The traffic has returned to highways that months ago were quiet. Stores are opening in previously boarded-up buildings. Restaurants that were dead are bustling again with diners. In downtown Midland — the epicentre of US oil production — an electric sign alternates between showing an American flag and the words: “It’s a great day to drill an oil well.”
Almost two years after the pandemic triggered one of the worst oil price crashes in history — and 12 months after the inauguration of a president championing a transition away from fossil fuels — the heart of America’s oil industry is pumping more than ever before. And there is newfound optimism about the future of the industry despite the area’s vulnerability to changing oil prices.
