Oil & gas wells in Shelby County, IL
967 catalogued wells in Shelby County, Illinois, from the state regulator registry and the federal orphaned-well inventory.
Dataset updated . Derived from public data sources.
At a glance
Shelby County, Illinois has 967 catalogued oil & gas wells: 72 active (7%), 638 plugged & abandoned (66%) and 25 documented orphans. It ranks 35th of the 98 Illinois counties WellCensus profiles by well count and holds 0.6% of the state's 174,478 catalogued wells.
Catalogued wells
967
Active
72
Plugged
638
Documented orphans
25
What is the status of oil and gas wells in Shelby County?
7% of Shelby County's wells are active, 12 percentage points below the Illinois share of 19%. 66% are plugged & abandoned, against 61% statewide and 47% nationally. 3 wells (0.3%) are shut-in — unplugged but idle. 25 wells (3%) are documented orphans with no operator able to plug them, compared with 2% across Illinois and 4% nationally. The remaining 229 carry status codes outside those classes, such as permitted or cancelled locations.
What kinds of wells are in Shelby County?
By product class, 117 of the county's wells (12%) are oil wells, 14 (1%) gas wells and 58 (6%) injection wells. Statewide the oil share is 40% and the gas share 1%. The deepest total depth published for a Shelby County well is 5,437 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 Shelby County compare with other Illinois counties?
Shelby County has the 35th-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 30th in Illinois.
Who operates wells in Shelby County?
366 distinct operators of record are linked to wells in Shelby 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 Shelby County
🔒 Create a free account to export CSV| Well | API # / state ID | Status | Type | Operator |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Eddy, Dr. W. J. 1 | 12-173-00004 | Plugged & abandoned | Other type | Eddy Dr W J |
| Prosser, Willard 1 | 12-173-00005 | Plugged & abandoned | Other type | Werner & Dudley |
| Hoagland, Wm. | 12-173-00006 | Plugged & abandoned | Other type | Fralic John D |
| Braden, E. 2 | 12-173-00018 | Plugged & abandoned | Other type | Alco Oil & Gas Corp. |
| Kingman, Mrs. 1 | 12-173-00019 | Other status | Other type | Kingman Oil |
| Well API 12-173-00022 | 12-173-00022 | Other status | Other type | Alco Oil & Gas Corp. |
| Trueblood 1 | 12-173-00024 | Plugged & abandoned | Other type | Kingwood Oil Co. |
| Bickford E E 1 | 12-173-00025 | Plugged & abandoned | Other type | — |
| Bigler, M. C. 1 | 12-173-00026 | Plugged & abandoned | Other type | — |
| Zumbahlen 1 | 12-173-00027 | Plugged & abandoned | Other type | Boesecke, Elmer J., Jr. |
| McClory 1 | 12-173-00030 | Plugged & abandoned | Other type | English Etal |
| McKittrick 1 | 12-173-00031 | Plugged & abandoned | Other type | Whisenant & Henshaw |
| Yakey 1 | 12-173-00032 | Plugged & abandoned | Other type | Moore & Black |
| Garrett, Lon 1 | 12-173-00033 | Plugged & abandoned | Other type | Baker & Fields |
| Darst, Bert 1 | 12-173-00039 | Plugged & abandoned | Other type | Independent Prod-Rfr |
| Hackenburg 1 | 12-173-00041 | Other status | Other type | Independent Prod-Rfr |
| Lantz, Homer 1 | 12-173-00043 | Other status | Other type | Baugher, Ollie |
| Montooth Arnold 1 | 12-173-00045 | Plugged & abandoned | Other type | — |
| Smith, Wm. C. 1 | 12-173-00050 | Plugged & abandoned | Other type | Wiser Oil Co., The |
| Barkhurst 1 | 12-173-00051 | Active | Oil | Oil, Inc. |
| Hunter 1 | 12-173-00057 | Plugged & abandoned | Other type | Guild H L |
| Cazalet 1 | 12-173-00059 | Plugged & abandoned | Other type | McFarland, Rolla J. |
| Williams, Rachel 1 | 12-173-00060 | Plugged & abandoned | Other type | Babcock, J. P. |
| Clay Estate 1 | 12-173-00062 | Plugged & abandoned | Other type | Moore Dan Etal |
| Horsman 1 | 12-173-00063 | Plugged & abandoned | Other type | Luttrell, Homer |
A sample of the county’s wells — every catalogued well has its own page. Browse all 967 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 Shelby County, IL?
Shelby County, Illinois has 967 catalogued oil & gas wells: 72 active, 638 plugged and 25 documented orphans.
How many orphaned wells are in Shelby County?
25 wells in Shelby County, Illinois are documented orphans — unplugged with no solvent operator of record, the 30th-highest count among Illinois counties.
What share of wells in Shelby County are plugged?
638 of Shelby County's 967 catalogued wells (66%) 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); Shelby County ranks 35th with 967.
How many companies operate wells in Shelby County?
366 distinct operators of record are linked to catalogued wells in Shelby 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 Shelby County, Illinois”, https://wellcensus.com/wells/illinois/shelby (data as of October 10, 2026).