By Amanda Leon, founder of OilMoney.io. Houston-raised, came up in the Houston marketing team of Vallourec, and has run Unrth, a brand and growth studio for oil and gas and industrial companies, since 2017, with her boots on client locations in Midland and Odessa. Last reviewed October 20, 2026.

When I'm in Midland, even the highest-rated hotel, an 8 out of 10, has dirt and dust from people's work boots in and around the entire room, and sometimes, unfortunately, in the sheets. The work boots win. The people you sell to out here live and work in that grit, and they can tell whether a seller has ever stood in it. Sell to them like someone who has.

Permian oil and gas spans Texas and New Mexico, with the Midland Basin in Texas and the Delaware Basin crossing into New Mexico. In mid-October 2026 the basin was up on the year, down a hair on the week, and still sore from 2025.

Rigs, Permits, and Production

Baker Hughes counted 272 Permian rigs in the week ending October 16, 2026, down 2 on the week, while the U.S. total held at 603, according to Oil & Gas 360. In the week to October 17, 2025, the Permian count was 251, so the October 16, 2026 count was 21 rigs, about 8 percent, higher than a year earlier.

Keep the other number in your pocket. The count fell through 2025, from 304 rigs at the start of the year to 247 on December 30, 2025, an 18.75 percent drop, per Baker Hughes figures reported by Permian Basin Oil and Gas Magazine. When budgets tighten like that, cold outreach gets cut, and a name the buyer already knows becomes the cheapest lead you have.

Permits are the early read. In September 2026 the Railroad Commission of Texas issued 323 permits to drill new oil or gas holes in District 8, which is run out of Midland. That was the most of any district, out of 759 statewide, while District 7C had 69 and District 8A had 24.

Across the state line, Baker Hughes counted 99 active rigs in New Mexico in the week ending October 9, 2026, up one on the week. And a September 10, 2026 EIA report expects Permian crude to average 6.8 million barrels a day in 2026, 3 percent more than in 2025.

Midland Basin at a Glance

Seven of Texas's top 10 crude oil counties in July 2026 sat on or along the Midland Basin, per preliminary Railroad Commission data. Martin County led the state at 19,833,432 barrels and Midland County was second at 18,418,690. Upton (3rd), Reagan (5th), Andrews (7th), Glasscock (9th), and Howard (10th) also made the list.

Railroad Commission District 8 covers 20 counties, including Andrews, Crane, Ector, Glasscock, Howard, Martin, Midland, Mitchell, and Sterling on the Midland side. For the split between the sub-basins, Enverus's Drilldown Report of December 2, 2025 averaged 250.6 Permian rigs, with 92.7 in the Midland Basin and 135.4 in the Delaware, so the Midland side ran about 37 percent in late 2025.

The EIA, citing the Dallas Fed's March 2026 survey, puts the Midland Basin breakeven at $69 a barrel. Watch where oil trades against that line, because it shapes the budgets you sell into.

I've had my boots on client locations in Midland and Odessa, so each town gets its own map: operators with Midland offices on the Midland page, and service, supply, and equipment companies with Odessa locations on the Odessa page.

Delaware Basin and New Mexico at a Glance

On the Texas side, Reeves, Loving, Ward, Pecos, Culberson, and Winkler Counties sit west of Midland in District 8, which is run out of the Midland office. In preliminary July 2026 data, Loving County ranked fourth in Texas for crude at 8,079,760 barrels, Reeves County ranked first for condensate and second for gas, and Culberson County ranked third for condensate.

Across the line, EagleRock Land's 2026 SEC registration filing puts about 91 rigs in Lea and Eddy Counties in the fourth quarter of 2025. ExxonMobil says it has drilled and completed 1,000 horizontal wells in the New Mexico Delaware Basin since 2017, mainly in Eddy and Lea Counties. The same EIA report cites a March 2026 Dallas Fed breakeven of $63 a barrel in the Delaware Basin, $6 under the Midland Basin.

Who Operates Here

As of April 10, 2026, Enverus ranked ExxonMobil first among Permian operators with 34.0 rigs, followed by Occidental at 20.0, Diamondback at 15.8, ConocoPhillips at 14.2, EOG at 11.8, and Coterra at 11.7, per Permian Basin Oil and Gas Magazine.

One name on that list has changed. Devon Energy and Coterra Energy completed their all-stock merger on May 7, 2026, and the combined company operates as Devon Energy, headquartered in Houston. After a merger, the people you sold to can land in a new org chart, and a rep they know by name has a better shot at the call from the new desk.

Find Your Role: Role Hubs and Permian Field Guides

Each line pairs a role hub with its Permian field guide.

Straight Answers for Permian Reps

Five plain answers to questions Permian sellers run into. If the 2025 rig slide is still fresh, start with the third.

Where a Truck and a Handshake Still Win

In the Permian, everyone knows everyone, so mistakes are public. Good news travels the same roads. It's a tight, talkative community, and one happy client tells five people.

So if every company man and buyer you need already knows you by first name and returns your calls, keep doing what works in person. Spend that money on fuel and lunches instead of us. A LinkedIn rebuild is for the ones who don't know you yet, so that when your happy client tells five people, those five can look you up and find someone worth calling.

The Warm Walk-In™ in Four Moves

The Warm Walk-In™ is how we build a name that does the knocking, so the Permian buyer who has never met you has already read you.

  1. Capture. One story dump a quarter, typed or spoken from the truck.
  2. Rig up. Positioning, voice, profile, one signature offer. Four to six weeks. Yours forever.
  3. Run the rotation. Posts in your voice on a fixed calendar, three to five a week, never more than one a day. Your name in the right conversations. A fresh lead magnet every quarter.
  4. Read the quarter. A plain-English video review every three months. Saves, messages, meetings. Not likes.

A Founder From This Basin

A fourth-generation Permian service-company founder who hated marketing. His board nearly killed the project over ROI. We spent June to October 2025 building his name, then started posting for him, in his voice, with his yes on every post.

The people who saw his posts were the people he needed: 56% of them work in oil and gas.

From Sep 15, 2025 to Oct 19, 2026: 270,955 impressions, 104,386 people reached, and followers up from 1,974 to 4,232, with 61% of them working in oil and gas. LinkedIn's Social Selling Index ranks him in the top 1% of sales professionals in oil and gas.

No name, by policy. It's his name, not ours. Read the full story.

Get Your Bison Walk-Around

Before you plan next quarter's windshield time, find out what a Permian buyer sees when he looks you up.

Send us your LinkedIn. We'll send back the Bison Walk-Around: five minutes of plain English on what's costing you callbacks and what we'd build. No call. No invoice. We give first.

Get your Bison Walk-Around

Arming a whole crew? Sales directors can start with the page for sales managers and directors.

Sources and As-Of Dates

The Warm Walk-In™ is an original method created by Amanda Leon and owned by The Valours Creative Innovation LLC.