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By Morten Stahl
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In towns across Texas, Oklahoma, North Dakota, and beyond, oil built more than wells. It built the diners, hardware stores, schools, and Friday night football crowds that grew up around it.
For families who have worked the rigs for generations, the industry is not just a job but an identity.
So when people talk about the energy transition, I understand why many in oil country hear something else entirely: that their way of life is being written off.
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That fear is not imagined, and I do not believe it should be dismissed. According to Bureau of Labor Statistics data, employment in U.S. oil and gas extraction fell to 115,100 in June 2026, down from 187,300 in January 2016, even as production stayed near record highs.
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People who remain in the business have good reason to worry about where their industry is heading.
The consequences reach far beyond oil country. When conflict closed the Strait of Hormuz this year, the World Bank reported that urea fertilizer prices climbed above $850 per metric ton in April, up 80 percent since February.
Nitrogen fertilizer depends on hydrogen, and most of it is still made from natural gas. To me, that means the cost of feeding a family is tied to where and how we produce hydrogen.
But I believe the energy transition does not have to leave the experts who kept the oil and gas industry thriving behind. The problem is that we keep framing it as a fight between the industry that built these communities and the cleaner energy future we need.
That framing protects no one. It leaves workers anxious, slows investment, and hands other countries the chance to lead. There is a better path, and it runs straight through the skills oil country already has.
Natural hydrogen forms and collects underground, much like natural gas. This makes it unlike other forms of hydrogen, not only by being naturally formed, but also by its potential to be the lowest-cost and most environmentally friendly hydrogen at our disposal.
Finding and producing it calls on many of the same skills. Geologists map the subsurface, landmen negotiate with landowners, and drilling crews bring the wells in. I believe someone who has spent a career on an oil rig could work on a hydrogen rig with targeted retraining. These jobs do not need to be invented from scratch. They need to be redirected.
I will be honest: Natural hydrogen will not necessarily be found beneath today’s oil fields. But this workforce has always moved to where the resource is, and it can again.
Because hydrogen is harder to transport over long distances than oil, it is likely to be turned into products like ammonia close to where it is found. That means fertilizer plants, new jobs, and local supply for farmers in the same region.
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The federal government already has a road map for hydrogen. Natural hydrogen should become part of that plan. Funding exploration and workforce development could put American workers at the front of this emerging industry.
If we get this right, the oil industry’s story repeats itself in a new form. New towns and businesses grow around new wells, and experienced crews find work that uses everything they know.
Farmers gain a steadier domestic supply of fertilizer, and the country keeps more natural gas for power, exports, and the data centers our economy increasingly depends on.
The United States would also show the world how to develop this resource, as it did with shale.
If we fail to act, the workforce that powered this country will keep shrinking with nowhere to go.
Families in New York and California will keep paying for supply shocks that start thousands of miles away.
And the early lead America holds in natural hydrogen could slip to countries willing to move faster. Being first is not the same as staying first.
I believe we need clean energy, and the wildfires and extreme weather of recent years show what is at stake.
But even those who disagree should see the case for acting. Demand for energy is rising, oil and gas will not last forever, and natural hydrogen is a resource worth pursuing either way. Policymakers should fund the exploration, and oil country should be invited to lead it.
About the Author: Morten Stahl is the founder and CEO of Natural Hydrogen Ventures, an investment company focused on natural hydrogen exploration and technology. The views expressed in this article are the writer's own.
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