Permian looks to future at summit

Gov. touts her support of oil and gas, very thankful for its revenue

Major oil and gas companies in the Permian Basin signaled their intent to stay in the region for decades, as production booms in southeast New Mexico and West Texas, and enact environmental policies to sustain the industry’s growth.

Several executives from national producers expressed their optimism during the Carlsbad Mayor’s Energy Summit last week at the Walter Gerrells Performing Arts Center. The annual event was intended to court businesses to operate in the area and inform the community on the industry’s growth.

Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham thanked the gathered crowd of industry leaders and supporters for producing the revenue needed to support her agenda statewide.

“I’m an advocate for the state of New Mexico, that means I’m an advocate for southeast New Mexico and all forms of energy including the fossil fuel industry,” she said.

Lujan Grisham touted her administration’s success in increasing teacher salaries, and vowed to improve roads and infrastructure in southeast New Mexico, in return for an about $2 billion state budget surplus credited to revenue from extraction operations.

She said she planned to invest up to $400 million in state funds to improve roads across the state.

She also announced the creation of a produced water research consortium to begin studying how to manage the oil and gas industry’s water waste.

She vowed to create a regulatory environment to support the oil and gas industry’s efforts to develop technology to recycle and reuse waste water from oil and gas operations.