A fairly amazing story rose to my attention this week when the American Petroleum Institute (API) noted in an X post that two counties in southeastern New Mexico—Lea and Eddy—now account for 78 percent of oil produced on federal lands in the U.S. onshore. It’s a stunning, unprecedented dominance by such a compact land footprint.

The reasons for this dominance are no secret: Lea and Eddy counties sit atop the heart of the prolific Delaware Basin, which makes up the western half of the greater Permian Basin region.

While the Delaware does extend south into Texas, the federal government owns very little land in the Lone Star State outside of its numerous military installations. It’s a different story in Lea and Eddy, where the feds own more than 60% of the acreage in Eddy County and roughly 30% in Lea.

These two counties, with a combined population of roughly 130,000, produced about 2.1 million barrels per day of total oil at the end of 2024. That output doesn’t just fuel the national grid and refineries; it fills state coffers with production taxes, royalties, and lease bonuses that benefit every New Mexican. Indeed, the oil and gas industry funds more than 40% of the state’s budget every year despite the........

© Independent Journal Review