Crude Oil Prices Drop 20% Will There Be An Effect On Our Local Economy?

Crude Oil Prices Drop 20% Will There Be An Effect On Our Local Economy?

An opec deal gone bad has caused quite a stir in the stock market.

Earlier monday the dow dropped by eighteen hundred points while the cost of oil per barrel is now at thirty two dollars.

This oil war is great news for consumer energy prices and prices at the pump but how will it affect oil and gas companies right here in acadiana?

News 1's tiffany maddox is live in studio with what state and local leaders say could happen next, tiffany.

Officials told me while this plunge in oil and gas prices is only in the infancy stages, they are monitoring the situation closley saying this has happened before and it was't a pretty picture.

The u.s. stock market took a deep hit early monday as as the s and p dropped by seven percent, halting trading for 15 minutes.

The cause -- the plunge of crude oil prices.

Local economic experts say an o-p-e-c- deal gone bad is the cause of a flood in the oil market."russia is apart of opec, oil producing exporting countries and they decided to not honor the last cutback that saudi arabia was leading and so they saud's have decided to declare an oil war by flooding the market in essence."

Gothreaux says i's a way to keep the o-p-e-c nations in line and unified.

"the price is gonna drop and i's gonna flood the market for awhile until everyone agrees to the cutbacks."

State oil and gas leaders say they are already monitoring the issue."we started to see a reduction in price on friday we saw a 10 percent drop in price and then today we started off with a 30 percent drop w're down to about 25 percent rigth now it rebounded a little bit adn i's continued to drop since then."

While a flood in the market may be good for the consumer, it may cause problems for areas with oil and gas companies - like here in acadiana.

"the bottom line is if prices are low production is going to be curtailed.

Lafayette is a community that is over 30 percent directly dependent on oil and gas activity and tha's down a lot.

Briggs says while this spiral is in its early stages it could affect jobs.

"if this continues this trend of downward pricing and long term increase in production continues, then w'll see lower prices and the impact particulariy to acadiana and south louisiana would significant."

Briggs says that oil and gas leaders will continue to monitor the situation "right now i's hard to say we have to take a wait and see, a mindful pay attention, but le's just hope for the best."

Briggs and gothreaux both talked to me about the last price plunge in 2014-2015 and said that there were many job cuts, but there was a slight rebound.

The louisiana oil and gas association will continue to monitor pricing and consult with oil and gas companies throughout the state if the problem becomes prolonged.

In the studio tiffany maddox, news 15.

We will continue to follow this story and