The Daily Barrel Is Back — Wildcatters Intelligence Is Live
Wildcatters EditorialThe Daily Barrel | September 10, 2026
The Daily Barrel is returning, and it's returning as an ongoing publication, not a one-off post after a gap. Going forward, this is where you'll find the oil and gas news that matters — regulatory developments, market data, drilling and operator activity, reporting from the authoritative outside sources that cover this industry well, Wildcatters Intelligence insights, Marketplace activity where it's relevant, and the occasional bit of culture or football when it fits. We're building a place worth coming back to for what's actually happening in energy, with links out to original sources whenever you want to go deeper than we do.
And there's a lot to open with. Wildcatters Intelligence is live. Marketplace has been rebuilt and is live. Mobile 2.5 has been submitted to Apple. Here's what actually changed.
What's New at Wildcatters?
Wildcatters Intelligence is live across ten U.S. oil and gas jurisdictions — Texas, Pennsylvania, New Mexico, Oklahoma, North Dakota, Colorado, Wyoming, Louisiana, Ohio, and West Virginia. Wildcatters Marketplace 2.0 is live at /marketplace. The Daily Barrel has returned as an ongoing Wildcatters energy news and intelligence publication. Wildcatters Mobile 2.5 has been submitted to Apple for App Store review.
Wildcatters Intelligence Is Live
This is the big one. Wildcatters Intelligence organizes regulator-sourced oil and gas records into a research workspace built around wells, operators, permits, production, regulatory activity, maps, and rankings, with availability varying by jurisdiction. It's a research and regulatory intelligence product — not a marketplace listing page with a data tab bolted on. You can look up an operator's permit history without a listing anywhere near it.
All ten jurisdictions are live now: Texas (Railroad Commission of Texas), Pennsylvania, New Mexico, Oklahoma, North Dakota, Colorado, Wyoming, Louisiana, Ohio, and West Virginia. Texas is the deepest build so far — more than 1.2 million wells and more than 88,000 permits, connected to production data, operators, and regulatory history. North Dakota is now live with more than 43,000 wells searchable through Wildcatters Intelligence.
What you can research in each state isn't identical, on purpose. Some states publish deep production history alongside wells and permits; others publish wells and GIS data but nothing on production; a few publish rich regulatory-event histories — inspections, violations — and others don't make that data available at all. Wildcatters Intelligence doesn't paper over that by inventing a number where a state hasn't published one. If a dimension isn't connected for a state, it's left out rather than shown as a zero.
Inside a state, the tools are built around how research on operators, wells, and regulatory activity actually gets done: Explorers for wells, operators, and counties, sortable and filterable against each state's connected records; rankings by production, growth, and drilling activity wherever a state's data supports them; an official well map built off real regulator-sourced coordinates; independent market context (WTI, Henry Hub, storage) clearly labeled as national rather than state-verified; and Ask Wildcatters, plain-language search across the connected states that resolves to the same underlying records.
Texas's own dashboard shows the pattern end to end — statewide KPIs, an official well map with real regulator-sourced coordinates, and independent market context sitting alongside it, clearly labeled as national data rather than Texas-verified.
→ Explore Wildcatters Intelligence: /intelligence-2 → Start with Texas: /intelligence-2/state/texas-rrc
Wildcatters Marketplace 2.0 Is Live
Marketplace has also been rebuilt, and it's live at /marketplace. This is a separate product from Intelligence, and worth being precise about the difference: Marketplace is where users discover energy opportunities. Intelligence is where users research wells, operators, permits, regulatory activity, production, and jurisdictions. They live inside the same Wildcatters platform, but they answer different questions — one is "what's for sale," the other is "what's actually true about a well or an operator."
The current Marketplace lets you browse open opportunities across categories — mineral rights and royalties, oil and gas operations, infrastructure and facilities, land and acreage, and investment opportunities. You can filter by asset type, explore government-sourced opportunities, and track activity by state, basin, and county. It's the discovery side of Wildcatters; Intelligence is the research side.
→ Browse Wildcatters Marketplace: /marketplace
Wildcatters Mobile 2.5 Is Coming
The mobile app is catching up to where the platform actually is. Wildcatters Mobile 2.5 brings the current Wildcatters product structure into the app — Marketplace 2.0 and Intelligence, both, with updated mobile navigation built around how the product works today. Wildcatters Mobile 2.5 has been submitted to Apple for App Store review. It is not available in the App Store yet — that's Apple's call now, not ours, and we're not going to tell you otherwise before it's true.
