Low Prices Weaken Chance For Surge In State’s Oil Industry

Crude oil is trading at a level that hasn’t been seen since 2009 as it’s hovering around 40-dollars a barrel.

Executive director of the LSU Center for Energy Studies, David Dismukes, says concerns over China’s troubled economy and an overall global slowdown are pushing oil prices lower

"This information is really starting to cook in with a lot of the traders," Dismukes told Louisiana Radio Network's Scott Carwile."The economic growth and the economic output in those countries is very, very weak."

The low oil prices are making it tough on the state’s oil and gas industry. Dismukes says there were signs that oil drilling activity may start picking up, but that’s not the case now

"We started seeing a couple of weeks where we were seeing some increases," Dismukes said. "It looked like towards the year's end, we might start getting some renewed activity. But now, with these type of prices, its probably going to kill that off for the rest of the year."

Dismukes says on the flip side, the 40-dollar price for a barrel of oil will likely send gas prices even lower.

"That'll keep gas prices down for the rest of the year," he added. "We're fixing to go into that part of the year where prices start to go down anyway. This will be an added bump."