ODESSA, TX.—As the “Shale 2.0” era unfolds in the Permian Basin, the landscape looks a little different than the last time the gates opened to the biennial Permian Basin International Oil Show. Familiar top-tier legacy companies such as Pioneer Natural Resources and Endeavor Energy Resources are no more, and new names like Expand Energy are now on the roster.

A number of big corporate deals have transpired since PBIOS 2023, including ExxonMobil’s acquisition of Pioneer Resources and Diamondback Energy’s acquisition of Endeavor, as well as Chesapeake Energy and Southwestern Energy’s strategic move to merge into Expand Energy. The consolidation has helped drive necessary operational scales and efficiencies as activity increasingly focuses on infill development of multiple stacked benches, but it has also created some notable shifts in the rankings of the basin’s largest producers.

Two years ago, the top producers by volume were Occidental Petroleum, Pioneer Resources, Devon Energy, EOG Resources, and ConocoPhillips. Fast forward to 2025 and ExxonMobil now tops the list and is in good company with the likes of Diamondback, Expand, Oxy, EOG, Devon, ConocoPhillips and Chevron.

It is a new ball game in the Permian, and although many of the players have jockeyed position, the goal is the same as it has been for a century: get the vast reserves trapped in a treasure trove of geologic formations out of the ground and into the sales line.

Accomplishing that requires cutting-edge innovation and technology and a whole lot of manpower and horsepower. That is where the 2025 Permian Basin International Oil Show comes in. For three days this autumn, the best, newest and brightest the Permian has to offer will be on full display, giving PBIOS attendees a firsthand look at the technologies, methodologies, and people that make the Permian a global production powerhouse.

The “working man’s oil show” is scheduled for October 21-23 at the Ector County Coliseum and Fairgrounds in Odessa, Tx. The show is expected to attract more than 20,000 visitors from across the United States and abroad, including executives, managers, engineers, scientists, office employees, and, of course, boots-on-the-ground field personnel.

Celebrating Legacy

This year’s theme—Bridging Legacies. Powering Tomorrow—celebrates a legacy built on pioneering mettle and an accompanying determination to continually make things better. Legacy also points to the success of passing along advancements built on the hard work and experience of those who came before to a new generation equipped with the most advanced theoretical learnings, practical engineering knowledge, and strong entrepreneurial mindset.

PBIOS President Graves hopes the up-and-coming generation experiences and fully appreciates the industry’s prominent place and the importance of its consistent march forward—and the show’s commitment to advancing all sectors of the Permian oil and gas industry.

“Bridging legacies also touches on the desire of the PBIOS Board to attract younger managers and employees and pass the show’s strong heritage along to a younger generation already managing production, service and supply operations all over the basin,” he says.

By late July, exhibitor spaces were sold out with 702 expected to take up available booths inside the coliseum and display areas outside, reports Executive Director Tony Fry.

The exhibits will highlight the latest offerings, including a growing number of innovations in data acquisition and deployment, that are elevating the fortunes of producers, vendors, suppliers, service companies and all their employees, he says.

“Emerging technologies will continue to change how the industry does business,” relates Fry, who joined the PBIOS Board in 1986 and is now in his 20th year as executive director. “I have no idea of the ultimate extent of the role that artificial intelligence is going to play, but it will definitely make a huge contribution to the industry’s ongoing transformation. It is about bridging past technologies to today’s, and it is always remarkable to see when it happens.”

Symposium Spotlight

With an important complementary goal of helping advance industry educational and training opportunities, this year’s PBIOS will include an Association Spotlight Symposium for members of three industry professional associations. The Permian Basin Association of Directional Drilling will conduct a program for its members on Oct. 21, followed by the Permian Basin Petroleum Association on Oct. 22, and the Society of Petroleum Engineers on Oct. 23, Graves explains.

“These organizations have a lot of members in the oil and gas industry, including younger people,” he says. “It is an opportunity to build a bridge to them. These younger engineers and other oil field employees can come to the show, attend the symposiums for the associations they are members of, and then have an opportunity to see the products and services that are moving their industry forward.”

One noted individual who has built bridges for PBIOS, the industry, and Permian communities is PBPA President Ben Shepperd, who is the show honoree this year for leadership that continues to move the industry forward, Fry says. Exemplifying a lifetime of commitment and personal excellence, Shepperd is being celebrated for his invaluable past contributions, current work protecting industry interests, and for inspiring a new generation of oil and gas innovators.

Forward movement is built partially on recognition of past accomplishments. In addition to being mindful of the Santa Rita No. 1 Permian discovery well, drilled in May 1923 in what is now the Midland Basin, recognition this year includes a 100th anniversary tribute to Howard County’s first well, the No. 1 H.R. Clay that hit pay dirt on Nov. 9, 1925, Fry notes.

The first Ector County well was tapped the following year. The basin, of course, saw countless subsequent discoveries over decades, but arguably none were bigger than the advent of tight oil resource plays. Extended-reach horizontal drilling and high-volume hydraulic fracturing in Permian shale plays has pushed the United States back to the top among oil-producing nations. Last year alone, the Permian produced 5.6 million barrels, up 45% since 2020, according to the U.S. Energy Information Administration.

