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Latest rankings benchmark drilling scale, pace and well design across leading contractors and operators
AUSTIN, Texas (Aug. 18, 2026) — Enverus, the leading energy data analytics platform, has released its latest rankings of the most active U.S. land drilling contractors and drilling customers, providing a snapshot of market leadership based on the latest available drilling data.
The rankings use 1Q26 activity to compare contractors and operators across total drilled measured depth, well count, average drilling rate, average measured depth, average lateral length and average rig count. Because oil and gas activity data can lag field operations and public reporting, the results represent a point-in-time view and are subject to change as additional information is reported.
Among U.S. land drilling contractors:
- Helmerich & Payne, Inc. ranked first with 15.85 million ft of total drilled measured depth across 776 wells.
- Patterson-UTI Drilling Company ranked second with 9.51 million ft across 442 wells.
- Nabors Industries, Ltd. ranked third at 6.55 million ft, and Ensign Energy Services, Inc. ranked fourth with 4.21 million ft.
Among drilling customers, Exxon led the ranking with 5.44 million ft drilled across 229 wells. EOG moved up two positions to No. 2 with 3.39 million ft, while Devon, Occidental and ConocoPhillips rounded out the top five with 3.30 million ft, 3.28 million ft and 2.60 million ft, respectively.
The rankings offer a broader view than drilled footage alone. Enverus data allows users to compare activity across drilling pace, well design and rig deployment, helping provide context around how leading contractors and operators are executing. For example, the No. 1 contractor by total drilled footage was not the fastest driller among the top five, illustrating why multiple operating metrics can provide a fuller picture of drilling activity.
“Technology and data are so vital for strategic decisions,” noted Lucas Gjovig, CEO of GO Wireline, an Enverus customer. “There’s a difference in quality out in the market, so we had to go to where the best information is. Enverus is a leader in market information and data and analytics, and they help particularly in the completions market, tracking what oilfield customers are doing, giving us insights, especially in basins that we want to evaluate and potentially deploy capital. Those are insights we really just can’t get anywhere else. We rely on that in making a lot of decisions within our business.”
Mark Chapman, principal analyst – OFS at Enverus Intelligence Research added, “These rankings continue to offer a practical benchmark for understanding how leading drilling contractors and operators are performing across activity, execution and well design. Drilled footage is an important measure of market activity, but the broader dataset adds context around drilling pace, well design and rig utilization. These rankings give the industry a consistent way to benchmark activity across leading contractors and operators while accounting for the reporting lags that are part of oil and gas data.”
Key takeaways:
- Helmerich & Payne led U.S. land drilling contractors with 15.85 million ft of total drilled measured depth across 776 wells.
- Exxon led U.S. land drilling customers with 5.44 million ft drilled across 229 wells.
- EOG recorded the largest upward movement among the top-five drilling customers, rising two positions from the prior quarter.
- The rankings compare activity across drilled footage, well count, drilling rate, measured depth, lateral length and rig count.
- U.S. active rigs averaged 637.6 for the week ended July 31, 2026, up 13% year over year.
Data sources:
The drilling rankings are sourced from Enverus FOUNDATIONS® and Enverus Activity Analytics. The broader Oilfield Pulse report also draws on Enverus Rig Analytics for rig utilization and related drilling-market analysis.
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