From the Carlsbad Current-Argus
At this year’s Carlsbad Mayor’s Oil and Gas Summit eight speakers presented at the fourth annual event. Approximately 900 people, including state and local officials and representatives from oil and gas companies, attended the free summit Monday at the Walter Gerrells Performing Arts Center in Carlsbad.
Following an introduction and welcome speech by Carlsbad Mayor Dale Janway, New Mexico Lt. Gov. John Sanchez addressed the audience to discuss New Mexico’s role in the industry.
“As I said last year at the summit, the importance of energy production in New Mexico and across the nation simply cannot be overstated. You see, New Mexico is currently the sixth largest net supplier of energy in the nation, primarily because of petroleum and natural gas production. In fact, we are the largest petroleum producer in the eight Rocky Mountain states, and we produce almost 4 percent of the nation’s crude oil,” Sanchez said. “New Mexico’s resource production potential, folks, is simply world class.”
Sanchez said approximately 68,000 jobs (9 percent of employment in New Mexico) are a direct and indirect result of the state’s oil and gas industry.
Wally Drangmeister, vice president of New Mexico Gas and Oil Association, said a number of misconceptions about the oil and gas industry are currently circulating, including that oil and gas production requires large amounts of water. Drangmeister said less than one quarter of 1 percent of water used in New Mexico was used for hydraulic fracturing.
Keynote speaker Antoine Halff, director of the Global Oil Markets Research Program with the Center on Global Energy Policy at Columbia University, discussed the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) and the current status of oil and gas producing countries including Saudi Arabia and Iraq.
Terry Calhoun, sales manager for Brewer Oil Co., said he enjoyed the presentations by Halff and Frank Schroeder, vice president of Delaware Basin Business Unit with Devon Energy. Calhoun said that he found Schroeder’s comments regarding the Permian Basin the most interesting of the morning.
