RRC District 08 (Midland): counties, drilling permits and how to watch them
District 08 is one of the 13 oil and gas districts of the Railroad Commission of Texas (RRC), the state agency that issues drilling permits. It covers 20 counties and is served by the RRC's Midland district office.
What's in District 08
District 08 is the RRC's Midland district: 20 counties of the Permian Basin and the Trans-Pecos, including Midland, Ector, Martin, Howard, Reeves, Loving, Ward and Pecos, and west to El Paso and Hudspeth. All 20 are on the RRC's Permian Basin list. It approved more original drilling permits than any other district in each of July, August and September 2026.
Permian Basin: an oil-and-gas-producing area of West Texas and southeastern New Mexico that the RRC says is best represented in its production figures as districts 7C, 08 and 8A, with formations such as the Spraberry, Wolfcamp, Bone Spring, San Andres and Clear Fork. The RRC lists 20 of this district's counties among its affected counties: Andrews, Brewster, Crane, Culberson, Ector, El Paso, Glasscock, Howard, Hudspeth, Jeff Davis, Loving, Martin, Midland, Mitchell, Pecos, Presidio, Reeves, Sterling, Ward and Winkler.
Counties in District 08
The RRC's county table assigns these 20 counties to District 08. Each name opens that county in Permit Watch:
Andrews · Brewster · Crane · Culberson · Ector · El Paso · Glasscock · Howard · Hudspeth · Jeff Davis · Loving · Martin · Midland · Mitchell · Pecos · Presidio · Reeves · Sterling · Ward · Winkler
Recent permit activity
From the RRC's monthly summaries of drilling permits, completions and plugging reports processed, for this district:
| 2026 | Jul | Aug | Sep | 3 months |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Original drilling permits approved | 288 | 306 | 345 | 939 |
| of which new drills | 275 | 290 | 323 | 888 |
| Holes plugged | 246 | 213 | 270 | 729 |
Statewide, the RRC approved 2,147 original drilling permits in those three months, so District 08 accounted for about 44% (estimate: 939 ÷ 2,147), ranking 1 of the 12 districts the report lists. "Original" permits exclude amended permits; plugging counts are reports processed, not wells plugged that month. Monthly numbers swing, so use them as a sense of scale, not a forecast.
How to watch new permits in District 08
- Permit Watch: pick a county above to see permits from the RRC's daily drilling permit file, filter by survey, abstract, operator or lease, and subscribe to that county's free RSS feed. Permit Watch is new: until its first daily data load runs, county pages show "first data load pending".
- RRC Drilling Permit (W-1) Query: the official search, listed on the RRC's Research Queries page. The RRC asks that it be used by people, not automated tools.
- RRC Public GIS Viewer: a map of wells and permits, on the same Research Queries page.
In the RRC's daily permit file, the district is the one the operator reported on the W-1 application, stored as an internal code (OGA049M manual).
District office
RRC Midland office: 10 Desta Dr, Suite 500 E, Midland, TX 79705. Phone 432-684-5581. Email midland@rrc.texas.gov. Source: the RRC Locations page.