There have been a couple major developments in the oil and gas industry over the weekend. Two large players in our area, Devon Energy and WPX Energy, have announced a merger. The new company, which will retain the name Devon Energy, will certainly be one of the largest companies in the Delaware Basin. In fact, production in the Delaware will account for about 60 percent of the new company’s total production. Their current activity in this area is 17 drilling rigs, but the potential is obviously much higher.
Dave Hager (from Devon) will serve as the executive chairman of the board. Rick Muncrief (WPX) will serve as president and CEO. The company will continue to call itself Devon Energy and keep its Oklahoma City headquarters. We’ve had a great relationship with these companies in the past and look forward to working with the new merged Devon Energy in the future. We certainly hope the merged company will recognize the incredible potential in our area and strive to keep all of its employees and assets
Media coverage of our area’s oil and gas industry isn’t always as fair as we desire, but a recent Bloomberg article did a good job capturing the economic concerns many of us have over a proposed ban on fracking on public lands. As most of you already know, much of the oil and gas in Southeastern New Mexico is beneath public lands, while much of the oil in Texas is on private property. A ban of fracking on public lands would shift production away from New Mexico (where the revenue is greatly needed) over to wealthier Texas. Members of our oil and gas community did a great job explaining their concerns in this article, which is viewable on Bloomberg’s web page: https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2020-09-25/the-crown-jewel-of-the-shale-patch-braces-for-a-biden-ban. Our oil and gas companies in the area have recently outlined many of their own developments which will improve on the environment without destroying New Mexico’s economy.
It was not a positive weekend in terms of reducing COVID-19 numbers in Eddy County. According to the New Mexico Department of Health, we had 29 new positives announced on Sunday, which was our second-highest single day total. There were also 11 positive COVID-19 cases announced on Saturday. We need an average of around 4.5 cases per day to meet the “cases per 100,000 requirement” for re-opening our schools. We are still very committed to Dr. Washburn and our school board to helping get our schools back open. Please help us reduce our area’s numbers by practicing social distancing and wearing a face covering when the situation demands it.
Trevor Rogers pitched three innings against the New York Yankees on Saturday. He was pulled early in order to save his arm for the playoffs. He finished the game with four strikeouts on two hits and a walk. The Miami Marlins will be hosted by the Chicago Cubs in the first round of the playoffs at noon MST on Wednesday. Congratulations to Trevor and to all his friends and family members. We also appreciate the excellent local coverage of Trevor’s rookie year by sports editor Matthew Asher.
Sincerely,
Carlsbad Mayor Dale Janway