When Passing New Laws Isn’t Enough: Worker Safety in New Mexico’s Oil & Gas Industry

After nearly three years of advocacy efforts for tighter regulations on methane emissions, New Mexico passed the most rigorous rules in the nation for clean air in the oil and gas industry. These went into effect starting August 5, 2022. These new requirements include monthly leak detection checks and a mandate to repair discovered leaks within 15 days—clear attempts at cracking down on a major source of methane pollution and protecting public health.

What was the outcome of these tighter regulations? Despite these heightened standards, 60% of New Mexico’s Permian Basin oil and gas facilities were still flagged for state and federal air quality violations. Without comprehensive enforcement efforts or sufficient agency staffing, companies continue to circumvent requirements that, on paper, should have cut emissions drastically.

This gap between policy and practice comes at a cost: As New Mexico’s oil and gas sector rakes in billions, local communities—and the workers who maintain these operations—bear the brunt of lax compliance. Long hours, risky conditions, and insufficient penalties for violations put the health and safety of thousands of employees and nearby residents on the line.

New Mexico’s Oil & Gas Industry Affects Thousands of Workers, Their Families, and Their Communities

In 2021, there were roughly 15,000 workers in New Mexico’s oil and gas extraction industry. In 2022, the same year the state passed stricter regulations, New Mexico was second only to Texas in oil production in the United States, and 8.5% of New Mexico’s workforce was working in the oil and gas industry. This industry brought in $16.1 billion to the state’s GDP that year, and that was due in great part to the state’s portion of the Permian Basin.

New Mexico’s oil and natural gas production sites include:

• San Juan Basin (McKinley, Rio Arriba, Sandoval, and San Juan Counties)
• Raton Basin (Colfax County)
• Bravo Dome (Harding, Quay, Union Counties)
• Permian Basin (Chaves, Eddy, Lea, and Roosevelt Counties)

The Permian Basin is estimated to have the nation’s largest oil reserves. Two New Mexican counties, Eddy County and Lea County, have an outsized production level, accounting for nearly 30% of the Permian Basin’s crude oil, even though most of the basin extends into West Texas.

While that is the main driver as far as production numbers go, other oil and gas sites contribute to the significant number of people working in the industry, as well as the number of communities located nearby. The San Juan Basin sits among a population of around 385,000 people, the Raton Basin is near approximately 12,000 people, Bravo Dome is surrounded by about 13,000 people, and the Permian Basin extends into counties with a total population of around 215,000.

In all, New Mexico’s main oil and gas sites are in the immediate vicinity of roughly 625,000 people. Whether it’s air quality issues, dangerous roads, or other health risks presented by oil and gas sites, workers, their families, and the surrounding communities are all affected by companies who fail to take safety measures seriously.

The Deadly Dangers Facing New Mexico’s Oil & Gas Workers

While New Mexico’s economy relies heavily on its booming oil and gas industry, this sector also brings alarming occupational hazards—and unhealthy air quality is just one part of that picture.

Oilfield workers are in a hazardous occupation to begin with: From 2008 to 2017, there were a reported 1,566 oilfield workers killed in on-the-job accidents nationwide. As for New Mexico’s oil and gas industry, a 2021 study found that between 2008 and 2018, there were 73 fatal accidents, which came out to a rate of 37 deaths for every 100,000 oil and gas workers.

The leading causes of these fatalities in New Mexico’s oil and gas sector were:

• Vehicle accidents (36%)
• Cardiovascular incidents (22%)
• Crush injuries (19%)

In this time span, New Mexico had the second-highest rate of deadly on-the-job incidents in the oil and gas industry. In 2022, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS), New Mexico had the second-highest rate of fatal injuries in oil and gas extraction once again.

The commute to work itself is also a known danger. Dubbed “The Road of Death”, or “Death Highway”, this stretch of U.S. Highway 285 is one that many Permian Basin workers take. The road is in poor condition and is often traveled by exhausted oil and gas workers, tired from long working hours.

Nonfatal Injuries & Job Risks in New Mexico’s Oil & Gas Fields

As for nonfatal injuries, in 2017, there was a reported a rate of 57.3 nonfatal injuries and illnesses in oil and gas extraction per 10,000 full-time workers. In that one year alone, more than half of the workers in the oil and gas industry dealt with occupational illness and injury.

What do New Mexican oil workers themselves have to say about the matter? One survey in conjunction with the University of New Mexico (UNUM) surveyed oil and gas field workers in New Mexico’s Permian Basin. They found that 80% of workers knew someone who had been injured in an oilfield accident in New Mexico, and around 28% of these workers knew of oilfield accidents that involved fatalities. Forty-six percent of them said they had personally experienced an on-the-job accident.

This survey found that these workers had experienced or seen:

• Struck by an object or equipment accidents (77% of workers)
• Roadway/vehicle accidents (38.5%)
• Fall injuries (30.8%)

Many workers had also witnessed or experienced overexertion and repetitive motion injuries, caught-in accidents, animal and insect incidents, fires/explosions, and exposure to harmful substances.

The survey also noted that workers reported that they often had shifts that lasted 12 hours or more a day, which is unfortunately not atypical for the oil and gas industry. Not only were these workers dealing with difficult job conditions, but the long hours were also compounding these job risks, from their commute to working with dangerous machinery and more.

An alarming 90% of these workers also stated that New Mexico enforcement agencies are falling woefully behind when it comes to ensuring that health and safety measures are being followed for energy workers.

What Safety Measures Are New Mexico Oil & Gas Companies Supposed to Follow?

In regard to preventing crush injuries, struck-by accidents, and fall injuries, OSHA has numerous, clear regulations on scaffolding construction, fall protection, lockout/tagout procedures, machine and hand tool operation, training requirements, and more.

