Landman’s Permian Basin Oil Show: Real Odessa Event and Filming Secrets

Permian Basin International Oil Show in Landman: Is the Odessa Expo Real, and Was It Filmed on Location?

When Landman drops viewers into a massive oilfield trade show in Odessa, the scene feels almost too big and too specific to be fake. Rows of drilling equipment, crowds of badge-wearing roughnecks and executives, and the backdrop of Ector County Coliseum give the sequence a documentary edge.

That is not an accident.

The show is drawing directly from a real event: the Permian Basin International Oil Show, or PBIOS, a long‑running industry expo that actually takes over Odessa every two years. And in fall 2025, Paramount’s Landman crew really did come to town to film during the live show.

Here is how the real Odessa event works, and how it ended up on screen.

What Is the Permian Basin International Oil Show?

The Permian Basin International Oil Show is a nonprofit, volunteer‑run petroleum industry expo that has helped define Odessa’s identity for decades. It takes place at the Ector County Coliseum and fairgrounds, at 4201 Andrews Highway, Odessa, Texas, spreading across both indoor exhibit halls and more than 25 acres of outdoor space.

Unlike a county fair, PBIOS is not aimed at casual visitors. The show is not open to the general public. Attendance is restricted to oil and gas professionals, typically 16 and older, ranging from field hands and roughnecks to executives, engineers, and service‑company owners.

The most recent edition, #PBIOS2025, ran from Tuesday through Thursday, October 21–23, 2025. Each day followed a tight schedule:

• Tuesday, October 21: 10 a.m.–6 p.m.
• Wednesday, October 22: 10 a.m.–6 p.m.
• Thursday, October 23: 10 a.m.–4 p.m.

Ahead of opening day, organizers ran on‑site preregistration and badge pickup October 16–18 and again on October 20, then same‑day registration during all three official show days.

How Big Is the Real Odessa Oil Show?

On screen, Landman portrays the oil show as a huge gathering of companies, equipment, and people. The real PBIOS matches that scale.

In 2025, the show featured more than 650 exhibitors, with media and organizers variously describing the total as around 700 companies occupying over 1,100 booths. Construction Equipment Guide reported that the 2025 event “drew more than 20,000 industry professionals from around the world.”

Those numbers track with recent history. In 2023, Odessa American coverage reported that PBIOS drew 22,771 energy industry professionals, up from weather‑ and pandemic‑affected editions in 2018 and 2021. PBIOS’s own federal tax filings describe a recent show with 22,071 attendees and about 735 companies taking part, reinforcing that 20,000‑plus visitors and 700‑plus exhibitors are normal in non‑pandemic years.

That crowd has a clear impact on Odessa and nearby towns. Hotels in Odessa, Midland, Andrews, and Monahans typically fill up early. A Texas Real Estate Research Center analysis of the 2012 show projected up to 40,000 visitors and roughly 12 million dollars in economic impact for the region, with residents even renting out homes and apartments to handle demand. Current PBIOS travel guidance still warns that room rates climb sharply during show week and encourages early booking or use of short‑term rentals.

Logistics adjust around that flood of people. Because on‑site parking at Ector County Coliseum is limited, organizers direct overflow parking to Ratliff Stadium on Odessa’s north side and run shuttle buses carrying about 40 passengers on roughly 20‑minute loops during the event.

Behind the scenes, the organization itself operates on a nonprofit budget. According to 2023 IRS filings, the PBIOS association brought in about 1.79 million dollars in revenue, spent 1.5 million dollars, and held 3.06 million dollars in assets, all with a staff of just two employees and a large volunteer base.

A Trade Show With Roots Back to 1940

PBIOS is not a pop‑up meant to catch a television trend. It predates Landman by more than 80 years.

The event started in 1940 as the “Little International Oil Show,” created by the Permian Basin Oil, Land, and Business Men’s Association. That first outing had only 35 exhibitors, but it marked the 19th anniversary of a key discovery well in the Westbrook field and signaled Odessa’s ambition as an oil center.

Organizers held a second show in 1941. Plans for 1942, however, were shelved as World War II reshaped priorities.

In 1950, Odessa revived the show as the “Oil Field Workers’ Show.” That reboot drew 214 exhibitors and an estimated 70,000 visitors, showing how quickly the concept had grown. A few years later, in 1953, the name changed to the Permian Basin Oil Show, and then in the mid‑1990s it evolved again into the current Permian Basin International Oil Show to reflect growing foreign participation.

By 2010, more than 700 companies were exhibiting across over 1,100 spaces, and the event had become one of the largest inland petroleum shows in the world.

Today PBIOS brands itself as “The Working Man’s Show.” The grounds reflect that identity. Attendees can see a fully operational cable‑tool drilling rig running during show hours, walk past vintage oilfield trucks from the 1930s, and visit the Oldtimers’ Lounge, which displays photographs and memorabilia from earlier eras. New drilling technology and digital tools sit just a few yards from century‑old equipment.

What Was New at PBIOS 2025?

The 2025 edition layered fresh features onto that long tradition.

PBIOS launched a new Spotlight Symposium Series, a three‑day block of technical and policy sessions hosted in turn by:

• The Permian Basin Association of Directional Drilling
• The Permian Basin Petroleum Association (PBPA)
• The Society of Petroleum Engineers

To make room for the symposium, organizers slightly reduced exhibitor space “from 725 two years ago to 705,” according to Executive Director Tony Fry, while still keeping the grounds “sold out.”

The show also debuted “PBIOS Live,” a media hub producing interviews and highlights from the show floor, and installed wall‑to‑wall Wi‑Fi across the fairgrounds for the first time to support exhibitors, attendees, and visiting press.

