Economist continue to underestimate the contribution of Eagle Ford to Texas

State Impact/NPR:

Economists made a surprising discovery when they measured the economic impact of oil & gas drilling in Texas. For the past four years, Thomsas Tunstall and a team of economists at University of Texas-San Antonio have been measuring the economic impact of surging oil & gas drilling in the rock formation called the Eagle Ford in South Texas.

“Clearly the formation production has legs,” Tunstall told News 88.7.

And those legs are running faster than expected. Way faster.

The economists had predicted just last year that they expected the total economic impact to South Texas to be $89 billion in 2022. Instead, they now estimate that the impact has already reached almost that amount: $87 billion.

What’s making the difference?

Primarily all the jobs from drilling and running pipelines.

“But also because of lots of new manufacturing activity. And a lot of that is being driven by the low cost of natural gas,” said Tunstall.
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In just the first few years of production the Eagle Ford out performed the projections for the life of the field.  It apparently is still doing it with even revised projections.  That suggest the assumptions used by the economist do not reflect the viability of the field and the spin offs in transportation and manufacturing.  The private sector demonstrated its superiority to command economy models.