Lapses in basic safety practices aren’t due to a lack of guidelines, such as in the following cases:

• A 21-year-old driller was killed on June 9, 2023, while working for Patterson-Uti Drilling in Carlsbad, NM. The driller fell and was electrocuted below the rig floor, due to serious violations of fall protection and wiring regulations.
• Mewbourne Oil Company receiving multiple citations in August of 2024 for a serious violation of OSHA’s general duty clause, and for violations of respiratory protection and hazard communication regulations at an Artesia, NM oil and gas site. The company is contesting the $10,625 fine for the general duty citation.
• Two truck drivers died on at an oil and gas services site in Loco Hills, NM on June 26, 2022. A&R Services LLC was cited for serious violations of regulations for permit-required confined spaces, violations that led to the two workers succumbing to hydrogen sulfide (H2S) gas while cleaning an open-topped frack tank.

The rules to keep oil and gas workers safe are clear and well-established. Unfortunately, that doesn’t mean companies will follow them.

These are just a sample of the workplace violations that endanger oil and gas workers in New Mexico. There are more, ever-present air quality health risks that they face too, toxic exposures which they—and even the surrounding communities—are routinely forced to face.

Air Quality Risks to New Mexico Oil & Gas Workers

The practice of flaring, or the controlled burning off of natural gas, in the oil and gas industry releases methane. This greenhouse gas, as well as other volatile organic compounds (VOCs), pose short- and long-term risks.

Methane is a precursor to ozone. It is colorless and odorless and, in fact, leads to ground-level ozone. According to the American Lung Association, breathing in this ozone is like “sunburn to the lungs”, leading to a host of health problems. The immediate risk to people is then followed by lasting harm to the environment.

As a result of VOCs from the oil and gas industry, New Mexicans have suffered:

• Asthma
• Lung infections
• Bronchitis
• Cancer

New Mexico counties in the Permian Basin, such as Lea and Eddy Counties, regularly report unsafe air quality levels. Workers and the surrounding communities alike are affected by the toxic exposures brought on by the oil and gas industry’s pollution.

Air Quality Regulations for New Mexico Oil & Gas Companies

Aware of these health and environmental dangers, New Mexico enacted its new rules in 2022 to reduce harmful air emissions by 260 million pounds, also aiming to cut down on methane emissions by more than 851 million pounds every year.

According to this plan, oil and gas companies need to have their emission rates reviewed by a suitable, certified engineer, undergo monthly audits, and fix any uncovered leaks within 15 days. These corporations also must keep up records to show their ongoing adherence to these regulations.

The Difficulties of Enforcing Regulations for New Mexico Oil & Gas Companies

In the first six months of 2024, the New Mexico Environment Department (NMED) and the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) investigated oil and gas facilities in the Permian Basin. They found that in 75 out of the 125 sites they investigated (60%), VOCs were being emitted in levels that likely violated both New Mexico and federal clean air rules, though further investigations were required.

The NMED is responsible for the regulatory oversight of more than 55,000 facilities, but they only have 30 staff members handling permits and an additional 6 members to handle enforcement. 

By their own admission, the department takes nearly a decade (9.6 years) to inspect all their sites. The EPA has taken over enforcement matters for 15% of Permian Basin oil and gas facilities in New Mexico, but that is still an underwhelming amount of personnel to rely on for meaningful enforcement.

New Mexican Oil & Gas Companies Still Disregard Worker & Community Safety

Regulatory and enforcement agencies are simply trying to ensure that corporations are doing what they’re supposed to be doing in the first place. Without proper enforcement, companies have proven that they are only too likely to disregard the safety of their workers and the surrounding communities. Ultimately, it is the oil and gas companies who are flouting the rules to their workers’ and communities’ detriment.

Here are some of the oil and gas companies that government workers were able to cite and penalize for illegal emissions:

• Ameredev II LLC was hit with the highest civil penalty from NMED for an oil and gas company. In April 2024, the company was set to pay $24.5 million.
• February 2024, Apache Corporation committed to pay $5.5 million at minimum to become compliant with New Mexico and federal clean air laws as well as pay $4 million in civil penalties.
• As of December 2023, Oxy USA, Inc. was set to pay $1.2 million for violating federal clean air standards and operating without the Title V permit they needed.
• Mewbourne Oil Company was penalized for $5.5 million plus a pledge to pay $4.6 million on compliance measures on August 2023.
• In March 2023, Matador Production was penalized $1.5 million and set to spend $5.05 million to become compliant with state and federal rules for air quality.

Poor air quality is just one of the toxic exposures that oil and gas workers face, and that’s in addition to the already well-documented equipment incidents, fall accidents, and other risks they face on the job.

Who Is Responsible for the Safety of New Mexico’s Oil & Gas Workers?

More stringent legislation for worker and local safety is certainly laudable, and beefing up enforcement measures to uphold those efforts could go a long way toward helping workers. Until that adequate enforcement is present, however, companies’ violations can continue to go unchecked.

Even though government agencies’ efforts are falling behind where they should be, the ultimate responsibility for worker safety lies with employers.

It is up to New Mexico’s oil and gas companies to provide workers with the training, equipment, and hazard-free workplace that they deserve, and to ensure that operations and faulty equipment aren’t polluting the air their workers and nearby communities breathe. If companies won’t take their duties seriously, and government efforts aren’t enough to force their hands to comply with straightforward safety rules, then workers and families have legal recourse. Those who have suffered from an oilfield accident may be able to file a claim to demand justice and change. Because even though drilling and related operations carry risk, New Mexico oil and gas companies owe it to workers and the surrounding neighborhoods to prioritize and protect their rights to a safe environment. No matter what.