Oily Entanglements in the US Hydrocarbon Capital

Keywords: oil, infrastructure, storage, hydrocarbons, capital, environment
Session Type: Virtual Paper Abstract
Day: Saturday
Session Start / End Time: 2/26/2022 05:20 PM (Eastern Time (US & Canada)) - 2/26/2022 06:40 PM (Eastern Time (US & Canada))
Room: Virtual 5

Abstract

From the drilling of biogenic deposits of carbon concealed deep underground, to the extraction, piping and storage of these substances above ground - hydrocarbons are entangled with time and space. So too are their exchange values that are the subject of material infrastructure constraints, global geopolitics, and futures markets, which transcend material-spatial limits to capital and invite virtually unbridled exchange and speculative activity. This complex of spatial, material and temporal entanglements came into sharp relief when the price of West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude oil fell by 306% on Monday 20 April 2020 to close at -$37.63 per barrel .

But how do these complex infrastructures shape a city?

In this paper, I draw on ethnographic data to explore how material and immaterial storage infrastructures have come to shape Houston, Texas. From the massive hydrocarbon processing and storage facilities that line the Houston ship channel (formerly the mouth of the Buffalo Bayou), to the pipelines that connect this infrastructure to sites of extraction and the nearby office towers where decisions about infrastructure are made, Houston is a city built by and spatially configured around oil and gas. An immense and racially diverse city built on a vast swamp land that doubles as a transcontinental corridor for migratory wildlife, these infrastructures shape life around them. In the process, I argue, human and other-than-human entities become entangled in contemporary processes of capital accumulation in the hydrocarbon industry in divergent and highly unequal ways.