Governor says state has Basin's back

Mar. 29—Gov. Greg Abbott said Tuesday in Odessa that the state's new law prohibiting all Texas companies from contracting with or investing in companies that divest from the energy industry has put a serious crimp in the operations of institutions like CitiBank and the BlackRock investment management corporation.

Referring to Senate Bill 13, enacted last year for non-compliant institutions to be excluded from participation in state-managed pension funds, Abbott said, "Citibank is no longer getting the municipal bond deals they used to get and BlackRock is trying to dance on both sides of this issue, which shows that we got their attention."

Also T-boning President Joe Biden and his administration, the governor said the administration's hostility to oil and gas has stifled capital investment in the industry. "Their hostility against the oil and gas sector shows up in the defunding or inadequate investment," he said.

"We operate at the speed of business in Texas and they slow down the process."

Asked if there is anything else the state can do to increase oil and gas production in the Permian Basin, Abbott said it has cut regulations and expedited the eminent domain process in which the government may pay compensation and expropriate private property for public use.

"The Biden administration started the rise in gasoline prices by shutting down the Keystone XL pipeline project because people knew demand would increase as we came out of covid," he said.

Abbott said the administration should open up the permitting process and stop the prohibition of leasing for drilling on federal lands.

He held a 15-minute news conference at the ChampionX submersible pump manufacturing company southwest of town on the north side of I-20.

That followed a private half-hour roundtable discussion with company executives Shankar Annamalai and Chase Alexander and employees Mike Goethe, Desmond Jackson, Rick Moreno, Monika Griesser, Joe Cruz, Lindsey Springer, Joe Weatherford, Saul Luna, Tim Stephens, Jerry Herring, Raul Pando and Keith Jackson.

Representatives of Diamondback Energy, ConocoPhillips, Occidental Petroleum, Pioneer Natural Resources and the Permian Strategic Partnership also took part.

Annamalai expressed gratitude "for government leaders leaning into the conversation."

Reporting that ChampionX also features chemical technologies and emissions management along with artificial lifts "to move fluids safely out of the ground," the company's director of sales and operations said it has 900 employees at more than 20 locations in the Basin.

Chase Alexander, the firm's regional sales manager, said it has been in operation for 75 years, helping the private sector to drive technological advancements and assisting its customers in the cleaner production of oil and gas.