Initiative hopes to ease boom’s impact

Anew Permian Strategic Partnership encompassing 17 oil companies will invest $100 million in community development efforts to improve quality of life in the Permian Basin in West Texas and Southeast New Mexico.

The group, which announced its creation and goals on Nov. 19, includes some of the world’s largest producers, such as Chevron, ExxonMobil and Royal Dutch Shell. The partnership aims to alleviate the strain on local resources that has accompanied a years-long boom in the Permian, including housing shortages, traffic congestion, overtaxed healthcare, overcrowded schools and labor shortages.

“Chevron and our peer companies came together some time ago to discuss the challenges our employees and communities were facing in the Permian, and what has emerged is a unique partnership aiming to help the Permian region thrive,” said Jeff Gustavson , Chevron Mid-Continent Business Unit vice president in an email to the Journal. “This partnership will help us collectively work with local, state and national officials, nonprofit organizations and other leading institutions to strategically plan for the region’s growth in a way that improves quality of life in the region for years to come.”

The rush to drill in the Permian has generated unprecedented production on both sides of the state border. But it’s has stressed infrastructure in the region.

To address those issues, the partnership will open a local

office with leaders and staff in early 2019, and then launch community meetings to gather input for a multiyear effort to help ensure safer roads, superior schools, quality healthcare, affordable housing and a trained workforce.

“As employers, we want workers to move here with their families, build careers, and become part of the community,” the partnership said in its public announcement.

That’s critical for continued growth and prosperity in the oil patch, which the group believes will withstand market ups and downs to sustain production for years to come.

“While the oil and gas business is inherently cyclical, we are convinced that what is happening in the Permian today points to resilience that is different from the boom and bust cycles of the past,” the partnership said. “Advances in technology and improved operating efficiencies have helped us produce safely and profitably even when prices are relatively low. We have analyzed various scenarios and believe that, even in a downturn, Permian production will continue to grow in the coming years.”

The partnership did not specify how spending will be divided between New Mexico and Texas.