Oil & gas wells in Metcalfe County, KY
4,774 catalogued wells in Metcalfe County, Kentucky, from the state regulator registry and the federal orphaned-well inventory.
Dataset updated . Derived from public data sources.
At a glance
Metcalfe County, Kentucky has 4,774 catalogued oil & gas wells: 411 active (9%), 2,974 plugged & abandoned (62%) and 530 documented orphans. It ranks 13th of the 90 Kentucky counties WellCensus profiles by well count and holds 2% of the state's 201,022 catalogued wells.
Catalogued wells
4,774
Active
411
Plugged
2,974
Documented orphans
530
What is the status of oil and gas wells in Metcalfe County?
9% of Metcalfe County's wells are active, 18 percentage points below the Kentucky share of 27%. 62% are plugged & abandoned, against 39% statewide and 47% nationally. 530 wells (11%) are documented orphans with no operator able to plug them, compared with 8% across Kentucky and 4% nationally. The remaining 859 carry status codes outside those classes, such as permitted or cancelled locations.
What kinds of wells are in Metcalfe County?
By product class, 850 of the county's wells (18%) are oil wells, 278 (6%) gas wells and 167 (3%) injection wells. Statewide the oil share is 25% and the gas share 15%. The deepest total depth published for a Metcalfe County well is 6,114 ft, against 16,108 ft for Kentucky as a whole. 94% of the county's wells carry coordinates and appear on the map.
How does Metcalfe County compare with other Kentucky counties?
Metcalfe County has the 13th-most catalogued wells of the 90 Kentucky counties with at least 25. The median Kentucky county on WellCensus has 941 wells. The largest, Ohio County, has 11,631. By documented orphans it ranks 12th in Kentucky.
Who operates wells in Metcalfe County?
828 distinct operators of record are linked to wells in Metcalfe 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 Metcalfe County
🔒 Create a free account to export CSV| Well | API # / state ID | Status | Type | Operator |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Scott, Robert 2 | 16-001-01070 | Plugged & abandoned | Other type | Anderhill Oil, Inc |
| Scott, Robert 1 | 16-001-01072 | Plugged & abandoned | Other type | Anderhill Oil, Inc |
| Edwards, C R 2 | 16-047-00437 | Plugged & abandoned | Other type | Sparks, Carter |
| Edwards, Hortense 2 | 16-063-00579 | Orphaned | Other type | Marcum, Earl R |
| Pennington, Ruth & Edith 3 | 16-101-04424 | Active | Gas | Hembree, Oscar O |
| Fraser, Carl B 1 | 16-159-00651 | Plugged & abandoned | Other type | Stokes, A E |
| Pennington, J P 1 | 16-169-00001 | Plugged & abandoned | Injection | Louisville Gas & Electric Co |
| Smith, M 1 | 16-169-00002 | Plugged & abandoned | Injection | Louisville Gas & Electric Co |
| Martin, Earl 1 | 16-169-00003 | Orphaned | Other type | H & M Recovery Corp |
| James, W A 1 | 16-169-00004 | Plugged & abandoned | Oil | Havelka, Harry |
| Estes, Mrs Ellis 26 | 16-169-00005 | Orphaned | Other type | Lunsford, Roy B |
| Forbes, Loppie 9 | 16-169-00006 | Orphaned | Injection | Wilco Energy Corp |
| Shoopman, James 1a | 16-169-00007 | Orphaned | Other type | Aldo Enterprises, Inc |
| Ennis, Darrell 1 | 16-169-00008 | Orphaned | Gas | U S Geochemical, Inc |
| Hoggard, Russell 1 | 16-169-00009 | Plugged & abandoned | Other type | Hydro-Carbon Energy Recovery Co |
| Ball, Cleo 1 | 16-169-00010 | Plugged & abandoned | Other type | Hydro-Carbon Energy Recovery Co |
| Harrison, Mary 2 | 16-169-00012 | Orphaned | Other type | Butler, John D |
| Vanzant, Sallie 10g | 16-169-00013 | Active | Oil | Goffinet, Bernadine |
| England, F A 3(0) | 16-169-00014 | Orphaned | Oil | Fortune Oil Co |
| Harris, Leslie 1 | 16-169-00015 | Orphaned | Other type | Franklin, Carlus & Boyd, O W |
| Fudge, Sam, Gurman & Ralph 1 | 16-169-00016 | Plugged & abandoned | Other type | Fudge Brothers |
| Bell, John F 2 | 16-169-00017 | Plugged & abandoned | Oil | John F Bell Oil Co, Inc |
| Sorrel, Gene 1 | 16-169-00018 | Plugged & abandoned | Other type | Herco, Inc |
| Pennington, Arlis 1 | 16-169-00019 | Active | Oil | Hydro-Carbon Energy Recovery Co |
| Jones, Arlis 3 | 16-169-00020 | Plugged & abandoned | Other type | Chapman, Paul |
A sample of the county’s wells — every catalogued well has its own page. Browse all 4,774 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 Metcalfe County, KY?
Metcalfe County, Kentucky has 4,774 catalogued oil & gas wells: 411 active, 2,974 plugged and 530 documented orphans.
How many orphaned wells are in Metcalfe County?
530 wells in Metcalfe County, Kentucky are documented orphans — unplugged with no solvent operator of record, the 12th-highest count among Kentucky counties.
What share of wells in Metcalfe County are plugged?
2,974 of Metcalfe County's 4,774 catalogued wells (62%) are plugged & abandoned, compared with 39% across Kentucky.
Which Kentucky county has the most oil and gas wells?
Ohio County has the most catalogued wells of any Kentucky county on WellCensus (11,631); Metcalfe County ranks 13th with 4,774.
How many companies operate wells in Metcalfe County?
828 distinct operators of record are linked to catalogued wells in Metcalfe County, Kentucky.
Nearby in the Kentucky rankings
About this data
Source: Kentucky 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 Metcalfe County, Kentucky”, https://wellcensus.com/wells/kentucky/metcalfe (data as of October 10, 2026).