How many oil and gas wells are in North Dakota?

North Dakota has 43,680 catalogued oil & gas wells on WellCensus: 20,632 active, 13,021 plugged & abandoned and 953 documented orphans.

How many orphaned wells does North Dakota have?

953 wells in North Dakota are documented orphans — unplugged with no solvent operator of record.

Chevron USA is the largest operator active in North Dakota by total catalogued wells (65,303 across 15 states).

43,680 catalogued wellbores in North Dakota, from the state regulator's registry plus the federal orphaned-well inventory.

Dataset updated July 2026 . Derived from public data sources.

Catalogued wells

43,680

Active

20,632

Plugged

13,021

Documented orphans

953

Largest oil & gas operators active in North Dakota
Operator	Wells	Active	Plugged	States
Chevron USA	65,303	13,921	41,956	AL AR CA CO KS LA MI ND NM OH OK PA UT WV WY
Eog Resources	16,762	2,897	3,895	AR CA CO KS LA MI MS MT ND NM NY OH OK PA UT WV WY
Scout Energy Management	12,456	9,882	872	CO KS MT ND NM OK UT
Kerr Mcgee Oil & Gas Onshore	11,405	2,600	5,708	CO KS LA ND NM OK UT WY
Texaco	10,522	267	1,453	AL AR CA CO IL KS KY LA MI MS MT ND NY OH OK PA UT
Citation Oil & Gas	9,922	7,334	1,237	CO IL KS LA MS MT ND NM OK UT WY
Marathon Oil	8,999	2,695	4,564	AR CA CO IL KS KY LA MI MS MT ND NM OK PA UT WV WY
Devon Energy Production	8,543	2,543	1,906	CO KS LA MI MT ND NM OH OK WY
Oxy USA	7,402	1,691	2,403	AR CA CO KS KY LA MI MS MT ND NM OK UT WV WY
Merit Energy	7,361	4,338	687	AR CA CO KS LA MI MT ND NM OK UT WY

Well counts are the operator’s national totals; state placeholder records are excluded. See methodology.

Deepest oil & gas wells in North Dakota
Well	API #	Status	Type	Location	Operator	Depth
Partridge 41-13H	33-025-05043	Active	Oil	Dunn, ND	Marathon Oil Company	31,781 ft
Sunell 11-17h	33-025-05003	Active	Oil	Dunn, ND	Marathon Oil Company	31,669 ft
Clawson 11-18H	33-025-05044	Active	Oil	Dunn, ND	Marathon Oil Company	31,664 ft
Semerad 11-18H	33-025-05045	Active	Oil	Dunn, ND	Marathon Oil Company	31,614 ft
Nystuen 20-17-8-5 1H	33-105-06543	Active	Oil	Williams, ND	Phoenix Operating LLC	31,594 ft
Bjorge 41-18h	33-025-05004	Active	Oil	Dunn, ND	Marathon Oil Company	31,532 ft
Owan 5402 43-26 3BU	33-105-06375	Active	Oil	Williams, ND	Oasis Petroleum North America LLC	31,328 ft
Willow Gray 2-11-14-23 6H-LL	33-023-01641	Active	Oil	Divide, ND	Phoenix Operating LLC	31,140 ft
EN-Hilleren- 157-94-1336H-1	33-061-05330	Active	Oil	Mountrail, ND	Hess Bakken Investments Ii, LLC	31,140 ft
Violet Olson 5596 13-5 2B	33-105-06401	Active	Oil	Williams, ND	Whiting Oil And Gas Corporation	31,080 ft

Counties with 25 or more catalogued wells.