Android follows through the same shared Wildcatters application architecture the iOS build is part of. We don't have an Android release date to announce yet, so we're not naming one — when there's a real date, the Daily Barrel will carry it.
Market data updated September 10, 2026.
Industry Dashboard
| Metric | Value | As of | Source |
|---|---|---|---|
| WTI Crude | $97.26/bbl (+3.2%) | Sept. 9, 2026 close | EIA, Today in Energy |
| Henry Hub Natural Gas | $2.81/MMBtu | Sept. 9, 2026 | EIA, Today in Energy |
| U.S. Rig Count | 588 rigs (no change week-over-week) | Week of Sept. 4, 2026 | Baker Hughes Rig Count |
| North America Rig Count | 792 total (U.S. 588, Canada 204, down 7) | Week of Sept. 4, 2026 | Baker Hughes Rig Count |
| U.S. Commercial Crude Inventories | –4.5 million bbl, to 424.5 million bbl (1% above 5-year average) | Week ending Aug. 28, 2026 (released Sept. 2) | EIA Weekly Petroleum Status Report |
EIA's official report for the week ending September 4 released today (Sept. 10) but the specific figures weren't independently confirmed before this edition went out — we'll carry the confirmed number next edition rather than run ahead of it.
Around the Patch
- Crude extended its rally into Wednesday. WTI closed at $97.26/bbl on September 9, up 3.2% on the day, per EIA. OilPrice.com has tied the move to constrained Middle East exports and firmer Chinese demand — worth watching whether it holds once this week's official EIA inventory data is confirmed.
- Rigs keep coming off, gradually. Baker Hughes' count for the week of September 4 held the U.S. flat at 588 but took Canada down 7 to 204, continuing a North America decline Rigzone has tracked for three straight weeks.
- Gulf of Mexico bidding actually rebounded. BOEM's BBG3 sale, held August 12 at the National WWII Museum in New Orleans, generated $82.7 million in high bids across 59 blocks and roughly 330,150 acres — up 76% from BBG2's $47 million in March, with participation growing from 13 companies to 16. Oil & Gas Journal has the full breakdown, including Chevron, Arena Energy, and Anadarko US Offshore among the top bidders.
Football's Back
The Daily Barrel picked a decent week to come back. The NFL season opened Wednesday night with Seattle beating New England 13–10 in a defensive comeback, and Thursday the league played somewhere it never had before: Australia. San Francisco and the Rams met at the Melbourne Cricket Ground in the NFL's first regular-season game Down Under, streaming on Netflix — the Rams won, 42–26. We're not turning the Daily Barrel into a football newsletter — but football's back, energy's moving into the fall, and Wildcatters has a lot more to talk about than it did when we went quiet.
Frequently Asked Questions
Where can I look up who is drilling near me? In any of the ten connected states, Wildcatters Intelligence's official well map and permits Explorer show real regulator-sourced drilling activity — recent permits, operator names, and well locations plotted from official coordinates. Search by county, operator, or API/well number, or ask Ask Wildcatters directly (e.g., "who is most active in Texas?" or "show recent permits"). Coverage is limited to the ten live jurisdictions; it won't show activity outside those states.
What are my mineral rights worth? Wildcatters Intelligence doesn't generate a valuation number — that depends on factors like formation, well spacing, operator activity, and market conditions that a landman, appraiser, or attorney should weigh in on. What it does give you is the underlying research: production history where a state publishes it, nearby operator and permit activity, and regulatory status for wells on or near your acreage. If you're exploring a sale, Wildcatters Marketplace also shows comparable oil and gas opportunities currently on the market.
What is Wildcatters Intelligence? Wildcatters Intelligence is Wildcatters' oil and gas research and regulatory intelligence product. It organizes regulator-sourced records on wells, operators, permits, production, and regulatory activity into a research workspace, with the specific data available varying by state.
Which states are covered? Ten states are currently live: Texas, Pennsylvania, New Mexico, Oklahoma, North Dakota, Colorado, Wyoming, Louisiana, Ohio, and West Virginia.
Is Wildcatters Intelligence available on mobile? Wildcatters Intelligence is available now through the Wildcatters website. Wildcatters Mobile 2.5, bringing the current Intelligence and Marketplace experience into the native app, has been submitted to Apple for App Store review and has not yet been released.