Local leaders used the opening ceremony to underline PBIOS’s symbolic weight. Odessa Mayor Cal Hendricks told the crowd:

“Pioneers, entrepreneurs and wildcatters came here and made this what it is today, the epicenter of energy.”

Midland Mayor Lori Blong framed the show as evidence of cleaner, more efficient production:

“You’re doing honorable work to provide the energy the world needs. Take a look at the technology and innovation on display, the way we produce cleaner, reliable barrels of oil.”

U.S. Rep. August Pfluger, who represents much of the Permian, tied the event directly to national policy:

“Energy security is national security, and I am proud to represent the region and people that keep our nation and allies secure.”

Beyond technology, PBIOS has built an educational mission. Since 2007, the show has donated 1.71 million dollars in scholarships to regional colleges and universities. In 2023 alone, it provided 310,000 dollars in scholarships, including 100,000 dollars to UT Permian Basin, 80,000 dollars each to Midland College and Odessa College, and 50,000 dollars to Texas Tech University. Fry has said the goal is to support “young men and women” in engineering and technical trades who are “indispensable to the success of our industry and region.”

Where Landman Is Set vs. Where It Films

Paramount’s Landman, created by Taylor Sheridan and Christian Wallace, is explicitly set in the Permian Basin, with storylines anchored in Midland, Odessa, and the surrounding oilpatch. The series follows crisis executive Tommy Norris as he navigates drilling, land deals, family stress, and cartel‑tinged intrigue.

On screen, many locations look like West Texas. In reality, most of the show is filmed several hundred miles away.

Entertainment outlets and local tourism offices in North Texas have confirmed that Fort Worth is the show’s production base. Filming centers on SGS Studios, Sheridan’s roughly 450,000‑square‑foot complex in the AllianceTexas development, equipped with about eight sound stages. From there, the crew fans out to nearby towns including Jacksboro, Cresson, Weatherford, Benbrook, Springtown, Irving, and into Durant, Oklahoma for casino sequences.

Still, Landman does not ignore the actual Permian. Season 1 included scenes at Ratliff Stadium in Odessa, used as a Permian High School football venue, and visual nods to businesses such as Boomtown Babes Espresso in Midland and the former Pioneer Café in Goldsmith, which helped inspire the show’s fictional Patch Café.

Coverage of the production notes that North Texas regularly doubles for Midland and Odessa, but also makes clear that the team does film in the real Midland–Odessa area for select scenes when authenticity matters most.

Did Landman Really Film at the 2025 PBIOS in Odessa?

That brings the question back to the oil show sequences. For fans trying to match episodes to reality, the key point is straightforward: yes, a Landman crew really did film during the 2025 Permian Basin International Oil Show in Odessa.

Multiple local and industry outlets recorded the visit:

• The Odessa American, in a report shared by the Permian Basin Petroleum Association, wrote that “a crew from the Paramount show ‘Landman’ was on hand to film scenes for a future episode” during a packed opening day at Ector County Coliseum.
• PBIOS President Martin Graves told that same outlet that the series was coming out to see the industry firsthand, saying of Landman:

“Maybe Hollywood’s getting it right. They’re coming out here to … see what the energy business is all about.”

• Executive Director Tony Fry explained that the partnership did not happen overnight. He said organizers had been in talks with the Landman team for six months, noting that the production’s soundstage is in Fort Worth and that the crew was “coming here to do some shooting and get the sights and sounds and overall feeling of the show.”

The Midland Reporter‑Telegram also told readers they might notice “a television crew filming for the series Landman” while walking the grounds.

None of the coverage details precisely how long the crew stayed on site or which characters were present. It also does not specify how much of the footage will make the final cut. That part will only become clear as Season 2 continues to air into early 2026.

What is clear, however, is that the cameras were rolling during an actual, fully functioning PBIOS, capturing real exhibits, crowds, and equipment rather than dealing only with staged replicas.

Why PBIOS Is a Natural Fit for Landman

Sheridan’s series has built its reputation on immersing viewers in the culture and mechanics of the oil patch: man camps, sagging towns, big‑ticket leases, and the high‑risk, high‑reward world of the Permian boom.

For that kind of storytelling, the Permian Basin International Oil Show offers something difficult to re‑create entirely on a soundstage:

• Real‑world heavy equipment and full‑scale rigs moving on outdoor lots
• Crowds of working oilfield hands mixed with executives and vendors
• A setting that locals already know as “The Working Man’s Show”
• Visible links between past and present, from vintage rigs to cutting‑edge completions tools

By dropping a camera crew into PBIOS 2025, the production could capture exactly the “sights and sounds and overall feeling of the show” that Fry described, while still relying on Fort Worth’s SGS Studios for controlled interior and dramatic work.

The collaboration also lines up with PBIOS’s own push to raise its profile. In 2025, alongside PBIOS Live, national political guests, and a new symposium format, having a major streaming series on site reinforced the idea that what happens at Ector County Coliseum resonates far beyond Odessa.

What Happens Next

As of December 2025, Season 2 of Landman is still rolling out weekly on Paramount+, and the series has already been renewed for a third season after its November premiere drew more than 9.2 million views in its first two days, according to the Houston Chronicle. The show has become one of the platform’s top draws.

PBIOS, for its part, remains firmly rooted as a biennial Odessa tradition, with organizers, volunteers, and industry groups already looking ahead to the next edition. The nonprofit’s scholarship pipeline, historical exhibits, and technical showcase suggest it will continue to anchor the region’s oil identity regardless of shifting prices or storylines on television.

For viewers, the bottom line is straightforward. When you see Landman cut to a sprawling oil exposition in Odessa, you are looking at more than a plausible set. The Permian Basin International Oil Show is real, it is big, and at least some of what you see on screen was captured during an actual, working trade show at Ector County Coliseum in October 2025.