Oil and natural gas production rose in Texas, Louisiana and New Mexico during the third quarter of 2026, according to the Federal Reserve Bank of Dallas energy survey, the bank's quarterly read on activity across the Eleventh District and adjacent producing states.

The survey, which the Dallas Fed compiles from oil and gas executives operating in the region, captured a broad increase in output across both crude and natural gas. The bank did not quantify the production gain in the headline finding; the result marks the direction of travel reported by firms working the Permian basin of West Texas and Southeast New Mexico, the Eagle Ford in South Texas, and the Haynesville gas play straddling the Texas-Louisiana border.

The Dallas Fed energy survey is one of the most closely watched regional indicators for US upstream activity. It draws on responses from exploration and production companies and oilfield services firms, and its diffusion-style indexes signal whether activity is expanding or contracting quarter over quarter. The third-quarter 2026 result puts the three-state producing region on the expansion side of the ledger for both liquids and gas.

For refinery and petrochemical operators tied to Gulf Coast feedstock flows, the direction matters as much as the magnitude. Rising gas output from the Haynesville supports LNG feedgas demand along the Louisiana and Texas coast, while incremental Permian crude adds to pipeline and terminal volumes moving toward Corpus Christi, Houston and the Gulf export complex. The survey finding is a company-reported indicator, not an official production tally; the Energy Information Administration's monthly state-level data will provide the barrel-and-cubic-foot counts in subsequent releases.

Readers should also note the timing. The Dallas Fed's third-quarter survey reflects conditions reported by executives during the quarter, and the bank publishes the results with its usual breakdown of business activity, employment, capital expenditure and price expectations indexes. Those components give the production reading its context — an output gain alongside rising costs or falling drilling activity would carry a different read than one paired with expanding rig counts and higher capex intentions.

The watch item: the EIA's state-level production data for Texas, Louisiana and New Mexico over the coming months, which will confirm whether the surveyed gains translate into measured barrels per day and million cubic feet per day — and the Dallas Fed's fourth-quarter survey, which will show whether the momentum held as operators set 2027 budgets.