In the oil fields of northern Montana, industry veteran Mac McDermott watched crude prices whipsaw from $75 a barrel in January to more than $120 as Russia pressed its war in Ukraine, then down again when coronavirus worries in China raised the specter of a global slowdown.
McDermott said his family-owned company will modestly increase drilling if oil prices stabilize. But for the next few months, he’s waiting on the sidelines and struggling to get enough workers to watch over roughly 100 oil wells the company operates. That includes some wells idled during the pandemic that he's been trying to bring online since last year.
