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ODESSA — Texas produced nearly half of all U.S. oil last year despite having drilled fewer new oil wells in 2025, a trend that analysts and industry groups said is possible due to the state’s geological makeup, a network of pipelines and transportation, and the ability to work on multiple production sites in less time.

And that West Texas oil has helped keep U.S. supply steady as oil supply across the world has been squeezed during the Iran war, experts said.

American oil companies produced 13.6 million barrels of oil daily last year, once again breaking their own record, according to a report by the Energy Information Administration. Almost half — 6.6 million barrels a day — came from the Permian Basin, the vast stretch of oil-rich deposits spanning tens of thousands of square miles between western Texas and southeastern New Mexico.

Oil companies accomplished the record with a fraction of available drilling rigs, which the industry historically relied on to search for, find and lift fossil fuels from the ground. The EIA, in its report, said fewer rigs could lead to a 2% drop in production in 2027, marking the first time oil could dip since 2021.

And in light of the U.S. war on Iran, domestic oil production — particularly in West Texas — has taken on a new meaning.

The war pushed gas prices sky high as the global supply of oil has been slashed during the conflict. Texas oil leaders said the situation could have been worse had it not been for their work.

“Without the millions of barrels produced a day in the Permian Basin there’s no question we’d be in much more volatile times,” said Ben Shepperd, president of Permian Basin Petroleum Association, the largest regional trade group in the country. “The strong production coming out of the Permian Basin, however, helps provide a stable source of energy for the United States and our allies, which can reduce volatility when conflicts arise in other parts of the world.”

The report’s findings aren’t a first for Texas oil companies. For at least the past six years, industry groups have announced record production levels. Industry and political leaders alike have celebrated the production as a win for the state’s economy, saying royalties and taxes from the industry translate to billions of dollars for the state’s coffers and school districts.

Texas Oil and Gas Association President Todd Staples said that 10 years ago, oil companies drilled 9.2 million barrels of oil using 1,543 rigs. In 2025, oil companies produced more than 13 million barrels with only 582 rigs.

The agile infrastructure — and geology beneath — affords operators in the Permian to adapt quickly when the market is under duress.

Different layers of rock underground allow operators to extract more fossil fuels at varying depths. Operators can also transit between wells within hours rather than days, drill multiple wells from a single site, or drill in multiple directions and at multiple depths.

“While we are not immune from what’s happening around the world, we occupy a position of strength far beyond most other nations,” Staples said. “The Permian’s … consistently demonstrated ability to adapt quickly to market shifts make it one of the most competitive oil-producing areas in the world.”

Some experts cautioned that declining rig counts, if sustained, could hinder production, if not stop it altogether.

“Depressed rig counts raise legitimate concerns about future production sustainability,” said Ed Longanecker, president of the Texas Independent Producers and Royalty Owners Association. “If the trend continues without offset, operators risk slower inventory replacement and a potential plateau or gradual decline in output over the medium term, particularly if new drilling fails to keep pace with natural decline rates in existing wells.”

The conflict in the Middle East has, Longanecker and other experts argued, given oil companies short-term economic windfalls. Gas prices have shot up with the closure of the Strait of Hormuz, which cut 20% of the world’s oil.

On Tuesday, oil prices soared to at least $114 a barrel prior to the ceasefire.

Experts suggested it could be worse. A mix of experts and groups representing oil companies’ interests in Texas said the U.S. has been insulated from more devastating economic consequences of the war. The amount of oil West Texas produces can determine the severity of the impact to the U.S. economy, they said.

“West Texas serves as a partial counterweight to disruptions in the Middle East,” said Stephen Sagriff, director of intelligence at Enverus, an energy analytics company. “It is also a source of geopolitical leverage for the U.S., a region whose own investment decisions are shaped by the volatility.”

In addition to stabilizing oil demand in the U.S., the Permian lessens its dependence on oil from other nations, said Don Murchison, director of global strategy at RINA North America, an engineering consulting firm. The West Texas oil patch can also produce more oil than other states at a lower cost, Hutchinson said.

“We often see a significant uptick in production in West Texas when there is conflict in other parts of the world,” he said, while adding that when the industry booms, new challenges arise surrounding finding equipment, materials and employees.

For the original copy of this story, go to The Texas Tribune.

LAREDO, Texas (AP) — A Guatemalan man pleaded guilty Wednesday in federal court to a felony offense and acknowledged his involvement in an attempt to illegally smuggle migrants to the U.S. when a jampacked tractor-tailer truck crashed in Mexico in 2021, killing more than 50 migrants.

