N.M. Stat. § 70-7-1
The legislature finds and determines that it is desirable and necessary under the circumstances and for the purposes hereinafter set out to authorize and provide for the unitized management, operation and further development of the oil and gas properties to which the Statutory Unitization Act is applicable, to the end that greater ultimate recovery may be had therefrom, waste prevented, and correlative rights protected of all owners of mineral interests in each unitized area. It is the intention of the legislature that the Statutory Unitization Act apply to any type of operation that will substantially increase the recovery of oil above the amount that would be recovered by primary recovery alone and not to what the industry understands as exploratory units.
NMS § 70-7-1