8,734 drilling permits were filed in Texas over the last 12 complete months — +7.1% versus the prior year — by 595 operators.
| County | Permits (12 mo) | YoY |
|---|---|---|
| Midland | 705 | +2.3% |
| Reeves | 576 | +5.5% |
| Upton | 562 | +46.4% |
| Loving | 512 | -1.2% |
| Martin | 510 | -28.6% |
| Reagan | 315 | -15.8% |
| Webb | 301 | +32.6% |
| Andrews | 283 | +16.5% |
| Glasscock | 276 | +45.3% |
| Culberson | 208 | +71.9% |
| De Witt | 203 | -11.4% |
| Ector | 200 | +163.2% |
| Howard | 195 | -7.6% |
| Crane | 177 | -7.3% |
| Karnes | 163 | -22.4% |
| Dimmit | 149 | +9.6% |
| Ward | 143 | -28.9% |
| Yoakum | 138 | +176.0% |
| La Salle | 126 | 0.0% |
| Gaines | 125 | +43.7% |
| Pecos | 124 | -1.6% |
| Winkler | 119 | -4.8% |
| San Augustine | 96 | +174.3% |
| Harrison | 95 | +10.5% |
| Mcmullen | 94 | -37.3% |
| Operator | Permits (12 mo) | YoY |
|---|---|---|
| Pioneer Natural Resources | 644 | +31.7% |
| Diamondback Energy | 569 | +2.3% |
| Eog Resources | 302 | +43.8% |
| Oxy | 260 | +126.1% |
| Anadarko Petroleum | 206 | -22.6% |
| Ovintiv Usa Inc | 204 | +38.8% |
| Burlington Resources Oil & Gas Company | 198 | -30.8% |
| Apache | 174 | -5.9% |
| Cog Operating | 166 | +50.9% |
| De Central Operating, LLC | 148 | +23.3% |
| Coterra Energy Inc | 141 | +83.1% |
| Bpx Operating Company | 139 | -40.9% |
| Chevron | 135 | -2.2% |
| Continental Resources | 129 | +130.4% |
| Blackbeard Operating | 118 | -29.3% |
| Oxyrock Operating, LLC | 113 | -43.8% |
| Permian Resources Operating LLC | 104 | -8.0% |
| Pdeh LLC | 94 | -16.8% |
| Kinder Morgan Production | 94 | -16.1% |
| Firebird Energy II LLC | 86 | +36.5% |
| Mewbourne Oil Company | 79 | +17.9% |
| Hilcorp Energy Company | 77 | +54.0% |
| Fasken Oil And Ranch | 76 | -2.6% |
| Caturus Energy, LLC | 74 | +17.5% |
| Devon Energy Production Company | 74 | -12.9% |
| Formation / play | Permits | Share |
|---|---|---|
| Permian Basin | 5,273 | 63.6% |
| Gulf Coast Basin (La - Tx) | 1,564 | 18.9% |
| East Texas Basin | 502 | 6.1% |
| Thirty-One Carbonate-Chert | 137 | 1.7% |
| Bend Arch | 126 | 1.5% |
| Fort Worth Syncline | 86 | 1.0% |
| Avalon-Bone Spring | 73 | 0.9% |
| Palo Duro Basin | 70 | 0.8% |
| Travis Peak | 61 | 0.7% |
| Barnett | 54 | 0.7% |
| All other / unclassified | 344 | — |
| Permit year | Permits | Median lateral (ft) | 75th pct lateral (ft) | Median permit → spud (days) | Median spud → first prod (days) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2017 | 11,741 | 6,425 | 8,872 | 48 | 120 |
| 2018 | 14,443 | 6,447 | 9,713 | 49 | 123 |
| 2019 | 15,569 | 7,609 | 10,190 | 43 | 140 |
| 2020 | 9,446 | 8,550 | 10,616 | 53 | 185 |
| 2021 | 9,917 | 9,103 | 10,850 | 45 | 155 |
| 2022 | 12,118 | 8,647 | 10,891 | 52 | 157 |
| 2023 | 9,285 | 9,466 | 10,995 | 45 | 168 |
| 2024 | 8,935 | 9,878 | 11,101 | 41 | 194 |
| 2025 | 8,076 | 9,907 | 11,648 | 39 | 171 |
| 2026 | 7,109 | 9,745 | 11,257 | — | — |
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: 81%; share of spuds older than a year reporting production: 86.4%. Groups with fewer than three permits are not shown. Data as of 2026-09-29.
8,734 permits were filed in Texas over the last 12 complete months, +7.1% versus the prior 12 months, by 595 operators.
Across Texas permits in the last ten years, the median permitted well was spudded 46 days after the permit and reported first production 151 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.