RRC District 7C (San Angelo): counties, drilling permits and how to watch them
District 7C 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 14 counties and is served by the RRC's San Angelo district office.
What's in District 7C
District 7C covers 14 counties around San Angelo, from Coke and Runnels south to Sutton and Terrell. Every one of its 14 counties is on the RRC's Permian Basin list, and the RRC names 7C as one of the three districts that best represent Permian production, along with 08 and 8A.
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 14 of this district's counties among its affected counties: Coke, Concho, Crockett, Irion, Kimble, Menard, McCulloch, Reagan, Runnels, Schleicher, Sutton, Terrell, Tom Green and Upton.
Counties in District 7C
The RRC's county table assigns these 14 counties to District 7C. Each name opens that county in Permit Watch:
Coke · Concho · Crockett · Irion · Kimble · McCulloch · Menard · Reagan · Runnels · Schleicher · Sutton · Terrell · Tom Green · Upton
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 | 72 | 71 | 69 | 212 |
| of which new drills | 70 | 63 | 69 | 202 |
| Holes plugged | 88 | 72 | 101 | 261 |
Statewide, the RRC approved 2,147 original drilling permits in those three months, so District 7C accounted for about 10% (estimate: 212 ÷ 2,147), ranking 3 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 7C
- 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 San Angelo office: 622 South Oakes St, Suite J, San Angelo, TX 76903. Phone 325-657-7450. Email san_angelo@rrc.texas.gov. Source: the RRC Locations page.