‘$56 a Barrel’: Texas Oilfield Worker Stays at Lodge For Shift. Then He Looks At the Parking Lot

The parking lot tells the story in 30 vehicles. Behind them: a 400-room worker lodge built for the Permian Basin boom. It’s now a monument to its heyday.

And at the West Texas Lodge in Pecos, @oilfielddad, an oil and gas industry worker in the area, spells out doom and gloom as empty rooms outnumber the occupied ones by more than 12 to 1. The creator provides material evidence of a present oil industry downturn that's left workers competing for disappearing jobs as crude prices crater.

The warning

“Hey, man. If you're in the oil and gas industry, listen up. Oil is about $56 a barrel,” he started, with a purposeful pause that indicates a particular seriousness.

He walked out of his lodge building in Pecos, Texas. The creator is at the West Texas Lodge in Pecos, which sits in the heart of the Permian Basin oil region. It is specifically for oilfield workers, and it offers suites with kitchenettes.

“So those buildings behind me?” he asked. “Look how empty it is. You're out here, man? Working? Be thankful. A dude got run off a job just running his mouth.”

He continued walking around, looking into the sparse parking lots. “There are a lot of hungry, hungry people out here. And they'll outwork you. They'll stay longer. They'll do whatever it takes. Especially in this economy. There's 400-plus rooms here. There's like 30 vehicles in the parking lot.”
He offered a note: “Watch your p's and q's.”

The real problem, explained

WTI (West Texas Intermediate) crude oil futures fell to $57.70 per barrel on Dec. 31. It’s barrelling downhill in the steepest annual decline since 2020, though it’s made recent gains. It was about $80 per barrel this time last year.

So what’s the issue?

We’ve got “too much” oil, and it’s (at least) a twofold issue. For one thing, the OPEC+ countries, the U.S., and various other producers are all pumping. But global oil consumption growth is slower than the pre-pandemic average, according to one government report. This letup is being led by slower demand in China, which itself requires a few asterisks.

China once accounted for a 60%+ share of global oil demand growth from 2013-2023, but it has fallen to under 20% as of early 2025,according to Axios. In simple terms, China, which was the major driver of global oil demand, went from accounting for 60% of all new oil demand to just 20% in a year-plus.
Why is this happening? China has significantly pivoted toward EVs. “By last fall, EVs, plug-in hybrids and traditional hybrids together surpassed 50% of China's passenger car sales,” wrote Ben Geman in March 2025.

According to Bloomberg NEF's analysis, EVs will likely displace around 3.6 million barrels of oil a day by next year, and China alone will be responsible for over 2 million of them.

"[T]he data strongly suggest that the combustion uses of petroleum fuel in China have already reached a plateau and that the potential for future growth may be very limited," the IEA (International Energy Agency) analysts state.

The aforementioned asterisks stem from China’s continued need for petrochemicals to produce plastics, which will temporarily ease the slide. However, China’s economy is struggling, just like much of the rest of the developed world. The Chinese government claims the economy expanded by 5.3% year-on-year in the first half of 2025, but an independent group believes the figure is more likely to be below 3%.

You put this together with China’s ongoing existential demographic crisis, its drop in diesel truck usage, and it appears the petro markets are in deep trouble. Most believe China’s oil production is peaking, or has already done so. IEA says there’s likely no way to fully replicate China’s past gains.

Where is the growth going to come from?

How does it affect this roughneck worker and others?

Unfortunately, the doom and gloom forecast could be permanent as China and the world aggressively pursue an EV future. The unseen workers who own those few vehicles that @oilfielddad showed are competing with each other for fewer and fewer jobs, or at least for different jobs.

But they're also losing to Chinese drivers who are choosing the spiffy, affordable BYD electric cars over gasoline vehicles.

Companies are hemorrhaging money on every new well they drill (at a $70 breakeven vs. $56 price).

The cascading effect is obvious. There will be fewer wells and fewer employees. Some local economies that likely have nothing else to pivot to will struggle the most.

The peanut gallery

“Below $60… no profit = no production. Oil people have been saying it was coming!” one man commented. Another person made a claim: “60 k layoffs in the industry last year and more to come this year. Elections have consequences.”

To that point, many of the comments mentioned political consequences.

“Husband worked in oil industry for 45 years,” one woman stated. “Got laid off at the end of last year… you aren’t telling no lies!”

Patch has reached out to @oilfielddad, as well as Corporate Hospitality Services (who own the West Texas Lodge) for comment.

@oilfielddad