Big oil and gas mergers don’t mean more business for small oil firms

  • August 25, 2024

Benro Pump and Supply Assistant Foreman Benny Ford poses for a photo at a well site Wednesday, Aug. 14, 2024, near Goldsmith. Ford began at Benro in 2019 after taking a year-long hiatus from his previous oil and gas job working on electrical substations in the oil fields. Not long after starting at Benro, Ford returned to the oilfields to work as a rig hand for 8 months before returning to the pump shop again. "You don't have days off,” Ford said. “You make a lot of money, but at the end of the day, you'll never make memories."

 

While the growing number of corporate mergers in the oil and gas industry attracts big headlines with the word “billions” rather than “millions,” there’s an apparent downside to such deals.

The mergers often mean locally-owned and family-operated companies that rely on the big firms are left out. The deals don’t mean more business for them. As a result, there are few small compoanies in some parts of the oil patch, especially in West Texas where the Texas Tribune explorted the issue.

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Jerry Bohnen