Though oil production continues to withstand weaker prices, the environment in the Texas oil and gas sector is in decline, an economist said. “We’ve not begun the year moving in the right direction, and the continued deterioration of market conditions likely signals additional industry downsizing and job loss in the coming months,” Karr Ingham, an economist who created the Texas Petro Index, said in a statement. The TPI, compiled for the Texas Alliance of Energy Producers, is used as an indicator to gauge the health of the state’s energy sector. Ingham said it’s “quite safe” to assume a downward trajectory will persist for the upstream, or exploration and production, side of the Texas energy sector. Ingham estimated […]