(817) 778-9532

Texas Drilling Activity Report — September 2026

Statewide permits, drilled-but-uncompleted inventory, recent spuds, newly producing wells, and the most active operators and counties — compiled from Texas Railroad Commission well-header records and refreshed daily. Free to cite, quote, and embed with attribution.

Data as of · CC BY 4.0

The Month in One Sentence

As of September 17, 2026, Texas has 3,232 drilling permits filed over the trailing 24 months, 2,000 drilled-but-uncompleted (DUC) wells in inventory, 738 wells spudded in the last 90 days, and 1,000 wells brought onto first production in the last six months, across 247 producing counties — per Texas Railroad Commission records compiled by Buckhead Energy.

3,232
Permits · trailing 24 mo
2,000
DUC wells in inventory
738
Spudded · last 90 days
1,000
New producers · 6 mo
100
Active operators tracked
247
Producing counties

Most Active Operators

#OperatorWellsPermits 24moDUCs
1 Oxy 25,879 392 1,601
2 Hilcorp Energy Company 25,697 121 964
3 Pioneer Natural Resources 19,455 1,115 1,088
4 Diamondback Energy 13,786 1,102 720
5 Basa Resources 11,668 15 149

Full top-100 operator leaderboard →

Hottest Counties

#CountyRecent PermitsDUCsProducing Wells
1 Wichita 36 1,552
2 Andrews 513 1,893
3 Ector 281 1,443
4 Archer 93 2,057
5 Midland 1,375 1,643

All 254 counties ranked →

Methodology & Downloads

Compiled from Texas Railroad Commission (RRC) well-header and production filings: permits over a trailing 24-month window, current DUC inventory (spudded, no reported first production), spuds in the last 90 days, and wells with first production within six months. Refreshed daily; every figure carries the as-of date above.

Top producing wells (CSV) · Live snapshot dashboard · All datasets · Oklahoma edition · Kansas edition · New Mexico edition · North Dakota edition · Colorado edition · Wyoming edition · US Index · California edition · Illinois edition · Mississippi edition · Utah edition

Thinking of Selling Texas Minerals?

Wondering whether to sell now? See Is now a good time to sell mineral rights in Texas? — 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, "Texas Drilling Activity Report — September 2026," compiled from Texas Railroad Commission records, September 17, 2026. https://www.buckheadenergy.com/texas-drilling-activity-report

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