Exclusive: US shale companies offer $ 100 million to help Texas and New Mexico

HOUSTON (Reuters) – More than a dozen major US energy companies have announced a $ 100 million contribution to reducing tensions over health care, education and civic infrastructure from the oil boom and gas in western Texas and New Mexico, announced Sunday the group.

Chevron, EOG Resources, Exxon Mobil and Royal Dutch Shell are among the 17 companies that support Permian's strategic partnership, Don Evans, a former US government official and head of energy at the launch of the group, told Reuters.

The group seeks to address the shortage of labor and housing, the overcrowding of health care and the traffic congestion caused in part by the companies located in the Permian Basin. largest oil field in the country, where they hope to generate billions of dollars of oil and gas over the next decades. experts said.

"It's a big sum of money, but these are huge challenges," said Evans, former US Secretary of Commerce and resident in Midland, Texas, at the heart of the shale oil revolution. "We do not have enough teachers. We do not have enough doctors.

The group wants to work with regional and federal officials, businesses, non-profit groups and educators in New Mexico and Texas, said Evans, who debuted in the Permian and became CEO of producer Tom Brown Inc. before joining the administration of former President George W. Bush. .

The group is preparing meetings in communities in the region so that "everyone has a voice". There is no timetable or plan to determine how the initial contribution will be spent. The group is recruiting staff and looking for offices, he said.

Over the past decade, the region's many pockets of oil and low production costs have resulted in conditions similar to those of the Permian Gold Rush. Companies are pouring personnel and equipment to the oil field, which is expected to pump 3.7 million barrels of oil a day by December, four times more than in 2010, according to the US Energy Information Administration.

This blast has local employers, including restaurants and school systems, under pressure from staff leaving for jobs in the oil fields. Midland's unemployment rate was 2.1% in October, compared with 3.7% in the country.

The shale shale explosion of the last decade has also led to overcrowding, an increase in road deaths, drug addiction and power grid tensions as a result of this activity.

"Our roads are not designed to handle the number of trucks we have," said Jeff Walker, Transportation Training Coordinator at New Mexico Junior College in Hobbs.

Drug charges in Midland more than doubled between 2012 and 2016, from 491 to 942, according to police data. Road crashes also rose 18% between 2016 and 2017 in Midland County and 29% in nearby Ector County, according to data from the Texas Department of Transportation.

"They all agree that strengthening the infrastructure will be a huge challenge," said Bob Peterson, consulting firm partner Arthur D. Little, who advises producers. "There is a common agreement on the fact that there is a whole series of problems."