Oil markets across the country are still reeling from the one-two punch of Covid-19 drying up fuel demand and global market instability for oil and gas. The latest victim of the tumultuous energy market is Enterprise Products Partners’ Midland to Echo 4 crude oil pipeline project. The now defunct project would have been able to move 450,000 barrels a day from southern New Mexico and west Texas drilling facilities to refineries and markets in the Houston area. The project was cancelled on September 9th due to market downturns and the desire by Enterprise Products to improve its shaky financial position and lower capital spending for 2021 and 2022.
In New Mexico’s oil patch energy producers are still struggling to stay afloat with 46 rigs currently operating per the latest data from Baker Hughes, and down only one more rig in the last week. That’s less than half of the amount operating this time last year in the same area at 109 active drilling rigs in September of 2019. This is just the latest bad news for the southern reaches of New Mexico as the region continues to feel the fallout of global oil market instability and the loss of other potential job creating initiatives from the oil and gas industry. Read more HERE.