This statistic shows the estimated number of oil and gas wells drilled in the United States from 2014 to 2017, with forecasted figures for 2018 to 2022. In 2017, there were an estimated ****** oil and gas wells drilled in the U.S., and it is forecasted that in 2022 there will be ****** wells drilled.

This map shows the oil and natural gas wells across the United States. Oil and Natural Gas Well: A hole drilled in the earth for the purpose of finding or producing crude oil or natural gas; or producing services related to the production of crude or natural gas. Geographic coverage includes the United States (Alabama, Alaska, Arizona, Arkansas, California, Colorado, Florida, Illinois, Indiana, Kansas, Kentucky, Louisiana, Maryland, Michigan, Mississippi, Missouri, Montana, North Dakota, Nebraska, Nevada, New Mexico, New York, Ohio, Oklahoma, Oregon, Pennsylvania, South Dakota, Tennessee, Texas, Utah, Virginia, Washington, West Virginia, Wyoming) as well Oil and Natural Gas wells in the Canadian provinces of British Columbia and Manitoba that are within 100 miles of the country's border with the United States. According to the Energy Information Administration (EIA) the following states do not have active/producing Oil or Natural Gas Wells: Connecticut, Delaware, District of Columbia, Georgia, Hawaii, Iowa, Idaho, Massachusetts, Maine, Minnesota, North Carolina, New Hampshire, New Jersey, Rhode Island, South Carolina, Vermont, and Wisconsin. Some states do have wells for underground Natural Gas storage facilities where these have been identified they were included. This layer is derived from well data from individual states and provinces and United States Agencies. This layer is complete for the United States but further development of data missing from two Canadian provinces and Mexico is in process. This update release includes an additional 497,036 wells covering Texas. Oil and gas exploration in Texas takes advantage of drilling technology to use a single surface well drilling location to drill multiple bottom hole well connections to extract oil and gas. The addition of Well data from Texas results in the addition of a related table to support this one surface well to many bottom hole connections. This related table provides records for Wells that have more than one bottom hole linked to the surface well. Sourced from the HIFLD Open Data Portal for Energy.

This data release contains several datasets that provide an overview of oil and gas well history and production of the United States, from 1817 to September 1, 2022. Well history data is aggregated into 1-mile and 10-mile squares indicating the total number of wells and counts of wells classified as oil, gas, dry, injection, hydraulically fractured, and/or horizontal wells. Well history is also separated into layers binned on 1-year increments from a well's spud date (date drilling commenced). Production data is aggregated in 2-mile and 10-mile squares that sum the total production of oil, gas, and water volumes. Production data is also separated into layers binned on 1-year increments to reflect the year of production. These aggregations are compiled from data from IHS Markit, which is a proprietary, commercial database. No proprietary data is contained in this release. This data release was updated May 2023 to reflect an offset of 1 year on the original release.

The number of operational U.S. oil and gas rigs averaged 557 in June 2025. This was a decrease compared to the same month a year prior, with benchmark oil prices influenced by moderate demand outlooks. Most common rig types Oil rigs are the most common rigs in the U.S. At the end of 2024, there were some 460 active oil rigs compared with roughly 94 gas rigs. This discrepancy has been exacerbated over the years, with there having been a less pronounced difference in 2011. 2011 was also the year when new well drilling numbers peaked within the past decade, with roughly 2,000 newly bored oil and gas extraction sites. The majority of oil rigs are found in the Permian Basin. Located in Texas and parts of New Mexico, the Permian Basin has been a harvesting ground for petroleum since the early 1920s and since established itself as the most productive U.S. oil basin. The U.S. oil rig industry in the global context In the last decade, the number of oil rigs worldwide has decreased significantly. In 2014, there were over 3,500 oil rigs worldwide, compared to 1,734 oil rigs at the end of 2024. Of those, 460 were located in the United States, which represented a 26 percent share of the global oil rigs market.

The United States Documented Unplugged Orphaned Oil and Gas Well (DOW) dataset contains 117,672 wells in 27 states. The definition of an orphaned oil or gas well varies across data sources; the dataset includes oil or gas wells where the state indicates that the well is an unplugged orphan, or the following criteria are met: 1) no production for an average of 12 months (6 to 24 months depending on the state), 2) the well is unplugged, 3) there is no responsible party to manage the well for future re-use or for plugging and abandonment, and 4) the location of the well is documented. The dataset includes location coordinates, American Petroleum Institute (API) number, or other identification number, well type, well status, and additional information for each unplugged orphaned well. All data were collected by direct requests to the respective state agency overseeing oil and gas wells or data downloads from their online databases. Location format conversion was performed on wells without coordinate locations using tools provided by the Bureau of Land Management and some state agencies. No other data manipulations were performed to the source data aside from reformatting or the addition of explanatory notes.

Geospatial data about United States Oil and Natural Gas Wells. Export to CAD, GIS, PDF, CSV and access via API.

The total amount of horizontal oil and gas wells in the United States has considerably increased between 2008 and 2018, from some 28,400 to approximately 140,000 horizontal wells. The majority of these wells have a production rate ranging between 15 and 100 barrels of oil equivalent per day.

Geospatial dataset of abandoned oil and gas well locations, plugging statuses, and well/fluid types compiled from United States open-access state databases.

Graph and download economic data for Net Total Construction, Including Oil and Gas Well Drilling for United States (A02208USA379NNBR) from 1889 to 1955 about wells, drilling, oil, gas, construction, Net, and USA.

