Oil and gas map points and recorded well depths in Brazoria, Chambers, Jackson, Jefferson, Matagorda and Wharton counties.
What is counted, and what is not
A land and records review asks what wells have already been drilled on an area. This page gives record counts for six counties as context for that question. The six are a pick, not a region.
Table 1 counts map points in a public map layer, by symbol. Table 2 counts wells that carry a full API number, by recorded total depth in feet. Counties are in alphabetical order. Read each county on its own.
Table 1
Map points by symbol
Points, not wells.
The Public GIS Viewer User Guide of the Railroad Commission of Texas (RRC), dated December 2020, says the viewer shows wells, pipelines, surveys and related features in a map view. A point in the viewer's Well Locations layer is not always a well: the layer includes permitted locations, canceled locations and points with no API number. Where a well has one, the layer's API field holds its API number.
| Row | Brazoria County | Chambers County | Jackson County | Jefferson County | Matagorda County | Wharton County |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Gas Well | 260 | 150 | 377 | 181 | 313 | 624 |
| Oil Well | 1,013 | 637 | 671 | 767 | 357 | 633 |
| Oil/Gas Well | 310 | 251 | 338 | 150 | 198 | 236 |
| Plugged Gas Well | 402 | 415 | 1,173 | 524 | 742 | 1,864 |
| Plugged Oil Well | 1,960 | 1,401 | 1,129 | 1,217 | 630 | 1,104 |
| Plugged Oil / Gas | 324 | 439 | 530 | 268 | 274 | 478 |
| Dry Hole | 2,663 | 1,891 | 2,459 | 1,673 | 2,008 | 3,330 |
| Permitted Location | 420 | 292 | 328 | 403 | 206 | 602 |
| Canceled / Abandoned Location | 291 | 171 | 115 | 236 | 161 | 253 |
| All other symbols | 404 | 327 | 427 | 156 | 105 | 124 |
| All map points | 8,047 | 5,974 | 7,547 | 5,575 | 4,994 | 9,248 |
| Of those, points with no API number | 3,249 | 2,041 | 2,269 | 2,428 | 1,679 | 3,390 |
The row "All other symbols" holds every symbol not named above. In these counties that includes the layer's injection and disposal, shut-in, observation, storage, brine mining and water supply symbols, among others. Its points are not extra wells of the kinds named in the rows above it.
Source: Well Locations layer, RRC public GIS, Railroad Commission of Texas, queried October 4, 2026; Public GIS Viewer User Guide, December 2020, Railroad Commission of Texas. Read October 4, 2026.
Table 2
Depth bands, with the coverage first
Wells with a full API number.
Table 2 covers wells that carry a full RRC API number, with permitted and canceled locations left out. A well is left out only if every one of its points in the layer is a permitted or canceled location. Every other symbol stays in, for example oil, gas and oil/gas wells, plugged wells, dry holes, and injection, disposal, shut-in, observation, storage and water supply points. No filter on well status is applied beyond that, so plugged wells and dry holes are among the wells counted. It is not a count of every well in a county. First the coverage: wells with a total depth recorded and wells with none.
- Brazoria County: 3,800 wells with a depth recorded, 550 with none.
- Chambers County: 2,936 wells with a depth recorded, 627 with none.
- Jackson County: 4,578 wells with a depth recorded, 403 with none.
- Jefferson County: 2,205 wells with a depth recorded, 540 with none.
- Matagorda County: 2,676 wells with a depth recorded, 419 with none.
- Wharton County: 5,032 wells with a depth recorded, 326 with none.
The depth bands are our own choice. The edges at 5,000, 10,000 and 15,000 ft are round numbers we picked for this table. They are not thresholds from any rule, source or standard.
Wells with no depth recorded are in no depth band. The first share row is out of all wells with a full API number. The last two share rows are out of the wells with a depth recorded only.
Source: Well Locations layer, RRC public GIS, Railroad Commission of Texas, queried October 4, 2026 (which wells); Enverus well records, last updated September 30, 2026 (depth). Read October 4, 2026.
| Row | Brazoria County | Chambers County | Jackson County | Jefferson County | Matagorda County | Wharton County |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Wells with a full RRC API number | 4,350 | 3,563 | 4,981 | 2,745 | 3,095 | 5,358 |
| Wells with a total depth recorded | 3,800 | 2,936 | 4,578 | 2,205 | 2,676 | 5,032 |
| Wells with no total depth recorded | 550 | 627 | 403 | 540 | 419 | 326 |
| Share of wells with a depth (percent) | 87.4 | 82.4 | 91.9 | 80.3 | 86.5 | 93.9 |
| Under 5,000 ft (wells) | 874 | 421 | 921 | 483 | 401 | 1,353 |
| 5,000 to 9,999 ft (wells) | 1,882 | 1,972 | 3,420 | 1,142 | 1,249 | 3,167 |
| 10,000 to 14,999 ft (wells) | 955 | 509 | 223 | 510 | 921 | 434 |
| 15,000 ft or deeper (wells) | 89 | 34 | 14 | 70 | 105 | 78 |
| 10,000 ft or deeper (wells) | 1,044 | 543 | 237 | 580 | 1,026 | 512 |
| 10,000 ft or deeper, share of wells with a depth recorded (percent) | 27.5 | 18.5 | 5.2 | 26.3 | 38.3 | 10.2 |
| 15,000 ft or deeper, share of wells with a depth recorded (percent) | 2.3 | 1.2 | 0.3 | 3.2 | 3.9 | 1.6 |
Sources
What each source is
Two sources, two jobs.
- RRC public GIS layer
The Well Locations layer of the Railroad Commission of Texas public GIS. It holds map points with a symbol, an API number where one exists, and coordinates. It has no depth field. We queried it on October 4, 2026. The layer states no refresh date.
- Enverus well records, through our lakehouse
A commercial well file held in our data lakehouse, a local database. It carries total depth in feet. Last updated September 30, 2026.
- How they meet
The RRC layer decides which wells are listed. A full API number here is the county code plus five digits. Each well is looked up in the Enverus records by that number.
How we checked
Each table was checked a second way, in all six counties. Each check is narrow.
- Table 1. We counted the layer twice, once as one grouped request and once as a request per symbol. The two agreed. That shows our counts match what the layer returned. It does not show the layer is current.
- Which wells are in Table 2. We built the list of wells two ways, with differently filtered requests. The lists were the same. That shows the list does not depend on one filter.
- Depth. We ran the same count over the raw harvested files and the working table. Every cell agreed. That shows nothing changed between harvest and table. It does not test the depth values, because both sides come from the same Enverus feed. We found no public second source for depth.
- Several records for one well. The file keeps one row per completion. Where a well's rows disagree on depth, we used the deepest value. Treat the bands as coarse, not as a statement about one well.
What is left out
- Wells with no API number are not in Table 2.
- No single county well total is given. Well counts in our lakehouse do not reconcile to the RRC map points, so no one number ties to both.
- No temperature or pressure data. No total across the six counties. No ranking. No well, operator or lease names, and no API numbers.
- No statement about who owns what. The Commission says it has no authority over lease and royalty matters or property rights matters, among other areas. A map point is not a statement of title.
Source: Oil and Gas Well Records, Railroad Commission of Texas. Read October 4, 2026.
Where to read next
For what a well file holds and leaves out, see Reading well and unit records for a deep project. For how this site handles sources and dates, see Method and sources. To ask for an inventory of an area, use the Contact page.