The Railroad Commission of Texas issued 1,166 original drilling permits in January, up about 31.75% from the 885 permits released in December and greater than the 956 permits issued in the same month of 2017.

For the month, 1,036 permits were to drill new oil or gas wells, 112 were for wellbore recompletion and 18 were to re-enter plugged wellbores. The permits included 243 for oil-only drilling, 78 for gas-only drilling, and 784 for oil or gas drilling.

The commission said it processed 739 oil, 179 gas and 44 injection well completions in January. During the same month of 2017, the commission reported 418 oil, 84 gas and 31 injection well completions.

Year-to-date well completions stand at 963, climbing 79.66% from the 536 well completions recorded in the same period in 2017.

Midland had the most oil well completions, with a total of 460, along with 34 gas well completions. Meanwhile, the San Antonio area recorded 67 oil completions and 48 gas completion for the month.