Kansas oil and gas drilling activity declined sharply in 2025, confirming what many operators and service companies have felt on the ground all year: fewer wells, fewer rigs, and a more selective approach to capital deployment.
Using well-level activity data, this analysis looks at wells drilled by year, top operators, and top counties, comparing 2024 vs. 2025 to understand not just how much activity declined — but where it concentrated.
Today, wells are no longer just feeding refineries, export terminals, or local utilities. Increasingly, they are powering AI data centers, hyperscale cloud campuses, and gas-fired power plants that didn’t exist five years ago. The result is a structural shift from “wells to markets” to “wells to watts.
One of the most important takeaways from Devon Energy Corporation’s recent performance isn’t headline growth from new drilling—it’s durable base production uplift driven by smart gas lift, AI-enabled optimization, and disciplined operations across its core basins.
In total, 429 wells were drilled across Devon’s portfolio. But the real story is how those wells—and the existing base—are performing as advanced technology is scaled basin by basin.
In 2025, Chevron drilled a total of 437 wells across its U.S. onshore and offshore portfolio. The results underscore a consistent theme: efficiency creates a manufacturing approach that improves cash flow durability, even in a lower-volatility growth environment.
Occidental Petroleum delivered a strong operational quarter, marked by improved production, higher efficiency, and results that exceeded guidance across multiple basins. Operational execution—not higher commodity prices—was the primary driver, as performance gains came from better well productivity, stronger base production, and improved uptime across both onshore and offshore assets.
Energy’s next cycle isn’t being driven by barrels—it’s being powered by electricity, as surging demand from A.I., data centers, and electrification reshapes where capital, infrastructure, and opportunity are flowing.
ConocoPhillips’ 2025 U.S. 500 wells dilled in the US in 2025 tells a clear story: the company is no longer optimizing for headline growth, but for durable free cash flow, operational flexibility, and long-cycle oil supply security.
In the Permian Basin, Diamondback’s conversation has shifted. The next advantage isn’t about drilling faster or chasing the hottest single bench — it’s about how entire sections are developed. One phrase that keeps coming up in executive commentary is “co-developing, not just select benches.”
When EOG’s U.S. wells drilled in 2025 are reclassified by play, the distribution highlights how balanced the portfolio has become—particularly across oil-weighted and gas-levered assets. They have drilled 600+ wells in 2025 in multiple basin locations in the US, the Permian is 50% of the wells drilled.
According to recent analysis from Enverus Intelligence Research (EIR), the real risk to the LNG growth narrative isn’t steel in the ground. It’s confidence in long-term natural gas supply, particularly beyond the early 2030s.
