Officials who testified at a legislative finance committee hearing this week said New Mexico is the first state to reach pre-pandemic level in crude oil production. Economist Dawn Iglesias said Wednesday in Ruidoso that in March 2021 New Mexico produced 36.5 million barrels of oil and 188 trillion cubic feet of natural gas – record levels, according to Albuquerque Journal. Santa Fe New Mexican said the industry “is rebounding from a slump brought on by the coronavirus pandemic, a market downturn and uncertainty surrounding the Biden administration’s pause on new oil and gas leases on public lands… Surging oil prices are helping the state’s industry to recover as demand for fuel rises in response to businesses opening and more people traveling after widespread vaccinations… OPEC nations have stemmed production to deliberately reduce global supply.” New Mexico is the nation’s third highest oil-producing state, and production is up 4 percent from March 2020 with Texas and North Dakota posting declines. The state gets 45 percent of its total revenue from taxes and royalties on oil and gas.