The state of US oil & gas drilling right now — permits, DUC inventory, recent spuds, new producers, and the most active operators across the 11 top mineral states, rolled up from state regulator records and refreshed monthly. Free to cite, quote, and embed with attribution.
Data as of · CC BY 4.0As of August 12, 2026, the 11 top US mineral states tracked here show 11,651 drilling permits filed over the trailing 24 months, 1,784 drilled-but-uncompleted (DUC) wells in inventory, 1,689 wells spudded in the last 90 days, and 1,779 wells brought onto first production in the last six months, across 846 producing counties — compiled from state regulator records by Buckhead Energy.
| State | Permits 24mo | DUCs | Spuds 90d | New Producers | Counties | Most Active Operator |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Texas | 3,376 | 731 | 692 | 827 | 268 | Hilcorp Energy Company |
| California | 1,888 | 4 | 4 | 25 | 51 | Chevron |
| New Mexico | 1,682 | 488 | 469 | 560 | 30 | Hilcorp Energy Company |
| Kansas | 1,456 | 63 | 58 | 14 | 105 | Scout Energy Management |
| North Dakota | 1,054 | 178 | 167 | 77 | 42 | Continental Resources |
| Oklahoma | 799 | 154 | 146 | 61 | 77 | Citation Oil & Gas |
| Illinois | 451 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 102 | The Ohio Oil |
| Colorado | 361 | 29 | 27 | 105 | 51 | Noble Energy |
| Wyoming | 305 | 56 | 53 | 49 | 23 | Eog Resources |
| Utah | 175 | 78 | 70 | 61 | 27 | Koda Gnb, LLC |
| Mississippi | 104 | 3 | 3 | 0 | 70 | Denbury Onshore |
Ranked by trailing-24-month permits. Each state links to its full monthly drilling activity report.
The operators materially active in the most US counties — a county counts only where the operator ranks top-8 by wells with real recent activity (10+ wells, or a permit, spud, or DUC in the last 24 months). Aggregated from 1,369+ operator-county pairs across the tracked states, as of 2026-08-06.
| # | Operator | Counties | States | Wells | Producing | Permits 24mo | DUCs |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Shell Oil Company | 111 | AL, AR, CA, CO, FL, IL, KY, LA, MI, MS, MT, ND, NE, NM, NY, OK, PA, SD, TX, UT, WY | 7,231 | 1,042 | 4 | 1,617 |
| 2 | Diversified Production LLC | 104 | AL, LA, OH, OK, PA, TN, TX, VA, WV | 55,057 | 53,934 | 208 | 418 |
| 3 | Chevron | 87 | AL, CA, CO, KS, LA, MS, MT, ND, NM, OH, OK, PA, SD, TX, UT, WY | 67,633 | 41,462 | 2,913 | 8,972 |
| 4 | Exxon Mobil | 81 | AL, CA, IL, KS, LA, MI, MS, MT, OK, TX, UT, WY | 13,319 | 3,474 | 15 | 4,472 |
| 5 | Chesapeake Energy | 78 | AL, AR, KS, KY, LA, ND, NY, OH, OK, PA, TN, TX, WV, WY | 12,353 | 2,818 | 1 | 4,764 |
| 6 | Eog Resources | 63 | CO, MS, ND, NM, OK, PA, TX, UT, WY | 35,380 | 15,740 | 1,493 | 2,922 |
| 7 | Oxy | 63 | CA, CO, KS, MI, MS, NM, OK, TX, UT, VA, WV | 32,107 | 26,384 | 850 | 2,711 |
| 8 | Xto Energy | 62 | AR, CO, LA, ND, NM, OK, PA, TX, UT, WV | 13,900 | 8,746 | 853 | 1,830 |
| 9 | Hilcorp Energy Company | 59 | AL, CO, LA, MS, NM, OH, PA, TX, WY | 44,193 | 41,849 | 715 | 1,465 |
| 10 | Bpx Operating Company | 57 | CO, KS, LA, MI, NM, OK, PA, TX, WY | 7,420 | 3,973 | 395 | 1,877 |
| 11 | Amoco Production Company | 47 | AL, CO, LA, MS, ND, NE, PA, TX, UT, WV, WY | 2,479 | 857 | 0 | 878 |
| 12 | Texaco | 46 | IL, KY, LA, MS, ND, PA, SD, TX, UT | 8,769 | 1,567 | 0 | 3,425 |
| 13 | Merit Energy Company | 45 | AR, KS, MI, OK, TX, WY | 9,926 | 8,631 | 14 | 928 |
| 14 | Conocophillips Company | 44 | CA, CO, KS, LA, MI, MT, ND, NM, OK, TX, UT, WY | 4,828 | 1,457 | 20 | 1,385 |
| 15 | Anadarko Petroleum | 43 | CA, CO, KS, MS, ND, OK, PA, TX, UT, WY | 12,214 | 3,118 | 561 | 1,843 |
| 16 | Eqt Production Company | 42 | KY, PA, VA, WV | 8,222 | 4,738 | 328 | 516 |
| 17 | Gulf Oil | 42 | CA, CO, FL, KS, KY, LA, MS, MT, ND, SD, TX, UT | 1,520 | 180 | 0 | 945 |
| 18 | Mobil Oil | 41 | AR, CA, FL, LA, MS, NM, SD, TX, UT | 3,011 | 461 | 0 | 774 |
| 19 | Phillips Petroleum Company | 40 | AR, CA, CO, IL, KS, LA, MI, MS, MT, ND, OH, PA, TX, UT, WY | 2,706 | 455 | 5 | 649 |
