Sumith Prasad
Paramount+’s drama series ‘Landman’ is mainly set in the oil fields of M-Tex Oil in Odessa, Texas. Monty Miller of Fort Worth owns the company and operates the fields through his crisis executive, or “landman,” in other words, Tommy Norris. M-Tex is a giant in the Lone Star State’s oil industry, which gives the protagonist immense authority to procure mineral rights and lands to expand the company’s patches. Whenever the firm confronts a predicament or a challenge, Tommy tries to settle them with Monty’s best interests in mind. Since Texas is home to several oil companies, M-Tex may appear real. However, that’s really not the case!
M-Tex Oil is a Fictional Company That Resembles the Giants in the Texan Oil Industry
The M-Tex Oil company in ‘Landman’ is fictional and conceived by Taylor Sheridan, the co-creator and writer of the show. First of all, there are several firms in Texas that have the same or similar name. M-Tex Inc. Oil Wells and Leases, based in Stockdale, is one of them. However, the company’s leases are filed in Maverick County, over three hundred miles away from Odessa. Similarly, M-Tex Resources, Inc. is another firm that operates in the state. This company, however, doesn’t match the scale of the M-Tex in the drama series. Furthermore, the wells of the firm are located in Jones County and Taylor County rather than in Midland County, as the show depicts.
M-Tex in ‘Landman’ was created without a single real-life counterpart. Sheridan relied on fiction to conceive the company to explore the operations of an industrial giant in the Texan realm of oil as freely as he could. “I think having both [sides] in this show is also really unique because we’ve had Dallas before. We’ve had shows that showed that upstairs version of this industry, but none that showed both the working class and the white-collar world,” Christian Wallace, who created the show with Sheridan, told EW. Since the series depicts how the oil company deviates from the law to operate its oil fields, the inclusion of a real firm would have invited possible lawsuits.
In one way or another, M-Tex represents the biggest companies in the Texan oil industry. These firms include Exxon Mobil Corp, which has around 1.75 million acreage in the Permian basin and a recorded revenue of $413.68 billion in 2022. Chevron Corporation, with 2.2 million net acres, is another example. These companies own a large portion of West Texas, provide jobs to an enormous number of workers, and produce billions worth of oil, reminding us of Monty’s M-Tex.
Read More: Is Landman a True Story? Is Tommy Norris Based on a Real Landman?
