COUNTIES · BARNETT SHALE AND NORTH TEXAS · DISTRICT 7B · CODE 429
Stephens County, Texas
Stephens County permitting is running 0.3 permits a month over the trailing 90 days (1 total, after a quiet prior quarter).
Caraway, Robert leads with 1 permit in the past 12 months, one of 4 operators active in the county.
Median permitted depth over the past year is 3,872 ft (prior year: 2,295 ft); 0% of the past year's permits are horizontal.
The county has 669 active disposal and injection permits, with 235M barrels injected in the 12 months reported through June 2025.
6,859 drilling permits have been issued in Stephens County since 1977.
6,859 permits on file since 1977 · last issued Oct 27, 2026
Watch Stephens CountyAlso: every Stephens County well in the statewide list, searchable → · a year of permits on the map →
- 1
- permits issued, 90d
- —
- vs prior 90d (0)
- 1
- operators filing
- 0%
- horizontal
- 3,408
- avg permitted depth, ft
- 776
- 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 4 · prior 12 2(+100%)
Top operators, last 12 months
By permits issued. Wells are the operator’s current inventory here from the RRC wellbore file.
| Operator | Permits | Wells |
|---|---|---|
| Caraway, Robert | 1 | 118 |
| Safari Resources, LLC | 1 | 50 |
| S.B. Street Operating, Inc. | 1 | 43 |
| Southern Alliance Oil Corp. | 1 | 9 |
New entrants, last 12 months
Operators whose first permit in Stephens County came in the last year. None.
Formations in completed wells
RRC WELLBORE FILE · ≥10 WELLS
Tops reported on completion filings for wells in Stephens County. A well counts for every formation it reports, so this reads as the county's stratigraphic column. About tops →
In Stephens County the Smithwick is reported in 99 wells, median top 3,138 ft, highlighted below. Back to the formation →
| Formation | Wells | Permitted last 3 yrs | Median top, ft | P10–P90 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Caddo | 2,619 | 9 | 3,230 | 3,096–3,432 |
| Strawn | 971 | 6 | 2,058 | 1,563–2,742 |
| Duffer | 892 | 3 | 3,980 | 3,846–4,124 |
| Palo Pinto | 435 | 0 | 1,270 | 1,083–1,514 |
| Marble Falls | 406 | 2 | 3,785 | 3,426–4,150 |
| Mississippian | 352 | 1 | 4,342 | 4,054–4,509 |
| Big Saline | 207 | 0 | 3,664 | 3,560–3,879 |
| Barnett | 185 | 0 | 4,102 | 3,959–4,372 |
| Ellenburger | 167 | 0 | 4,257 | 4,101–4,472 |
| Bend | 133 | 2 | 3,877 | 3,660–4,066 |
| Smithwick | 99 | 0 | 3,138 | 3,016–3,304 |
| Cisco | 48 | 3 | 766 | 400–1,622 |
| Atoka | 21 | 0 | 3,712 | 3,215–3,840 |
| Canyon | 12 | 0 | 1,646 | 496–4,066 |
Beyond the permit record
RRC UIC permits · H-10 reported volumes
Disposal and injection
- 669
- active UIC permits of 1,789
- 1.93M
- permitted bbl/day, active
- 235M
- bbl injected, last 12 reported months
- Jun 2025
- reported through
Every active well, operator, and daily reporter in Stephens 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 919583 | Oct 29, 2026 | Oct 27, 2026 | Southern Alliance Oil Corp. | Robertson #1 | 3,408 | 42935107 |
| 914735 | Apr 17, 2026 | Apr 17, 2026 | Caraway, Robert | Jackson Strawn Unit #715 | 4,700 | 42936259 |
| 912677 | Feb 19, 2026 | Feb 19, 2026 | Safari Resources, LLC | Pratt, Rae #1 | 4,337 | 42934925 |
| 912579 | Jan 13, 2026 | Jan 13, 2026 | S.B. Street Operating, Inc. | Akin-Wright #2 | 2,500 | 42933122 |
| 911249 | Oct 23, 2025 | Oct 23, 2025 | S.B. Street Operating, Inc. | Akin-Wright #3 | 2,500 | 42933123 |
| 909071 | Jul 8, 2025 | Jul 8, 2025 | Caraway, Robert | Jackson Strawn Unit #714 | 2,090 | 42936349 |
| 902631 | Sep 17, 2024 | Sep 17, 2024 | Delta Oil & Gas Ltd. | Copeland-Mitchell 'K' #1 | 4,550 | 42934516 |
| 901667 | Aug 5, 2024 | Aug 5, 2024 | Ray Herring Operating Co., LLC | Scarlett 'C' #12 | 2,100 | 42936234 |
| 900243 | Jun 11, 2024 | Jun 11, 2024 | Caraway, Robert | Jackson Ranch 'E' #1 | 3,530 | 42936259 |
| 895805 | Dec 28, 2023 | Dec 28, 2023 | Brazos River Exploration LLC | Buffalo Bayou #1112V | 4,600 | 42937061 |
Questions about Stephens County
How many drilling permits were issued in Stephens County in the last 12 months?
4 permits were issued in Stephens County in the last 12 months, up 100% from 2 in the 12 months before. 0% were for horizontal wells. The most recent was issued Oct 27, 2026. 6,859 are on file since 1977.
Every Stephens County permit →Who is the most active operator in Stephens County?
By drilling permits filed in the last 12 months, Caraway, Robert is the most active operator in Stephens County, with 1 of 4, followed by Safari Resources, LLC (1) and S.B. Street Operating, Inc. (1). 1 operator filed permits here in the last 90 days.
Operators in Stephens County →How many oil and gas wells are in Stephens County?
8,583 wells are on file in Stephens County: 2,425 active and 4,251 plugged. 50 are horizontal, and 97 operators hold them.
Every well in Stephens County →How much oil and gas does Stephens County produce?
The Railroad Commission files oil and gas production by lease, not by well or by county. Each lease with wells in Stephens County is listed with its reported production on the county's Leases tab.
Leases in Stephens County →How much water is injected in Stephens County?
235 million barrels of water were injected in Stephens County in the 12 months through June 2025, reported on form H-10. 669 of the county's 1,789 disposal and injection permits are active.
Disposal and injection in Stephens County →What formations are drilled in Stephens County?
Completion filings for wells in Stephens County report tops for 14 formations in at least ten wells each. The most reported are the Caddo (2,619 wells, median top 3,230 ft), the Strawn (971 wells, median top 2,058 ft), and the Duffer (892 wells, median top 3,980 ft).
Formations in Stephens County →What basin is Stephens County in?
Petrora lists Stephens County in the Barnett Shale and North Texas. It is in the Railroad Commission's District 7B.
The Barnett Shale and North Texas →Have there been earthquakes in Stephens County?
TexNet located no earthquakes of magnitude 2 or more in the area of Stephens County's permitted wells in the last 2 years.
Earthquakes in Stephens 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/stephens?days=90, documented in the API reference.