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 2026-08-23.
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 2026-08-23) and refreshed monthly.
As of 2026-08-23, 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 (408), 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 (90), 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 (80), 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 (1,105), Ridge Oil & Gas (940), Shell Oil Company (249), Wbi Energy Transmission (199), Fidelity Exploration & Production Company (171), Encore Operating (121), Burlington Resources Oil & Gas Company (72), Williston Basin Interstate Pipeline Company (65), Mondak Utilities Company & Fidelity Gas Company (65), Denbury Onshore (60)
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), Tomahawk Oil Company (94), True Oil (92), 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), Exxon Mobil (48), A&S Mineral Development Company LLC (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), Cruse Tom (9), Struthers Oil & Gas (9), Murphy Nevel E (8), Ohio Oil Company (8)
Primary counties: Carbon, Yellowstone
Top Operators:
Amoco Production Company (13), Usgs (12), No Bonded Operator (7), The Nyvatex Oil CORP (6), American Quasar Petroleum Company (4), Farmers Union Central Exchange (4), Luhman (3), Beaverhead Oil Producing Company (3), Transtexas Energy (3), Mcdonough Pj (3)
Primary counties: Gallatin, Beaverhead, Park, Madison, Granite
Top Operators:
Armstrong Operating (8), Ohio Oil Company (4), Placid Oil Company (4), Boekel R G (3), Mcdonald Etal (3), Shell Oil Company (3), Hlm Drilling Company (3), Bowers Oil & Gas (2), Carter Oil Company (2), Blair Arden (2)
Primary counties: Carter, Fallon
Top Operators:
Sun Explorationproduction Company (2), Amoco Production Company (2), Bnv Energy Company (2), Mosbacher Production Company (2), Kintla Oil Company (2), Beauchamp C W (2), The Anaconda Company (2), Atlantic Richfield Company (2), Getty Oil Company (1), Butte Oil Company (1)
Primary counties: Lewis And Clark, Flathead
Top Operators:
Bill Barrett (8), Amoco Production Company (3), Flank Oil (2), California Company (1), Liberty Oil & Gas (1), Swabodadavis (1), Pan American Petroleum (1), Midnorthern Oil Company (1), Potter Basin O&G (1), Harper Oil Company Buckhorn Petroleum (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 2026-08-23.
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 1,621 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 259 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: 45,103
Recent permits: 259
Last refresh: 2026-08-23
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