Every active oil and gas formation and play in Montana — Sweetgrass Arch, Bakken, Powder River Basin, Central Montana Uplift, Judith River- Eagle, Niobrara Fm, and more — ranked by well count, with the top operators and primary counties for each.
Refreshed monthly from BOGC well records. Data current as of 2026-08-12.
Quick answer: The most-targeted oil and gas formations in Montana are the Sweetgrass Arch, Bakken, Powder River Basin, Central Montana Uplift and Judith River- Eagle, led by the Sweetgrass Arch with 16,666 wells on record. Ranked by well count across 14 tracked formations from Montana Board of Oil and Gas Conservation (BOGC) well-header records (as of 2026-08-12) and refreshed monthly.
As of 2026-08-12, the most-developed Montana formation is the Sweetgrass Arch with 16,666 wells on record, across 14 tracked formations, per Montana Board of Oil and Gas Conservation (BOGC) well records.
Top Operators:
Somont Oil Company (1,006), New Horizon Resources (933), Mcr (578), Montalban Oil Etal (426), A B Energy (380), Montana Power Company (303), Northwestern (286), Keesun (282), Texaco Exploration And Production (280), Fx Drilling Company (278)
Primary counties: Toole, Glacier, Pondera, Liberty, Chouteau
Top Operators:
Morning Star Oil Company (476), Continental Resources (411), White Rock Oil & Gas (225), D90 Energy (145), Oasis Petroleum North America (136), Slawson Exploration Company (132), Whiting Petroleum CORP (128), Poplar Resources LLC (102), Kraken Operating (87), Murphy Exploration & Production Company (76)
Primary counties: Richland, Roosevelt, Sheridan, Daniels, Mccone
Top Operators:
Fidelity Exploration & Production Company (1,144), Denbury Onshore (472), Summit Gas Resources (237), Powder River Gas (165), Highline Exploration (116), Redstone Gas Partners (91), Pinnacle Gas Resources (78), True Oil (73), Gary Energy (65), Placid Oil Company (62)
Primary counties: Big Horn, Powder River, Carter, Custer, Rosebud
Top Operators:
Northwestern (277), Fuel Resources Development Company (126), True Oil (97), Montana Power Company (97), Devon Energy Production Company (91), Norfolk Energy (81), Ang Holding USA CORP (80), Cenex (70), Brown J Burns Operating Company (66), Ocean Energy (62)
Primary counties: Blaine, Musselshell, Yellowstone, Stillwater, Fergus
Top Operators:
Mmgl Mt I, LLC (958), Ridge Oil & Gas (940), Shell Oil Company (249), Denbury Onshore (207), Wbi Energy Transmission (199), Fidelity Exploration & Production Company (171), Encore Operating (121), Burlington Resources Oil & Gas Company (72), Williston Basin Interstate Pipeline Company (66), Mondak Utilities Company & Fidelity Gas Company (65)
Primary counties: Fallon, Wibaux, Dawson, Prairie
Top Operators:
Northwestern (1,014), Brown J Burns Operating Company (391), Ocean Energy (224), Klabzuba Oil & Gas (186), Devon Energy Production Company (166), High Crest Oils (130), Norfolk Energy (117), Citation Oil & Gas (97), Montana Power Company (72), Lone Wolf Operating Company (59)
Primary counties: Hill, Blaine
Top Operators:
Ridge Oil & Gas (1,781), Fidelity Exploration & Production Company (274), Midlands Energy CO (85), Noble Energy (74), Decker Operating (45), Williston Basin Interstate Pipeline Company (41), Samedan Oil (34), Fidelity Gas (23), Freeport-Mcmoran Oil & Gas (21), Odessa Natural (18)
Primary counties: Phillips, Valley
Top Operators:
Cline Production Company (109), Conocophillips Company (100), True Oil (92), Tomahawk Oil Company (87), Texaco Exploration And Production (83), Mcalester Fuel Company (77), Beartooth Oil & Gas Company (52), Phillips Petroleum Company (36), Montana Energy Company LLC (35), Fpco Oil And Gas Company (33)
Primary counties: Rosebud, Musselshell, Petroleum, Garfield, Fergus
Top Operators:
Kraken Operating (192), Phoenix Operating Company (55), A&S Mineral Development Company LLC (48), Exxon Mobil (48), Continental Resources (42), Gulf Oil (32), Sohio Petroleum Company (30), Oryx Energy Company (29), Atlantic Richfield Company (28), Shell Oil Company (28)
