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Two companies hold 11,000 of California's 29,900 idle wells

Published 2026-11-07 · By Pushbuild · Data: Oil & Gas Wells API: US, Canada, UK, Norway, Brazil, Australia

11,000Two companies hold · as of 2026-11-07

Aera Energy has 6,376 wells in "Idle" status in California and Chevron has 5,103. California Resources' two entities hold 4,703 more. Wyoming has 18,269 shut-in or temporarily abandoned wells; Carbon Creek Energy holds 2,672 of them.

AERA ENERGY LLC6,376CHEVRON U.S.A. INC…5,103CARBON CREEK ENERG…2,672CALIFORNIA RESOURC…2,668BERRY PETROLEUM CO…2,086CALIFORNIA RESOURC…2,035SENTINEL PEAK RESO…1,893CONTANGO RESOURCES…1,409E & B NATURAL RESO…1,301EIGER OPERATING CO…1,253

Operators with the most idle or shut-in wells

OperatorIdle wellsStates
AERA ENERGY LLC6,376CA
CHEVRON U.S.A. INC.5,103CA
CARBON CREEK ENERGY LLC2,672WY
CALIFORNIA RESOURCES PRODUCTION CORPORATION2,668CA
BERRY PETROLEUM COMPANY, LLC2,086CA
CALIFORNIA RESOURCES ELK HILLS, LLC2,035CA
SENTINEL PEAK RESOURCES CALIFORNIA LLC1,893CA
CONTANGO RESOURCES LLC1,409WY
E & B NATURAL RESOURCES MANAGEMENT CORPORATION1,301CA
EIGER OPERATING COMPANY, LLC1,253KS,OK
REDBUD OIL & GAS OPERATING, LLC945KS
SCOUT ENERGY MANAGEMENT, LLC940UT
CROWHEART ENERGY LLC898CO,WY
QB ENERGY OPERATING LLC898CO
EOG RESOURCES INC838NM,WY
BEARCAT ENERGY LLC (COLORADO)777WY
SUMMIT GAS RESOURCES INC761WY
NEW HORIZON RESOURCES LLC674MT,ND,OK,WY
PDC ENERGY INC597CO
KERR MCGEE OIL & GAS ONSHORE LP584CO

Idle and shut-in wells by state

StateWellsStatuses counted
CA29,900Idle 29,900
WY18,269Shut in 17,245; Temporarily abandoned 1,024
KS14,927Inactive Well 14,927
CO7,035Shut in 6,054; Temporarily abandoned 981
MT5,150Shut In 4,646; Temporarily Abandoned 504
UT3,032Inactive 778; Shut in 2,205; Temporarily abandoned 49
KY2,777Shut in 1,853; Temporarily abandoned 924
NY2,547Inactive 2,518; Shut in 28; Temporarily abandoned 1
WV1,460Shutin 1,460
OK1,313Temporarily_Abandoned 1,313
ND1,177Inactive 996; Temporarily Abandoned 181
NM751Temporary Abandonment 480; Temporary Abandonment (expired) 271
AR579Inactive - Not TA 255; Shut_In 20; Temporarily Abandoned 304
AK207Shut In 12; Suspended well 195
FL9TA 9

Caveats

An idle or shut-in well is not producing, but it has an operator of record and is not orphaned. Our California data has no date for when each well went idle, so this cannot say how long they have sat.

Sources

Data as of 2026-11-07. Every figure in this post is in the table above and the CSV below.

Download the data behind this post: liquor-wells-idle-wells-by-operator.csv · liquor-wells-wells-by-status-class.csv

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Every number in this post comes from the Oil & Gas Wells API: US, Canada, UK, Norway, Brazil, Australia. $0.0008 per row returned; every key gets $1 of free usage each month.

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  -H "X-API-Key: YOUR_KEY" \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -d '{"maxItems": 20}'
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Header photo: Declan M. Martin, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons.

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