The Texas oil and natural gas industry is poised to find its “cyclical trough” early this year, according to one of the state’s leading industry groups. 

Texas oil and gas outlook

The state’s share of total U.S. oil production had grown to roughly 42% in 2019, and by the end of 2020 its share was up to 44%, according to the Texas Petro Index (TPI) by the Texas Alliance of Energy Producers. Multiple state upstream indicators such as oil prices and rig counts indicate the industry has made it through the worst of the Covid-19 lows. 

According to the TPI, a few industry jobs were added back in the final four months of 2020 following the low-employment point in August. Estimates showed that of the 78,000 jobs lost, about 2,300 jobs have been added back to oil and gas company payrolls. 

“That the...