The two main authors of a recent Texas Tech study about the economic impacts of the local oil and gas industry told the Permian Basin Petroleum Association their findings suggest a sustained boom.

“The boom and bust is getting smaller,” said Brad Ewing, professor of energy economics in the Rawls College of Business, a co-author of the study. “That makes the economics favorable for years to come.”

The university researchers attempted to estimate the economic output stemming from the Permian Basin’s oil and gas production for 2013. The PBPA commissioned and assisted the study, seeking a third-party analysis they can use in lobbying lawmakers in Texas, New Mexico and Washington D.C.

The study found the oil and gas industry generated nearly $138 billion in economic output last year. The researchers also tied more than 440,000 jobs in Texas to the industry in the Permian and $60.2 billion in gross state product.

“The kind of impact we are having is not occurring anywhere else in the country,” PBPA President Ben Shepperd told his members Thursday. “You all know that. We need to make sure that everybody else knows it.”

The data is already somewhat dated after the ramp-up of the past year. Since January, oil production has increased to about 1.7 million barrels of oil equivalent per day this month. The rig count has increased by more than 100 from the same time last year.

The researchers cautioned that regulatory changes or sudden price drops could curb the Permian Basin boom, but said companies are finding cheaper ways to produce crude, helping to reduce their sensitivity to minor price swings.

Marshall Watson, a department chair of petroleum engineering at Texas Tech who worked with Ewing on the study and a former Midland oilman, said horizontal wells should be closely watched as a measure of activity.

“If you were to look at the rig utilization rate or the rig count in West Texas, it’s been kind of flat for a period of time,” Watson said. “But what you don’t get is that swap over from vertical over to horizontal, it takes more people. And so it is a little misleading. It looks like that activity isn’t picking up, when it really is.”