Word: oilmen
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Dates: during 1970-1979
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When a wandering oil wildcatter named Steve Owens brought in the first producing oil well in West Texas 54 years ago, a local newspaper headline rhapsodized that THE GOLDEN FLOOD IS STRUCK. Before long, oilmen and adventurers from all over the country converged by the thousands on the flat, dry plain that spreads over nearly 100,000 square miles through Texas and New Mexico. Known as the Permian Basin, the area became one of the nation's biggest oilfields; it accounts for about 20% of U.S. domestic oil production...
Odessa and Midland sat on the prairie like towns in which the clocks had stopped. Oilmen capped marginal wells, sold their drilling equipment abroad or simply abandoned it in the fields; oilfield hands moved on to Canada or Alaska, or took other jobs. But then, in September 1973, Congress allowed "new" oil-produced above a 1972 base level -to float up to the world price, now about $11 per bbl. Suddenly, the producers, promoters, roughnecks and fortune hunters flocked back in droves to the oldtime West Texas boomtowns -and they are still coming...
...rising oil prices have already touched off what is building up to be the biggest oilfield rush since the 1950s. Oilmen, particularly the independent operators, who do more than 80% of the exploratory drilling in the U.S. and off its shores, have been swarming across the country in search of promising new deposits and even returning to old oil hunting grounds in Texas, New Mexico and other states. More and more, however, they are making a painful discovery: it can be a lot easier to strike oil nowadays than get the pumps, piping and other paraphernalia needed to bring...
Skeptics in and out of Congress will surely question the Administration's twin assumptions that higher fuel prices really will bring a significant drop in consumption and that they really are needed to spur production. Right now, for instance, what seems to be holding back many oilmen is not the prospect of scant profits but a severe shortage of drilling equipment. In sum, the Administration may have a hard time selling its market approach on the Hill...
...Kennedys come to play. Carved out of a wilderness twelve years ago, Vail is a high-priced retreat where the après-ski attractions include continental restaurants, 28 heated pools and smart boutiques for snow bunnies. Vail is sometimes called the "Dallas Alps," a reference to the Texas oilmen who have taken a liking to the place and helped push land values to more than $200,000 an acre. The resort is a world away from Grand Rapids and the square, salt-of-the-earth style that otherwise characterizes the President...