Economic Impact of the Petroleum Industry on Ellis County, Kansas

This work is aimed at presenting to the reader ideas regarding the importance of the petroleum industry to Ellis County. While the findings and conclusions put forth may not give adequate answers to all questions relating to the various phases of the industry, they should give some explanation regarding the role that the industry plays in the economic development of the county. The introductory chapter gives the purposes for undertaking this work and describes the physical and economic characteristics of Ellis County. It also gives a brief description of the mining industry in the county. Chapter two is devoted to presenting a review of the history of the development of the oil industry in the county. In Chapter three, the emphasis is placed on explaining the method of input-output analysis. This method was utilized by the author in order to show the impact of the oil industry on the economy of Ellis County. The concluding chapter shows the impact on Ellis County of the decrease of oil production in a five-year period. In finishing this thesis the author reached the following conclusions: 1) The impact on the economy of Ellis County attributable to the decrease in the value of oil production of $7,500,000 from 1960 to 1965 was; A) Total purchases made by the petroleum industry from the processing sectors associated with it declined by $3,202,500. B) The direct and indirect effects of the decrease in the value of oil production led to a $10,417,000 decrease in output of all the industries in the processing sectors of the county. C) The output of all sectors, including households, in the county declined by $13,462,500. The total income to households decreased by $2,302,500. D) The per capita personal income decreased by about $102. 2) In a region that is regarded as primarily agricultural, the petroleum production rather than the agricultural production has been the major source of income for Ellis County. But the reserves of oil are not inexhaustible; in fact, the production of oil in the county has been declining since the mid- 1950's. Consequently, the income derived from this production has been declining. Thus, in order for the economy of the county to remain healthy and keep up with the national growth in the standard of living (per capita income,) it is very important that Ellis County undertakes constant planning in order to start or attract industries that will be able to more than fill the gap left by the decline in the oil industry.