Diamondback Energy is an independent oil and gas company focused almost entirely on drilling in the Permian Basin, one of the most productive shale oil regions in the United States, spanning parts of West Texas and southeastern New Mexico. The company has grown substantially through acquiring other Permian-focused producers, consolidating drilling acreage in a basin where the highest-quality rock can produce meaningfully more oil per well than average acreage. Diamondback has emphasized capital discipline, prioritizing shareholder returns through dividends and buybacks over maximizing production growth, a shift in strategy that shale producers broadly adopted after years of prioritizing growth over profitability. As a pure-play Permian producer with a fairly narrow geographic focus, Diamondback's results are more concentrated in the economics and drilling costs of a single basin than more geographically diversified oil and gas companies.