Basin Detail
The Anadarko Basin is one of the deepest and most prolific sedimentary basins in the United States, stretching across western and central Oklahoma into the Texas panhandle and southwest Kansas. The basin has produced oil and gas since the early 1900s and remains one of the most active drilling regions in the country. The SCOOP (South Central Oklahoma Oil Province) and STACK (Sooner Trend Anadarko Canadian Kingfisher) are the two premier horizontal plays within the Anadarko Basin, targeting the Woodford Shale, Meramec, and other formations. Together, they represent Oklahoma's highest-value mineral acreage. We actively buy mineral rights, royalty interests, NPRI, and ORRI across the SCOOP, STACK, and the broader Anadarko Basin.
Approximate location of the Anadarko Basin (SCOOP / STACK) shown in tan
Basin-level activity chart not yet available for the Anadarko Basin (SCOOP / STACK). For current activity, see our rig count dashboard and the state production pages linked above.
The SCOOP primarily targets the Woodford Shale at depths of 9,000 to 14,000 feet, along with the Springer and Sycamore formations. The play covers Grady, Stephens, Garvin, and Carter counties in south-central Oklahoma. The STACK sits to the north and targets the Meramec (a mixed carbonate-shale interval) and the Osage and Woodford formations at depths of 6,000 to 12,000 feet across Kingfisher, Canadian, Blaine, and Dewey counties. The STACK's defining characteristic is its stacked-pay geology — multiple productive formations sitting on top of each other that can be developed from the same surface location. This multi-bench potential is a key driver of mineral values in the play.
Devon Energy is the largest STACK operator, with headquarters in Oklahoma City and a massive acreage position across Kingfisher and Canadian counties. Continental Resources is the dominant SCOOP operator. Marathon Oil, Ovintiv (formerly Encana), Gulfport Energy, and Citizen Energy are also significant players across both plays.
Anadarko Basin mineral values in the SCOOP and STACK are driven by the number of productive zones (stacked-pay potential) and the activity level of the operator. STACK acreage with Meramec, Osage, and Woodford potential commands the highest valuations because each additional productive formation represents additional drilling locations and future income. SCOOP acreage with strong Woodford production is also valuable. Location within or outside the core development area, operator identity, and current lease terms all significantly affect valuations.
The Anadarko Basin is the deep structural basin underlying western Oklahoma and the Texas Panhandle, and it is the container the STACK sits in. It is one of the deepest basins in North America, reaching more than 30,000 feet along its southern margin against the Wichita Mountains, and that depth is what makes it distinctive for mineral owners. A single tract can have shallow conventional production, mid-depth granite wash or Morrow sand, and deep horizontal Woodford or Meramec targets, each leased and developed at different times under different terms.
Practical consequences follow from that stacking. Older leases may cover only the shallow rights while deeper horizons remain open, and pooling elections can arrive decades apart on the same acreage. If you own Anadarko minerals, the first question is usually not what the basin produces but which depths your instruments actually cover.
The Ardmore Basin is a narrow, sharply folded trough in south-central Oklahoma, southeast of the Anadarko and separated from it by the Wichita uplift. It is small in area but structurally complex, with steeply dipping beds and faulted anticlines that were mapped and drilled early. Production comes from a long Paleozoic section including the Woodford Shale, the Sycamore, the Viola, the Bromide and the Arbuckle.
The Woodford Shale is the reason the basin still sees horizontal drilling. Because the structure is so steep, lateral placement matters more here than on a flat shelf, and results vary sharply across short distances. Older shallow production continues alongside it, which is why an Ardmore mineral interest often carries both a long-running royalty and separate deeper development.
The Nemaha Ridge is a buried granite uplift running north from central Oklahoma into eastern Kansas, bounded on its east side by the Humboldt fault zone. Oil accumulated where porous sediments were draped over and truncated against the buried granite hills, producing a string of fields along the ridge — the Oklahoma City field is the largest of them. Production comes from the Arbuckle, the Simpson, the Hunton and overlying Pennsylvanian sands.
These are old, shallow, long-lived properties. Many wells have produced for the better part of a century at low rates under waterflood, and mineral ownership along the ridge is often heavily fractionated as a result. Value here rests on the durability of existing production rather than on new drilling.
Additional counties we cover within the Anadarko Basin (SCOOP / STACK), sorted by recent oil and gas activity:
The SCOOP is in south-central Oklahoma (Grady, Stephens, Garvin, Carter counties) and primarily targets the Woodford Shale. The STACK is in west-central Oklahoma (Kingfisher, Canadian, Blaine, Dewey counties) and targets the Meramec, Osage, and Woodford formations. While both are in the Anadarko Basin, they target different formations at different depths, and the operator mix differs. The STACK is known for its stacked-pay potential with three or more productive zones.
Oklahoma is a forced pooling state, which means the OCC can pool unleased mineral interests into a drilling unit. Forced pooling is common in the SCOOP and STACK. If you own unleased minerals, you may receive a pooling order from the OCC. Understanding your options under a pooling order — participate, accept the offered terms, or sell — is important. We are happy to discuss these options with you.
The STACK has three primary productive formations: the Meramec (a mixed carbonate-shale interval that is the most actively drilled), the Osage (a limestone formation above the Meramec), and the Woodford Shale (below the Meramec). Each formation has multiple productive benches. The stacked nature of these formations means that a single tract can support dozens of wells across multiple zones, which adds significant value to mineral ownership.