The Kentucky Oil & Gas Association was formed in 1931 to represent the interests of Kentucky's crude oil and natural gas industry. Thirty-four (34) Kentucky counties reported active natural gas production in 2012 while sixty (60) counties reported oil production.

In 2011, Kentucky had 14,632 producing natural gas wells and in 2012 produced over 3 million barrels of oil. Ninety-eight percent of the state’s natural gas production comes from eastern Kentucky counties while Henderson, Union, Lee and Leslie counties are the centers of oil production for Kentucky.

Over the past ten years (2002-2012) Pike, Floyd, Knott and Letcher counties have each produced over 100 billion cubic feet (Bcf) of natural gas.  Over the same period six Kentucky counties – Henderson, Union, Lee, Leslie, Perry and Letcher –each produced over 1 million barrels of oil. 

Slightly more than 9,000 Kentuckians are either salaried employees or proprietors in oil and gas and its support industries. In 2011, wage and salary employees made an average annual salary of $61,448 in Oil and Gas Extraction while the average annual salary for support industries was $50,014.

In 2013, Kentucky reported over 2.8 million barrels of oil production with a production value of $217.1 million and 308,930,115 MCFs of natural gas with a production value of $393.7 million. The industry also contributed over $30 million of severance taxes.

KOGA’s 2013 Economic Impact research revealed the oil and gas industry contributes over $1 billion in total economic impact to Kentucky’s economy.

KOGA 2014 Economic Impact Study