Publicly Traded Oil Producers Dominate US Crude Output

Publicly traded oil and gas producers in the US are responsible for producing a significant majority of the country's crude oil and natural gas, despite making up only a small fraction of the total number of companies involved in the industry. According to data from Enverus, in 2025, these publicly traded companies accounted for just 2% of about 12,000 oil and natural gas producers but produced 68% of the crude oil and natural gas in the Lower 48 states.

Their ability to produce at such a large scale is due in part to their access to prime drilling locations and advanced technologies. Additionally, publicly traded companies generally report lower breakeven prices than privately held companies, driven by higher-quality acreage holdings that yield higher volumes of oil and gas.

One notable exception is the natural gas-rich Haynesville region, where private companies account for the majority (55%) of oil and natural gas production. In this region, the top five private natural gas operators alone produced 38%, or 5.8 billion cubic feet per day, of the region's natural gas output.

The data also highlights the immense scale of production among publicly traded companies. The 12 firms with the most wells make up less than 1% of the companies, but they each operate from 10,000 to over 50,000 wells, producing an average of 39,000 barrels of oil equivalent per day per well.

It's worth noting that in certain regions, such as the Appalachia and Permian regions, public companies produce significantly more oil and natural gas than private companies. In the Appalachia region, for example, public companies produce nearly five times as much oil and natural gas as private companies.