Is oilfield work out of Lamesa insured any differently than work in Midland?

Lamesa is the seat of Dawson County, which is in RRC District 8A. The 8A office is in Lubbock. TSHA places the county on the southern High Plains, about sixty miles south of Lubbock.

Neighbors split between districts. Gaines County, west of Dawson according to TSHA, is 8A. Borden County, which TSHA places east of Dawson, is also 8A. Martin and Howard counties to the south are District 08, handled from Midland.

District 8A is much quieter than District 08. In the RRC's July 2026 figures, 8A had 37 permits to drill new holes and 10 new oil completions, against 275 permits and 360 oil completions in District 08. For a Lamesa contractor, that can mean working several counties, and sometimes both districts, to keep crews busy.

TSHA says oil development in Dawson County began in 1934, and by 1946 twenty-eight wells were producing in the Welch community and two in the southeast part of the county. Total production through 1990 was about 294.8 million barrels. Cotton and oil have been the two mainstays of the county economy.

The UT Bureau of Economic Geology lists Dawson among the 18 Spraberry Trend counties, along with its 8A neighbors Gaines, Borden, Lynn, Terry and Garza.

Practically, that means a Lamesa crew is doing the same kinds of jobs as a Midland crew: roustabout and lease work, well servicing, water hauling. The coverage you need does not change because you are in 8A. What changes is how spread out the work is and how far your trucks drive. See roustabout company insurance and what insurance does a small roustabout company need.

TxDOT's highway designation records place the junction of US 87 and US 180 at Lamesa, with Business US 87 running along Dallas Avenue and US 87 routed on Lynn Avenue. FM 2052 runs from SH 349 south of Lamesa to the US 87 and US 180 junction.

For an oilfield contractor, those are the roads your trucks and rigs use to get to Gaines, Borden, Martin and Howard county work. Points to settle:

• Oversize and overweight loads need a TxDMV permit. Transportation Code 623.142 provides a permit for oil well servicing and drilling machinery on TxDOT roads.
• County roads and bridges can carry load limits that the commissioners court sets with TxDOT's concurrence under Transportation Code 621.301.
• Shared roads. In a county where cotton has long been the leading crop, farm equipment and agricultural trucks use the same roads. A collision with farm equipment, or damage to a field, fence or irrigation line, is an auto or GL claim.

See oilfield auto insurance and MCS-90 and does my auto policy cover lease roads.

Smaller crews and spread-out work do not change what an operator's MSA asks for. Here is what we check first for a Lamesa account:

• Workers' comp and employers liability. Texas does not require it, but operators almost always do. See do oilfield contractors need workers' comp in Texas.
• Auto limits and umbrella. Long drives across several counties add up to auto exposure. The umbrella should list auto as underlying. See oilfield umbrella insurance.
• Produced water. Hauling produced water for hire off the lease requires an RRC waste hauler permit, with an active P-5 and annual renewal. See what is an RRC waste hauler permit.
• H2S. Where Rule 36 applies, operators must get written certification from you that your people were trained.
• The MSA itself. Additional insured, waiver and primary wording, and how Chapter 127 treats the indemnity. See MSA insurance requirements.

Send the insurance exhibit, your current certificates and any rejection notice, and we will tell you what is missing.