Despite the recovery of the U.S. oil patch in recent months, the crude oil price crash in 2015 and 2016 has hit the economies of the energy producing states. Six of the top eight oil-pumping U.S. states slipped into recession last year, S&P Global Ratings said in a report on Tuesday. Alaska, Louisiana, New Mexico, North Dakota, Oklahoma, and Wyoming saw their economies shrink in 2016, while Texas and Montana had GDP growth much smaller than in 2015, estimates in the report show. “The sharp pullback in exploration and production during the past 18 months has inflicted considerable damage on the economies of the oil producing states,” S&P’s analysts said. In addition, lowered oil production has hit employment levels in all 8 states except Texas, and the seven top oil-producing states except the Lone Star State ranked in the bottom 10 in the U.S. in terms of change in […]