| 20 | Marathon Oil Company | 39 | AR, IL, KS, LA, MI, MS, ND, NE, NM, OK, TX, UT, WY | 11,959 | 4,981 | 158 | 1,406 |
| 21 | Continental Oil Company | 39 | AR, CO, IL, MS, MT, ND, NE, NM, OK, SD, TX, WY | 7,672 | 5,060 | 255 | 809 |
| 22 | Apache | 35 | OK, TX | 8,686 | 6,630 | 288 | 1,036 |
| 23 | Humble Oil And Refining Company | 35 | AR, FL, LA, MS, NM, PA, TX, UT | 1,692 | 48 | 0 | 999 |
| 24 | Devon Energy Production Company | 33 | MT, NM, OK, TX, WV, WY | 15,004 | 7,647 | 1,108 | 1,135 |
| 25 | Union Oil Company Of California | 33 | AL, CA, CO, IL, MI, MT, ND, NM, TX | 4,026 | 885 | 0 | 280 |
By state: TX 578 operators across 252 counties · KS 392 operators across 105 counties · OK 341 operators across 74 counties · OH 273 operators across 81 counties · WV 132 operators across 49 counties · IL 201 operators across 55 counties · MS 172 operators across 63 counties · CO 171 operators across 52 counties · MI 69 operators across 51 counties · ND 134 operators across 42 counties · CA 116 operators across 42 counties · PA 82 operators across 36 counties · WY 93 operators across 23 counties · LA 76 operators across 23 counties · MT 84 operators across 20 counties · AR 60 operators across 18 counties · AL 70 operators across 16 counties · KY 58 operators across 15 counties · NM 67 operators across 21 counties · UT 66 operators across 13 counties · NE 40 operators across 8 counties · SD 32 operators across 6 counties · TN 27 operators across 7 counties · VA 14 operators across 5 counties · FL 15 operators across 4 counties · NY 13 operators across 4 counties
Each operator links to its full profile — wells, permits, and per-county activity pages. Download the full operator-by-county roll-up (CSV, CC BY 4.0) · JSON API
Every state in the index has a full monthly report, a live snapshot dashboard, and an operator leaderboard:
US Mineral Market Activity Index — all 11 states ranked 0–100 → · All datasets & live prices →
A dated, first-party national rollup of oil and gas drilling activity across the 11 top US mineral states — Texas, Oklahoma, New Mexico, North Dakota, Colorado, Wyoming, and Kansas. It aggregates permits, drilled-but-uncompleted (DUC) inventory, recent spuds, newly producing wells, and the most active operators from each state's regulator records, refreshed monthly.
As of August 12, 2026, the tracked states show 11,651 drilling permits over the trailing 24 months, 1,784 DUC wells in inventory, and 1,779 wells brought onto first production in the last six months.
Each state's figures are compiled from that state's oil & gas regulator well-header and permit filings — Texas Railroad Commission, Oklahoma Corporation Commission, New Mexico Oil Conservation Division, North Dakota Industrial Commission, Colorado Energy & Carbon Management Commission, Wyoming Oil & Gas Conservation Commission, and Kansas Corporation Commission — aggregated by Buckhead Energy and refreshed monthly.
Yes. The index and its underlying datasets are published under CC BY 4.0 — free to quote, cite, and embed with attribution to Buckhead Energy. Per-state breakdowns and extracts are available on request at [email protected].
By trailing-24-month permits, Texas leads the tracked states with 3,376 permits, followed by California. See the table for the full ranking, each linking to that state's monthly report.
By materially-active county footprint (a top-8 operator position in the county plus real recent activity), Shell Oil Company currently leads with 111 counties, followed by Diversified Production LLC (104) and Chevron (87). The full operator-by-county roll-up is downloadable as CSV under CC BY 4.0.
Buckhead Energy, "US Mineral & Drilling Activity Index," compiled from state oil & gas regulator records (TX RRC, OK OCC, NM OCD, ND NDIC, CO ECMC, WY WOGCC, KS KCC), August 12, 2026. https://www.buckheadenergy.com/us-drilling-activity-index
Machine-readable JSON (same numbers, never drift): /api/v1/us-drilling-activity-index
Journalists and researchers: national + per-state figures and extracts are available on request — [email protected].
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