Oil & gas wells in Chaves County, NM
7,442 catalogued wells in Chaves County, New Mexico, from the state regulator registry and the federal orphaned-well inventory.
Dataset updated . Derived from public data sources.
At a glance
Chaves County, New Mexico has 7,442 catalogued oil & gas wells: 1,502 active (20%), 3,824 plugged & abandoned (51%) and 594 documented orphans. It ranks 5th of the 26 New Mexico counties WellCensus profiles by well count and holds 5% of the state's 141,088 catalogued wells.
Catalogued wells
7,442
Active
1,502
Plugged
3,824
Documented orphans
594
What is the status of oil and gas wells in Chaves County?
20% of Chaves County's wells are active, 17 percentage points below the New Mexico share of 37%. 51% are plugged & abandoned, against 36% statewide and 47% nationally. 594 wells (8%) are documented orphans with no operator able to plug them, compared with 2% across New Mexico and 4% nationally. The remaining 1,522 carry status codes outside those classes, such as permitted or cancelled locations.
What kinds of wells are in Chaves County?
By product class, 4,549 of the county's wells (61%) are oil wells, 2,248 (30%) gas wells and 574 (8%) injection wells. Statewide the oil share is 59% and the gas share 34%. The deepest total depth published for a Chaves County well is 15,777 ft, against 28,133 ft for New Mexico as a whole. 100% of the county's wells carry coordinates and appear on the map.
How does Chaves County compare with other New Mexico counties?
Chaves County has the 5th-most catalogued wells of the 26 New Mexico counties with at least 25. The median New Mexico county on WellCensus has 81 wells. The largest, Lea County, has 48,524. By documented orphans it ranks 3rd in New Mexico.
Who operates wells in Chaves County?
256 distinct operators of record are linked to wells in Chaves 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 Chaves County
🔒 Create a free account to export CSV| Well | API # / state ID | Status | Type | Operator |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Pre-Ongard Well #001 | 30-005-00001 | Plugged & abandoned | Oil | Pre-Ongard Well Operator |
| Pre-Ongard Well #001 | 30-005-00002 | Plugged & abandoned | Oil | Pre-Ongard Well Operator |
| Pre-Ongard Well #001 | 30-005-00003 | Plugged & abandoned | Oil | Pre-Ongard Well Operator |
| Pre-Ongard Well #001 | 30-005-00004 | Plugged & abandoned | Oil | Pre-Ongard Well Operator |
| Pre-Ongard Well #001 | 30-005-00005 | Plugged & abandoned | Oil | Pre-Ongard Well Operator |
| Pre-Ongard Well #001 | 30-005-00006 | Plugged & abandoned | Oil | Pre-Ongard Well Operator |
| Pre-Ongard Well #002 | 30-005-00007 | Plugged & abandoned | Oil | Pre-Ongard Well Operator |
| Pre-Ongard Well #001 | 30-005-00009 | Plugged & abandoned | Oil | Pre-Ongard Well Operator |
| Pre-Ongard Well #001 | 30-005-00011 | Plugged & abandoned | Oil | Pre-Ongard Well Operator |
| Pre-Ongard Well #001 | 30-005-00012 | Plugged & abandoned | Oil | Pre-Ongard Well Operator |
| Pre-Ongard Well #001 | 30-005-00013 | Plugged & abandoned | Oil | Pre-Ongard Well Operator |
| Pre-Ongard Well #001 | 30-005-00016 | Plugged & abandoned | Oil | Pre-Ongard Well Operator |
| Pre-Ongard Well #001 | 30-005-00017 | Plugged & abandoned | Oil | Pre-Ongard Well Operator |
| Pre-Ongard Well #001 | 30-005-00018 | Plugged & abandoned | Oil | Pre-Ongard Well Operator |
| Pre-Ongard Well #001 | 30-005-00019 | Plugged & abandoned | Oil | Pre-Ongard Well Operator |
| Pre-Ongard Well #001 | 30-005-00020 | Plugged & abandoned | Oil | Pre-Ongard Well Operator |
| Pre-Ongard Well #001 | 30-005-00021 | Plugged & abandoned | Oil | Pre-Ongard Well Operator |
| Pre-Ongard Well #001 | 30-005-00022 | Plugged & abandoned | Oil | Pre-Ongard Well Operator |
| Everette Oo Federal #006 | 30-005-00023 | Plugged & abandoned | Gas | Lime Rock Resources A, L.P. |
| Pre-Ongard Well #001 | 30-005-00024 | Plugged & abandoned | Oil | Pre-Ongard Well Operator |
| Pre-Ongard Well #001 | 30-005-00025 | Plugged & abandoned | Oil | Pre-Ongard Well Operator |
| Pre-Ongard Well #002 | 30-005-00026 | Plugged & abandoned | Oil | Pre-Ongard Well Operator |
| Pre-Ongard Well #001 | 30-005-00027 | Plugged & abandoned | Oil | Pre-Ongard Well Operator |
| Pre-Ongard Well #001 | 30-005-00028 | Plugged & abandoned | Oil | Pre-Ongard Well Operator |
| Pre-Ongard Well #001 | 30-005-00029 | Plugged & abandoned | Oil | Pre-Ongard Well Operator |
A sample of the county’s wells — every catalogued well has its own page. Browse all 7,442 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 Chaves County, NM?
Chaves County, New Mexico has 7,442 catalogued oil & gas wells: 1,502 active, 3,824 plugged and 594 documented orphans.
How many orphaned wells are in Chaves County?
594 wells in Chaves County, New Mexico are documented orphans — unplugged with no solvent operator of record, the 3rd-highest count among New Mexico counties.
What share of wells in Chaves County are plugged?
3,824 of Chaves County's 7,442 catalogued wells (51%) are plugged & abandoned, compared with 36% across New Mexico.
Which New Mexico county has the most oil and gas wells?
Lea County has the most catalogued wells of any New Mexico county on WellCensus (48,524); Chaves County ranks 5th with 7,442.
How many companies operate wells in Chaves County?
256 distinct operators of record are linked to catalogued wells in Chaves County, New Mexico.
Nearby in the New Mexico rankings
About this data
Source: EMNRD Oil Conservation Division 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 Chaves County, New Mexico”, https://wellcensus.com/wells/new-mexico/chaves (data as of October 10, 2026).