permian 

This collection of Limited Edition print images reflects the changing landscape in The Permian Basin region of West Texas. It is not intended to express any opinions about activities it depicts, but simply record elements of this place at this time in its history.

The Permian Basin in West Texas is the vast geological region stretching from its eastern boundary around Abilene to beyond Van Horn to the west. It extends north into New Mexico and nearly Lubbock, Texas and is starkly bounded to the south by the Big Bend country. It is 250 miles wide, 300 miles long, and all in all covers 86,000 square miles. Only 10 of the 50 US states encompass more land than the Permian Basin region. But while large in size, its total population contains less than 500,000 residents. In the center is Midland, with a population not much more than 150,000, and Loving County in the western reaches is the second least populated county in the US, with few more than 100 residents.

The Permian may be most noted for its history of oil and gas exploration and production dating back to the early 20th century. Prior to that, however, it was roamed for centuries by Native Americans, mostly from the Apache and Comanche tribes. When American settlers began to venture west into this vast desert-like region in the late 19th century with its volatile and hostile weather, they established their presence with farms and ranches which continue today. While for much of The Permian’s human history mankind largely utilized the lands’s surface to produce food, it was the resources found and developed underground that largely provided the incentives and support for economic creation and greater wealth.

With its roughly 100-year history of oil and gas exploration and production, The Permian has experienced economic cycles common in that industry and thus the accompanying booms and busts. These have in turn caused significant increases and decreases in the size of the communities that dot the vast landscape. Several times throughout their histories the larger communities like Midland, Odessa, and Big Spring have experienced significant inflows and outflows of people and businesses, and likewise for many of the smaller communities in the region. But no matter how prolific the events of the past have been, today The Permian is experiencing an economic surge, but unlike any time in its history this surge is the result of activities from multiple energy sources; oil and natural gas from underground, and wind on the surface.

Not long after Spindletop field was discovered in Southeast Texas in 1901, Texas has held and produced the largest oil and gas reserves in the United States. And until the Prudhoe Bay field in Alaska was discovered in the 1960’s, The Permian contained the second largest single oil field in the US. Through a US Government study in 2018 based on drilling and production results by modern oil and gas industry exploration companies, it was determined that the Permian Basin may contain over 40 billion barrels of extractable crude oil equivalent reserves in just the western portion of the basin alone, this area known as the Delaware Basin. For reference, just 10 years ago and before the advent of further and significant improvements in horizontal drilling and fracking completion technologies, the US Government believed the Delaware Basin contained only slightly more than 1 billion barrels of remaining recoverable oil reserves. And for additional perspective, in 2008 the total US oil production was 5 million barrels of oil per day and on the decline and causing oil prices to reach $100 per barrel and more.  Yet as a result of the technological improvements and ongoing exploration and development, in 2019 US production is now expected to exceed 12 million barrels of oil per day and oil prices are half of what they were 10 years ago.  The vast majority of the US oil production increase is found in the Permian Basin.

At the same time, in just the last decade or so Texas has become the largest wind energy producer in the US, with most of that coming from the Permian area, along with the Panhandle of Texas to the north. The rapid development of wind generated power in The Permian has mostly occurred in eastern portions of the region. In these areas, it is evident that the farming and ranching landowners and related communities are now experiencing the economic benefits of both oil and wind energy extraction processes. Texas now counts over 10,000 wind turbines and these towering power generating windmills with massive turbines atop are found alongside both aging and new oil and gas drilling and production sites. Traveling from east to west across The Permian, these two energy extraction methods can be found feathered together until one reaches west of Midland, where oil and gas then make up all of the energy related activities extending to the western boundaries of The Permian.

The economic impact of these activities in The Permian Basin are evident, from shortages of employees, to traffic jams and temporary housing reflecting the stress on the existing infrastructures. At the same time, the demise in farming in some areas of the western regions is also evident, with abandoned farm buildings where cantaloupes are no longer produced due to operating costs increases in the 1970's. It is clear that the "shale revolution" has augmented, and in some areas replaced, one form of farming with another, and in that way The Permian reflects mankind's efforts to continue to live off these lands.