Liquid Spills Per Year, 2016–2025

The number of liquid spills reported each year has been relatively stable across the ten-year record, ranging from a low of 984 in 2020 to a high of 1,393 in 2022. After the 2022 peak, counts declined for two consecutive years before ticking up slightly to 1,277 in 2025.

Liquid Volume Spilled Per Year, 2016–2025 (Gallons)

The amount of drilling-related liquid spilled per year has fluctuated significantly since 2016, from a low of 1.3 million gallons in 2020 to a 2025 high of 3.6 million gallons. The 2025 spike is almost entirely attributable to a single OXY USA tank failure (1.66 million gallons). Excluding that event, 2025 would fall to approximately 1.9 million gallons, putting it squarely in the middle of the historical range.

Gas Releases Per Year, 2022–2025

Natural gas, which is primarily made up of methane, is a byproduct of oil extraction. Drillers sometimes release it into the air (venting) or burn it (flaring) instead of capturing it to sell. These venting and flaring incidents make up the majority of gas “releases” or “spills” analyzed in this report. Data collection of gas waste began in 2021, so 2022 is the first year for which we have a full year of data for comparison. Gas releases spiked to nearly 52,000 in 2023, likely driven by expanded compliance with reporting requirements, before falling back down. By 2025 the count had declined to about 37,200, the lowest in the four-year record.

Gas Volume Per Year, 2022–2025 (one thousand cubic feet = 1 MCF)

Gas volume peaked at over 20 billion cubic feet in 2023 before declining sharply to 9.8 billion cubic feet in 2025—a drop of more than half in two years. The 2023 peak likely reflects expanded compliance with the 2021 reporting requirement rather than a true increase in methane waste. To put 9.8 billion cubic feet in context: that is enough natural gas to heat roughly 127,000 average American homes for an entire year. Note: these numbers are minimums. Satellite imagery shows the real amount of methane waste due to oil and gas production in New Mexico is much higher.

Spills by Lease Type, 2025

More than half of all liquid spills in New Mexico occurred on federal land, reflecting the scale of federal land ownership in the Permian Basin. Roughly 22 percent of spills occurred on state land, and 21 percent on private land. Tribal land, including Navajo Nation, Jicarilla Apache, and other Tribal allotments, accounted for less than one percent of reported incidents.

Incident Type and Volume, 2025

Liquid spills totaled 1,277 incidents and 3.56 million gallons. Gas releases totaled 37,207 incidents and 9.8 billion cubic feet. Produced water accounted for around 92 percent of the total liquid spilled, while methane flaring accounted for 97 percent of gas wasted.

Note: Some wells produce CO₂ as a byproduct, and operators vent it separately from the natural gas stream.

Causes of Spills, 2025

Equipment failure was the leading cause of liquid spills at 46 percent, followed by corrosion at 24 percent. Together, equipment failure and corrosion represent nearly three-quarters of all liquid spills. For gas releases, high line pressure was the most common cause at 24 percent.

Sources of Liquid Spills, 2025

Tanks were the most common source of liquid spills at 18 percent, followed by pipelines at 15 percent, and pumps at 14 percent. The “other” category includes spills and leaks in dump lines, separators, wells, and gaskets, among others.

Top Liquid Spillers: 2024 vs. 2025 (Gallons)

OXY USA led all operators with 1.74 million gallons of liquid lost in 2025, up from 271,000 gallons in 2024—this was largely due to a single tank failure. EOG Resources ranked second at 240,000 gallons, followed by XTO Energy at 208,000 gallons.

Top Methane Waste Operators: 2024 vs. 2025 (Thousand Cubic Feet)

EOG Resources reported the most methane waste of any operator, with 1.39 billion cubic feet in 2025, down from 1.6 billion cubic feet in 2024. Matador Production ranked second. XTO Energy ranked third, followed closely by Civitas Permian.

Spills by County, 2025

The vast majority of spills and gas releases occurred in Lea and Eddy counties. Operators reported 547 liquid spills in Lea County and 598 in Eddy County. Operators reported 21,464 gas releases in Lea County—more than all other counties combined—followed by Eddy County at 14,667. The two Permian Basin counties accounted for 97 percent of all gas release incidents statewide.

What must be reported. New Mexico requires reporting of releases greater than five barrels involving oil, produced water, condensate, drilling fluid, or any other liquid oilfield waste or chemical. Methane venting and flaring waste events are reported under a separate rule—the Methane Waste Rule—which has no volume minimum. For comparison, Colorado’s Rule 912 requires reporting of one barrel or more outside secondary containment, or five barrels or more regardless of containment; Wyoming requires verbal notification for releases of ten barrels or more. These differences in thresholds mean that incident counts across the three states are not directly comparable. New Mexico’s substantially higher incident counts reflect both the scale of Permian Basin production and these regulatory differences.

Reporting timeline. For liquid spills exceeding 50 barrels, operators must notify the OCD district office verbally or by email within 24 hours of discovery. All liquid spills must be reported in writing via Form C-141 through the OCD’s electronic permitting system within 15 days of discovery. Unless a final closure report is submitted within 90 days of liquid spill discovery, operators must pursue a state-approved remediation plan. Methane waste events (venting and flaring) are reported under the methane waste rule through a different mechanism: operators submit a Form C-129 and file quarterly venting and flaring reports.

Enforcement. The OCD conducts field inspections and audits to identify violations and can issue administrative orders requiring corrective action. Civil penalties can reach $1,000 per day per violation; in severe cases the OCD may suspend or revoke permits. The public can search enforcement actions through the OCD Administrative Order database.

Historical comparisons: Historical liquid spill charts begin in 2016, reflecting a ten-year lookback period. Older data is available through the OCD portal but was not included in this analysis. Gas release data begins in 2022, the first full year following the state’s 2021 methane reporting requirements.

Incident classification: Each incident is classified as either a liquid release (produced water, crude oil, condensate, drilling fluid, or other liquid oilfield fluids) or a gas release (natural gas, flared gas, or vented gas) using a classification function applied to the material description field. Incidents where rows include both gas and liquid materials are counted in both categories — once as a liquid spill and once as a gas release — so that no release type is omitted from the record. In 2025, 39 incidents were counted this way.

Deduplication: Records are deduplicated by Incident Number within each category. An incident counted in both liquid and gas totals is deduplicated separately within each, so it contributes one incident to the liquid count and one to the gas count.

Volume: All liquid volume figures use the Volume Lost field (total released minus recovered), converted from barrels to gallons by multiplying by 42. A single Incident Number may have multiple rows when multiple materials were released simultaneously; all rows sharing an Incident Number are summed to produce the total volume for that incident. Gas volumes use the Volume Lost field in Mcf, multiplied by 1,000 to convert to cubic feet. Volume Released is not used.

Material breakdown charts: The liquid and gas material breakdown charts cover incidents where the material field maps to a named category (Produced Water, Crude Oil, Condensate, Flared, Vented, Carbon Dioxide, etc.). A small number of incidents — fewer than one percent of the total in each category — have blank, unknown, or uncategorizable material values and are excluded from the breakdown charts but are included in all volume totals. This produces a minor gap between the material chart sums and the reported totals (approximately 0.6 percent for liquid volume and 0.4 percent for gas volume).