COUNTIES · PERMIAN BASIN · DISTRICT 7C · CODE 461
Upton County, Texas
Upton County permitting is running 40 permits a month over the trailing 90 days (119 total, down 6% on the prior quarter). 9 were issued in the past week.
Pioneer Natural Res. USA, Inc. leads with 131 permits in the past 12 months, one of 23 operators active in the county.
6 operators filed a first Upton County permit in the past year.
Median permitted depth over the past year is 10,300 ft (prior year: 10,000 ft); 98% of the past year's permits are horizontal.
The county has 589 active disposal and injection permits, with 208M barrels injected in the 12 months reported through June 2025.
TexNet located 40 earthquakes of magnitude 2 or more in the county's permit footprint over the past two years, the largest M3.6.
16,461 drilling permits have been issued in Upton County since 1977.
16,461 permits on file since 1977 · last issued Nov 3, 2026
Watch Upton CountyAlso: every Upton County well in the statewide list, searchable → · a year of permits on the map →
- 119
- permits issued, 90d
- -6%
- vs prior 90d (126)
- 10
- operators filing
- 97%
- horizontal
- 10,774
- avg permitted depth, ft
- 470
- 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 578 · prior 12 453(+28%)
Top operators, last 12 months
By permits issued. Wells are the operator’s current inventory here from the RRC wellbore file.
| Operator | Permits | Wells |
|---|---|---|
| Pioneer Natural Res. USA, Inc. | 131 | 3,524 |
| Apache Corporation | 93 | 511 |
| Ovintiv USA Inc. | 63 | 319 |
| COG Operating LLC | 60 | 1,547 |
| Civitas Permian Operating, LLC | 55 | 338 |
| Summit Petroleum LLC | 38 | 458 |
| Firebird Energy II LLC | 34 | 516 |
| SM Energy Company | 24 | 463 |
| Chevron U. S. A. Inc. | 24 | 56 |
| Mewbourne Oil Company | 14 | 1 |
New entrants, last 12 months
Operators whose first permit in Upton County came in the last year. 6 in total.
- Saxum Opco, LLC8 permitsMay 18, 2026 · new to Texas permits
- Admiral Permian Operating LLC5 permitsMay 6, 2026 · active elsewhere first
- Aqua Terra Permian, LLC4 permitsMay 1, 2026 · active elsewhere first
- Deep Blue Operating I LLC2 permitsApr 20, 2026 · active elsewhere first
- Velocity Water Solutions, LP2 permitsNov 7, 2025 · active elsewhere first
- Petx Operating LLC1 permitAug 6, 2026 · active elsewhere first
Permit types, 90d
| Type | Window | Prior | All time |
|---|---|---|---|
| Drill | 108 | 135 | 14,959 |
| Reenter | 1 | 0 | 115 |
| Recompletion | 0 | 1 | 1,154 |
Formations in completed wells
RRC WELLBORE FILE · ≥10 WELLS
Tops reported on completion filings for wells in Upton County. A well counts for every formation it reports, so this reads as the county's stratigraphic column. About tops →
In Upton County the Devonian is reported in 619 wells, median top 10,738 ft, highlighted below. Back to the formation →
| Formation | Wells | Permitted last 3 yrs | Median top, ft | P10–P90 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Spraberry | 8,091 | 759 | 7,334 | 6,720–7,799 |
| Wolfcamp | 6,350 | 444 | 8,815 | 8,153–9,207 |
| San Andres | 4,623 | 768 | 4,488 | 3,784–4,931 |
| Yates | 3,953 | 651 | 2,410 | 1,878–2,838 |
| Grayburg | 3,647 | 645 | 3,979 | 2,622–4,593 |
| Dean | 3,273 | 47 | 8,630 | 8,044–9,016 |
| Clear Fork | 2,299 | 385 | 6,531 | 5,900–7,111 |
| Strawn | 1,712 | 16 | 10,244 | 9,357–10,754 |
| Rustler | 639 | 18 | 1,018 | 940–1,511 |
| Devonian | 619 | 7 | 10,738 | 8,127–11,550 |
| Bend | 510 | 2 | 10,450 | 9,597–10,986 |
| Queen | 507 | 37 | 2,351 | 1,719–4,077 |
| Atoka | 426 | 2 | 10,410 | 9,556–11,098 |
| Pennsylvanian | 404 | 1 | 10,294 | 9,083–11,077 |
| Fusselman | 265 | 4 | 11,370 | 9,504–12,240 |
Beyond the permit record
RRC UIC permits · H-10 reported volumes
Disposal and injection
- 589
- active UIC permits of 1,619
- 3.91M
