NMOGA an advocate for Lea County's oil and gas industry
By Denise Marquez
Hobbs News-Sun, June 10, 2025
During the eighth annual EnergyPlex Conference, attendees got the lowdown on the impact of the oil and gas industry throughout New Mexico and the efforts the New Mexico Oil and Gas Association puts in on educating state residents who are not too fond of the oil patch business.
Missi Currier, NMOGA chief executive officer and president, spoke Tuesday during the annual conference at the Lea County Event Center in Hobbs. Currier shared how NMOGA staff work throughout the state to “champion and push forward the oil and gas industry.”
“Even if you don’t work for oil and gas, even if oil and gas doesn’t pay you. it does fund our schools, it does fund our roads,” she said. “It’s in some of the makeup that some of the ladies are wearing, it’s in the car that you drive, it’s in the cell phone you carry.
“Because of oil and gas, we are very fortunate to live in the world that we do. That is the work that NMOGA does — to help every New Mexican understand how oil and gas benefits their everyday life.”
NMOGA focuses on three main objectives to promote the oil and gas industry throughout the state: regulatory work, legislative advocacy and education efforts, Currier told the audience. She explained NMOGA partners with oil and gas industry leaders and local economic and business entities to share information on the oil and gas business, including how New Mexico produces out of two basins — the San Juan Basin and Permian Basin — and how the state is in the forefront of oil production, bringing in more than $13.26 billion to New Mexico in 2024.
“Texas is the number one oil producer, we are number two,” Currier said. “The only reason that we are a little bit behind Texas is because Texas just has more basins than we do. Texas and New Mexico really drive the entire country forward and I think that is something we should all be incredibly proud of.”
Currier said the $13.26 billion supports almost 49 percent of the state’s budget. Those oil and gas industry dollars are used to fund New Mexico’s roads, healthcare and education, to name a few.
“$7.4 billion goes to our general fund that funds all kinds of things … that improve quality of life throughout New Mexico,” Currier said. “(The oil and gas industry) also drives over 100,000 direct and indirect jobs. We provide billions for education and we also provide for long-term investment for the state.”
Though Currier stated, “that billion stands for ‘boy, is that a lot of money,” she said New Mexico should be a powerhouse within the U.S. and not an economic development tool for other states and countries.
“That $13.26 billion … that is something that we can be very proud of but that is also something a little concerning because New Mexico is unfortunately, a one-trick pony when it comes to the industries that drive our states (in the United States) forward,” Currier said. “We, of course, don’t want to reduce production; if anything, we want to grow it in responsible and sustainable ways. But we also want to ensure that New Mexico can continue to diversify, to build our budget much like, for example, Texas has, Colorado has and California has. Unfortunately, we as New Mexico are one of the best economic development tools for every other state in the country and every other country in the world.”
Currier said of that more than $13 billion, approximately $781 million came back to Lea County last year.
“Is that enough? Of course not, but there is money that comes back to the county to ensure that Corey Needham (Lea County manager) and his team, as well as the city’s leadership can continue to make the places where they live even better for all of you,” she said.
Currier explained many other New Mexico counties benefit from the oil and gas industry. She said Taos County received $89 million and Bernalillo benefited with more than $2.3 billion from the oil and gas industry this past year.
“Taos isn’t really a fan of oil and gas,” she said. “Maybe not everybody that lives there but for the most part they’re like, ‘oil and gas is not for us.’ These numbers show that oil and gas is for you and oil and gas supports the way you move forward. The next region that is sometimes having mixed feelings about (oil and gas) is Bernalillo County. Bernalillo County absolutely benefits from oil and gas.”
Currier also shared the struggles the oil and gas industry experiences in the legislative and regulatory process. She said the state makes it difficult for the industry to thrive and prosper.
“There is often not a ton of love in our current legislative and regulatory process for oil and gas,” she said. “There’s a ton of regulations they have to cut through, there’s a ton of bureaucracy, there’s a ton of waiting, there’s understaffing of agencies, there’s agency folks that don’t like the industry and there’s a laundry-list of things that don’t allow New Mexico industry or New Mexico business to move forward.”
