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The Houston oil and gas cluster is an excellent example of a cluster that grew out of a natural resource: oil. It provides just one example of how a cluster that began from a comparative advantage-driven approach can evolve to be competitive advantage-driven. The Houston example is provided to show that a natural resource-based cluster can create sustainable growth and provide a positive identity to the region. However, it must be noted that the wealth does not come from the resource itself but from the value-added products and services that develop around it.
Today, when one thinks of Houston, skyscrapers more than super tankers come to mind. The discovery of gushers like Spindletop, 70 miles away in Beaumont, Texas, helped to turn Houston into a major source of oil and natural gas destined for many parts of North America and the world. Petroleum drilling and delivery are much less important than the value-added services that continue to develop with Houston as their home base. Exploration and engineering firms, equipment suppliers, financing syndicates, petroleum trading and many other knowledge-based services have successfully converted Houston's understanding of petroleum into a more than sustainable cluster of companies whose salaries average well above Houston's and the national average. This has yielded a much more stable standard of living for the community than was the case in the days when more wages were tied directly to the highly volatile price of oil. Diagram 4 depicts the interrelationship of the Houston Oil and Gas Cluster industries, service sectors and other organizations.
Diagram 3 - Houston Oil and Gas Cluster
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