Oklahoma: A Story Through Her People

Unemployment levels have trended about
three percentage points below the national
average for the past several years. Underlying
much of the optimism about the state’s
economic future is the belief that the old
days of boom and bust in the oil and gas
industry are gone. Any boom experienced
in the all important energy sector will be
tempered from time to time by normal
business cycles, but the severe downturns
that plagued the state several times during
its first century are not coming back.
Energy officials believe that new drilling
technologies will prevent busts by maintaining
steady production. Previous price spikes
were caused by shortages, which now can
be avoided. New methods of seismic underground
mapping, horizontal drilling, and
more-precise hydraulic fracturing are tools
that will increase production and drive
down prices.
Oklahoma has been a major player in
oil and gas production for its life as a state.
More than a dozen of the largest natural
gas fields ever discovered in the nation are
within the boundaries of Oklahoma. The
petroleum-rich history of the state produced
leaders who made fortunes from pulling
crude and gas from beneath the surface.
John W. Nichols, a young accountant in
Oklahoma City, and co-founder of Devon
Energy, won approval by the Securities and
Exchange Commission of the first oil and gas
funding proposal. The idea changed the way
that oil and gas production was financed
around the world.
O K L A H O M A : A S t o r y T h r o u g h H e r P e o p l e
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