The Permian Basin makes up approximately 68,000 square miles in Southwest Texas and Eastern New Mexico, stretching from Lubbock County in the Texas Panhandle south to Jeff Davis County on the Mexican border. The twin cities of Odessa and Midland, located east of El Paso on Interstate 20 and 230 miles from the Mexican border, remain the geographic and economic heart of the region. Between 1923 and 1990, oil prospectors extracted fourteen billion barrels of crude oil from reservoirs beneath the Permian Basin, making it one of the most prolific energy-producing regions in the world. During the post– World War