Oil and gas executives raised concerns about global unrest and U.S. trade policies as they watched production decline in the second quarter, the Federal Reserve Bank of Dallas said Wednesday.
The Dallas Fed — which published the results of a regional survey of companies in Texas and parts of New Mexico and Louisiana — said oil and gas activity “contracted slightly” during the three-month period that ended in June. Oil and gas production “decreased slightly,” the survey showed.
That stands in contrast to the Trump administration’s pursuit of an “energy dominance” agenda that calls for boosting domestic fossil fuel output. Earlier this week, the U.S. Energy Information Administration said the nation’s oil production hit a record in April. But analysts have been warning that a drop in U.S. crude production is possible this year or next year.
“We have seen a noticeable shift in overall activity due to a decrease in oil prices and overall macro uncertainty,” one executive said in the report. “We work with many of the large [exploration and production] companies; their employees are bracing for looming job reductions, which feeds further unrest for service and equipment providers.”
