Oil & gas wells in Jefferson County, IL
3,756 catalogued wells in Jefferson County, Illinois, from the state regulator registry and the federal orphaned-well inventory.
Dataset updated . Derived from public data sources.
At a glance
Jefferson County, Illinois has 3,756 catalogued oil & gas wells: 575 active (15%), 2,964 plugged & abandoned (79%) and 49 documented orphans. It ranks 15th of the 98 Illinois counties WellCensus profiles by well count and holds 2% of the state's 174,478 catalogued wells.
Catalogued wells
3,756
Active
575
Plugged
2,964
Documented orphans
49
What is the status of oil and gas wells in Jefferson County?
15% of Jefferson County's wells are active, 4 percentage points below the Illinois share of 19%. 79% are plugged & abandoned, against 61% statewide and 47% nationally. 13 wells (0.3%) are shut-in — unplugged but idle. 49 wells (1%) are documented orphans with no operator able to plug them, compared with 2% across Illinois and 4% nationally. The remaining 155 carry status codes outside those classes, such as permitted or cancelled locations.
What kinds of wells are in Jefferson County?
By product class, 1,592 of the county's wells (42%) are oil wells, 8 (0.2%) gas wells and 369 (10%) injection wells. Statewide the oil share is 40% and the gas share 1%. The deepest total depth published for a Jefferson County well is 6,625 ft, against 29,864 ft for Illinois as a whole. 100% of the county's wells carry coordinates and appear on the map.
How does Jefferson County compare with other Illinois counties?
Jefferson County has the 15th-most catalogued wells of the 98 Illinois counties with at least 25. The median Illinois county on WellCensus has 525 wells. The largest, Crawford County, has 22,961. By documented orphans it ranks 21st in Illinois.
Who operates wells in Jefferson County?
791 distinct operators of record are linked to wells in Jefferson County. 99% of the county's wells carry a link to a canonical operator profile; the rest list no operator or a name not yet resolved. Each well's page names its operator where the state publishes one.
Wells in Jefferson County
🔒 Create a free account to export CSV| Well | API # / state ID | Status | Type | Operator |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| McKinney C Com 1 | 12-081-00636 | Other status | Oil | Texaco, Inc. |
| Well API 12-108-12366 | 12-108-12366 | Orphaned | Unknown | — |
| Sumner-Scott Community 1 | 12-081-02027 | Other status | Oil | — |
| Slemaker, R. W. 3 | 12-081-23742 | Other status | Injection | — |
| Williams 6 | 12-081-24749 | Other status | Oil | Prior, John |
| Campbell 1-SWD | 12-081-24927 | Other status | Injection | Hardt, Edwin E. & Kathy |
| Bluford Grain 4 | 12-081-25092 | Other status | Oil | Herr, Robert C. III |
| Well API 12-108-10227 | 12-108-10227 | Other status | Unknown | — |
| Simmons, Thomas 1 | 12-081-02472 | Other status | Oil | Dunnill, John F. |
| Donoho, Lora F. 2 | 12-081-02487 | Other status | Injection | Herr, Robert C. III |
| Simmons Tom 4 | 12-081-02699 | Other status | Oil | Dunnill, John F. |
| Gee 2 | 12-081-22990 | Other status | Oil | Gentles, Albert |
| Hays Comm 2 | 12-081-24048 | Other status | Oil | Gentles Drilling Co. |
| Kent 4 | 12-081-24049 | Other status | Oil | Gibraltar Energy Corp. |
| Kent 5 | 12-081-24092 | Other status | Oil | Gibraltar Energy Corp. |
| Cargo 1 | 12-081-24110 | Other status | Other type | Gentles Drilling Co. |
| Hanes, D. E. 1 | 12-081-00643 | Other status | Injection | The Texas Company |
| Atwood J 1 | 12-081-00771 | Other status | Oil | Mitchell, M. J. |
| State Game Preserve "B" NCT-2 4 | 12-081-00934 | Other status | Oil | Texas Co., The |
| Hays Mae 2 | 12-081-00945 | Other status | Oil | Kapp, Louis H., Jr. |
| Green, W.P. NCT 1 6 | 12-081-01436 | Other status | Other type | The Texas Company |
| Donoho Heirs 1-A | 12-081-23390 | Other status | Oil | Dunnill, John E. |
| Pierce - Fox 1 | 12-081-23732 | Other status | Oil | Dunnill, John E. |
| Jefferson Oil & Gas 15-A | 12-081-24172 | Other status | Injection | Sherman, Clarence |
| Tinsley 1 | 12-081-24287 | Other status | Oil | Prior, John |
A sample of the county’s wells — every catalogued well has its own page. Browse all 3,756 in search → (filter by operator, status and type, then export), or find a specific well on the live map.
Frequently asked questions
How many oil and gas wells are in Jefferson County, IL?
Jefferson County, Illinois has 3,756 catalogued oil & gas wells: 575 active, 2,964 plugged and 49 documented orphans.
How many orphaned wells are in Jefferson County?
49 wells in Jefferson County, Illinois are documented orphans — unplugged with no solvent operator of record, the 21st-highest count among Illinois counties.
What share of wells in Jefferson County are plugged?
2,964 of Jefferson County's 3,756 catalogued wells (79%) are plugged & abandoned, compared with 61% across Illinois.
Which Illinois county has the most oil and gas wells?
Crawford County has the most catalogued wells of any Illinois county on WellCensus (22,961); Jefferson County ranks 15th with 3,756.
How many companies operate wells in Jefferson County?
791 distinct operators of record are linked to catalogued wells in Jefferson County, Illinois.
Nearby in the Illinois rankings
About this data
Source: Illinois State Geological Survey well registry, plus the USGS United States Documented Orphaned Well Database (2026, doi 10.5066/P13FHBYG), as published October 10, 2026 — WellCensus refreshes it monthly. See the methodology for how records are matched, cleaned and scored.
Cite as: WellCensus, “Oil & gas wells in Jefferson County, Illinois”, https://wellcensus.com/wells/illinois/jefferson (data as of October 10, 2026).