Daniel Zavala Ramos, 42, faces a possible sentence of life in prison following his guilty plea in U.S. District Court in Laredo, Texas, to a single charge of conspiring to bring migrants without documents from Guatemala through Mexico to the U.S. and placing lives in jeopardy and causing serious injury and deaths, the U.S. Department of Justice said.

Sentencing is set for July 7.

Ramos was among six Guatemalans charged over the crash of the semitrailer truck and the first to be convicted. The other five have a final pretrial conference on June 3, according to court records. Ramos’ attorney did not immediately return an email Wednesday evening seeking comment.

At least 160 migrants, many from Guatemala, were packed into the truck that hit the support base for a pedestrian bridge on Dec. 9, 2021, and overturned, authorities said. At least 53 people were killed and more than 100 were injured, officials said, and video footage at the time of the crash showed dead and injured migrants in a jumbled pile inside the truck’s collapsed freight container.

The Justice Department statement said the dead included unaccompanied children.

The crash occurred on a highway leading toward the Chiapas state capital, some 160 miles (260 kilometers) from Mexico’s border with Guatemala and about 1,400 miles (2,300 kilometers) south of the Mexican border with Texas.

Authorities announced the arrests of Ramos and the five other defendants in Guatemala and Texas in 2024, on the third anniversary of the accident. Ramos was extradited in 2025 from Guatemala to face charges, the DOJ statement said.

Prosecutors said the Guatemalans conspired to smuggle migrants from Guatemala through Mexico to the U.S. for payment. In cases of unaccompanied children being smuggled, the defendants would provide scripts of what to say if they were apprehended, authorities said.

The smugglers would move migrants on foot, inside microbuses, cattle trucks and tractor trailers and use Facebook Messenger to request and deliver identification documents to the migrants to get them into the U.S., according to authorities.

TRINITY COUNTY, Texas (KETK) — After months of struggling with overcrowding and plumbing issues, an East Texas commissioners court will decide whether to close or maintain the county’s jail.

In November 2025, a bond to build a new Trinity County Jail failed to pass voter approval, which would replace the current jail that continues to face plumbing and capacity issues. Since that time, the county has partnered with neighboring agencies to accommodate inmates; however, escalating budget costs may lead to the indefinite closure of the jail.

The Trinity County Commissioners Court met on Tuesday to consider all funding and alternative jailing options before next week’s final decision. In an hour-and-a-half-long meeting, the commissioners court, Sheriff Woody Wallace and several community members came together to exhaust all options.

Precinct 1 Commissioner Tommy Park stated that the key consideration is whether the jail will result in savings or additional expenses. He emphasized that a decision is necessary as the budgeting process for the upcoming fiscal year nears, with costs starting to surpass the anticipated figures.

According to Park, the budget allocated for jail maintenance this fiscal year was approximately $10,000. As of Tuesday, the total expenditure has reached around $23,000, with an additional $1,896 still pending. The commissioners’ court noted that in previous years, the total budget spent on the jail was about $25,000.

In December 2025, the jail was out of compliance with the state, housing 13 inmates when it could only house a state-approved seven. At the time, the jail was also facing infrastructure issues of a backed-up sewer that was causing flooding throughout the jail.

Inmates were temporarily relocated to the Jasper County Jail and Trinity County secured a contract with Angelina County to house inmates as the facility was inspected and repaired. The contract, approved in January, costs the county an approximate $3,000 per day to house the inmates.

“I know we can hash out the numbers and how much we want to save or not save, but there are a lot of other things we gotta think about and that’s where we all gotta put our heads together — the sheriff, auditor, us, the judge,” Park said on Tuesday, addressing the commissioners court. “Bottom line is if we close this jail down, it’s never gonna open back up. I don’t necessarily know if we want to open it back up. It’s almost a hundred years old.”

In the special meeting, the commissioners court discussed several options — from utilizing the City of Trinity Police Department to continuing the contract with Angelina County. Ultimately, each decision would cost the county, as police officers and department staff would need to be jail certified and jailers would still be needed to transport inmates to and from other county jails.

Sheriff Woody Wallace, who has been outspoken on the jail’s issues, raises concerns of short-term versus long-term resolutions. He brought the question to the commissioners: “So the issue here is do we continue maintaining a building that’s almost a hundred years old? I would love not to. I think it’s pitiful that we have to do it.”

In the special meeting, Wallace agrees with commissioners that the current situation of maintaining a building as old as the jail or transporting inmates across county lines is not cost-effective, but that a jail is a necessity regardless.

