Forget pipelines. Roads the peril to West Texas growth
https://www.chron.com/business/energy/article/FF-PERMIAN-TRAFFIC-13244392.php September 24, 2018
For an oilman who’s worked on the Gulf Coast, near the Russian Arctic and in Royal Dutch Shell’s headquarters in The Hague, being stuck in traffic on a dusty West Texas highway is not the stuff of dreams.
The GMC Yukon rented by Amir Gerges, general manager of Shell’s operations in the Permian Basin, has crawled just four miles in the past hour. “That’s probably a truck that rolled over that’s causing this,†Gerges said, speaking from weary experience.
Turns out, it’s just routine work on Highway 302, an 83-mile-long, often single-lane road that runs from Odessa, Texas, home to a variety of oilfield servicers, to Loving County, in the western part of the Permian. It’s a stretch that saw traffic jump by 76 percent in 2017, and it’s continued to rise this year.
The delay helps Gerges prove a point: Roads, he said, not pipelines, geology or labor shortages, are the biggest long-term threat to sustainable growth in the Permian, the world’s busiest shale oil field. “Almost everything you need at the wellhead is transported by road,†Gerges said. “That’s the one biggest challenge, not just Shell, everyone faces.â€
In the often upside-down world of West Texas, the biggest problem with building more roads is not the cost of the materials, but a lack of available workers and affordable housing. It’s tough to match the high pay offered in the oilfields.
“We lose employees to the oilfield all the time because they pay more,†said John Speed, the local district engineer for the Texas Department of Transportation. “Housing is a huge issue. Rents have jumped 30 percent in each of the last 2 years. There’s a year-long waiting list for new builds. â€....
