What state has the most oil wells
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Executive summary
Texas is the state most consistently identified as having the largest oil footprint in the United States—by production, proved reserves, and by inference the greatest number of wells—though exact per‑state well counts depend on definitions and datasets; the U.S. Energy Information Administration documents nationwide producing wells and state breakouts while industry and data aggregators corroborate Texas’s dominance [1] [2] [3].
1. Why “most oil wells” usually points to Texas
Public datasets and industry reporting emphasize that Texas leads the nation in crude output and proved reserves, both strong indicators that it also hosts the most oil wells: Texas houses far more proved crude oil reserves than any other state (Statista) and is routinely named the top oil‑producing state in modern accounts of U.S. oil production [2] [3]. The EIA’s national accounting of producing wells and state appendices provides the baseline framework for comparing states and supports the interpretation that states with the largest production and reserves generally have the largest well inventories [1].
2. What the authoritative counts actually measure
The EIA’s well estimates classify wells by production rate and aggregate state data in appendices, noting the U.S. total of producing wells peaked near 1,031,161 in 2014 and declined to about 918,481 by 2024—figures that mix oil and natural‑gas well designations and that depend on gas‑oil ratio rules and state reporting [1]. That nuance matters: “most wells” can mean most producing oil wells, most total oil‑and‑gas wells, or most drilled but inactive wells; different sources and maps (USGS, FracTracker) capture different slices of that universe [4] [5].
3. Alternative contenders and why they’re secondary
Other states often cited for heavy well counts—Oklahoma, North Dakota, Louisiana, and Pennsylvania—are significant drillers and hosts to major plays (Permian activity stretches into New Mexico, Bakken into North Dakota), but their statewide totals trail Texas’s combination of legacy fields and rapid modern development [3] [6]. FracTracker and USGS maps show dense well concentrations in multiple states and regions, underscoring regional complexity, but none of the supplied sources dispute Texas’s primacy when production and proved reserves are used as proxies for well inventories [5] [4].
4. Data caveats: definitions, reporting lag, and oil vs. gas
Comparisons are complicated by how agencies define “oil well” versus “producing well,” by state reporting completeness captured in EIA appendices, and by whether datasets include legacy plugged wells or only active producing holes—EIA explicitly groups wells by BOE/day brackets and provides state reporting status tables in its appendices [1]. Several secondary aggregators compile top‑state lists or maps (PetroStrategies, Visual Capitalist) but may emphasize production volumes or reserves rather than a raw, audited count of oil wells, introducing implicit agendas toward highlighting energy strength or risk [7] [8].
5. Bottom line and limits of available reporting
Based on the combination of EIA national well accounting, state reserve tallies, and multiple industry summaries, Texas is the most plausible and supported answer to which state has the most oil wells, though the exact numeric lead depends on the specific dataset and definition used [1] [2] [3]. The provided sources do not contain a single, unequivocal per‑state tally table in the snippets supplied here, so absolute well counts by state and by year cannot be reproduced verbatim from the reporting provided; for a precise, up‑to‑date per‑state well inventory the EIA state appendices and state regulatory datasets should be consulted directly [1].