Underground injection is important to New Mexico.
By injecting millions of barrels of water into nearly 4,900 injection wells in depleted oil fields last year, over 13 million barrels of oil were recovered, most of which could never have otherwise been produced. This oil was worth nearly a billion dollars. The State received nearly 86 million dollars in direct taxes from this oil in additional to royalty income from the portion of the oil produced from state and federal lands. It is estimated that another twenty-six million barrels of oil produced outside these water flood projects last year required the use of injection wells to dispose of the millions of barrels of mostly saline water produced with the oil. This oil was worth three quarters of a billion dollars and generated 64 million dollars in taxes.