The Crown Jewel of the Shale Patch Braces for a Biden Ban
Soldiering on in the aftermath of the crude price crash, New Mexico’s oil workers say their biggest fear is the outcome of November’s election
With the U.S. oil industry reeling from the collapse in demand this year, the New Mexico shale patch has emerged as the go-to spot for drillers desperate to squeeze as much crude from the ground without bleeding cash. There’s just one problem: Joe Biden wants to ban new fracking there.
Just over the border with Texas, in a two-county stretch that forms the far western edge of the Permian shale basin, there are more rigs boring oil wells today than anywhere else in the nation. The rock here, once overlooked by wildcatters obsessed with the much-bigger Texas side, has quietly become the most profitable place to produce oil in America. That’s attracting cash-strapped fracking outfits after the pandemic pushed crude prices down to just $40 a barrel.