COUNTIES · EAST TEXAS · DISTRICT 06 · CODE 423
Smith County, Texas
Smith County permitting is running about one permit a month over the trailing 90 days (3 total, versus 3 in the prior quarter).
Valence Operating Company leads with 9 permits in the past 12 months, one of 5 operators active in the county.
2 operators filed a first Smith County permit in the past year.
Median permitted depth over the past year is 11,716 ft (prior year: 9,500 ft); 70% of the past year's permits are horizontal.
The county has 87 active disposal and injection permits, with 29.2M barrels injected in the 12 months reported through June 2025.
2,993 drilling permits have been issued in Smith County since 1977.
2,993 permits on file since 1977 · last issued Oct 16, 2026
Watch Smith CountyAlso: every Smith County well in the statewide list, searchable → · a year of permits on the map →
- 3
- permits issued, 90d
- +0%
- vs prior 90d (3)
- 1
- operators filing
- 0%
- horizontal
- 12,189
- avg permitted depth, ft
- 400
- 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 25 · prior 12 24(+4%)
Top operators, last 12 months
By permits issued. Wells are the operator’s current inventory here from the RRC wellbore file.
| Operator | Permits | Wells |
|---|---|---|
| Valence Operating Company | 9 | 180 |
| Faulconer Energy, LLC | 7 | 407 |
| Sabine Energy Inc. | 6 | 6 |
| Sabine Oil & Gas Corporation | 4 | 1 |
| Atmos Pipeline - Texas | 1 | 0 |
New entrants, last 12 months
Operators whose first permit in Smith County came in the last year. 2 in total.
- Sabine Energy Inc.6 permitsNov 25, 2025 · active elsewhere first
- Atmos Pipeline - Texas1 permitFeb 18, 2026 · active elsewhere first
Formations in completed wells
RRC WELLBORE FILE · ≥10 WELLS
Tops reported on completion filings for wells in Smith County. A well counts for every formation it reports, so this reads as the county's stratigraphic column. About tops →
Fewer than ten wells in Smith County report the Bma, so it is below this table's cutoff. Back to the formation →
| Formation | Wells | Permitted last 3 yrs | Median top, ft | P10–P90 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Pettit | 700 | 25 | 8,130 | 7,890–8,620 |
| Travis Peak | 596 | 22 | 8,300 | 8,088–10,126 |
| Paluxy | 575 | 13 | 6,194 | 5,501–7,614 |
| Rodessa | 429 | 18 | 7,490 | 7,231–9,480 |
| Bossier | 421 | 20 | 11,800 | 11,522–12,107 |
| Woodbine | 417 | 15 | 4,600 | 3,836–5,396 |
| Taylor | 385 | 18 | 11,510 | 11,179–11,811 |
| James Lime | 356 | 15 | 7,987 | 7,682–8,376 |
| Cotton Valley | 293 | 16 | 10,305 | 9,716–11,070 |
| Massive Anhydrite (marker) | 283 | 11 | 7,360 | 7,024–7,889 |
| Austin Chalk | 208 | 1 | 4,572 | 3,715–4,942 |
| Buda | 162 | 2 | 5,800 | 4,441–6,450 |
| Goodland | 154 | 4 | 6,940 | 5,598–8,705 |
| Glen Rose | 152 | 4 | 5,957 | 5,667–7,964 |
| Nacatoch | 111 | 10 | 2,490 | 2,230–3,139 |
Beyond the permit record
RRC UIC permits · H-10 reported volumes
Disposal and injection
- 87
- active UIC permits of 261
- 657K
- permitted bbl/day, active
- 29.2M
- bbl injected, last 12 reported months
- Jun 2025
- reported through
Every active well, operator, and daily reporter in Smith County →
Permitted volume is a ceiling, not throughput. How to read it →
TexNet catalog via USGS
Seismicity, last 2 years
- 0
- M2+ events in the area
- —
- 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 919308 | Oct 18, 2026 | Oct 16, 2026 | Faulconer Energy, LLC | Waldrop 4 #1 | 12,150 | 42331854 |
| 919295 | Oct 18, 2026 | Oct 16, 2026 | Faulconer Energy, LLC | Milton Anderson 9 #1 | 11,716 | 42331800 |
| 918936 | Oct 10, 2026 | Oct 8, 2026 | Faulconer Energy, LLC | Overton 302 #1 | 12,700 | 42330987 |
| 917500 | Aug 8, 2026 | Aug 6, 2026 | Faulconer Energy, LLC | Allred 1 #1 | 12,000 | 42330575 |
| 917141 | Jul 10, 2026 | Jul 10, 2026 | Faulconer Energy, LLC | Wilson Vernon 6 #1 | 11,912 | 42331680 |
| 915496 | Jun 2, 2026 | Jun 2, 2026 | Faulconer Energy, LLC | Kickapoo Creek Gas Unit #6 | 11,770 | 42331648 |
| 912550 | Feb 20, 2026 | Feb 20, 2026 | Sabine Oil & Gas Corporation | Sallie Warren B CV (AW) #2HH | 13,000 | 42332481 |
| 912550 | Feb 20, 2026 | Feb 20, 2026 | Sabine Energy Inc. | Sallie Warren B CV (AW) #2HH | 13,000 | 42332481 |
| 913167 | Feb 18, 2026 | Feb 18, 2026 | Atmos Pipeline - Texas | CP #26-03 Cathodic Protection #36 | 470 | 42332486 |
| 913392 | Oct 18, 2026 | Feb 12, 2026 | Valence Operating Company | Thedford #2HH | 9,300 | 42332485 |
Questions about Smith County
How many drilling permits were issued in Smith County in the last 12 months?
27 permits were issued in Smith County in the last 12 months, up 23% from 22 in the 12 months before. 70% were for horizontal wells. The most recent was issued Oct 16, 2026. 2,993 are on file since 1977.
Every Smith County permit →Who is the most active operator in Smith County?
By drilling permits filed in the last 12 months, Valence Operating Company is the most active operator in Smith County, with 9 of 27, followed by Faulconer Energy, LLC (7) and Sabine Energy Inc. (6). 1 operator filed permits here in the last 90 days.
Operators in Smith County →How many oil and gas wells are in Smith County?
2,736 wells are on file in Smith County: 883 active, 1,316 plugged, and 2 permitted and not yet drilled. 78 are horizontal, and 62 operators hold them.
Every well in Smith County →How much oil and gas does Smith County produce?
The Railroad Commission files oil and gas production by lease, not by well or by county. Each lease with wells in Smith County is listed with its reported production on the county's Leases tab.
Leases in Smith County →How much water is injected in Smith County?
29.2 million barrels of water were injected in Smith County in the 12 months through June 2025, reported on form H-10. 87 of the county's 261 disposal and injection permits are active.
Disposal and injection in Smith County →What formations are drilled in Smith County?
Completion filings for wells in Smith County report tops for 15 formations in at least ten wells each. The most reported are the Pettit (700 wells, median top 8,130 ft), the Travis Peak (596 wells, median top 8,300 ft), and the Paluxy (575 wells, median top 6,194 ft).
Formations in Smith County →What basin is Smith County in?
Petrora lists Smith County in the East Texas. It is in the Railroad Commission's District 06.
The East Texas →Have there been earthquakes in Smith County?
TexNet located no earthquakes of magnitude 2 or more in the area of Smith County's permitted wells in the last 2 years.
Earthquakes in Smith 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/smith?days=90, documented in the API reference.