VOA常速英语2015--石油价格下跌对德州造成的复合影响（在线收听）

Oil Price Drop Has Mixed Effects on Texas 石油价格下跌对德州造成的复合影响

HOUSTON, TEXAS—

Oil rig workers, known as roughnecks, face unemployment as oil prices fall, but the impact is greater in regions like Alaska and North Dakota, where production costs are higher than they are in the Eagle Ford shale area of south-central Texas.

石油钻塔工人，又名钻工，由于石油价格下降他们经常面临失业,但对阿拉斯加和北达科他州地区则影响更大,相比德克萨斯州中南部伊戈尔福特页岩地区那里的生产成本要更高。

Business has even picked up at Rooster Safety in Pleasanton, Texas, where roughnecks buy gloves, helmets and protective gear.

甚至德克萨斯州商业也因此受到影响,因为石油钻塔工人们经常购买手套,头盔及防护装备。

Store owner James Strange said he'd been getting orders from company purchasing agents who were content with paying more to established suppliers when oil prices were high.

店主詹姆斯·斯特林奇表示他过去一直从公司采购代理人处接到商品订单，因为当油价高的时候人们愿意购买很多商品同供应商们搞好关系。

“Now that oil prices are dropping and people want to watch their budgets, they are willing to take an extra 30 minutes to create an account with us so that they can start purchasing and save some money,” he said.

“现在油价下降,人们开始关注预算,他们更愿意花额外的30分钟同我们开个帐户,这样他们就可以开始采购并且能节省开支。”

By keeping costs low, some projects in south-central Texas can remain profitable as long as the price of oil stays above $40 a barrel.

通过维持低成本,只要油价维持在每桶40美元德州中南部的一些项目仍旧能够盈利。

Economist Adam Perdue at the University of Houston's Institute for Regional Forecasting, who studies the impact of the slowdown on Texas, said that “exploration and production budgets are being cut anywhere from 10 to 50 percent, with most of them being about 30 percent.”

休斯顿大学区域预测机构经济学家亚当·珀杜研究德州经济放缓所造成的影响,“勘探和生产预算被削减10到50%,其中大部分是30%左右。”

He said Houston's economy, which experienced 5 percent growth in recent years, would be affected by the lower spending.

他表示近些年经历5%增长的休斯敦经济将会受到降低开支的影响。

“We are predicting there will be 20,000 fewer jobs than there would have been otherwise," Perdue said. "So, we are still predicting growth in the Houston area. It is just going to slow down to a more reasonable rate of just under 2 percent.”

“我们预测相比以往将会减少20000个工作机会。因此我们仍然预测休斯顿地区呈现增长趋势。只是下跌至略低于2%更合理的程度。”

The slowdown will also affect companies that make pipes and fittings for oil exploration and production, as well as trucking companies that supply sand and chemicals for hydraulic fracturing and many other small businesses that serve the energy industry.

油价下跌也会影响用于石油勘探及生产制造管道及配件的公司，还有为水力压裂技术供应砂土及化学物质的货运公司及其他服务于能源产业的许多小型企业。

But low oil prices are a stimulus to chemical producers that use hydrocarbons to make everything from solvents to fertilizer and plastics. Perdue said new chemical plant construction near Houston would keep many skilled workers employed.

但是低油价对于使用碳氢化合物制造溶剂、肥料及塑料的化学生产商们也是一种刺激。珀杜表示休斯顿附近新建设的化工厂会雇佣很多熟练工人。

“A lot of these roughnecks that are going to lose their jobs out there in the field are going to be able to come home and get a welding job or a construction job,” he said.

“很多在这一领域经常失去工作的人回到家乡后能够找到一份和焊接及建设相关的工作。”

Perdue said oil company analysts see prices rising again in six months or so as the market glut from expanded production decreases.

亚当·珀杜称石油公司分析师们认为价格会在6个月左右市场因为产量扩大供过于求后再次上升。

But, he said, if those assumptions are wrong and oil prices continue to fall, the impact on Houston and Texas in general will be much worse.

但他表示如果这些假设有误而且石油价格继续下跌,那么对德州和休斯顿的影响将会更糟。