Texas Drilling Permits By Operator: May Permits, Reported Spuds, And Production (2026)

Texas operator activity is not one number. A useful Texas activity screen separates planned activity, reported drilling activity, and reported production scale before ranking operators.

EnergyNetWatch pulled this Texas activity snapshot from the live app database on June 9, 2026. The permit table uses May 2026 permit records. The production table uses the latest nonzero Texas production month in the operator rollup, March 2026. The spud table uses reported 2026 spud records through the latest loaded Texas spud date, April 1, 2026.

That gives three separate operator views:

• Who filed the most May permit records
• Who had the largest latest reported production footprint
• Who led reported spud counts in the loaded 2026 spud window

Those tables should be read together, but they should not be merged into one generic activity ranking. Each table answers a different question.

May 2026 Texas Drilling Permits By Operator

The May permit pull returned 630 Texas permit records across 136 operator rows. The latest permit issue date in the result set was May 28, 2026.

EnergyNetWatch May 2026 Texas permit leaderboard. This table ranks permit records, not drilled wells or production.

This is a permit leaderboard. It measures new permit records in the May source window, not production volume or drilled wells.

Permit rankings are useful because they are early. They show where new filings are appearing before completion and production records catch up. They are also incomplete as a standalone operating signal. A high permit count can indicate a development push, inventory maintenance, recompletions or administrative filings, or work that still needs to be checked against spud and production records.

That is why the next screen matters.

Latest Reported Texas Production By Operator

The latest nonzero Texas production month in the operator monthly rollup was March 2026. March was in line with February on the same basis: BOE was 181.9MM in March versus 178.0MM in February, a 2.21% month-over-month increase. Oil was 105.5MM bbl in March versus 102.4MM bbl in February, up 3.06%. Gas was 458.6MM mcf in March versus 453.8MM mcf in February, up 1.06%.

Latest nonzero Texas production month in the EnergyNetWatch operator rollup. BOE uses oil barrels plus gas mcf divided by 6.

BOE is calculated as oil barrels plus gas mcf divided by 6.

This table answers a different question from the permit table. It shows reported scale in the latest nonzero production month, not current filing momentum. Diamondback and Pioneer lead the March production table. OXY led May permits but does not appear in the March BOE top ten under this operator-label basis. EOG appears in both lists, with 24 May permits and 8.39MM BOE in March production.

That split is the point. Permit volume and production scale are connected, but they are not the same measurement.

Texas Reported Spud Leaders

The reported-spud table uses 2026 Texas spud records through April 1, 2026, the latest loaded Texas spud date in this pull. It returned 439 reported spuds across 86 operator rows.

Reported 2026 Texas spud leaders through the latest loaded Texas spud date in this pull, April 1, 2026.

The spud leaderboard is not a May spud table. It is a 2026 reported-spud table through the latest loaded Texas spud date. That distinction keeps the claim clean. May permit data was available in this pull. May spud data was not supported on the same basis.

Reported spuds are stronger field-activity evidence than permits because they show drilling activity where the source carries a spud date. They still need source-date controls. A current permit table and a lagged spud table can both be correct at the same time.

How To Use The Three Tables Together

Use the permit table to identify fresh drilling-intent records.

Use the production table to separate permit volume from existing production scale.

Use the spud table to see which operators have reported drilling activity in the loaded 2026 spud window.

The strongest follow-up workflow is not a single leaderboard. It is a sequence:

EnergyNetWatch is built for this workflow: move from a high-level operator ranking to the source records, map, exports, alerts, and API access that let a team act on the data.

Source And Method

EnergyNetWatch pulled the tables from the live app database on June 9, 2026.

Permits use Texas drilling_permits, filtered to records dated May 1 through May 31, 2026 using COALESCE(issue_date, filed_date). Canceled records were excluded where identifiable in the status field.

Production uses the Texas operator monthly rollup, filtered to the latest nonzero production month, March 2026. The March check was compared with February on the same basis to confirm that the statewide total was in line with the previous loaded production month.

Reported spuds use Texas drilling_permits.spud_date, filtered to records from January 1 through April 1, 2026.

Operator names are source operator labels, not consolidated parent-company families. A parent-level commercial workflow may combine related labels, acquisition history, and known affiliates where the source record supports that treatment.

Frequently Asked Questions

Does the production table use May records?

No. The production table uses March 2026, the latest nonzero Texas production month in this pull.

Does the spud table use May records?

No. The spud table uses reported 2026 spud records through April 1, 2026.

Why separate permits, spuds, and production?

They measure different evidence types. A permit is planned activity, a spud is reported drilling activity, and production is reported operating scale.

Can EnergyNetWatch turn this into operator alerts?

Yes. The same operator, county, date-window, and source-record filters can support saved workflows, exports, alerts, and API access.

Need the underlying Texas records, maps, operator filters, exports, alerts, or API access? Request EnergyNetWatch access.