Recruitment is one of the biggest drivers of job growth, said Tim Tarpley, senior vice president of government affairs and legal counsel for the Energy Workforce and Technology Council.

“There is a tremendous amount of recruitment going on,” he said. “There is actually competition between our companies for workers. “

Although employment levels are increasing, there is still a labor shortage in the industry, Tarpley said, and some companies are importing workers into Texas from remote states like the Dakotas, Pennsylvania and Ohio.

According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS), Texas is the largest employer in the energy and technology sector with 314,000 workers. The closest state is Louisiana with only 53,800 workers employed.

Competition for jobs with other industries outside of the energy and tech sector is helping to push employment rates down, Tarpley said.

“Not everyone came back,” he said. “Some find other jobs. There are other areas like transportation where wages have increased for other jobs, so there is competition outside of the industry.

Employment levels still lag behind pre-pandemic levels, and oil production has been specifically affected by low employment rates in oilfield equipment and service companies, a. said Tarpley.

“Our companies are cautious when they re-enter the market,” he said. “They don’t want to oversupply the market, so they are bringing people back in a cautious, cautious, and slightly cautious manner.”

Reasons companies remain cautious include COVID-19 developments and regulatory uncertainty due to the blocking of an executive order from President Joe Biden, Tarpley said.

The executive order, signed in January, suspended new oil and gas leases on federal lands, but a federal judge ruled against the moratorium in June.

“Companies are a little more hesitant to (go out) and hire a bunch of people and then they don’t know how long they will have access to new leases and permits,” he said. “We hope the administration starts to move away from this moratorium.”

According to a monthly report released by OPEC, COVID-19 darkens forecasts of global oil demand in 2021, but demand is expected to increase in 2022 from pre-COVID-19 levels.

With OPEC’s announcement, the main question is who will meet the demand, Tarpley said.

“Will it be the United States or OPEC and Russia that will respond to this demand? ” he said.

As demand has increased in the United States, we have already seen an increase in Russian oil imports, Tarpley said.

It is important that the United States is the country that meets the potential oil demand of 2022, not only for economic reasons, but also for environmental reasons, Tarpley said.

“Oil and gas produced in the United States is produced cleaner and more efficiently than virtually anywhere else,” he said. “If we make decisions that allow our competitors to fill this void, it will likely be filled with less clean and efficient oil and gas. “