Wallace cites that having an operating jail is a county’s obligation to serve its citizens and inmates. He also said it works as a means of controlling crime.

“The county is not in business to ‘save money’ — it’s in business to provide the service to the citizens,” Wallace told the commissioners court. “We have to provide a service to citizens and one of the statutory obligations of this court is to provide the sheriff with a jail. You can do that with a contract across the line, that’s not a problem, but you also have to meet the demands inside the county that we’re dealing with on a daily basis.”

After hearing the sheriff’s remarks and community input, the decision to close or otherwise maintain the county jail will be made on April 14 at 9 a.m. in a regular commissioners court meeting.

POLK COUNTY, Texas (KETK) — An East Texas man could face up to life in prison after he was arrested for being in possession of child pornography on Wednesday.
Photo of Jose Sanchez courtesy of the Polk County Sheriff’s Office

According to the Polk County Sheriff’s Office, early Wednesday morning, deputies assisted the Texas Department of Public Safety in executing a search warrant of Jose Sanchez’s home after he was believed to be in possession of child pornography obtained from the internet.

Following the search of his home, Sanchez was arrested and charged with five counts of possession of child pornography. Based on the charges, Sanchez could potentially be sentenced to 99 years in prison or receive a life sentence.

The investigation remains ongoing and additional charges may be filed against Sanchez, the sheriff said.

HOUSTON (AP) — Lunar love knows no bounds.

Now hurtling home from the moon, the Artemis II astronauts took a poignant page from Apollo 8 earlier this week, proposing deeply personal names for a pair of lunar craters.

Commander Reid Wiseman and his crew asked permission to name one small, fresh crater after their capsule called Integrity and another after his late wife, Carroll. Canadian astronaut Jeremy Hansen made the request right before Monday’s lunar fly-around. Wiseman was too emotional to talk.

Carroll Wiseman, a neonatal nurse, died of cancer in 2020.

During Apollo 8 in 1968, astronaut Jim Lovell bestowed his wife’s name upon a prominent lunar peak: Mount Marilyn. It was humanity’s first trip to the moon and she anxiously awaited his return back home in Houston.

The three Americans and one Canadian of Artemis II are the first lunar visitors since Apollo 17 closed out that grand epoch in 1972, and their crater-naming request temporarily left ground controllers speechless.

“It was definitely a very emotional moment. I don’t think most of us knew it was coming,” NASA lunar scientist Ryan Watkins told The Associated Press on Wednesday from Johnson Space Center in Houston. “There was not a single dry eye.”

Mission Control’s lead scientist Kelsey Young worked with the Artemis II crew before launch, quietly helping them choose the two bright, relatively young craters, which they quickly spied once they were close enough to the moon through zoom lenses as well as their naked eyes.

Proposed Carroll Crater is at the moon’s left limb on the boundary of the moon’s near and far sides, and occasionally visible from Earth. It’s rather shallow and approximately 3 miles (5 kilometers) across, according to Watkins. The slightly bigger Integrity crater is completely on the lunar far side.

Their request came shortly after they broke Apollo 13’s distance record for deep-space travelers. All four astronauts wept as they embraced in a group hug.

“We lost a loved one. Her name was Carroll, the spouse of Reid, the mother of Katie and Ellie,” Hansen radioed, his voice breaking. “It’s a bright spot on the moon and we would like to call it Carroll.”

Mission Control fell silent for nearly a minute before replying: “Integrity and Carroll crater, loud and clear.”

The emotion-drenched scene was vastly different from the 1960s and 1970s Apollo moonshots in more ways than one. NASA’s Apollo all-male test pilots were for the most part all business and tear-free.

“This is no fault of Apollo,” Watkins said. “I think we’re seeing just a more human aspect.”

Once back on Earth later this week, the crew will submit the two proposed names to the International Astronomical Union.

Nearly a half century passed between Apollo 8 and the union’s sign-off of Mount Marilyn in 2017.

The IAU’s Ramasamy Venugopal promised a decision on Carroll and Integrity in about a month, the norm “for straightforward requests.”

There already are 81 astronaut-named lunar features on the group’s approved list, including Apollo 16’s Baby Ray and Gator, and Apollo 17’s Lara named for the lead female character in the 1965 film “Doctor Zhivago.”

Some Apollo-era nicknames didn’t make the cut.

Apollo 17 commander Gene Cernan, the last astronaut to walk on the moon, dubbed a split boulder “Tracy’s Rock,” after his young daughter in 1972.

And in 1969, Apollo 12 commander Pete Conrad nicknamed his touchdown spot “Pete’s Parking Lot.”