Population – Energy in Society Lab

Things Heat Up in the Permian Basin

While not the hottest region in the state, the Permian Basin experiences cyclical drought. Below is a graph from NOAA map tracking Texas drought conditions.

There is not a direct, causal relationship between regional drought levels and total Texas oil production. After the early 1930s total allowable production rates were set by state officials who made decisions based upon known oil reserves and the global market. However, since most oil was extracted from rural areas, the wealth generated through oil production was even more important in drought years.

Below is a map tracking annual Texas oil production (in millions of barrels) starting in 1935 and ending in 2015. Data is from the Texas Railroad Commission. A comparison between the Texas Railroad Commission Data and a NOAA map tracking Texas drought conditions reveals some interesting historical context.

Population and Depletion

During the 1950s, the oil industry underwent massive expansion. That decade also coincides with extended drought in the Permian Basin. Oil expansion kept the region’s cattle ranchers and farmers from bankruptcy.

Also, as oil production increased during the drought-plagued 1950s, the industry put increased strain on the region’s limited potable groundwater. The late 1940s and early 1950s were marked by a regional water crisis only solved through the daming of the Colorado River and the creation of the Colorado River Municipal Water District to provide drinking water for regional settlements.

What does all this mean?

It is clear that the future of Permian Basin oil extraction, like many of the oil producing regions around the world, depends upon an artificially abundant and finite water supply.

Early Arrivals

I Between 1923 and 2015 over 29 billion barrels of crude oil and 75 trillion cubic feet of natural gas were pulled from beneath the Texas Permian Basin, making it one of the most prolific oil-producing regions in the world. The search for oil altered the region’s desert ecology and economy, facilitating the growth of a complex industrial network connecting the isolated region to a global system of extraction and commerce.

In the early 1920s, oil discovery prompted an immediate population boom, bringing thousands to Texas’ least populous counties. Oil production, and human migration to West Texas, slowed down in the early 1930s due to a combination of the Great Depression and the discovery of the East Texas field. However, the population boom picked up again in the late 1930’s, continuing – with some exceptions – until the 1970s.

The population of the region’s more rural counties, such as Andrews, Yoakum Howard, and Glasscock, rose and fell as much as 90 percent in response to oil production.

In contrast, the region’s urban centers of Odessa and Midland experienced steady population expansion until the 1990s. For example, in 1940 the population of Midland County was 9,352. In 1950 it increased to 21,713. It increased again 1960 to 62,625.

Its All Relative

However, these numbers are relative. Population boom in the sparsely populated western half of the state made up only a fraction of the total Texas population. This was true in 1920, and has continued until the present day.

Above data from US census 1890-1990. “Permian Basin Population” represents county-level data. Counties of Permian Basin as determined by Texas RR Commission .