Today it is a black gold boom. The Texas Railroad Commission is seeing some of the highest petroleum production since the mid-80s, spokesperson Ramona Nye said.
“We’ve got our drilling permits getting close to 20,000 permits a year, and we haven’t seen that kind of activity levels since 1985,” Ms. Nye said.
In 2002, the commission issued 9,716 drilling permits, a number that more than doubled to 19,994 in 2007, she said.
“It is the price of oil and gas, and as the price per barrel goes up, it just makes business sense to drill here and produce it here,” Ms. Nye said. The price of U.S. crude oil last week was about $115 per barrel.
The Barnett Shell Natural Gas Field near Fort Worth, and the Bossier Natural Gas Fields in East Texas are the state’s busiest production sites, Ms. Nye said.
Milam County’s boom and bust cycle has been consistent with the rest of the state.
Governmental entities that reap revenue from mineral properties have found that “minerals are a very wicked thing in that they can go way up and way down,” said Dr. Frank Summers, Milam County judge.
“You talk to a lot of commissioners courts in West Texas where the counties are highly dependent on minerals,” Summers said, “it’s a famine or feast. Now, they are smiling with $100 a barrel oil. It was $20 one year, $50 the next and $13 the next, and it would be a real killer.”
Mineral values added $19.7 million to the Milam County tax roll in 2003 and $21 million the following year. The 2008 tax roll shows tremendous gains, with 4,639 mineral parcels carrying $50 million. The Gause school district’s tax roll gained $40 million from 3,302 mineral parcels and the Milano school district’s tax roll showed $3.7 million in mineral values from 860 properties.
Milano Superintendent Lindy Robinson said the district welcomes additional tax revenue from mineral properties because “we are not going to get any more money from the state unless we get more kids.”
“In Milam County, the mineral values have stayed fairly level until a couple of years ago and it inched up again this year,” said Summers, adding that rumors abound about petroleum exploration taking off in east Milam County.
“I hear a lot of rumors they are leasing a bunch of land in the Gause area,” Summers said.
The oil lease numbers for Milam County show 59 so far in 2008; 99 for 2007 and 201 in 2006.
