Jul. 6—Oil production in New Mexico is up, and industry spills are down.
The Center for Western Priorities released oil and gas spill data last month as part of an annual Mountain West spills report. The 2024 numbers cover New Mexico, Wyoming and Colorado, which cumulatively spilled more than 7 million gallons of drilling-related liquids.
New Mexico is responsible for more than half of that total, accounting for 4.8 million gallons spilled last year, according to the report, though the state is also the second-highest oil producer in the country. Colorado is the fourth-largest producing state, according to the U.S. Energy Information Administration, and Wyoming is even lower down on the list.
New Mexico produces about three to six times more than the other two states, respectively.
Industry oil spills often come in the form of leaky equipment and include oil, drilling wastewater and drilling fluids.
But the actual number of spills, which the state requires operators to disclose, has recently gone down, despite production shooting up. From 2023 to 2024, oil and gas production in New Mexico increased by 10% while spills decreased by 10%.
“It’s reports like this that really highlight that our companies’ efforts are making a difference, and we know that those efforts will only continue to grow as technology allows us to do so,” said Missi Currier, president and CEO of the New Mexico Oil and Gas Association.
However, the numbers are likely an undercount since they’re based on self-reporting, said Kate Groetzinger, communications manager for the Center for Western Priorities. She added that the number of spills has gone up and down over the past decade, not necessarily directly correlating with production levels.
The largest number of spills in New Mexico over the past decade happened in 2020, when operators reported 188,585 incidents. For comparison, operators reported 114,546 incidents last year — when oil production was nearly double that of 2020.
It’s too early to definitively say if relatively new state regulations are the cause for the reduction in spills, Groetzinger said, specifically referring to fines for spills. Since 2020, the state Oil Conservation Division has been able to assess civil penalties of up to $2,500 per day for spills.
The state also requires that all operators capture at least 98% of their produced gas by 2027 — something operators seem to already be on top of. The center’s data shows operators captured 99.67% of methane in 2024.
New Mexico’s rules are much more stringent than those in Texas, which also fines operators for spills but often at a lower scale. Texas has a sliding scale of fines, often ranging from $250 to $1,000 one-time base penalties, depending on the amount of spills and operator cooperation.
In 2023, environmental measurement and analysis firm Kayrros found that Texas emits methane at more than double the rate that New Mexico does. The news prompted Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham at the time to defend her state’s stricter regulations, which often draw ire from operators and more conservative policymakers.
The concern is that oil and gas companies will cross the border to do business in Texas instead. Currier said New Mexico is already losing operators to its less stringent neighbor.
Currier added that NMOGA wants the state to hold bad actors accountable, but it shouldn’t come at the cost of the entire industry. She recommended a tiered approach to policymaking that takes into account the size of companies.
“Just because we have major companies in New Mexico never means that we should put the smaller companies at risk,” she said.
Overall, Currier said that she’s proud of the reduced number of spills and methane leaks in New Mexico and that the existing regulations are working — and the state doesn’t need to add more rules.
Groetzinger said she thinks it’ll still take another few years of data collection to definitively say existing regulations are why spills have gone down.
“These are great regulations. We’re so happy to see regulators in New Mexico really stepping up,” Groetzinger said. “But it’s too soon to say whether those are working. Preliminary data shows that they might be.”