COUNTIES · PERMIAN BASIN · DISTRICT 08 · CODE 227
Howard County
Howard County permitting is running 14 permits a month over the trailing 90 days (41 total, down 5% on the prior quarter). 1 was issued in the past week.
Surge Operating, LLC leads with 41 permits in the past 12 months, one of 16 operators active in the county.
3 operators filed a first Howard County permit in the past year.
Median permitted depth over the past year is 9,500 ft (prior year: 9,000 ft); 93% of the past year's permits are horizontal.
The county has 1,180 active disposal and injection permits, with 489M barrels injected in the 12 months reported through June 2025.
TexNet located 136 earthquakes of magnitude 2 or more in the county's permit footprint over the past two years, the largest M4.3.
15,216 drilling permits have been issued in Howard County since 1977.
15,216 permits on file since 1977 · last issued Oct 26, 2026
Watch Howard CountyAlso: every Howard County well in the statewide list, searchable → · a year of permits on the map →
- 41
- permits issued, 90d
- -5%
- vs prior 90d (43)
- 5
- operators filing
- 90%
- horizontal
- 9,657
- avg permitted depth, ft
- 718
- operators, all time
WINDOWS ON THE RRC ISSUE DATE · COMPUTED OCT 29, 2026 · WHY ISSUE AND SEEN DATES DIFFER
Permits issued by month
LAST 118 MONTHS · BY ISSUE DATE
Last 12 months 211 · prior 12 277(-24%)
Top operators, last 12 months
By permits issued. Wells are the operator’s current inventory here from the RRC wellbore file.
| Operator | Permits | Wells |
|---|---|---|
| Surge Operating, LLC | 41 | 792 |
| Diamondback E&P LLC | 34 | 394 |
| Highpeak Energy Holdings, LLC | 26 | 575 |
| SM Energy Company | 22 | 462 |
| Oxyrock Operating, LLC | 20 | 618 |
| Apache Corporation | 18 | 468 |
| Ovintiv USA Inc. | 15 | 476 |
| Bayswater Operating Company LLC | 11 | 185 |
| Langford & Brigham Operating LLC | 10 | 44 |
| OXY USA Inc. | 5 | 253 |
New entrants, last 12 months
Operators whose first permit in Howard County came in the last year. 3 in total.
- Outlaw Water Services LLC2 permitsApr 21, 2026 · new to Texas permits
- Trek Resources, Inc.2 permitsMar 3, 2026 · active elsewhere first
- R.D.S. Ranch-Water SVS, Inc.1 permitSep 3, 2026 · active elsewhere first
Permit types, 90d
| Type | Window | Prior | All time |
|---|---|---|---|
| Drill | 39 | 39 | 13,723 |
| Recompletion | 2 | 0 | 972 |
| Reenter | 1 | 0 | 346 |
Formations in completed wells
RRC WELLBORE FILE · ≥10 WELLS
Tops reported on completion filings for wells in Howard County. A well counts for every formation it reports, so this reads as the county's stratigraphic column. About tops →
In Howard County the Strawn is reported in 1,019 wells, median top 9,421 ft, highlighted below. Back to the formation →
| Formation | Wells | Permitted last 3 yrs | Median top, ft | P10–P90 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| San Andres | 6,369 | 427 | 3,090 | 2,018–3,566 |
| Clear Fork | 5,315 | 427 | 4,570 | 2,892–5,567 |
| Spraberry | 5,295 | 419 | 6,279 | 5,101–6,714 |
| Yates | 5,202 | 420 | 1,771 | 1,210–1,996 |
| Glorieta | 4,179 | 295 | 3,904 | 2,522–4,446 |
| Seven Rivers | 3,693 | 221 | 1,813 | 1,255–2,119 |
| Dean | 3,169 | 219 | 7,420 | 6,328–7,900 |
| Wolfcamp | 2,625 | 13 | 7,556 | 6,534–8,077 |
| Rustler | 1,792 | 393 | 1,194 | 906–1,425 |
| Leonard | 1,716 | 158 | 6,593 | 5,236–7,508 |
| Queen | 1,231 | 14 | 1,687 | 1,400–2,410 |
| Grayburg | 1,022 | 34 | 2,012 | 1,654–3,017 |
| Strawn | 1,019 | 1 | 9,421 | 8,833–9,698 |
| Mississippian | 793 | 0 | 9,800 | 9,252–10,106 |
| Santa Rosa | 778 | 92 | 748 | 400–1,000 |
Beyond the permit record
RRC UIC permits · H-10 reported volumes
Disposal and injection
- 1,180
- active UIC permits of 3,068
- 5.96M
- permitted bbl/day, active
- 489M
- bbl injected, last 12 reported months
- Jun 2025
- reported through
Every active well, operator, and daily reporter in Howard County →
Permitted volume is a ceiling, not throughput. How to read it →
TexNet catalog via USGS
Seismicity, last 2 years
- 136
- M2+ events in the area
- M4.3
- 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 919415 | Nov 1, 2026 | Oct 30, 2026 | Enterprise Products Operatingllc | Wildcat #1 | 380 | 22742941 |
| 919676 | Oct 28, 2026 | Oct 26, 2026 | Highpeak Energy Holdings, LLC | Willis Winters #1 | 7,536 | 22702549 |
| 919361 | Oct 22, 2026 | Oct 20, 2026 | Oxyrock Operating, LLC | Bluestem G #11DNH | 12,000 | 22742940 |
| 919359 | Oct 22, 2026 | Oct 20, 2026 | Oxyrock Operating, LLC | Bluestem F #10HAH | 12,000 | 22742939 |
| 919357 | Oct 22, 2026 | Oct 20, 2026 | Oxyrock Operating, LLC | Bluestem F #9LLH | 12,000 | 22742938 |
| 919356 | Oct 22, 2026 | Oct 20, 2026 | Oxyrock Operating, LLC | Bluestem F #8DNH | 12,000 | 22742937 |
| 919355 | Oct 22, 2026 | Oct 20, 2026 | Oxyrock Operating, LLC | Bluestem F #7JMH | 12,000 | 22742936 |
| 919354 | Oct 22, 2026 | Oct 20, 2026 | Oxyrock Operating, LLC | Bluestem E #6LLH | 12,000 | 22742935 |
| 919353 | Oct 22, 2026 | Oct 20, 2026 | Oxyrock Operating, LLC | Bluestem E #5HAH | 12,000 | 22742934 |
| 919352 | Oct 22, 2026 | Oct 20, 2026 | Oxyrock Operating, LLC | Bluestem E #4DNH | 12,000 | 22742933 |
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/howard?days=90, documented in the API reference.