PBIOS, which began in 1940, has celebrated the basin’s achievements all along the way, supported by a small army of volunteers who dedicate their considerable time and talent.

One of those volunteers is Graves, who has been involved in the oil show for 35 years. He says he got a glimpse of the industry and the importance of PBIOS early on. His grandfather, Zollie Boykin, and a great-uncle owned Boykin Brothers, an operating company in the Howard County seat of Big Spring. For the brothers, attending the oil show was an essential part of keeping the lights on, according to Graves.

“Boykin Brothers was just a small producer,” he recalls. “They laid their own concrete and installed their own pumping units. They would literally come into the PBIOS and place orders for tanks and other supplies they were going to need for the upcoming year. They were coming down to see their friends and see their vendors.” 

Graves now owns and operates his own oil field-related business in Odessa: Insulation Products Inc. As always, both his professional and personal lives remain deeply rooted in the Permian. Two months after he was born in Big Spring, the family moved just down the road to Odessa. The son of an elementary school teacher and a high school football coach who worked as an investment counselor in later years, Graves graduated from Odessa Permian High School and went on to earn a bachelor’s degree in finance at Texas Tech University. Afterward, he and his wife Katy, who have two grown children, returned to Odessa.

More than 20,000 visitors from across the United States and around the world are expected to attend the 2025 Permian Basin International Oil Show Oct. 21-23 at the Ector County Coliseum and Fairgrounds in Odessa. Attendees will find every imaginable technology, type of service, and piece of equipment on display from more than 700 exhibitors occupying indoor and outdoor spaces.

Graves took a position at MBank, but soon the oil field came calling, and he joined his late father-in-law, Joe Young, at Tripp Construction Co., where Graves was salesman for a business that built lease roads and rig and infrastructure pads.

“I worked in the oil field some during summers earlier, but that was my first real taste of a full-time position in a business serving the industry,” he recalls.

PBIOS Board Service

Young, who was PBIOS president in 2006, nominated Graves to the show’s Board of Directors in 1990. Graves has been on the show’s Executive Committee for the past 13 years.

“Martin has been a dedicated board member for years and has served on a number of committees and knows the show well,” Fry says. “He has done a great job.”

An important part of the show’s success is Fry’s tenure, Graves responds. “Tony does a fabulous job pulling off a good show time after time,” he comments. “The show’s ongoing success is big credit to him and his commitment to PBIOS.”

Desiring his own business, in 1991 Graves launched Insulation Products Inc., which supplies insulation for piping and vessels to contractors building upstream and midstream projects. In the intervening years since starting up his company, Graves recalls that while he has witnessed his fair share of up-and-down industry cycles, he insists that Permian companies and communities always demonstrate the grit and determination to rebound.

In keeping with the determination of other Permian oil and gas supply and service stalwarts, Insulation Products has continued to serve customers when projects such as midstream developments keep going to catch up when rig activity slows. In some cases, he has seen drilling work rebound just as some midstream project expansions were wrapping up.

“Like every other company, we are impacted by ups and downs, but we have always continued on because projects out there have to be finished,” he states. “We all just kind of work right through it. That is what makes the basin and the people here so special.”

The company also supplies insulation for commercial construction projects, including schools, churches, and hospitals, giving Graves a personal appreciation of the industry’s larger economic impact on the region and the show’s contribution to both the industry and the many communities in which it operates.

“As I have gotten older, I certainly appreciate things differently,” he says. “When I first started, I wanted to make my living in the oil and gas industry. I still do, but I appreciate it even more. I am proud of our industry. I am proud of the way we handle difficulties, whether from the regulatory or public policy side or from the industry outlook and operations side. I am proud of the fact that we keep going just as we have for so long.”

Looking back, plenty has changed over the decades since the early lease preparation days consisted of a mule dragging a flat piece of metal along the dirt to smooth out the ground, Graves points out. Names have also come and gone. Gulf and Texaco disappeared into Chevron, Amoco into BP and Cities Service into Oxy and mergers and acquisitions continue to change active names and faces, but Permian personnel then and now still set the pace for innovation globally, Graves insists.

“If it is new, it will be tested here first,” he says. “The Permian industry has been drilling directionally and doing other innovative things for a very long time. Looking at AI, what better area to deploy it in? It is beneficial to the industry and can be facilitated with the help of young engineers and others who want to live and work in Odessa, Midland, and the Permian Basin area.”

For PBIOS staff, Board members, and volunteers, crunch time for show preparation has already begun and will soon kick into high gear, Graves says.

“The amazing thing is that Board members and volunteers give their time, work hard and do a very good job,” he relates. “The show lasts three days, but preparations begin a lot earlier. As soon as the Permian Basin Fair & Expo in Odessa ends in early September, it’s showtime for us.”

Being the largest inland oil show, PBIOS selling out is exciting to watch year after year, Graves adds.

“It demonstrates the health of the industry that exhibitors see the need to be at every show,” he remarks. “As long as I have been here, the shows have had good exhibits and a lot of attendees. We are open to anybody in the industry, and that is what we want. PBIOS has always called itself ‘the working man’s show,’ and we feel very attached to that motto. We want everybody from the field to the office to attend.”