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The New Mexico Oil & Gas Formations & Plays Directory

Every active oil and gas formation and play in New Mexico — Avalon-Bone Spring, Permian Basin, Pictured Clliffs, Morrow, Nw Shelf Perm-Penn Carbonate, San Juan Basin, and more — ranked by well count, with the top operators and primary counties for each.

Refreshed monthly from NMOCD well records. Data current as of 2026-07-28.

Original Data As of 2026-07-28

As of 2026-07-28, the most-developed New Mexico formation is the Avalon-Bone Spring with 29,827 wells on record, across 16 tracked formations, per New Mexico Oil Conservation Division (NMOCD) well records.

Avalon-Bone Spring
Most-developed formation
29,827 wells
Wells on record in that formation
16
Formations tracked
Source: New Mexico Oil Conservation Division (NMOCD) well-header records
Methodology: Formations ranked by well count from NMOCD well-header records; active operators and recent permits are aggregated per formation.
Updated: Refreshed monthly — data current as of 2026-07-28
Active Formations
16
Total Wells
116,910
Total Lateral
38,110 miles
Recent Permits (24mo)
9,035

Avalon-Bone Spring

29,827 wells 656 active operators 14,179 miles of lateral 435 permits (24mo)

Top Operators:

Eog Resources (3,585), Devon Energy Production Company (2,548), Oxy (1,783), Cog Operating (1,754), Mewbourne Oil Company (1,566), Xto Energy (1,253), Matador Production Company (1,063), Coterra Energy INC (927), Chevron (695), Riley Permian Operating (602)

Primary counties: Eddy, Lea, Chaves

Permian Basin

23,215 wells 538 active operators 20,468 miles of lateral 7,169 permits (24mo)

Top Operators:

Eog Resources (2,692), Devon Energy Production Company (1,835), Mewbourne Oil Company (1,726), Oxy (1,628), Xto Energy (1,374), Permian Resources Operating LLC (1,293), Matador Production Company (1,184), Coterra Energy INC (1,121), Chevron (869), Cog Operating (685)

Primary counties: Lea, Eddy, Chaves, Roosevelt, De Baca

Pictured Clliffs

16,011 wells 157 active operators 326 miles of lateral 27 permits (24mo)

Top Operators:

Hilcorp Energy Company (7,984), Simcoe LLC (1,629), Burlington Resources Oil & Gas Company (968), Morning Star Oil Company (573), Conocophillips Company (496), Enduring Resources (466), Bpx Operating Company (447), Logos Operating (434), High River Resources Operating LLC (279), Djr Operating (226)

Primary counties: San Juan, Rio Arriba, Sandoval

Morrow

15,081 wells 708 active operators 523 miles of lateral 773 permits (24mo)

Top Operators:

Hilcorp Energy Company (848), Oxy (729), Apache (721), Southwest Royalties (715), Fae Ii Operating LLC (559), Empire New Mexico LLC (539), Eog Resources (537), Chevron (483), Mack Energy (368), Cimarex Energy Company (313)

Primary counties: Lea, Chaves, Eddy, Roosevelt, Otero

Nw Shelf Perm-Penn Carbonate

13,493 wells 414 active operators 825 miles of lateral 163 permits (24mo)

Top Operators:

Sep Legacy LLC (1,429), Eog Resources (1,243), Maverick Permian LLC (752), Spur Energy Partners LLC (704), Conocophillips Company (545), Morning Star Oil Company (540), Cog Operating (463), Lh Operating LLC (462), Mack Energy (453), Hilcorp Energy Company (440)

Primary counties: Eddy, Lea, Chaves, Lincoln

San Juan Basin

7,332 wells 228 active operators 1,552 miles of lateral 325 permits (24mo)

Top Operators:

Hilcorp Energy Company (1,122), Dugan Production (1,016), Djr Operating (651), Enduring Resources (476), Logos Operating (271), Epic Energy (238), Morning Star Oil Company (223), Simcoe LLC (216), Dominion Production Company (173), Playa Minerals & Energy (162)

Primary counties: San Juan, Rio Arriba, Mckinley, Sandoval, Valencia

Dakota

6,411 wells 129 active operators 147 miles of lateral 2 permits (24mo)

Top Operators:

Hilcorp Energy Company (2,593), Simcoe LLC (550), Logos Operating (485), Bpx Operating Company (341), Burlington Resources Oil & Gas Company (341), Dugan Production (270), Xto Energy (243), Morning Star Oil Company (196), Conocophillips Company (152), Epic Energy (92)

