectly benefits from the growing global market. While my company is diverse in many industrial sectors, it is deeply imbedded in the welfare of refining – and I have a job.
Really, we all benefit. Yes, you too. Over 93% of oil companies are owned by you and me. They are apportioned in tiny pieces called shares to our stock portfolios, 401k plans and mutual funds. I can’t understand why someone running for president would have the “brilliant idea” that taxing the oil companies would help lower gas prices and ease the burden on families… Really? That’s not going to make my fuel cheaper or help my retirement fund… quite the opposite. Okay, that was slightly off topic. Still, the fuel prices are starting to change our driving habits, and food and freight prices continue to go through the roof.
There are no easy answers. I believe, though, in grand scheme of things, this whole “crisis” is just a blip on the RADAR. Time and time again, these kinds of market pressures produce great advances in science and engineering. I look forward to being a part of discovering and using new and renewable sources of energy. But for now, 97% of our transportation (planes, trains and automobiles) depends on oil products to go. So for now, we need to drill and we need to refine like mad.
Wind, nuclear, solar, and geothermal are not going to get us down the road. Electric and fuel-cell technologies are coming along but have some serious technological obstacles to overcome. Hang in there though… one day, sooner that you think, we will see capitalism and American ingenuity at their best, hopefully before the government further strangles the taxpayers by nationalizing the domestic oil industry. That’s another “brilliant” idea. Oops, I did it again.
Check out this site for more on the other side of the story.
I welcome more discussion. This one is juicy.
-D