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 1, 2026, the 11 top US mineral states tracked here show 11,544 drilling permits filed over the trailing 24 months, 1,763 drilled-but-uncompleted (DUC) wells in inventory, 1,462 wells spudded in the last 90 days, and 2,196 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 | 3,338 | 781 | 650 | 1,099 | 268 | Hilcorp Energy Company |
| California | 1,898 | 5 | 4 | 27 | 51 | Chevron |
| New Mexico | 1,695 | 346 | 297 | 561 | 30 | Hilcorp Energy Company |
| Kansas | 1,460 | 83 | 63 | 20 | 105 | Scout Energy Management |
| North Dakota | 1,089 | 194 | 161 | 81 | 42 | Continental Resources |
| Oklahoma | 684 | 152 | 130 | 103 | 77 | Citation Oil & Gas |
| Illinois | 448 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 102 | The Ohio Oil |
| Colorado | 351 | 29 | 22 | 172 | 51 | Noble Energy |
| Wyoming | 308 | 87 | 65 | 74 | 23 | Eog Resources |
| Utah | 171 | 81 | 67 | 57 | 27 | Koda Gnb, LLC |
| Mississippi | 102 | 5 | 3 | 2 | 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 1,401+ operator-county pairs across the tracked states, as of 2026-07-04.
| # | Operator | Counties | States | Wells | Producing | Permits 24mo | DUCs |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Occidental Petroleum (Oxy) | 125 | AR, CA, CO, KS, MI, MS, MT, ND, NM, OK, PA, TX, UT, VA, WY | 55,479 | 36,950 | 1,810 | 5,185 |
| 2 | Exxon Mobil | 111 | AL, CA, IL, KS, LA, MI, MS, MT, OK, TX, UT, WY | 14,689 | 3,917 | 21 | 4,776 |
| 3 | Chevron | 103 | AL, CA, CO, KS, LA, MS, MT, ND, NE, NM, OH, OK, PA, SD, TX, WV, WY | 68,357 | 41,876 | 2,959 | 8,997 |
| 4 | Diversified Production LLC | 89 | AL, KY, LA, OH, OK, PA, TN, TX, VA, WV | 42,453 | 41,382 | 116 | 373 |
| 5 | Chesapeake Energy | 87 | AR, KY, LA, ND, OH, OK, PA, TN, TX, WV, WY | 13,202 | 2,717 | 0 | 5,019 |
| 6 | Eog Resources | 73 | CO, MS, ND, NM, OK, PA, TX, UT, WY | 35,425 | 15,766 | 1,418 | 2,910 |
| 7 | Xto Energy | 71 | AR, CO, LA, ND, NM, OK, PA, TX, UT, WV | 14,932 | 9,221 | 888 | 1,911 |
| 8 | Bpx Operating Company | 70 | CO, KS, LA, MI, NM, OK, PA, TX, WY | 7,953 | 4,237 | 379 | 2,102 |
| 9 | Conocophillips Company | 68 | CA, CO, KS, LA, MI, MT, ND, NM, OK, TX, UT, WY | 5,766 | 1,801 | 22 | 1,567 |
| 10 | Hilcorp Energy Company | 64 | AL, CO, LA, MS, NM, OH, PA, TX, WY | 44,151 | 41,888 | 717 | 1,375 |
| 11 | Marathon Oil Company | 56 | AR, CA, CO, IL, KS, LA, MI, MS, ND, NE, NM, OK, TX, WY | 12,494 | 5,174 | 163 | 1,575 |
| 12 | Merit Energy Company | 49 | AR, KS, MI, OK, TX, WY | 10,126 | 8,743 | 14 | 989 |
| 13 | Apache | 49 | LA, ND, OK, TX | 9,576 | 7,071 | 316 | 1,283 |
| 14 | Hess Corporation | 39 | AL, CA, CO, FL, LA, MS, MT, ND, OH, TX, WY | 1,213 | 407 | 0 | 582 |
| 15 | Murfin Drilling | 38 | CO, KS, SD | 3,008 | 1,559 | 23 | 1,163 |
| 16 | Devon Energy Production Company | 35 | MT, NM, OK, TX, WY | 15,111 | 7,721 | 1,142 | 1,137 |
| 17 | Mach Resources | 34 | KS, OK, TX, WY | 13,830 | 12,949 | 63 | 604 |
| 18 | Citation Oil & Gas | 34 | CO, IL, MT, ND, OK, SD, TX, UT, WY | 13,502 | 6,968 | 76 | 4,570 |
| 19 | Continental Oil Company | 31 | IL, MS, MT, ND, OK, SD, UT, WY | 7,837 | 5,226 | 274 | 751 |
| 20 | Conocophillips | 31 | CO, KS, MT, ND, NM, OH, OK, TX, WY | 6,524 | 4,584 | 585 | 632 |
| 21 | Atlas Operating | 31 | PA, TX | 3,892 | 2,246 | 18 | 212 |
| 22 | Berexco | 30 | KS, NE | 2,471 | 1,778 | 25 | 456 |
| 23 | Scout Energy Management | 29 | CO, KS, ND, OK, TX, UT | 20,800 | 19,176 | 102 | 802 |
| 24 | Atlantic Richfield Company | 27 | AL, CA, CO, MT, ND, OK, PA, TX, WY | 1,236 | 25 | 0 | 299 |
| 25 | Sun Oil Company | 27 | KY, MI, MS | 1,151 | 103 | 0 | 319 |
By state: TX 369 operators across 239 counties · OK 68 operators across 65 counties · KS 40 operators across 82 counties · WY 43 operators across 23 counties · MS 36 operators across 47 counties · CA 21 operators across 39 counties · ND 43 operators across 30 counties · CO 42 operators across 36 counties · LA 28 operators across 21 counties · OH 20 operators across 37 counties · PA 17 operators across 36 counties · MI 17 operators across 36 counties · MT 28 operators across 19 counties · NM 28 operators across 16 counties · AL 23 operators across 15 counties · AR 13 operators across 15 counties · UT 22 operators across 8 counties · NE 14 operators across 7 counties · WV 11 operators across 10 counties · IL 9 operators across 16 counties · KY 8 operators across 14 counties · TN 12 operators across 7 counties · SD 9 operators across 6 counties · VA 3 operators across 5 counties · FL 3 operators across 4 counties · NY 1 operators across 1 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 1, 2026, the tracked states show 11,544 drilling permits over the trailing 24 months, 1,763 DUC wells in inventory, and 2,196 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 3,338 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), Occidental Petroleum (Oxy) currently leads with 125 counties, followed by Exxon Mobil (111) and Chevron (103). 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 1, 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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