Oil and gas royalties on University Lands could reach $1 billion this year, and the increasing production in West Texas is the reason why. Most of University Lands’ 2.1 million acres are out here, funneling money into the endowment that supports the University of Texas and Texas A&M University systems and in turn paying for capital investments such as libraries ...

Workers at the Permian Basin Petroleum Museum already started packing the photos, the papers of old oilmen and the other archives, taking them to the library in downtown Midland. And beginning mid-April, many of the artifacts of the region’s booms and busts will come down too, as the museum’s long-anticipated renovation begins. Then, for the next-18 months or so, the ...