Primary counties: San Juan, Rio Arriba, Sandoval, Mckinley

Abo-Pecos Slope

2,029 wells 81 active operators 23 miles of lateral 97 permits (24mo)

Top Operators:

Eog Resources (446), Iacx Production LLC (401), Solis Partners LLC (400), Desert Mountain Energy CORP (170), Mckay Oil (68), Slayton Resources (62), Hanson Operating (54), M E W Enterprise (50), Llj Ventures LLC Dba Marker Oil & Gas (36), Grizzly Operating (32)

Primary counties: Chaves, Eddy

Sierra Grande Uplift

1,054 wells 20 active operators 6 miles of lateral 0 permits (24mo)

Top Operators:

Oxy (782), Bpx Operating Company (93), Breitburn Operating (70), Whiting Petroleum CORP (58), Hess (16), Reliant Exploration And Production (8), Co2 (5), Conley & Associates (4), Kodiak Petroleum (4), Beck Producing Company (3)

Primary counties: Harding, Union, Eddy, Colfax

Mesaverde_

800 wells 57 active operators 28 miles of lateral 0 permits (24mo)

Top Operators:

Logos Operating (148), Hilcorp Energy Company (136), Advanced Wireless Communications (47), N M & O Operating Company (41), Enduring Resources (40), Rim Operating (33), Energen Resources (32), Dugan Production (29), Bensonmontingreer Drilling (27), High River Resources Operating LLC (24)

Primary counties: Rio Arriba, San Juan

Las Vegas - Raton Basin

647 wells 38 active operators 11 miles of lateral 0 permits (24mo)

Top Operators:

High River Resources Operating LLC (535), Ep Energy E And P Company (20), Pennzenergy Exp & Production (10), Wapiti Operating (9), Odessa Natural (8), Bpx Operating Company (7), Bennett Petroleum (6), Hng Fossil Fuel Company (5), W E Bakke Jr (4), Kelly Bell (3)

Primary counties: Colfax, Mora

Thirty-One Carbonate-Chert

491 wells 47 active operators 16 miles of lateral 43 permits (24mo)

Top Operators:

Scout Energy Management (104), Ram Energy (77), Texaco Exploration And Production (61), Lh Operating LLC (51), Sirgo Operating (31), Oxy (28), Southwest Royalties (17), Legacy Reserves Operating (16), Chevron (12), Conocophillips Company (10)

Primary counties: Lea, Eddy

Pierre -Niobrara

326 wells 4 active operators 1 miles of lateral 0 permits (24mo)

Top Operators:

High River Resources Operating LLC (315), Ep Energy E And P Company (7), Pennzenergy Exp & Production (3), Wapiti Operating (1)

Primary counties: Colfax

Palo Duro Basin

119 wells 40 active operators 0 miles of lateral 0 permits (24mo)

Top Operators:

Enercap (18), Public Lands Exploration (15), Ckg Energy (9), Transpecos Resources (7), Eog Resources (6), Shell Oil Company (6), Moranlavaca LLC (4), Sonoma Energy (4), Mcclellan Oil (4), Bruce A Wilbanks (3)

Primary counties: Guadalupe, De Baca, Quay, Curry, San Miguel

Basin - And - Range Province

43 wells 16 active operators 2 miles of lateral 0 permits (24mo)

Top Operators:

Kinder Morgan Production (12), Ridgeway Arizona Oil (7), Transocean Oil (4), Shell Oil Company (3), Metano Resources (3), A N Spanel W O Heinze (2), Reeves Brothers Petroleum (2), Djr Operating (2), Morris B Jones (1), Samedan Oil (1)

Primary counties: Catron, Luna, Grant, Valencia, Rio Arriba

Orogrande Basin

31 wells 16 active operators 3 miles of lateral 1 permits (24mo)

Top Operators:

Twining Drilling (7), Chaparral Energy (4), Jalapeno (3), Threshold Development Company (3), Heyco Development (2), Primero Operating (2), Cibola Energy (1), David V Alcorn (1), Manzano Oil (1), Harvey E Yates Company (1)

Primary counties: Otero, Lincoln, Socorro, Sierra, Dona Ana

About This Data

Source: New Mexico Oil Conservation Division (NMOCD) 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 2026-07-28.

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Quick Stats

State: New Mexico

Active formations: 16

Total wells: 116,910

Recent permits: 9,035

Last refresh: 2026-07-28

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