9,098 drilling permits were filed in Texas over the last 12 complete months — +12.2% versus the prior year — by 611 operators.
| County | Permits (12 mo) | YoY |
|---|---|---|
| Midland | 756 | +16.8% |
| Reeves | 605 | +19.8% |
| Upton | 575 | +54.6% |
| Martin | 569 | -17.4% |
| Loving | 510 | -7.1% |
| Reagan | 338 | -13.6% |
| Webb | 318 | +36.5% |
| Glasscock | 297 | +80.0% |
| Andrews | 291 | +23.3% |
| De Witt | 206 | -13.4% |
| Howard | 205 | +5.1% |
| Culberson | 199 | +51.9% |
| Ector | 192 | +104.3% |
| Karnes | 176 | -7.4% |
| Crane | 172 | -13.1% |
| Dimmit | 160 | +17.6% |
| Yoakum | 155 | +229.8% |
| La Salle | 137 | +11.4% |
| Ward | 137 | -35.4% |
| Winkler | 135 | +9.8% |
| Pecos | 126 | +7.7% |
| Gaines | 121 | +24.7% |
| Mcmullen | 110 | -23.6% |
| San Augustine | 108 | +200.0% |
| Harrison | 105 | +20.7% |
| Operator | Permits (12 mo) | YoY |
|---|---|---|
| Pioneer Natural Resources | 710 | +57.4% |
| Diamondback Energy | 592 | +15.4% |
| Eog Resources | 320 | +46.8% |
| Oxy | 259 | +91.9% |
| Anadarko Petroleum | 195 | -22.9% |
| Apache | 190 | +14.5% |
| Burlington Resources Oil & Gas Company | 188 | -34.3% |
| Ovintiv Usa Inc | 187 | +19.9% |
| Cog Operating | 180 | +68.2% |
| De Central Operating, LLC | 179 | +47.9% |
| Bpx Operating Company | 155 | -29.5% |
| Coterra Energy Inc | 146 | +224.4% |
| Continental Resources | 130 | +209.5% |
| Oxyrock Operating, LLC | 126 | -24.6% |
| Chevron | 123 | -15.2% |
| Permian Resources Operating LLC | 119 | +13.3% |
| Blackbeard Operating | 110 | -34.9% |
| Firebird Energy II LLC | 93 | +45.3% |
| Kinder Morgan Production | 92 | -9.8% |
| Fasken Oil And Ranch | 91 | +15.2% |
| Sm Energy Company | 83 | +43.1% |
| Pdeh LLC | 82 | -38.3% |
| Civitas Permian Operating LLC | 81 | -28.3% |
| Magnolia Oil & Gas Operating | 81 | +2.5% |
| Silver Hill Energy Partners | 79 | +229.2% |
| Formation / play | Permits | Share |
|---|---|---|
| Permian Basin | 5,251 | 63.6% |
| Gulf Coast Basin (La - Tx) | 1,591 | 19.3% |
| East Texas Basin | 504 | 6.1% |
| Thirty-One Carbonate-Chert | 143 | 1.7% |
| Bend Arch | 118 | 1.4% |
| Fort Worth Syncline | 75 | 0.9% |
| Palo Duro Basin | 70 | 0.8% |
| Travis Peak | 60 | 0.7% |
| Austin Chalk | 59 | 0.7% |
| Barnett | 58 | 0.7% |
| All other / unclassified | 330 | — |
| Permit year | Permits | Median lateral (ft) | 75th pct lateral (ft) | Median permit → spud (days) | Median spud → first prod (days) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2017 | 11,741 | 6,424 | 8,871 | 48 | 120 |
| 2018 | 14,443 | 6,444 | 9,712 | 49 | 123 |
| 2019 | 15,566 | 7,609 | 10,190 | 43 | 141 |
| 2020 | 9,446 | 8,550 | 10,616 | 53 | 185 |
| 2021 | 9,915 | 9,107 | 10,851 | 45 | 156 |
| 2022 | 12,116 | 8,646 | 10,890 | 52 | 157 |
| 2023 | 9,282 | 9,460 | 10,992 | 45 | 169 |
| 2024 | 8,929 | 9,894 | 11,130 | 41 | 194 |
| 2025 | 8,065 | 9,989 | 11,692 | 39 | 172 |
| 2026 | 7,423 | 9,784 | 11,335 | — | — |
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: 80.9%; share of spuds older than a year reporting production: 86.3%. Groups with fewer than three permits are not shown. Data as of 2026-10-11.
9,098 permits were filed in Texas over the last 12 complete months, +12.2% versus the prior 12 months, by 611 operators.
Across Texas permits in the last ten years, the median permitted well was spudded 46 days after the permit and reported first production 152 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.