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 daily. Free to cite, quote, and embed with attribution.
Data as of · CC BY 4.0As of September 17, 2026, the 11 top US mineral states tracked here show 11,442 drilling permits filed over the trailing 24 months, 9,782 drilled-but-uncompleted (DUC) wells in inventory, 1,711 wells spudded in the last 90 days, and 1,826 wells brought onto first production in the last six months, across 819 producing counties — compiled from state regulator records by Buckhead Energy.
| State | Permits 24mo | DUCs | Spuds 90d | New Producers | Counties | Most Active Operator |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Texas | 3,232 | 2,000 | 738 | 1,000 | 247 | Oxy |
| California | 1,853 | 157 | 4 | 89 | 45 | Chevron |
| New Mexico | 1,591 | 2,000 | 314 | 370 | 30 | Hilcorp Energy Company |
| Kansas | 1,438 | 1,997 | 40 | 8 | 105 | Eiger Operating Company, LLC |
| North Dakota | 1,091 | 844 | 170 | 99 | 42 | Continental Resources |
| Oklahoma | 851 | 899 | 150 | 37 | 77 | Citation Oil & Gas |
| Illinois | 456 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 102 | The Ohio Oil |
| Colorado | 335 | 759 | 138 | 103 | 51 | Noble Energy |
| Wyoming | 311 | 615 | 62 | 64 | 23 | Eog Resources |
| Utah | 179 | 469 | 90 | 55 | 27 | Koda Gnb, LLC |
| Mississippi | 105 | 42 | 5 | 1 | 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 1,298+ operator-county pairs across the tracked states, as of 2026-09-04.
| # | Operator | Counties | States | Wells | Producing | Permits 24mo | DUCs |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Shell Oil Company | 105 | AL, AR, CA, CO, FL, IL, KY, LA, MI, MS, MT, ND, NE, NM, NY, OK, PA, SD, TX, UT, WY | 7,131 | 1,000 | 4 | 1,593 |
| 2 | Diversified Production LLC | 102 | AL, LA, OH, OK, PA, TN, TX, VA, WV | 55,226 | 54,092 | 127 | 427 |
| 3 | Chevron | 82 | AL, CA, CO, KS, LA, MS, MT, ND, NM, OH, OK, PA, SD, TX, UT, WY | 67,484 | 41,327 | 2,835 | 8,976 |
| 4 | Chesapeake Energy | 79 | AL, AR, KS, KY, LA, ND, NY, OH, OK, PA, TN, TX, WV, WY | 12,567 | 2,820 | 1 | 4,781 |
| 5 | Exxon Mobil | 75 | AL, CA, IL, KS, LA, MI, MS, MT, OK, TX, UT, WY | 13,258 | 3,399 | 11 | 4,358 |
| 6 | Xto Energy | 61 | AR, CO, LA, ND, NM, OK, PA, TX, UT, WV | 13,621 | 8,517 | 864 | 1,773 |
| 7 | Hilcorp Energy Company | 59 | AL, CO, LA, MS, NM, OH, PA, TX, WY | 43,894 | 41,510 | 711 | 1,526 |
| 8 | Eog Resources | 59 | CO, MS, ND, NM, OK, PA, TX, UT, WY | 35,319 | 15,747 | 1,487 | 2,851 |
| 9 | Oxy | 56 | CA, CO, KS, MI, MS, NM, OK, TX, UT, VA, WV | 32,168 | 26,521 | 859 | 2,651 |
| 10 | Bpx Operating Company | 51 | CO, KS, LA, MI, NM, OK, PA, TX, WY | 7,347 | 3,994 | 406 | 1,782 |
| 11 | Amoco Production Company | 49 | AL, CO, LA, MS, ND, NE, PA, TX, UT, WV, WY | 2,522 | 801 | 0 | 951 |
| 12 | Phillips Petroleum Company | 43 | AR, CA, CO, IL, KS, LA, MI, MS, MT, OH, PA, SD, TX, UT, WY | 2,715 | 453 | 4 | 657 |
| 13 | Texaco | 41 | IL, KY, LA, MS, ND, PA, SD, TX, UT | 8,712 | 1,003 | 0 | 3,937 |
| 14 | Eqt Production Company | 41 | KY, PA, VA, WV | 8,225 | 4,744 | 318 | 533 |
| 15 | Continental Oil Company | 40 | AR, CO, IL, MS, MT, ND, NE, NM, OK, SD, TX, WY | 7,712 | 5,065 | 264 | 811 |
| 16 | Conocophillips Company | 40 | CA, CO, KS, LA, MI, MT, ND, NM, OK, TX, UT, WY | 4,789 | 1,462 | 20 | 1,349 |
| 17 | Gulf Oil | 40 | CO, FL, KS, KY, LA, MS, MT, ND, SD, TX, UT | 1,512 | 151 | 0 | 967 |
| 18 | Merit Energy Company | 38 | AR, KS, MI, OK, TX, WY | 8,534 | 7,596 | 10 | 618 |
| 19 | Marathon Oil Company | 37 | AR, IL, KS, LA, MI, MS, ND, NE, NM, OK, TX, UT, WY | 11,912 | 4,912 | 140 | 1,432 |
| 20 | Mobil Oil | 37 | AR, CA, FL, LA, MS, NM, SD, TX, UT | 3,004 | 455 | 0 | 781 |
| 21 | Anadarko Petroleum | 36 | CO, KS, ND, OK, PA, TX, UT, WY | 12,158 | 3,190 | 568 | 1,718 |
| 22 | Southern Community | 33 | CA, CO, IL, KS, LA, MS, NM, OK, TX, UT | 3,434 | 1,744 | 58 | 629 |
| 23 | Sun Explorationproduction Company | 32 | LA, MT, ND, OH, TX | 1,976 | 126 | 0 | 785 |
| 24 | Humble Oil And Refining Company | 32 | AR, FL, LA, MS, NM, PA, TX, UT | 1,669 | 90 | 0 | 934 |
| 25 | Devon Energy Production Company | 30 | MT, NM, OK, TX, WV, WY | 14,964 | 7,630 | 1,107 | 1,114 |
By state: TX 551 operators across 232 counties · KS 390 operators across 105 counties · OK 342 operators across 74 counties · OH 269 operators across 81 counties · WV 131 operators across 49 counties · MS 177 operators across 63 counties · IL 202 operators across 55 counties · CO 169 operators across 52 counties · MI 69 operators across 51 counties · ND 132 operators across 42 counties · CA 108 operators across 40 counties · PA 84 operators across 37 counties · WY 92 operators across 23 counties · LA 75 operators across 23 counties · MT 83 operators across 20 counties · AR 59 operators across 18 counties · AL 67 operators across 16 counties · KY 57 operators across 15 counties · NM 68 operators across 21 counties · UT 68 operators across 13 counties · NE 39 operators across 8 counties · SD 34 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 daily.
As of September 17, 2026, the tracked states show 11,442 drilling permits over the trailing 24 months, 9,782 DUC wells in inventory, and 1,826 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 daily.
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 3,232 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 105 counties, followed by Diversified Production LLC (102) and Chevron (82). 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), September 17, 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].
Buckhead Energy buys mineral and royalty interests across all 50 states and has completed acquisitions in 33 states. Buckhead Energy is a direct buyer, not a broker — we purchase mineral and royalty interests with our own capital. Buckhead Energy has been buying mineral and royalty interests since 2006. Buckhead Energy holds an A+ rating with the Better Business Bureau.
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