Permian Basin Business Funding

What the Permian actually is

The Permian Basin is a large sedimentary basin in western Texas and far-southeastern New Mexico. It is the highest-producing oil field in the US, averaging 4.2 million barrels of crude oil per day in 2019. It takes its name from the Permian geologic period and contains some of the world's thickest deposits of rocks from that era. It is made up of several component basins, including the Midland Basin (the largest), the Delaware Basin (the second largest) and the Marfa Basin (the smallest).

For business owners, that geology becomes a calendar of rigs, crews, trucks and housing. The money is real, but it moves in waves, and the small businesses supporting the field often carry the cost of each wave before they see the payment.

The nineteen Texas counties on this page

We group Andrews, Borden, Crane, Crockett, Dawson, Ector, Gaines, Glasscock, Howard, Loving, Martin, Midland, Mitchell, Pecos, Reagan, Reeves, Upton, Ward and Winkler counties. The grouping is editorial and not an official state region.

Loving County, with 64 residents at the 2020 census, sits in the same basin as Midland County's 169,983. Businesses in the thinly settled counties often serve the field directly and travel for everything else.

Why oilfield-adjacent cash flow is its own animal

A welding shop, hot-shot hauler, water-hauling contractor, safety-equipment rental or catering outfit near the basin typically works for a larger operator or a prime contractor. Those customers set their own payment schedules, often well beyond the week in which crews, fuel and parts have to be paid.

Take an illustration, labeled as such: a service company with ten employees and $80,000 in monthly payroll, insurance and equipment costs lands a job. Work runs four weeks, the invoice goes out, and payment arrives in six to eight. For about two months the company has spent more than it has collected. That is a financing gap, not a failing business.

Then there is the swing from boom to pause. When activity slows, receivables stretch and costs do not shrink on the same schedule. A cushion beats a scramble.

Beyond the field: the towns that support it

Behind every crew is a housing and food economy: motels, restaurants, grocery and convenience stores, laundries, auto repair, tire shops, and the small retailers of Big Spring, Lamesa, Monahans, Pecos, Fort Stockton, Kermit and Seminole. Those businesses see demand rise and fall with activity and often face the same customer-credit issue, just on a smaller scale.

• Hospitality. Payroll rises before occupancy does.
• Auto and equipment repair. Parts are paid for upfront, labor is billed later.
• Trades and construction. Materials, permits and crews are front-loaded.

Terms and next step

We fund $25,000 to $5,000,000, funding can arrive in as little as 24 hours, and the application takes about five minutes with a soft credit pull. Sole proprietors can apply, which describes many one-truck and one-crew operations in West Texas. Start with the application.