New Mexico’s future is linked to the Permian Basin

As we welcome 2024, we have a moment to reflect on the triumphs of the past 12 months and plan for the future.

Political instability worldwide has increased the need for a secure and reliable energy source in the U.S. and for our allies. We are thankful that the answers lie close to home, as southeastern New Mexico and the greater Permian Basin proved invaluable to the global energy market.

However, keeping up with this demand requires a sustained investment in our community. By 2025, 40% of U.S. domestic production will come from our region, up 7% from our current output. By 2040, we’ll need an additional 190,900 jobs to keep pace.

Fortunately, investment efforts are underway. 2024 marks the five-year anniversary of the Permian Strategic Partnership. Since our founding, we have grown exponentially, including seven new members this year alone. These industry leaders and university systems united with a shared goal — investing in quality health care, education, roads and workforce development, which is what we, together with our community partners, have done.

For health care, we’re focused on both physical and mental health. Medical workers are the backbone of our community, and the Permian Basin has been grappling with a shortage. In 2022, the partnership committed $10.6 million over five years to help fill nursing and physician openings in the region by expanding enrollment in our nursing and premed programs to funnel into the Texas Tech University Health Sciences Center Family Medicine residency as well as the University of Texas Permian Basin nursing program.

The Permian Strategic Partnership invested about $2.3 million in the Permian Basin Counseling and Guidance center in Carlsbad. Since the center’s opening, more than 8,000 counseling sessions have been conducted with more than 900 unique clients, and the number of available licensed counselors has been expanded by providing supervision for clinicians working toward becoming fully licensed.

Education efforts focus on introducing students to the energy industry. An internship program will be in its third year next summer; eight districts were served in 2023, with 10 planned for 2024. The program brought the industry to over 30 high-school students across New Mexico and provided a hands-on experience, with instruction from industry professionals on topics such as automation, drilling, safety and drone usage.

The partnership also invested $10 million in the Career and Technical Education Center of Hobbs, and school administrators and teachers in Hobbs and Carlsbad have engaged with the Holdsworth Center on a development program to strengthen the leadership pipeline.

Supplying lifesaving equipment to first responders has improved safety. The Permian Strategic Partnership has donated almost 2,000 pieces of equipment, from personal protective gear, safety vests and first-aid kits to radios, field lights and thermal imaging cameras, to 21 police and fire departments in Chaves, Eddy and Lea counties.

Southeastern New Mexico is not the only part of the state that benefits from these investments. $5.8 billion, or 35%, of New Mexico’s state budget — including more than one-third of the total funding for the state’s schools — comes directly from the economic output of our region.

And that’s up from $3 billion the previous year. People living In Eddy and Lea counties are just 9.3% of New Mexico’s population but generate more than a quarter of the state’s private sector gross product.

As much as we have accomplished, our work is far from done. Our mission does not have an expiration date. The impact and prominence of the Permian Basin will only grow over the next decade. The leaders at the Permian Strategic Partnership are committed to continuing to work with leaders across our region to improve education, health care, safety and more for energy workers and their families well into the future.

Don Evans is chairman and Tracee Bentley is CEO of the Permian Strategic Partnership, a collaboration between local communities and oil and gas companies operating in the Permian Basin.