FOR the companies that drill the highest-producing deposit of oil and natural gas in the world, straddling the border between Texas and New Mexico, the crash in oil prices has led to spectacular losses.

Craig Blair, the co-owner of the Capitan Energy oil and natural gas company, has seen his production in the Permian Basin collapse from 15,000 barrels of oil a day to just 6,000.

“If you’d have been here six months ago, there wouldn’t have been anything underneath that shed,” sighed the 63-year-old Texan.

He had grand plans for his company, but they have been put on hold because of the COVID-19 pandemic, which has hit U.S. oil producers hard.

On April 20, the price of a barrel of oil fell below zero because the market was so heavily saturated and demand had evaporated.

That day alone, Blair estimates he lost half a million U.S. dollars. In two or three months, he fears he will have to start laying people off, something he has managed to avoid until now.

With so much surplus oil being held without demand, oil producers like Blair does not expect prices to go up soon. “I don’t see any way the oil prices are going to get better until we use it up,” he said.(SD-Agencies)