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Illinois Drilling Activity Report — August 2026

Statewide permits, drilled-but-uncompleted inventory, recent spuds, newly producing wells, and the most active operators and counties — compiled monthly from Illinois Department of Natural Resources, Office of Oil & Gas well-header records. Free to cite, quote, and embed with attribution.

Data as of · CC BY 4.0

The Month in One Sentence

As of August 1, 2026, Illinois has 448 drilling permits filed over the trailing 24 months, 0 drilled-but-uncompleted (DUC) wells in inventory, 0 wells spudded in the last 90 days, and 0 wells brought onto first production in the last six months, across 102 producing counties — per Illinois Department of Natural Resources, Office of Oil & Gas records compiled by Buckhead Energy.

448
Permits · trailing 24 mo
0
DUC wells in inventory
0
Spudded · last 90 days
0
New producers · 6 mo
100
Active operators tracked
102
Producing counties

Most Active Operators

#OperatorWellsPermits 24moDUCs
1 The Ohio Oil 10,782 0 0
2 Marathon Oil Company 4,529 0 0
3 The Texas Company 4,094 0 0
4 Pure Oil Company 3,192 0 0
5 Texaco 2,427 0 0

Full top-100 operator leaderboard →

Hottest Counties

#CountyRecent PermitsDUCsProducing Wells
1 Lake 0 0
2 Crawford 41 0
3 Will 0 0
4 Mc Henry 0 0
5 White 145 11

All Illinois counties →

Methodology & Downloads

Compiled from Illinois Department of Natural Resources, Office of Oil & Gas (IDNR) well-header and production filings: permits over a trailing 24-month window, current DUC inventory (spudded, not yet completed), spuds in the last 90 days, and wells with first production within six months. Refreshed monthly; every figure carries the as-of date above.

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Thinking of Selling Illinois Minerals?

Wondering whether to sell now? See Is now a good time to sell mineral rights in Illinois? — it ties this drilling data to the factors that decide timing, then routes to a free written offer.

Cite this report (CC BY 4.0): Buckhead Energy, "Illinois Drilling Activity Report — August 2026," compiled from Illinois Department of Natural Resources, Office of Oil & Gas records, August 1, 2026. https://www.buckheadenergy.com/illinois-drilling-activity-report

Journalists and researchers: monthly figures, county-level breakdowns, and CSV extracts are available on request — [email protected].