Where rigs are running and where permits are being filed across the Cherokee Platform — county-by-county intel for mineral owners deciding whether to hold or sell.
Get a Free Mineral ValuationFor Cherokee Platform mineral owners, the single biggest driver of your interest's value is what happens on or near your acreage in the next 12 to 24 months. A new horizontal permit on your section — or even on the offset section — can materially raise the value of your interest. The opposite is also true: a section where rig activity has gone dormant for years tends to be worth less than its production-only valuation suggests.
The Oklahoma Corporation Commission publishes operator filings (drilling permits, location applications, pooling orders) within a few business days of submission, and the Baker Hughes rig count tracks active rigs by county. We monitor both and use them in every Cherokee Platform mineral valuation.
The Cherokee Platform has historically run between 5 and 25 rigs depending on commodity price cycles. Rig activity in 2024-2026 has concentrated in:
Pawnee, Lincoln, Payne counties — Mississippi Lime + Hunton horizontal redevelopment
Hughes, Pottawatomie, Seminole counties — Caney Shale + selected Cherokee sand horizontal
Creek, Okmulgee counties — vertical recompletions + waterflood expansion (limited new horizontal)
Osage County — Burbank field waterflood maintenance + selected new vertical drilling under the Osage Mineral Estate framework
Two filing types are most relevant to Cherokee Platform mineral owners:
OCC Form 1000A — drilling permit application. A new 1000A on your section means the operator intends to drill a new well. Typical timeline from permit to spud is 3 to 9 months, though some operators sit on permits for longer.
OCC pooling order — issued by the Corporation Commission to pool an entire section's mineral interests for an upcoming horizontal. Receiving a pooling notice means a horizontal is imminent.
For an explanation of the OCC pooling process and what your options are as a mineral owner, see our force pooling guide.
The fair market value of your interest typically increases when a new horizontal permit is filed on or adjacent to your section. The increase depends on your interest type (mineral vs royalty vs ORRI), the well's expected economics (formation, lateral length, projected EUR), and your existing lease terms. If you've received an offer recently and a new permit has now landed, the offer should be re-evaluated.
Buckhead Energy's Cherokee Platform valuations explicitly incorporate active permits and pre-permit signals from OCC filings. Request an updated written offer if your section has new activity.
For each Cherokee Platform operator's recent permit filing pattern, see our operators list. Operators that have filed multiple new permits in a single county over the last 12 months are signaling continued capital deployment in that area — often a leading indicator of upcoming horizontal completions.
Free written valuation grounded in the latest Cherokee Platform permit + rig data.
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