Kansas Drilled the Wells. It Never Finished Them.
Kansas produces oil from eighteen stratigraphic zones, yet roughly half of its producing fields are developed as single-pay fields. This paper makes the case for acquiring existing Kansas wellbores and recompleting stacked pay zones instead of drilling new wells, and quantifies the barrels, capital cost, and public revenue at stake.
Key findings
Net wellhead revenue behind casing
Barrels recoverable, base case
State and local tax forgone by 2035
Methodology
We combine Kansas Geological Survey zone and field data, EIA well-rate distributions, Kansas Corporation Commission well and plugging records, and county appraisal guides to size the producing wellbore inventory, benchmark recompletion capital against new infill drilling, and project state and local oil tax revenue through 2035 on the decline recorded since 2023.
A state of one-barrel wells
47,494 producing Kansas oil wells average 1.46 barrels a day, and 61% produce less than one barrel a day. Four barrels a day would place a well above 92% of the state — that is the entire bar a recompletion has to clear.
The public revenue at stake
On the decline Kansas has recorded since 2023, state and local oil tax revenue falls $62.9 million a year by 2035, forgoing $368 million over the decade. Meanwhile 29,127 sub-breakeven wells carry roughly $298 million of eventual plugging liability that lands on the state.
Recompletion versus new drilling
| Measure | Uphole recompletion | New infill well |
|---|---|---|
| Capital per incremental barrel per day | ~$5,700 | $15,000 – $17,600 |
| Existing surface facilities inherited | $50,000 – $70,000 / year | None |
| Kansas severance tax on incremental barrels | Waived 7 years | Taxed from first barrel |
Kansas statute waives severance tax for seven years on incremental production from a qualifying production enhancement project, and names recompletion to a different zone in the same wellbore as qualifying.
Data sources
- —Kansas Geological Survey — Oil and Gas Investigations 16: Producing Zones of Kansas Oil and Gas Fields
- —Kansas Corporation Commission — well records, abandoned well plugging updates, and 2025 status report
- —U.S. EIA — Distribution of Wells by Production Rate
- —Kansas Department of Revenue — Minerals Severance Tax (MT-6)
- —University of Kansas IPSR — Kansas Statistical Abstract; county oil and gas appraisal guides