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Oil, gas producer hopeful of better outlook in 2017

Thu, 01/12/2017 - 12:58 pm

With the new year comes new hope for those in the oil and gas industry.

Local producer Ken Swan is encouraged by the upcoming change in the federal administration and recent trends.

A year ago, oil was at $26 a barrel and natural gas was $2.50. Tuesday, the markets closed with oil at $50.78 and natural gas at $3.27, 100 and 35 percent increases respectively.

“I think we’ll see oil in the $50 to $60 range for quite a while,” Swan said. “There is a chance we’ll see oil get into the mid-$60s sometime this year and we’ll see gas where it is for quite a few years to come. Gas could range from $3 to $4 for a few years.”

Generally, the way the oil and gas industry works is it is either great or terrible, Swan said, but right now, it’s in between.

“When you come off of a boom, it’s not going to correct itself in 3 or 4 years. It’s going to take some time,” he said

With all things being equal and no catastrophic events occurring, Swan believes there will be moderate increases in the next few years.

“What would help us most in this area is some really nice (natural) gas prices,” he said. “That would help us a lot. We still have a lot of natural gas in the Barnett Shale, the Marble Falls and some other gas formations here.”

To read the complete article, see the Jan. 13 edition of the Jacksboro Herald-Gazette.