West Chester-based Schramm is drilling deeper into the potential of technological innovation, and the efficiencies are flowing freely — so freely, in fact, that the rebounding oil and gas industry may cause an employment crisis among those whose jobs computers are replacing.

“People have left the industry, and they are not coming back,” said Schramm Vice President for Portfolio and Strategic Development Michael Dynan in a report for The New York Times by Clifford Krauss. “If it’s a repetitive task, it can be automated, and I don’t need someone to do that. I can get a computer to do that.”

The oil industry as a whole has lost 163,000 jobs since 2014, and current estimates are that a third to a half won’t come back. Meanwhile, despite the smaller workforce, Schramm has helped oil producers ramp up the flow from 8.6 million barrels a day last September to nine million barrels now.

The key in all of it has been technology. Over the past three years, the break-even cost to drill has dropped from $60 per barrel to just $35, the article explained.

Read more about technology’s influence on oil drilling in The New York Times here, and check out previous VISTA Today coverage of Schramm here.