COUNTIES · PERMIAN BASIN · DISTRICT 7C · CODE 461
Upton County
Upton County permitting is running 39 permits a month over the trailing 90 days (118 total, down 6% on the prior quarter). 15 were issued in the past week.
Pioneer Natural Res. USA, Inc. leads with 129 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 10,257 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 39 earthquakes of magnitude 2 or more in the county's permit footprint over the past two years, the largest M3.6.
16,449 drilling permits have been issued in Upton County since 1977.
16,449 permits on file since 1977 · last issued Oct 23, 2026
Watch Upton CountyAlso: every Upton County well in the statewide list, searchable → · a year of permits on the map →
- 66
- permits issued, 30d
- +200%
- vs prior 30d (22)
- 7
- operators filing
- 97%
- horizontal
- 11,450
- avg permitted depth, ft
- 470
- operators, all time
WINDOWS ON THE RRC ISSUE DATE · COMPUTED OCT 29, 2026 · WHY ISSUE AND SEEN DATES DIFFER
Permits issued by month
LAST 119 MONTHS · BY ISSUE DATE
Last 12 months 586 · prior 12 485(+21%)
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. | 129 | 3,281 |
| Apache Corporation | 93 | 458 |
| Ovintiv USA Inc. | 63 | 307 |
| COG Operating LLC | 60 | 1,512 |
| Civitas Permian Operating, LLC | 55 | 311 |
| Summit Petroleum LLC | 38 | 446 |
| Firebird Energy II LLC | 34 | 462 |
| SM Energy Company | 24 | 436 |
| Chevron U. S. A. Inc. | 24 | 68 |
| 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
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 →
| Formation | Wells | Permitted last 3 yrs | Median top, ft | P10–P90 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Spraberry | 8,077 | 754 | 7,334 | 6,720–7,799 |
| Wolfcamp | 6,341 | 439 | 8,816 | 8,153–9,207 |
| San Andres | 4,611 | 762 | 4,488 | 3,781–4,933 |
| Yates | 3,944 | 647 | 2,410 | 1,878–2,839 |
| Grayburg | 3,640 | 643 | 3,980 | 2,622–4,593 |
| Dean | 3,270 | 47 | 8,630 | 8,044–9,016 |
| Clear Fork | 2,291 | 378 | 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 | 506 | 36 | 2,350 | 1,719–4,080 |
| 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
- 39
- 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 919307 | Oct 25, 2026 | Oct 23, 2026 | Civitas Permian Operating, LLC | Loki C #242WCH | 18,000 | 46143842 |
| 919306 | Oct 25, 2026 | Oct 23, 2026 | Civitas Permian Operating, LLC | Loki C #172DNH | 17,950 | 46143841 |
| 918806 | Oct 24, 2026 | Oct 22, 2026 | Pioneer Natural Res. USA, Inc. | Hacienda-Morgan 31P #216HH | 10,530 | 46143797 |
| 918805 | Oct 24, 2026 | Oct 22, 2026 | Pioneer Natural Res. USA, Inc. | Hacienda-Morgan 31O #215HH | 10,530 | 46143796 |
| 918804 | Oct 24, 2026 | Oct 22, 2026 | Pioneer Natural Res. USA, Inc. | Hacienda-Morgan 31N #214HH | 10,530 | 46143795 |
| 919153 | Oct 24, 2026 | Oct 22, 2026 | Mewbourne Oil Company | Half Ton 2/17 D #N101DMH | 11,546 | 46143823 |
| 919152 | Oct 24, 2026 | Oct 22, 2026 | Mewbourne Oil Company | Half Ton 2/17 C #N101CNH | 11,546 | 46143822 |
| 919423 | Oct 24, 2026 | Oct 22, 2026 | Mewbourne Oil Company | Bynum 53/2 D #N101DMH | 11,189 | 46143846 |
| 919422 | Oct 24, 2026 | Oct 22, 2026 | Mewbourne Oil Company | Bynum 53/2 C #N101CNH | 11,257 | 46143845 |
| 919421 | Oct 24, 2026 | Oct 22, 2026 | Mewbourne Oil Company | Bynum 53/2 B #N101BOH | 11,219 | 46143844 |
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=30, documented in the API reference.