If you want to know where America’s oil boom is happening, no need to look at the whole map—because it’s limited to just ten counties in the Permian Basin. Between 2020 and 2024, these small dots in Texas and New Mexico delivered 93% of all U.S. crude oil growth, according to the latest EIA and Enverus data. It’s almost like the rest of the US doesn’t even matter when it comes to oil production growth. The U.S. added 1.9 million barrels per day (bpd) of new crude and condensate output over that stretch. But nearly all of it came from Lea and Eddy counties in New Mexico, plus Martin and Midland on the Texas side. Lea and Eddy alone punched out almost 1 million bpd of growth—more than half the national total. That puts two dusty counties in New Mexico on par with the production increases seen from OPEC heavyweights like Iraq or the UAE in their strongest years. Martin and Midland chipped in another 400,000 bpd, while six more Texas counties—Andrews, Glasscock, Howard, Loving, Reagan, and Ward—added 360,000 bpd combined. Everywhere else in the United States, from Alaska to offshore Gulf of Mexico, growth barely reached 130,000 bpd.

Natural gas exports from the United States to Mexico have grown to record highs in response to increased demand, the U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA) reported Oct. 20. Liquid natural gas (LNG) exports to Mexico, delivered mainly from Texas by pipeline, grew to an average of 6.4 billion cubic feet per day in 2024—about 25 percent above the 2019 level, the agency reported.

Oil and gas operators and water midstream companies are expected to pour billions into the water handling market over the next five years. A new Insight Report by Bluefield Research forecasts that the market will reach $156 billion between 2025 and 2030, averaging $26 billion a year at a 2.1% compound annual growth rate.

U.S. District Judge David Counts’ order vacating the listing of the lesser prairie chicken under the Endangered Species Act is now under appeal. U.S. District Judge David Counts of the Western District of Texas, Midland-Odessa Division, ruled the listing was based on
“foundational error” as the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service acknowledged its error in applying its Distinct Population Segment policy. The Center for Biological Diversity and the Texas Campaign for the Environment are appealing both the court’s denial of their request to intervene and the final order vacating the listing rule to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit.

Midland International Airport recently broke ground on a terminal expansion. The project is estimated at 38 million and will provide a new staging area for passengers, with 6 TSA lines to better accommodate the over 767,000 air passengers at the airport in 2025.