New Mexico Oil Production Among Top 3 in US

Publication: American Oil and Gas Reporter
Issue: July 2018
By Dan Larson

The rapid expansion of oil and natural gas development in Southeast New Mexico has raised the state’s profile among oil producers, increased the flow of revenue to local governments and economies and added thousands of jobs.

Even so, increased production also has come with some growing pains, according to leaders of the state’s second largest industry trade group.

“These are exciting times to be working in Southeast New Mexico,” said Claire Chase, president of the the Independent Petroleum Association of New Mexico.

And partly due to a new strategic alliance with the state’s other industry trade group, the most recent legislative session wrapped up with no new legislation considered harmful to industry, Chase said.

Development in the Delaware Basin, on the western flanks of the giant Permian Basin, has increased so rapidly that reports of strained infrastructure, worker shortages, rising costs and pipeline bottlenecks are common.