Who Owns The West? Oil & Gas Leases in America's West

In 12 western states, 8,600 companies and individuals hold active oil and gas leases on 35 million acres of land, an area equivalent in size to half the State of Nevada . Search below for information about a company of interest, or choose from the top 10 lessees in the U.S. shown in the table below.

Note: This search capability is restricted to current lessees, and will not return information on companies who have leased U.S. lands but no longer hold active leases.

Oil and Gas Lease Holders of The United States land

In The United States, 8,604 companies and individuals hold 44,690 active leases on 34,946,492 acres of land. The table below shows who holds active leases, and provides links to comprehensive information on leases held across the west by individual companies, and political contributions made by companies over the past three election cycles.

Rank	Name	City/State
1	Yates Petroleum Corp	Artesia, NM 88210	4,098	3,584,742
2	Encana Oil & Gas Inc	Calgary, Alberta, Canada	1,464	1,359,351
3	Tom Brown Inc	Denver, CO 80202	1,365	1,150,518
4	Devon Energy Corporation	Oklahoma City, OK 73102	1,528	1,054,235
5	Westport Oil & Gas Co LP	Denver, CO 80202	1,199	1,022,347
6	Burlington Resources	Fort Worth, TX 76102	1,223	914,375
7	ConocoPhillips	Houston, TX 77252	976	811,131
8	Questar Corporation	Salt Lake City, UT 84145	1,102	768,804
9	Exxon Mobil	Irving, TX 75039	1,175	734,004
10	Anadarko Petroleum Corp	The Woodlands, TX 77380	931	732,058
See all lease holders in The United States

Source: EWG analysis of leasing and drilling records in 12 western states, contained in the Bureau of Land Management's Land and Mineral Records 2000 database, acquired by EWG May 15 2004.