MIDLAND, Texas — Wednesday was a good day for oil and gas: crude oil closed just above $40 a barrel.
It's been a wild few months in the Permian Basin, but a local economist says it's only up from here.
Although the economy is not where it was when 2020 began, a local financial analyst says that things have stopped getting worse and that's the first step to recovery.
"Oil prices have bounced back they've almost doubled back up to around $40 and they seem relatively stable at that price," said Mickey Cargile, owner of Cargile Investment Management.
It appears that the worst of the downturn is behind us, and while that's an encouraging sign, Cargile says we aren't entirely out of the woods yet.
"Now there's still going to be more layoffs that are still part of the process of the overall bust but it's still not going to be as bad as it was a couple of months ago," said Cargile.
So where does the economy go from here? Cargile believes it's up to consumers.
"Start using more gasoline, and jet fuel as we become more active and get out of the shut-in phase we're going to see the price of oil increase because of the increase in demand," said Cargile.
As our region enters the next phase of recovery, Cargile says that we're in a better position than in recent downturns in years past. That's because people are still spending money, keeping our economy stimulated.
He says the housing market has played a role in propping up our economic standing. Interest rates are low, driving more people to buy a home.
"We have a higher point to launch and I do believe that we have a stronger core economy in our area than we've ever had in the past," said Cargile.
Cargile expects oil prices to have fully recovered by the end of the year.