Will New Mexico’s Ocean Of Oil Matter In 2040?

Will New Mexico’s Ocean Of Oil Matter In 2040?

The Delaware basin is the premier oil and gas basin in the USA. The value of oil and gas at the wellhead was $24 billion/yr in 2019 "” a staggering amount of money. The Delaware basin has around 45, 000 oil and gas wells down in the southeast part of New Mexico - near the towns called Carlsbad and Artesia and not far from Carlsbad Caverns. Royalties and taxes on these wells provide revenue to the state and it's been a windfall in recent years. Revenue to the NM general fund was $2. 2 billion in FY 2018, $3. 1 billion in FY 2019, and $2. 8 billion in FY 2020. For FY 2020, the $2. 8 billion revenue was over a third of the state budget, with $1. 4 billion going to education and over $0. 6 billion to health services. NM crude oil production through 2021 - most from Delaware basin. The exponential rise of the last five years was spectacular (Figure 1) and the simple reason is the Delaware basin contains an ocean of oil. In late 2018 the USGS (United States Geological Survey) did an assessment and came up with 46 billion barrels of recoverable oil,