Oil & gas wells in Nelson County, KY
66 catalogued wells in Nelson County, Kentucky, from the state regulator registry and the federal orphaned-well inventory.
Dataset updated . Derived from public data sources.
At a glance
Nelson County, Kentucky has 66 catalogued oil & gas wells: 4 active (6%), 57 plugged & abandoned (86%) and 2 documented orphans. It ranks 81st of the 90 Kentucky counties WellCensus profiles by well count and holds 0.0% of the state's 201,022 catalogued wells.
Catalogued wells
66
Active
4
Plugged
57
Documented orphans
2
What is the status of oil and gas wells in Nelson County?
6% of Nelson County's wells are active, 21 percentage points below the Kentucky share of 27%. 86% are plugged & abandoned, against 39% statewide and 47% nationally. 2 wells (3%) are documented orphans with no operator able to plug them, compared with 8% across Kentucky and 4% nationally. The remaining 3 carry status codes outside those classes, such as permitted or cancelled locations.
What kinds of wells are in Nelson County?
By product class, 2 of the county's wells (3%) are oil wells, 5 (8%) gas wells and 0 (0%) injection wells. Statewide the oil share is 25% and the gas share 15%. The deepest total depth published for a Nelson County well is 2,252 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 Nelson County compare with other Kentucky counties?
Nelson County has the 81st-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 81st in Kentucky.
Who operates wells in Nelson County?
36 distinct operators of record are linked to wells in Nelson County. 100% 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 Nelson County
🔒 Create a free account to export CSV| Well | API # / state ID | Status | Type | Operator |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Barnes, Shelby 352 | 16-179-00001 | Orphaned | Other type | Barnes, Shelby |
| Reesor, Fraisur 1 | 16-179-00002 | Plugged & abandoned | Other type | Harkrider Co-Ventures |
| Shives, Bruce 1 | 16-179-00003 | Plugged & abandoned | Other type | Engle Drilling Co |
| Clark, Joe 1 | 16-179-00004 | Plugged & abandoned | Oil | Howardstown Partners |
| Stiles, Joe Hrs 1 | 16-179-00005 | Plugged & abandoned | Gas | Howardstown Partners |
| Clark, Joe 2 | 16-179-00006 | Plugged & abandoned | Other type | Howardstown Partners |
| Reesor, Fraisur 1 | 16-179-00007 | Active | Gas | Howardstown Partners |
| Reesor, Fraisur 2 | 16-179-00008 | Plugged & abandoned | Other type | Howardstown Partners |
| Reesor Family Ltd Partnership # 5 | 16-179-00009 | Orphaned | Oil | Knight, Dean |
| Boone, John T 1 | 16-179-00010 | Plugged & abandoned | Other type | Beaver Dam Coal Co |
| Bowling, Carl & Paul 1 | 16-179-00011 | Plugged & abandoned | Other type | Beaver Dam Coal Co |
| Edwards, Jodie E 1 | 16-179-00012 | Plugged & abandoned | Other type | Beaver Dam Coal Co |
| Edwards, Roy 1 | 16-179-00013 | Plugged & abandoned | Other type | Beaver Dam Coal Co |
| Edwards, Roy 2 | 16-179-00014 | Plugged & abandoned | Other type | Beaver Dam Coal Co |
| Frazier, Cornelia 1 | 16-179-00015 | Plugged & abandoned | Other type | Beaver Dam Coal Co |
| Green, W W 1 | 16-179-00016 | Plugged & abandoned | Other type | Beaver Dam Coal Co |
| Green, W W 2 | 16-179-00017 | Plugged & abandoned | Other type | Beaver Dam Coal Co |
| Gunning, James Guy 1 | 16-179-00018 | Plugged & abandoned | Other type | Hembree, Owen |
| Irvin, Ronald F 1 | 16-179-00019 | Plugged & abandoned | Other type | Beaver Dam Coal Co |
| Proffitt, Erby 1 | 16-179-00020 | Other status | Other type | Beaver Dam Coal Co |
| Sanders, Ernest 1 | 16-179-00021 | Plugged & abandoned | Other type | Beaver Dam Coal Co |
| Thompson, W T 1g | 16-179-00022 | Plugged & abandoned | Other type | Beaver Dam Coal Co |
| Thompson, W T 2w | 16-179-00023 | Plugged & abandoned | Other type | Beaver Dam Coal Co |
| Wimsett, Earl 1 | 16-179-00024 | Plugged & abandoned | Other type | Beaver Dam Coal Co |
| Wathen, J A 1 | 16-179-00025 | Plugged & abandoned | Other type | Wathen, J A |
A sample of the county’s wells — every catalogued well has its own page. Browse all 66 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 Nelson County, KY?
Nelson County, Kentucky has 66 catalogued oil & gas wells: 4 active, 57 plugged and 2 documented orphans.
How many orphaned wells are in Nelson County?
2 wells in Nelson County, Kentucky are documented orphans — unplugged with no solvent operator of record, the 81st-highest count among Kentucky counties.
What share of wells in Nelson County are plugged?
57 of Nelson County's 66 catalogued wells (86%) 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); Nelson County ranks 81st with 66.
How many companies operate wells in Nelson County?
36 distinct operators of record are linked to catalogued wells in Nelson 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 Nelson County, Kentucky”, https://wellcensus.com/wells/kentucky/nelson (data as of October 10, 2026).