Maybe it’s because I cut my teeth in business law during a prolonged recession in the Houston area in the mid-to-late 1980’s that followed a boom cycle earlier in the decade, but these kinds of articles always worry me a bit:

Galvanized by the record profits at energy companies, this city, the center of the countryís energy industry, has shaken off the effects of the Enron implosion six years ago and is enjoying its strongest resurgence in more than 20 years, business officials and real estate developers say.
Some energy companies are expanding and putting up new buildings. Others, like Citgo, Schlumberger and Halliburton, have moved their headquarters to Houston. Oil and natural gas companies have helped reduce office vacancy rates to 15 percent, a five-year low, according to Grubb & Ellis, a real estate company. Job growth is double the national average ó 97,400 jobs were created in 2006. The National Association of Realtors says the housing market in Houston is one of the strongest in the country.
ìThe increase in the oil business has made Houston,î said Randall Davis, a Houston condominium developer. ìIt feels a touch like the 1980s ó everyone is out, the restaurants are full, the bars are full. Itís like New York.î
The good news extends across the city. The port recently opened a $1.4 billion container terminal to tackle soaring traffic. In 2006, it handled 1.6 million 20-foot containers, up 29 percent from 2003. At the Texas Medical Center, hospitals and universities are investing billions in new facilities. Residential and mixed-use developments are going up downtown.

Read the entire article here. Houston in 2007 is a very different place than the Houston of 1985, particularly with regard to the more diversified local economy now than back then. But the energy industry remains the primary driver of the economy, although competition for that industry appears to be the bigger risk now than the price risk that has prompted the local economy’s boom and bust cycles through the years. This week’s announcement that Halliburton is moving its corporate headquarters from Houston to Dubai is a definite wakeup call for Houston’s leaders. Just as many Midwestern energy companies abandoned Tulsa for Houston over the past couple of decades, the same thing could happen to Houston as big energy concerns leave for greener pastures overseas.