The Longview (TX) News Journal reports that “all signs pointed to a slowdown in the state’s oil and gas industry this past year, but Texas production instead intensified to record levels, spurred by higher-than-expected oil prices driven by overseas turmoil, a new industry report shows.”  

“Statewide crude oil production is now poised to surpass its 1972 all-time high within two years, Karr Ingham, an economist for the Texas Alliance of Energy Producers, said.”  

“’It looks to me you’d have to have a fairly dramatic set of circumstances to prevent that from happening,’ he said.”