COUNTIES · EAGLE FORD SHALE · DISTRICT 02 · CODE 255
Karnes County
Karnes County permitting is running 18 permits a month over the trailing 90 days (55 total, down 4% on the prior quarter). 12 were issued in the past week.
Burlington Resources O & G Co LP leads with 36 permits in the past 12 months, one of 14 operators active in the county.
One operator filed a first Karnes County permit in the past year.
Median permitted depth over the past year is 14,000 ft; 98% of the past year's permits are horizontal.
The county has 41 active disposal and injection permits, with 77.1M barrels injected in the 12 months reported through June 2025.
TexNet located 148 earthquakes of magnitude 2 or more in the county's permit footprint over the past two years, the largest M4.6.
10,024 drilling permits have been issued in Karnes County since 1977.
10,024 permits on file since 1977 · last issued Oct 27, 2026
Watch Karnes CountyAlso: every Karnes County well in the statewide list, searchable → · a year of permits on the map →
- 55
- permits issued, 90d
- -4%
- vs prior 90d (57)
- 6
- operators filing
- 100%
- horizontal
- 14,328
- avg permitted depth, ft
- 487
- 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 167 · prior 12 213(-22%)
Top operators, last 12 months
By permits issued. Wells are the operator’s current inventory here from the RRC wellbore file.
| Operator | Permits | Wells |
|---|---|---|
| Burlington Resources O & G Co LP | 36 | 628 |
| Marathon Oil EF LLC | 35 | 1,753 |
| Silver Hill Energy Operating LLC | 22 | 24 |
| Magnolia Oil & Gas Operating LLC | 15 | 312 |
| Repsol Oil & Gas USA, LLC | 14 | 381 |
| BPX Operating Company | 13 | 254 |
| Verdun Oil & Gas LLC | 10 | 45 |
| EOG Resources, Inc. | 8 | 1,127 |
| Devon Energy Production Co, L.P. | 3 | 795 |
| Gulftex Energy, LLC | 3 | 55 |
New entrants, last 12 months
Operators whose first permit in Karnes County came in the last year. 1 in total.
- Silver Hill Energy Operating LLC22 permitsApr 20, 2026 · active elsewhere first
Formations in completed wells
RRC WELLBORE FILE · ≥10 WELLS
Tops reported on completion filings for wells in Karnes 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Austin Chalk | 5,639 | 402 | 11,200 | 9,861–12,655 |
| Eagle Ford | 5,136 | 383 | 11,538 | 10,142–12,870 |
| Wilcox | 4,353 | 348 | 5,122 | 3,848–6,754 |
| Queen City | 4,065 | 315 | 3,859 | 2,454–6,440 |
| Reklaw | 4,032 | 324 | 3,960 | 2,929–5,264 |
| Carrizo | 4,008 | 317 | 4,445 | 3,450–5,730 |
| Yegua | 3,579 | 250 | 1,933 | 1,085–4,000 |
| Anacacho | 1,848 | 34 | 10,526 | 9,264–12,260 |
| Frio | 1,616 | 113 | 1,500 | 500–3,200 |
| Midway | 439 | 53 | 8,414 | 6,543–9,214 |
| Olmos | 333 | 15 | 9,460 | 8,037–10,347 |
| Navarro | 231 | 24 | 8,497 | 7,088–9,638 |
| Pecan Gap | 203 | 37 | 11,829 | 10,023–12,419 |
| Edwards | 153 | 0 | 10,730 | 10,620–13,452 |
| Buda | 64 | 0 | 10,650 | 10,364–12,791 |
Beyond the permit record
RRC UIC permits · H-10 reported volumes
Disposal and injection
- 41
- active UIC permits of 154
- 707K
- permitted bbl/day, active
- 77.1M
- bbl injected, last 12 reported months
- Jun 2025
- reported through
Every active well, operator, and daily reporter in Karnes County →
Permitted volume is a ceiling, not throughput. How to read it →
TexNet catalog via USGS
Seismicity, last 2 years
- 148
- M2+ events in the area
- M4.6
- 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 919591 | Nov 1, 2026 | Oct 30, 2026 | Marathon Oil EF LLC | Rodriguez-Medina SA A #1H | 17,500 | 25538486 |
| 919365 | Oct 30, 2026 | Oct 28, 2026 | Burlington Resources O & G Co LP | Leo Frank-Ruth SA3 #3H | 17,500 | 25538480 |
| 919625 | Oct 29, 2026 | Oct 27, 2026 | Silver Hill Energy Operating LLC | Margaret Unit 1-Splitter A #104HH | 12,500 | 25538490 |
| 919057 | Oct 29, 2026 | Oct 27, 2026 | Silver Hill Energy Operating LLC | Margaret Unit 1-Splitter A #007HH | 12,500 | 25538472 |
| 919593 | Oct 29, 2026 | Oct 27, 2026 | Marathon Oil EF LLC | Rodriguez-Medina SA C #1H | 17,500 | 25538488 |
| 919592 | Oct 29, 2026 | Oct 27, 2026 | Marathon Oil EF LLC | Rodriguez-Medina SA B #1H | 17,500 | 25538487 |
| 919516 | Oct 28, 2026 | Oct 26, 2026 | Verdun Oil & Gas LLC | Lochnagar G #7HH | 11,400 | 25538482 |
| 919418 | Oct 25, 2026 | Oct 23, 2026 | Burlington Resources O & G Co LP | Korth Vickers Unit C #2H | 17,500 | 25538481 |
| 919506 | Oct 25, 2026 | Oct 23, 2026 | Burlington Resources O & G Co LP | Korth Vickers C-D SA F #1H | 17,500 | 25538484 |
| 919503 | Oct 25, 2026 | Oct 23, 2026 | Burlington Resources O & G Co LP | Korth Vickers C-D SA E #1H | 17,500 | 25538483 |
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/karnes?days=90, documented in the API reference.