Primary counties: Valley, Mccone, Phillips, Richland, Roosevelt
Top Operators:
Contango Resources Company (93), Big Sky Energy (38), Amoco Production Company (37), Montana Power Company (30), Northwestern (22), Howell Petroleum (21), Struthers Oil & Gas (9), Cruse Tom (9), Ohio Oil Company (8), Murphy Nevel E (8)
Primary counties: Carbon, Yellowstone
Top Operators:
Amoco Production Company (13), Usgs (12), No Bonded Operator (7), The Nyvatex Oil CORP (6), Farmers Union Central Exchange (4), American Quasar Petroleum Company (4), Beaverhead Oil Producing Company (3), Transtexas Energy (3), Luhman (3), Beaverhead Alberta Oil Company (3)
Primary counties: Gallatin, Beaverhead, Park, Madison, Jefferson
Top Operators:
Armstrong Operating (8), Placid Oil Company (4), Ohio Oil Company (4), Boekel R G (3), Hlm Drilling Company (3), Shell Oil Company (3), Mcdonald Etal (3), Mule Creek Oil Company (2), Pan American Petroleum (2), Bowers Oil & Gas (2)
Primary counties: Carter, Fallon
Top Operators:
Bnv Energy Company (2), Amoco Production Company (2), Beauchamp C W (2), Sun Explorationproduction Company (2), Atlantic Richfield Company (2), The Anaconda Company (2), Mosbacher Production Company (2), Kintla Oil Company (2), Getty Oil Company (1), Suncor Energy (1)
Primary counties: Lewis And Clark, Flathead
Top Operators:
Bill Barrett (8), Amoco Production Company (3), Flank Oil (2), Midnorthern Oil Company (1), Malone Ebert (1), New Day Oil (1), Swabodadavis (1), California Company (1), Pan American Petroleum (1), Phillips Petroleum Company (1)
Primary counties: Park, Meagher, Broadwater, Gallatin
Source: Montana Board of Oil and Gas Conservation (BOGC) well-header records, aggregated by primary play / interpreted formation / basin.
Threshold: Only formations with at least 50 wells are listed (excludes one-off wildcat plays).
Why it matters: Knowing which formation underlies your tract — and which operators are actively drilling that formation — is the foundation of mineral-rights valuation. Stacked-pay plays carry materially different upside than mature single-bench plays.
Refresh cadence: Monthly. Data current as of 2026-08-12.
Cite this dataset
Permanently archived and citable via a DOI on Zenodo (CERN), under a CC BY 4.0 license. DOI: 10.5281/zenodo.21442884 · View on Zenodo
License & attribution: This data is licensed CC BY 4.0. You are free to share and adapt it, including commercially, provided you credit “Buckhead Energy” and link back to this page or the DOI above.
The most-developed formations and plays in Montana are the Sweetgrass Arch, Bakken, Powder River Basin, Central Montana Uplift and Judith River- Eagle, among others. This directory tracks 14 active formations ranked by well count, per Montana Board of Oil and Gas Conservation (BOGC) records.
The Sweetgrass Arch has the most wells on record in Montana — 16,666 wells, worked by 1,620 active operators, per BOGC well-header data. This is a well-count ranking, not a reserves or value ranking.
The most active operators in the Sweetgrass Arch are Somont Oil Company, New Horizon Resources, McR, Montalban Oil Etal, A B Energy. Each formation card below lists its top operators by well count.
About 260 drilling permits were filed across the tracked Montana formations in the last 24 months, per BOGC records — a rough measure of where new activity is concentrated.
Your deed and county records determine which formations your mineral rights cover; a tract can own multiple stacked formations. Buckhead Energy can check the geology under your tract against current well and permit data and put a free, no-obligation written offer in writing — this directory is informational only, not a valuation.
The geology under your tract drives your valuation. Get a free written offer based on your specific formation and county.
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Sell Your Montana Mineral Rights
State: Montana
Active formations: 14
Total wells: 45,100
Recent permits: 260
Last refresh: 2026-08-12
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