{"id":127961,"date":"2026-01-18T11:45:17","date_gmt":"2026-01-18T11:45:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/127961\/"},"modified":"2026-01-18T11:45:17","modified_gmt":"2026-01-18T11:45:17","slug":"here-in-midland-texas-the-last-thing-anyone-wants-is-cheap-venezuelan-oil","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/127961\/","title":{"rendered":"Here in Midland, Texas, the Last Thing Anyone Wants Is Cheap Venezuelan Oil"},"content":{"rendered":"

MIDLAND, Texas\u2014For most Americans, cheap oil is good news. In Midland, Texas, it is a problem.<\/p>\n

Oil prices have mostly slumped since last spring, and the U.S. intervention in oil-rich Venezuela is stoking President Trump\u2019s desire to push prices down further. This raises a new risk for Midland, where restaurants are already less crowded, barbers are idling around waiting for customers and a host of businesses linked to the oil field are feeling squeezed. On the local Facebook Marketplace, shiny Ford F-150 pickup trucks are listed for sale at bargain prices.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cIf you want a new jet ski, right now is the best time to buy,\u201d said Taylor Sell, chief executive at Element Petroleum, a small oil producer. <\/p>\n

Here in the heart of the Permian Basin<\/a>, America\u2019s fracking capital, economic fortunes rise and fall with energy prices. A big electronic billboard in downtown Midland shows current market rates for oil and gas and the local oil-rig count, along with motivational slogans like \u201cbroken crayons still color.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

Copyright \u00a92026 Dow Jones & Company, Inc. All Rights Reserved. 87990cbe856818d5eddac44c7b1cdeb8<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"MIDLAND, Texas\u2014For most Americans, cheap oil is good news. In Midland, Texas, it is a problem. Oil prices…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":127962,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[55099,55100,15605,19794,55096,19788,8376,55095,451,55097,8377,19795,458,497,19789,34798,55098,55101,2277,55108,55107,55109,55110,55104,463,462,461,55102,55103,450,55105,35444,465,473,55106,27,29,28,464,23159,474],"class_list":["post-127961","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-texas","tag-ben-shepperd","tag-bubba-dobson","tag-ce-exclusion-filter","tag-commodity","tag-commodity-markets","tag-commodity-financial-market-news","tag-content-types","tag-developing-economies","tag-energy","tag-energy-markets","tag-factiva-filters","tag-financial-market-news","tag-fossil-fuels","tag-gas","tag-gcapi","tag-hard-commodities","tag-hard-commodities-markets","tag-kyle-patterson","tag-latin-america","tag-linki1-wp-wsj-0003243812","tag-linki11-wp-wsj-0003243812","tag-linki2-wp-wsj-0003243812","tag-linki3-wp-wsj-0003243812","tag-nemecio-torres","tag-north-america","tag-oil","tag-oil-gas","tag-pat-dennis","tag-paul-kenworthy","tag-photo-commission","tag-ruby-ramirez","tag-south-america","tag-southern-u-s","tag-synd","tag-taylor-sell","tag-texas","tag-texas-headlines","tag-texas-news","tag-united-states","tag-venezuela","tag-wsj-pro-wsj-com"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/127961","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=127961"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/127961\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/127962"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=127961"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=127961"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=127961"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}