- permitted bbl/day, active
- 208M
- bbl injected, last 12 reported months
- Jun 2025
- reported through
Every active well, operator, and daily reporter in Upton County →
Permitted volume is a ceiling, not throughput. How to read it →
TexNet catalog via USGS
Seismicity, last 2 years
- 40
- M2+ events in the area
- M3.6
- 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 919106 | Nov 5, 2026 | Nov 3, 2026 | Pioneer Natural Res. USA, Inc. | Hacienda-Unruh 31U #221HH | 10,538 | 46143814 |
| 919105 | Nov 5, 2026 | Nov 3, 2026 | Pioneer Natural Res. USA, Inc. | Hacienda-Unruh 31T #220HH | 10,538 | 46143813 |
| 919104 | Nov 5, 2026 | Nov 3, 2026 | Pioneer Natural Res. USA, Inc. | Hacienda-Unruh 31R #218HH | 10,538 | 46143812 |
| 919103 | Nov 5, 2026 | Nov 3, 2026 | Pioneer Natural Res. USA, Inc. | Hacienda-Unruh 31J #210HH | 10,538 | 46143811 |
| 919102 | Nov 5, 2026 | Nov 3, 2026 | Pioneer Natural Res. USA, Inc. | Hacienda-Unruh 31I #209HH | 10,538 | 46143810 |
| 919101 | Nov 5, 2026 | Nov 3, 2026 | Pioneer Natural Res. USA, Inc. | Hacienda-Unruh 31H #208HH | 10,538 | 46143809 |
| 919099 | Nov 5, 2026 | Nov 3, 2026 | Pioneer Natural Res. USA, Inc. | Hacienda-Unruh 31F #206HH | 10,538 | 46143807 |
| 919100 | Nov 5, 2026 | Nov 3, 2026 | Pioneer Natural Res. USA, Inc. | Hacienda-Morgan 31G #207HH | 10,538 | 46143808 |
| 919098 | Nov 4, 2026 | Nov 2, 2026 | Pioneer Natural Res. USA, Inc. | Hacienda-Unruh 31E #205HH | 10,530 | 46143806 |
| 919307 | Oct 25, 2026 | Oct 23, 2026 | Civitas Permian Operating, LLC | Loki C #242WCH | 18,000 | 46143842 |
Questions about Upton County
How many drilling permits were issued in Upton County in the last 12 months?
588 permits were issued in Upton County in the last 12 months, up 20% from 490 in the 12 months before. 98% were for horizontal wells. The most recent was issued Nov 3, 2026. 16,461 are on file since 1977.
Every Upton County permit →Who is the most active operator in Upton County?
By drilling permits filed in the last 12 months, Pioneer Natural Res. USA, Inc. is the most active operator in Upton County, with 131 of 588, followed by Apache Corporation (93) and Ovintiv USA Inc. (63). 10 operators filed permits here in the last 90 days.
Operators in Upton County →How many oil and gas wells are in Upton County?
16,607 wells are on file in Upton County: 5,405 active, 5,977 plugged, and 187 permitted and not yet drilled. 3,965 are horizontal, and 107 operators hold them.
Every well in Upton County →How much oil and gas does Upton County produce?
The Railroad Commission files oil and gas production by lease, not by well or by county. Each lease with wells in Upton County is listed with its reported production on the county's Leases tab.
Leases in Upton County →How much water is injected in Upton County?
208 million barrels of water were injected in Upton County in the 12 months through June 2025, reported on form H-10. 589 of the county's 1,619 disposal and injection permits are active.
Disposal and injection in Upton County →What formations are drilled in Upton County?
Completion filings for wells in Upton County report tops for 15 formations in at least ten wells each. The most reported are the Spraberry (8,091 wells, median top 7,334 ft), the Wolfcamp (6,350 wells, median top 8,815 ft), and the San Andres (4,623 wells, median top 4,488 ft).
Formations in Upton County →What basin is Upton County in?
Petrora lists Upton County in the Permian Basin. It is in the Railroad Commission's District 7C.
The Permian Basin →Have there been earthquakes in Upton County?
TexNet located 40 earthquakes of magnitude 2 or more in the area of Upton County's permitted wells in the last 2 years; the largest was M3.6.
Earthquakes in Upton 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/upton?days=90, documented in the API reference.