TEG
MONDAY, FEBRUARY 1, 2016
PULITZER PRIZE-WINNING
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L O W
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P R I C E S
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Good Evening
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Low gas prices are a
double-edged sword.
WWW.EMPORIAGAZETTE.COM
R I P P L E S
PRESIDENT OF
KANSAS’ OIL
AND GAS FEARS
UNEMPLOYMENT
INCREASE
By Minami Levonowich
Special to the Gazette
LOCAL PRODUCERS FEEL
PRESSURE AS OIL PRICES DROP
FILE PHOTO
By John Robinson
[email protected]
When the oil prices dropped
one of the first things the Buckeye
Supply Co. in Madison did was cut
advertising. Donations to schools
followed along with the annual
Christmas lunch for customers.
The store with a staff of three is
doing all it can to stay afloat.
“We’ve entered a survival
mode,” said Mark Porter, store
manager at Buckeye Supply Co.,
an oil field equipment supplier.
“We just had a couple people laid
off at another location, but nobody
has lost their job here yet.”
After hovering around the $90to $100 mark for years, the price
of oil plummeted in the middle
of 2014 and has yet to recover,
currently sitting at $30 a barrel.
In Lyon County, the county-wide
value on oil is also down, from $4
million to $1 million, according to has driven prices down. Demand
is also down in emerging marcounty clerk Tammy Vopat.
“We’re doing everything we can kets, China’s economy is slowing
to save money,” Porter said. “We down along with other emerging
cut everything we can and we’re markets like Brazil, India, etc.
just waiting for the price to go Their demand for oil has not increased and
back up.”
So what’s
“We’re doing everything we can to that’s where a
lot of demand
keeping oil
save money. We cut everything we comes from.”
prices down?
While the
According to
can and we’re just waiting for the
drop is bad
Dipok Ghosh,
price to go back up.”
for companies
an economrelying on a
ics professor
MARK PORTER
higher price
at Emporia
Buckeye Supply Co., store manager
of oil Ghosh
State Universaid there are
sity, the issue
some posilies in supply
and demand both in domestic and tives, at least in theory.
“As people spend less on oil
foreign markets.
“There has been a drastic in- they have more to spend on othcrease in oil supply, both in the er goods and services,” he said.
United States and abroad,” Ghosh “It should be a net-positive for
said. “A slowdown in the market the economy, but it hasn’t come
plus a very large oversupply of oil about. ...The stock market has
taken a hit in the last few weeks,
but it has gone up in the last few
days.”
The price drop did help the Lyon County Highway Department:
the savings on oil allowed the department to come in under budget
in 2015.
Joel Snyder, production supervisor at K.E. Snyder Co. in Hamilton, drops like this are expected
when working in the oil industry.
“This is a cyclical business,”
Snyder said. “You see booms and
you see busts, like the one in the
90s, but that doesn’t make dealing with busts any easier.”
Snyder said the company has
had some layoffs, and it helps that
the company sells trucks and tailors for use in other fields outside
of oil.
“Looking ahead I don’t think
By John Robinson
[email protected]
Please see Fundraiser, Page 3
IMAGINE
EMPORIA
HOSTS FINAL
PUBLIC
MEETING
By Cathryne Scharton
[email protected]
KENDRA JOHNSON/GAZETTE
Attendees look at the silent auction items at the Quail Forever fundraiser and banquet held at the
Anderson Building on Saturday.
KENDRA JOHNSON/GAZETTE
Items in the silent auction sit on a table during the Quail Forever
fundraiser and banquet.
VOL. 124, NO. 182
Please see Oil, Page 3
Please see Producers, Page 3
QUAIL FOREVER RAISES FUNDS FOR 2016
The Lyon County chapter of
Quail Forever held their annual
fundraiser and banquet at the Lyon
County Fairgrounds on Saturday
night.
“This is the event where the
chapter will raise some funds, get
some local people to come out
and have a good time and spend
some money,” said Marc Glades,
the south region field manager
for Quail Forever. “These are the
funds which allow us to do our
projects with area youth.”
According to Nik Roth, the president of the Lyon County Quail
Forever chapter, all of the money
raised at the event will stay local.
Kansans may be paying less
at the pumps, but those low gas
prices aren’t necessary good
news for the state’s economy.
Edward Cross, president of
the Kansas Independent Oil and
Gas Association (KIOGA), fears
that continued lower oil prices
over the next few months will
accelerate declines in oil production. Speaking Monday, Cross
told members of the Kansas
House Energy and Environment
Committee that price declines
at the gas pump have a downside.
“I think most people would
rather pay $1.50 for gas than
they would $4 per gallon for gas,
but in order to fill up a vehicle,
you have to have an income
first,” Cross said. “So while we
may enjoy lower gasoline prices,
it does not compensate for the
collapse in capital and the rising unemployment in the U.S.
economy.”
Last year, many companies in
Kansas cut their capital expenditures — the funds oil and gas
companies use to maintain or increase their operations — by 75
to 80 percent. These cuts hurt
both the state and the federal
economy since capital expenditures help build infrastructure,
create jobs, and strengthen investment in futures. Companies
had to defer well completions
— meaning no new oil wells
KENDRA JOHNSON/GAZETTE
Larry Edwards looks at paintings up for auction at the Quail
Forever fundraiser and banquet.
Imagine Emporia Together is
holding its third and final meeting Tuesday from 5 to 7 p.m. at
Emporia High School, 3302 W.
18th Ave.
The meeting will be a “come
and go” event where people can
come to view and provide fVVF&6