ON OIL: If ever there’s been a boom-and-bust industry, it’s oil.
Those working Bradford oilfields can attest to that rollercoaster
ride – even as we speak.

This phenomenon is the subject of a recent CNN online business
report which quoted local oil producers including Willard Cline of
Bradford. “America’s oil bust,” was written by Steve Hargreaves of
CNNMoney.com.

Hargreaves writes: “Six months ago this oil town in Western
Pennsylvania was booming. You couldn’t find a worker to paint a
house, let alone man a drill rig. The nearby oil fields buzzed with
activity as high prices drove a production frenzy.”

“Now this boomtown’s bustle is as quiet as the surrounding
late-winter forest.”

“The collapse in oil prices from over ,147 a barrel has caused
many oil producers to pack up their rigs and stow their jacks. Some
fear the drop in production activity will lead energy prices to
spike once the economy recovers.”

Again quoting Cline who estimated half his daily production was
shut in: “We’re not drilling right now. The low price of oil is
slowing it up.”

The story continues: “Just outside Bradford, Pa., Keane and Sons
Drilling Corp. recently laid off 20 employees – about a third of
its workforce. Half the company’s drill rigs sit at the shop. A row
of brand new fracing trucks, used to inject fluids into oil wells
to get production flowing, line the back of the parking lot.”

“Once oil dropped below ,75 a barrel, the economics just don’t
make sense for the wells we have around here,” said Shawn Keane,
who now runs the company along with his brother. “Just about
everyone we’ve talked to is in the same situation we are.”

The story used the situation in this region to launch a
discussion of the nationwide pullback of the oil industry, noting
that number of drill rigs fell almost 50 percent since October, the
steepest decline since the energy bust of the mid-1980s. There are
fears, too, that the country could be setting itself up for another
spike in prices once the economy recovers.

Quoting again from the story: “Absent more aggressive policies
dealing with both our supply and demand, the people in Western
Pennsylvania who have worked in this industry for decades know
exactly what will happen once the economy recovers.”

“We’ll be short of fuel,” said Cline. “The price will
skyrocket.”