COUNTIES · EAGLE FORD SHALE · DISTRICT 02 · CODE 255
Karnes County, Texas
Karnes County permitting is running 18 permits a month over the trailing 90 days (53 total, down 13% on the prior quarter). 1 was 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; 99% 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 146 earthquakes of magnitude 2 or more in the county's permit footprint over the past two years, the largest M4.6.
10,027 drilling permits have been issued in Karnes County since 1977.
10,027 permits on file since 1977 · last issued Oct 30, 2026
Watch Karnes CountyAlso: every Karnes County well in the statewide list, searchable → · a year of permits on the map →
- 29
- permits issued, 30d
- +93%
- vs prior 30d (15)
- 5
- operators filing
- 100%
- horizontal
- 14,946
- avg permitted depth, ft
- 487
- operators, all time
WINDOWS ON THE RRC ISSUE DATE · COMPUTED NOV 5, 2026 · WHY ISSUE AND SEEN DATES DIFFER
Permits issued by month
LAST 120 MONTHS · BY ISSUE DATE
Last 12 months 154 · prior 12 203(-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 |
|---|---|---|
| Burlington Resources O & G Co LP | 36 | 662 |
| Marathon Oil EF LLC | 35 | 1,766 |
| Silver Hill Energy Operating LLC | 22 | 24 |
| Magnolia Oil & Gas Operating LLC | 15 | 311 |
| Repsol Oil & Gas USA, LLC | 14 | 391 |
| BPX Operating Company | 13 | 262 |
| Verdun Oil & Gas LLC | 10 | 35 |
| EOG Resources, Inc. | 8 | 1,132 |
| Devon Energy Production Co, L.P. | 3 | 827 |
| Gulftex Energy, LLC | 3 | 57 |
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 | 400 | 11,200 | 9,861–12,655 |
| Eagle Ford | 5,136 | 381 | 11,538 | 10,142–12,870 |
| Wilcox | 4,353 | 346 | 5,122 | 3,848–6,754 |
| Queen City | 4,065 | 313 | 3,859 | 2,454–6,440 |
| Reklaw | 4,032 | 322 | 3,960 | 2,929–5,264 |
| Carrizo | 4,008 | 315 | 4,445 | 3,450–5,730 |
| Yegua | 3,579 | 248 | 1,933 | 1,085–4,000 |
| Anacacho | 1,848 | 34 | 10,526 | 9,264–12,260 |
| Frio | 1,616 | 111 | 1,500 | 500–3,200 |
| Midway | 440 | 53 | 8,406 | 6,546–9,214 |
| Olmos | 333 | 15 | 9,460 | 8,037–10,347 |
| Navarro | 232 | 25 | 8,497 | 7,088–9,637 |
| 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
- 146
- 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 |
Questions about Karnes County
How many drilling permits were issued in Karnes County in the last 12 months?
166 permits were issued in Karnes County in the last 12 months, down 20% from 208 in the 12 months before. 99% were for horizontal wells. The most recent was issued Oct 30, 2026. 10,027 are on file since 1977.
Every Karnes County permit →Who is the most active operator in Karnes County?
By drilling permits filed in the last 12 months, Burlington Resources O & G Co LP is the most active operator in Karnes County, with 36 of 166, followed by Marathon Oil EF LLC (35) and Silver Hill Energy Operating LLC (22). 6 operators filed permits here in the last 90 days.
Operators in Karnes County →How many oil and gas wells are in Karnes County?
8,525 wells are on file in Karnes County: 5,224 active, 1,215 plugged, and 81 permitted and not yet drilled. 6,212 are horizontal, and 61 operators hold them.
Every well in Karnes County →How much oil and gas does Karnes County produce?
The Railroad Commission files oil and gas production by lease, not by well or by county. Each lease with wells in Karnes County is listed with its reported production on the county's Leases tab.
Leases in Karnes County →How much water is injected in Karnes County?
77.1 million barrels of water were injected in Karnes County in the 12 months through June 2025, reported on form H-10. 41 of the county's 154 disposal and injection permits are active.
Disposal and injection in Karnes County →What formations are drilled in Karnes County?
Completion filings for wells in Karnes County report tops for 15 formations in at least ten wells each. The most reported are the Austin Chalk (5,639 wells, median top 11,200 ft), the Eagle Ford (5,136 wells, median top 11,538 ft), and the Wilcox (4,353 wells, median top 5,122 ft).
Formations in Karnes County →What basin is Karnes County in?
Petrora lists Karnes County in the Eagle Ford Shale. It is in the Railroad Commission's District 02.
The Eagle Ford Shale →Have there been earthquakes in Karnes County?
TexNet located 146 earthquakes of magnitude 2 or more in the area of Karnes County's permitted wells in the last 2 years; the largest was M4.6.
Earthquakes in Karnes 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/karnes?days=30, documented in the API reference.