921 drilling permits were filed in Oklahoma over the last 12 complete months — -6.6% versus the prior year — by 186 operators.
| County | Permits (12 mo) | YoY |
|---|---|---|
| Roger Mills | 124 | +90.8% |
| Canadian | 91 | +62.5% |
| Grady | 85 | -22.7% |
| Custer | 73 | +19.7% |
| Carter | 62 | -1.6% |
| Blaine | 34 | -12.8% |
| Creek | 30 | +57.9% |
| Caddo | 28 | +300.0% |
| Seminole | 27 | +35.0% |
| Stephens | 26 | -60.0% |
| Garvin | 26 | -31.6% |
| Pontotoc | 26 | +85.7% |
| Mc Clain | 22 | -15.4% |
| Dewey | 21 | -8.7% |
| Beaver | 20 | -35.5% |
| Hughes | 20 | +150.0% |
| Pottawatomie | 19 | -5.0% |
| Kingfisher | 17 | -78.2% |
| Payne | 14 | +75.0% |
| Lincoln | 14 | -50.0% |
| Major | 12 | -58.6% |
| Kay | 10 | +42.9% |
| Tulsa | 10 | +25.0% |
| Pittsburg | 10 | -28.6% |
| Noble | 9 | -10.0% |
| Operator | Permits (12 mo) | YoY |
|---|---|---|
| Mewbourne Oil Company | 75 | +5.6% |
| Continental Resources | 65 | -22.6% |
| Validus Energy II Midcon LLC | 56 | +33.3% |
| Devon Energy Production Company | 33 | +10.0% |
| Fw Midcon I, LLC | 32 | -25.6% |
| Coterra Energy Inc | 24 | +9.1% |
| Camino Natural Resources | 22 | +4.8% |
| Citation Oil & Gas | 22 | +10.0% |
| Bcemach | 19 | +90.0% |
| Latigo Oil & Gas | 18 | +28.6% |
| Warwickjupiter LLC | 18 | +125.0% |
| Calyx Energy III | 18 | +5.9% |
| Scout Energy Management | 14 | 0.0% |
| Citizen Energy Ventures LLC | 13 | +225.0% |
| Bcemach III LLC | 12 | -63.6% |
| Charter Oak Production | 12 | +50.0% |
| Johnson Oil | 12 | +300.0% |
| Crawley Petroleum | 11 | -26.7% |
| Culbreath Oil & Gas | 11 | — |
| Eckard Operating, LLC | 11 | -15.4% |
| Rush Creek Operating | 11 | +175.0% |
| Upland Operating LLC | 10 | +11.1% |
| Sandridge Exploration & Production | 10 | +25.0% |
| Sanguine Gas Exploration | 10 | +150.0% |
| Spring Operating Company | 9 | — |
| Formation / play | Permits | Share |
|---|---|---|
| Anadarko Basin | 536 | 58.3% |
| Chautauqua Platform | 193 | 21.0% |
| South Oklahoma Folded Belt | 88 | 9.6% |
| Woodford | 43 | 4.7% |
| Arkoma Basin | 39 | 4.2% |
| Excello-Mulky | 9 | 1.0% |
| Ouachita Folded Belt | 5 | 0.5% |
| Palo Duro Basin | 5 | 0.5% |
| All other / unclassified | 2 | — |
| Permit year | Permits | Median lateral (ft) | 75th pct lateral (ft) | Median permit → spud (days) | Median spud → first prod (days) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2017 | 2,555 | 4,978 | 8,676 | 22 | 109 |
| 2018 | 2,995 | 5,231 | 9,777 | 24 | 112 |
| 2019 | 2,312 | 7,393 | 10,119 | 30 | 117 |
| 2020 | 923 | 7,712 | 10,101 | 37 | 159 |
| 2021 | 1,136 | 7,629 | 9,997 | 40 | 120 |
| 2022 | 1,686 | 6,778 | 10,191 | 44 | 129 |
| 2023 | 1,100 | 7,520 | 10,385 | 44 | 119 |
| 2024 | 991 | 9,484 | 10,729 | 38 | 116 |
| 2025 | 908 | 9,977 | 10,942 | 33 | 108 |
| 2026 | 710 | 9,750 | 13,109 | — | — |
Cycle times use only wells that reached each milestone, so recent years read short until slower wells catch up. Share of permits older than a year that were spudded: 90.7%; share of spuds older than a year reporting production: 69.3%. Groups with fewer than three permits are not shown. Data as of 2026-09-29.
921 permits were filed in Oklahoma over the last 12 complete months, -6.6% versus the prior 12 months, by 186 operators.
Across Oklahoma permits in the last ten years, the median permitted well was spudded 31 days after the permit and reported first production 116 days after spud. Timing varies widely by operator and play.
A permit is usually the earliest public signal that an operator intends to drill. Rising permit counts in a county often precede new production — and new royalty income — by several months.
No. Valor publishes permit activity as statistics — monthly counts, county, operator and formation groupings of three or more permits, lateral-length trends and cycle times — rather than a list of individual permits.
Public oil and gas data. Valor computes the trends, groupings and cycle times shown here.
These statistics are computed by Valor from public oil and gas data. © Valor, all rights reserved.