The Railroad Commission of Texas issued 1,221 original drilling permits in April, up less than 1% from the 1,220 permits released in March but well in excess of the 909 permits issued in the same month of 2017.

For the month, 1,101 permits were to drill new oil or gas wells, 113 were for wellbore recompletion and seven were to re-enter plugged wellbores. The permits included 331 for oil-only drilling, 60 for gas-only drilling, and 731 for oil or gas drilling.

The commission said it processed 616 oil, 134 gas and 48 injection well completions in April. During the same month of 2017, the commission reported 439 oil, 44 gas and 45 injection well completions.

Year-to-date well completions stand at 3,514, climbing about 43% from the 2,455 well completions recorded in the same period in 2017.

Midland had the most oil well completions, with a total of 345, along with 46 gas well completions. Meanwhile, the Lubbock area recorded 71 oil completions and no gas completion for the month.