Exploration and Production

Wyoming produced over 2.3 trillion cubic feet of marketed natural gas in 2011, sliding to the number three spot in the nation from its second place ranking in 2010. Texas is first and Louisiana second. The state continues to rank eighth in the nation in oil production with 54.5 million barrels, in 2011.

The highest volume of natural gas recorded for Wyoming was in 2009 at 2.54 trillion cubic feet. The highest amount of oil or petroleum produced in Wyoming was in 1970 when the state produced nearly 142 million barrels. Oil and natural gas is produced in 22 out of Wyoming’s 23 counties.

Sales of Wyoming’s crude oil in 2011 totaled 54.1 million barrels, up 1.8 percent from 2010. Natural gas sales that same year totaled 2,143 trillion cubic feet, down 14.9 percent from 2010.

2011 Wyoming Production Quick Facts

  • More than 400 companies produced Wyoming’s oil
  • More than 275 companies produced Wyoming’s natural gas
  • 49 was the average monthly rig count in 2011
  • Campbell County was the leading producer of crude oil, followed by Sublette and Park counties
  • Sublette County was the largest natural gas producer, followed by Johnson and Sweetwater counties
  • More than 10,600 wells produced oil and nearly 29,000 produced gas (15,000 of which were coalbed natural gas wells)
  • 14 barrels was the average daily production from an oil well
  • 208 thousand cubic feet was the average daily production for a gas well

U.S. Oil Quick Facts

  • U.S. crude oil production (including lease condensate) averaged almost 6.5 million barrels per day in September 2012, the highest volume in nearly 15 years
  • Since September 2011, U.S. oil production has increased by more than 900,000 barrels per day. Most of that increase is due to production from oil-bearing rocks with very low permeability through the use of horizontal drilling combined with hydraulic fracturing

U.S. Natural Gas Quick Facts

  • In 2011, the United States produced 28,479,026 million cubic feet of gas from 514,637 gas wells
  • In 2012, the lower 48 states had the capacity to process 64,661 million cubic feet of gas per day
  • Natural gas was supplied to 65,938,523 residential U.S. consumers in 2011