COUNTIES · PERMIAN BASIN · DISTRICT 8A · CODE 165
Gaines County
Gaines County permitting is running 18 permits a month over the trailing 90 days (53 total, down 22% on the prior quarter). 8 were issued in the past week.
OXY USA Inc. leads with 123 permits in the past 12 months, one of 13 operators active in the county.
2 operators filed a first Gaines County permit in the past year.
Median permitted depth over the past year is 6,000 ft; 9% of the past year's permits are horizontal.
The county has 2,484 active disposal and injection permits, with 279M barrels injected in the 12 months reported through June 2025.
TexNet located 13 earthquakes of magnitude 2 or more in the county's permit footprint over the past two years, the largest M3.6.
10,579 drilling permits have been issued in Gaines County since 1977.
10,579 permits on file since 1977 · last issued Oct 27, 2026
Watch Gaines CountyAlso: every Gaines County well in the statewide list, searchable → · a year of permits on the map →
- 121
- permits issued, 180d
- +86%
- vs prior 180d (65)
- 9
- operators filing
- 12%
- horizontal
- 6,376
- avg permitted depth, ft
- 665
- operators, all time
WINDOWS ON THE RRC ISSUE DATE · COMPUTED OCT 29, 2026 · WHY ISSUE AND SEEN DATES DIFFER
Permits issued by month
LAST 112 MONTHS · BY ISSUE DATE
Last 12 months 188 · prior 12 116(+62%)
Top operators, last 12 months
By permits issued. Wells are the operator’s current inventory here from the RRC wellbore file.
| Operator | Permits | Wells |
|---|---|---|
| OXY USA Inc. | 123 | 613 |
| OXY USA WTP LP | 18 | 214 |
| McClure Oil Company, Inc. | 14 | 35 |
| Occidental Permian Ltd. | 10 | 878 |
| Bce-Mach III LLC | 8 | 1,243 |
| Active Iron Energy, LLC | 5 | 19 |
| Hilcorp Energy Company | 4 | 997 |
| White Rock Oil & Gas, LLC | 1 | 55 |
| Enterprise Products Operatingllc | 1 | 17 |
| Manzano, LLC | 1 | 3 |
New entrants, last 12 months
Operators whose first permit in Gaines County came in the last year. 2 in total.
- Active Iron Energy, LLC5 permitsSep 3, 2026 · new to Texas permits
- Hilcorp Energy Company4 permitsNov 5, 2025 · active elsewhere first
Permit types, 180d
| Type | Window | Prior | All time |
|---|---|---|---|
| Recompletion | 82 | 61 | 1,653 |
| Drill | 36 | 3 | 8,417 |
| Reclass | 1 | 1 | 17 |
| Reenter | 0 | 1 | 259 |
Formations in completed wells
RRC WELLBORE FILE · ≥10 WELLS
Tops reported on completion filings for wells in Gaines County. A well counts for every formation it reports, so this reads as the county's stratigraphic column. About tops →
| Formation | Wells | Permitted last 3 yrs | Median top, ft | P10–P90 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| San Andres | 5,380 | 220 | 4,522 | 4,315–4,981 |
| Yates | 4,398 | 207 | 2,930 | 2,829–3,335 |
| Clear Fork | 2,888 | 14 | 6,300 | 5,954–6,719 |
| Glorieta | 2,524 | 24 | 5,875 | 5,651–6,013 |
| Queen | 2,193 | 147 | 3,750 | 3,424–4,245 |
| Rustler | 1,733 | 62 | 2,040 | 1,772–2,275 |
| Seven Rivers | 1,562 | 115 | 3,140 | 3,012–3,510 |
| Tubb | 1,457 | 2 | 6,986 | 6,651–7,278 |
| Grayburg | 1,454 | 117 | 4,202 | 4,046–4,558 |
| Wichita-Albany | 476 | 2 | 7,300 | 7,192–7,849 |
| Tansill | 280 | 41 | 2,970 | 2,734–3,097 |
| Wolfcamp | 239 | 4 | 9,210 | 8,507–9,966 |
| Devonian | 212 | 0 | 11,179 | 10,667–12,720 |
| Salado | 188 | 2 | 2,050 | 1,871–2,181 |
| Spraberry | 157 | 5 | 8,351 | 7,610–8,782 |
Beyond the permit record
RRC UIC permits · H-10 reported volumes
Disposal and injection
- 2,484
- active UIC permits of 3,889
- 11.8M
- permitted bbl/day, active
- 279M
- bbl injected, last 12 reported months
- Jun 2025
- reported through
Every active well, operator, and daily reporter in Gaines County →
Permitted volume is a ceiling, not throughput. How to read it →
TexNet catalog via USGS
Seismicity, last 2 years
- 13
- M2+ events in the area
- M3.6
- largest
Monthly counts, magnitudes, and every recent event in the area →
Events are not tagged with a county; this counts M2+ events inside the bounding box of the county’s located permits, padded 0.1°. About TexNet →
Latest permits
NEWEST FIRST BY ISSUE DATE
| Permit | Seen | Issued | Operator | Lease / well | Depth | API |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 919761 | Oct 31, 2026 | Oct 29, 2026 | OXY USA Inc. | Seminole San Andres Unit #5102 | 5,650 | 16500345 |
| 919711 | Oct 30, 2026 | Oct 28, 2026 | OXY USA Inc. | Seminole San Andres Unit #1203 | 5,750 | 16531943 |
| 919675 | Oct 29, 2026 | Oct 27, 2026 | McClure Oil Company, Inc. | Monarch #13W | 6,000 | 16538969 |
| 919674 | Oct 29, 2026 | Oct 27, 2026 | McClure Oil Company, Inc. | Monarch #12W | 6,000 | 16538968 |
| 919673 | Oct 29, 2026 | Oct 27, 2026 | McClure Oil Company, Inc. | Monarch #11W | 6,000 | 16538967 |
| 919672 | Oct 29, 2026 | Oct 27, 2026 | McClure Oil Company, Inc. | Monarch #10W | 6,000 | 16538966 |
| 919671 | Oct 29, 2026 | Oct 27, 2026 | McClure Oil Company, Inc. | Monarch #9W | 6,000 | 16538965 |
| 919561 | Oct 28, 2026 | Oct 26, 2026 | OXY USA WTP LP | West Seminole SA Unit #1201 | 6,000 | 16502768 |
| 919562 | Oct 28, 2026 | Oct 26, 2026 | OXY USA WTP LP | West Seminole SA Unit #802 | 6,000 | 16500636 |
| 918320 | Oct 24, 2026 | Oct 22, 2026 | Active Iron Energy, LLC | Wescott Strawn Unit #23 | 13,000 | 16539054 |
About this data
Drilling permits from the RRC OGA049M master and daily daf420 files, rebuilt nightly into per-county figures; windows are on the date issued. Disposal from UIC permits and H-10 reports at the last settled month; earthquakes from the TexNet catalog inside the county's located-permit footprint.
Developers: this page as JSON is GET /v1/data/counties/tx/gaines?days=180, documented in the API reference.