COUNTIES · PERMIAN BASIN · DISTRICT 8A · CODE 165
Gaines County, Texas
Gaines County permitting is running 16 permits a month over the trailing 90 days (49 total, down 30% on the prior quarter).
OXY USA Inc. leads with 123 permits in the past 12 months, one of 13 operators active in the county.
One operator 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.
10,581 drilling permits have been issued in Gaines County since 1977.
10,581 permits on file since 1977 · last issued Oct 29, 2026
Watch Gaines CountyAlso: every Gaines County well in the statewide list, searchable → · a year of permits on the map →
- 19
- permits issued, 30d
- +19%
- vs prior 30d (16)
- 6
- operators filing
- 11%
- horizontal
- 6,826
- avg permitted depth, ft
- 665
- operators, all time
WINDOWS ON THE RRC ISSUE DATE · COMPUTED NOV 6, 2026 · WHY ISSUE AND SEEN DATES DIFFER
Permits issued by month
LAST 120 MONTHS · BY ISSUE DATE
Last 12 months 184 · prior 12 119(+55%)
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 | 788 |
| OXY USA WTP LP | 18 | 242 |
| McClure Oil Company, Inc. | 14 | 45 |
| Occidental Permian Ltd. | 10 | 1,148 |
| Bce-Mach III LLC | 8 | 1,601 |
| Active Iron Energy, LLC | 5 | 23 |
| Hilcorp Energy Company | 3 | 2,288 |
| White Rock Oil & Gas, LLC | 1 | 62 |
| Enterprise Products Operatingllc | 1 | 17 |
| Manzano, LLC | 1 | 6 |
New entrants, last 12 months
Operators whose first permit in Gaines County came in the last year. 1 in total.
- Active Iron Energy, LLC5 permitsSep 3, 2026 · new to Texas permits
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 | 222 | 4,522 | 4,315–4,981 |
| Yates | 4,399 | 208 | 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 | 148 | 3,750 | 3,424–4,245 |
| Rustler | 1,734 | 63 | 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 | 1,455 | 119 | 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 |
Questions about Gaines County
How many drilling permits were issued in Gaines County in the last 12 months?
187 permits were issued in Gaines County in the last 12 months, up 60% from 117 in the 12 months before. 9% were for horizontal wells. The most recent was issued Oct 29, 2026. 10,581 are on file since 1977.
Every Gaines County permit →Who is the most active operator in Gaines County?
By drilling permits filed in the last 12 months, OXY USA Inc. is the most active operator in Gaines County, with 123 of 187, followed by OXY USA WTP LP (18) and McClure Oil Company, Inc. (14). 7 operators filed permits here in the last 90 days.
Operators in Gaines County →How many oil and gas wells are in Gaines County?
11,503 wells are on file in Gaines County: 5,473 active, 3,074 plugged, and 34 permitted and not yet drilled. 374 are horizontal, and 115 operators hold them.
Every well in Gaines County →How much oil and gas does Gaines County produce?
The Railroad Commission files oil and gas production by lease, not by well or by county. Each lease with wells in Gaines County is listed with its reported production on the county's Leases tab.
Leases in Gaines County →How much water is injected in Gaines County?
279 million barrels of water were injected in Gaines County in the 12 months through June 2025, reported on form H-10. 2,484 of the county's 3,889 disposal and injection permits are active.
Disposal and injection in Gaines County →What formations are drilled in Gaines County?
Completion filings for wells in Gaines County report tops for 15 formations in at least ten wells each. The most reported are the San Andres (5,380 wells, median top 4,522 ft), the Yates (4,399 wells, median top 2,930 ft), and the Clear Fork (2,888 wells, median top 6,300 ft).
Formations in Gaines County →What basin is Gaines County in?
Petrora lists Gaines County in the Permian Basin. It is in the Railroad Commission's District 8A.
The Permian Basin →Have there been earthquakes in Gaines County?
TexNet located 13 earthquakes of magnitude 2 or more in the area of Gaines County's permitted wells in the last 2 years; the largest was M3.6.
Earthquakes in Gaines County →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=30, documented in the API reference.