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“Landman” star Andy Garcia joined top US energy leaders, stakeholders and lawmakers in Washington this week, saying his work on the show provides a rare window into the dedication of oil workers and the complex process of bringing US energy to market.
Garcia’s show focuses on the struggles of people working in the Permian Basin in West Texas, and his headline this week in Washington, DC brought the Trump-era theme of “American power dominance” full circle to give the public a glimpse into that often underreported life.
Garcia told American Petroleum Institute president Mike Sommers during his keynote speech that the complexities of the American oil industry, as played out on screen, are something most people have never seen or imagined.
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API CEO Mike Sommers, left, Andy Garcia, right. (Courtesy: American Petroleum Institute)
“You learn a lot about things you wouldn’t take for granted,” she said.
“The fact that [how] oil from the ground. And then there’s a company that pumps it and refines it, and then it ends up being used in all these kinds of things. “
He said viewers of “Landman” get an important window into the industry itself because of how showrunner Taylor Sheridan portrays the area up close; and how Billy Bob Thornton and Sam Elliott portray characters that seem true to the lives of those who actually live and work in the oil patch.
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Garcia said he “gained a deep understanding and education about the industry itself and the use of fuel and that he is everywhere – every day, everything we touch.” [has] something is coming out of it, it seems.”
Garcia joked that he was “absorbed” by the power industry show while watching the first season – in which he only appeared in the finale – and after reading its scripts as he prepared for his debut.
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API’s State of American Energy 2026 featured several shows. (Courtesy: American Petroleum Institute)
Elsewhere, at the State of American Energy Forum of 2026 there were exhibitions showing that path to American energy dominance, from the creation of Venango County, but still active, where Edmund Drake extracted US oil commercially in 1859 to show how the US now leads the world.
In his opening speech, Sommers said that “America’s energy position is strong” throughout 2026.
Sommers also spoke directly about the historic events in Venezuela of the past weeks and how it directly affects the American industry.
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He said that in 2007, the US produced about 5 million barrels of oil per day, and it relied heavily on imports – especially from Venezuela which was led by Hugo-Chavez at the time.
But, after the late dictator seized US energy supplies in Caracas, it not only affected the US industry, but led to a twenty-year recession that devastated Venezuela’s energy sector, which was riddled with corruption and violated the lives of local people.
“We (in the US) took a different approach through competition and innovation. Our industry ushered in the shale revolution and propelled America to its position as a world superpower,” Sommers said.
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“The United States now produces 13 million barrels of oil every day, more than any other country in the world. That production supports America’s energy security and our economic strength.”
“No industry has done more to improve the human condition than America’s oil and gas industry,” he later added.