United States No. of Oil & Gas Wells: Drilled: Haynesville data was reported at 36.000 Unit in Feb 2020. This records a decrease from the previous number of 40.000 Unit for Jan 2020. United States No. of Oil & Gas Wells: Drilled: Haynesville data is updated monthly, averaging 38.000 Unit from Jan 2014 (Median) to Feb 2020, with 74 observations. The data reached an all-time high of 57.000 Unit in May 2018 and a record low of 8.000 Unit in Mar 2016. United States No. of Oil & Gas Wells: Drilled: Haynesville data remains active status in CEIC and is reported by Energy Information Administration. The data is categorized under Global Database’s United States – Table US.RB022: Number of Oil and Gas Wells.

United States No. of Oil & Gas Wells: Completed: Niobrara data was reported at 145.000 Unit in Feb 2020. This records a decrease from the previous number of 148.000 Unit for Jan 2020. United States No. of Oil & Gas Wells: Completed: Niobrara data is updated monthly, averaging 145.000 Unit from Jan 2014 (Median) to Feb 2020, with 74 observations. The data reached an all-time high of 208.000 Unit in Mar 2018 and a record low of 58.000 Unit in Mar 2016. United States No. of Oil & Gas Wells: Completed: Niobrara data remains active status in CEIC and is reported by Energy Information Administration. The data is categorized under Global Database’s United States – Table US.RB022: Number of Oil and Gas Wells.

The drilling history documents oil and gas wells in the Lower Miocene 2 sequence as a whole and in 10-year intervals. The wells included in this interval are determined by completion date and by comparing the depth of the wells to structure contours of the Lower Miocene 2 sequence. The data are provided in a single file (lm2_prod.shp) as well as nine 10-year interval files covering 1910 through 1999. These datasets contain basic data and interpretations developed and compiled by the U.S. Geological Survey's Framework Studies and Assessment of the Gulf Coast Project. Other major sources of data include publicly available information from state agencies as well as publications of the U.S. Geological Survey and other scientific organizations. In cases where company proprietary data were used to produce various derivatives such as contour surfaces, the source is cited but the data are not displayed.

United States No. of Oil & Gas Wells: Completed: Rest of Lower 48 States excl GOM data was reported at 204.000 Unit in Mar 2025. This records an increase from the previous number of 203.000 Unit for Feb 2025. United States No. of Oil & Gas Wells: Completed: Rest of Lower 48 States excl GOM data is updated monthly, averaging 362.000 Unit from Jan 2011 (Median) to Mar 2025, with 171 observations. The data reached an all-time high of 971.000 Unit in May 2013 and a record low of 57.000 Unit in Jul 2020. United States No. of Oil & Gas Wells: Completed: Rest of Lower 48 States excl GOM data remains active status in CEIC and is reported by U.S. Energy Information Administration. The data is categorized under Global Database’s United States – Table US.RB043: Number of Oil and Gas Wells.

No. of Oil & Gas Wells: Drilled but Uncompleted: Permian data was reported at 3,482.000 Unit in Feb 2020. This records an increase from the previous number of 3,471.000 Unit for Jan 2020. No. of Oil & Gas Wells: Drilled but Uncompleted: Permian data is updated monthly, averaging 1,329.000 Unit from Dec 2013 (Median) to Feb 2020, with 75 observations. The data reached an all-time high of 3,591.000 Unit in Jul 2019 and a record low of 647.000 Unit in Jan 2014. No. of Oil & Gas Wells: Drilled but Uncompleted: Permian data remains active status in CEIC and is reported by Energy Information Administration. The data is categorized under Global Database’s United States – Table US.RB022: Number of Oil and Gas Wells.

In 2018, slightly over half of the oil wells in the United States produced between 200 and 1,600 barrels per day. Oil wells operating with a daily production of over 12,800 barrels per day had a relatively small participation in the industry.

A cells polygon feature class was created by the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) to illustrate the degree of exploration, type of production, and distribution of production in the United States. Each cell represents a square mile of the land surface, and the cells are coded to represent whether the wells included within the cell are predominantly oil-producing, gas-producing, both oil and gas-producing, or the type of production of the wells located within the cell is unknown or dry. The well information was initially retrieved from IHS Inc.'s PI/Dwights PLUS Well Data on CD-ROM, which is a proprietary, commercial database containing information for most oil and gas wells in the U.S. Cells were developed as a graphic solution to overcome the problem of displaying proprietary well data. No proprietary data are displayed or included in the cell maps. The data are current through 10/1/2005.

Number of Businesses statistics on the Oil Drilling & Gas Extraction industry in the US

These data show the location of oil and gas wells within U.S. and territorial waters. The values of an oil and gas well record can change considerably over time, and with varied ownership, and with the jurisdiction that the well is located within. The fields in this data set are only a subset of the most common values available.

No. of Oil & Gas Wells: Drilled per Rig: Appalachia data was reported at 1.900 Unit in Mar 2025. This stayed constant from the previous number of 1.900 Unit for Feb 2025. No. of Oil & Gas Wells: Drilled per Rig: Appalachia data is updated monthly, averaging 1.600 Unit from Jan 2011 (Median) to Mar 2025, with 171 observations. The data reached an all-time high of 2.000 Unit in Apr 2020 and a record low of 0.700 Unit in Jan 2011. No. of Oil & Gas Wells: Drilled per Rig: Appalachia data remains active status in CEIC and is reported by U.S. Energy Information Administration. The data is categorized under Global Database’s United States – Table US.RB043: Number of Oil and Gas Wells.

As of 2020, Pennsylvania had an estimated 338,700 abandoned oil and gas wells, making it by far the U.S. state with the highest number of unused wells. In March 2020, there were 544 drilled but uncompleted oil and gas wells in the Appalachia oilfield - which is partly located in Pennsylvania. Among the leading ten states with the highest number of abandoned oil and gas wells, Texas, Kansas, Illinois, and Louisiana were the ones with lowest numbers. Each one of these four states accounted with less than seven thousand abandoned oil and gas wells.