Empire Petroleum

What Empire Petroleum does

Empire Petroleum Corporation is a US onshore conventional oil and natural gas producer, originally incorporated in 1983 and headquartered in Tulsa, Oklahoma, with a corporate office in The Woodlands, Texas, that trades on NYSE American under ticker EP. The company's core business is acquiring and optimizing proved developed producing (PDP) assets across a multi-basin footprint spanning the Permian Central Basin Platform (Lea County, New Mexico), the Williston Basin (North Dakota and Montana), the central Gulf Coast (Louisiana), and the East Texas Basin. It manages approximately 48,000 acres in the Permian, ~20,000 acres in the Williston, and ~30,000 acres in East Texas, including Woodbine, Eagle Ford, and Buda-Rose plays.

The company's underlying technology and operations are built around three pillars: (1) operational well rehabilitation, stimulation, and field maintenance applied to long-life, slow-decline mature wells that reduce exploration risk relative to drilling-focused peers; (2) proprietary enhanced oil recovery (EOR) technologies including a superheated steam generation and injection system (USPTO Notice of Allowance received) and a hydrocarbon vaporization technology (final patent filed), deployed in the Starbuck Drilling Program in North Dakota and as a CO2 EOR pilot in New Mexico's Residual Oil Zone; and (3) a development program in the East Texas Basin targeting conventional formations (Glen Rose, Rodessa, James Lime, Travis Peak, Haynesville-Bossier) through well reactivation, recompletion, and deepening. At year-end 2025 the company reported 7.6 MMBoe of SEC proved reserves (~77% crude oil, 9% NGLs, 14% natural gas) with a standardized measure of discounted future net cash flows of $58.6M.

Empire operates a pure commodity producer revenue model with no direct downstream customers; crude oil is sold to refiners, natural gas is sold into pipeline networks delivering to utilities and industrial buyers, and NGLs are sold to processing facilities. Pricing is set by market (WTI for oil, Henry Hub for gas), with the company running an opportunistic hedging program that hedged approximately 90% of Q2 2026 estimated oil production at a blended price exceeding $72 per barrel. For FY2025, total product revenue was $34.2 million (down from $44.0M in FY2024), with a net loss of $72.1M, while Q1 2026 revenue was $7.7M and net loss was $6.6M. The GTM motion is sales-led commodity sales supported by investor relations outreach through SEC filings, earnings presentations, and social channels. The business is small (51-100 employees), publicly listed with a market capitalization of approximately $106 million as of mid-2026, has completed three equity rights offerings since March 2024 totaling roughly $37.5 million to fund development, and relies on a $20 million revolver with Equity Bank extended to December 2028 for liquidity.

Name

Empire Petroleum

Legal name

Empire Petroleum Corporation

Website

https://empirepetroleumcorp.com

Company type

Public

Founded year

1983

Operating status

Operating

Headcount range

51–100 employees

Short description

Empire Petroleum Corporation is a US onshore conventional oil and natural gas producer that acquires, operates, and optimizes proved developed producing wells across the Permian Basin, Williston Basin, Gulf Coast, and East Texas, with proprietary thermal EOR technology and a CO2 EOR pilot in New Mexico's Residual Oil Zone.

Ownership category

akta.pro rank

Product category

Upstream Oil and Gas Production

NAICS

Crude Petroleum Extraction (21112), Natural Gas Extraction (211130)

SIC

Crude Petroleum & Natural Gas (1311)

akta.pro primary industry

Production Operations & Well Optimization (Artificial Lift, Flow Assurance) (EUALAAAF)

akta.pro secondary industries

Onshore Natural Gas E&P (Conventional Fields) (EUAAAAAG), Field Development & EOR/IOR for Gas (Compression, Refracturing, Reservoir Management) (EUAAAAAM)

Keywords

• Oil and gas production
• Crude oil extraction
• Natural gas development
• Enhanced oil recovery
• Upstream petroleum operations

Headquarters

HQ city

Tulsa

HQ country

United States

HQ region

North America

Offices2 records

Markets served

GTM type

B2B

Offering type

Services

Cost components

Operations, Supply Chain, Personnel, Infrastructure, Technology or R&D, Others

Revenue model

1. Oil Sales: Sale of crude oil produced from operated and non-operated wells in New Mexico, North Dakota, Montana, Louisiana, and Texas. Oil sales represent the majority of revenue (approximately 66% of production mix).
2. Natural Gas Sales: Sale of natural gas produced from Texas and other properties. Gas volumes are increasing through the company's Texas natural gas development program.
3. Natural Gas Liquids (NGLs) Sales: Sale of natural gas liquids extracted during production processing.

Go-to-market motion1 record

Distribution channels3 records

Marketing channels8 records

Core offering

Empire Petroleum is a conventional oil and natural gas producer focused on US onshore assets. The company operates long-life, mature, producing assets with slow decline profiles in the Permian Basin, Williston Basin, and East Texas Basin, producing crude oil, natural gas, and natural gas liquids (NGLs) for sale to refiners and gas buyers.

Product overview

Empire Petroleum Corporation is a conventional oil and natural gas producer focused on US onshore assets. The company's product portfolio centers on crude oil, natural gas, and natural gas liquids (NGLs) production from long-life, mature producing assets with slow decline profiles. Key operational programs include the Starbuck Drilling Program in North Dakota utilizing proprietary thermal recovery technology, the Texas Natural Gas Development Program targeting multiple conventional formations, and the Louisiana Development Program. The company also operates CO2 EOR projects in New Mexico's Permian Basin. Operations span the Permian Central Basin Platform, Williston Basin, and East Texas Basin across New Mexico, North Dakota, Montana, Louisiana, and Texas.

Differentiator

Problem solved

Functional benefit

Products and services

• Starbuck Drilling Program
• Texas Natural Gas Development Program
• Louisiana Oil and Natural Gas Development Program
• CO2 Enhanced Oil Recovery (EOR) Pilot Project

Quantifiable outcome

• Production volumes from three reactivated wells increased approximately 45% compared to Q4 2025
• +2 more outcomes

Segments1 record

Ideal customer profiles1 record

Technology focussed No

API detail

Has API

No

API docs

API detail

Core technology

AI maturity

App detail

Feature2 records

Scale indicators10 records

Recent moves11 records

Expansion highlights6 records

Broad incumbents

• Talos Energy: Larger diversified US Gulf of Mexico and conventional onshore operator; while considerably bigger, it competes for the same conventional E&P deals and Gulf Coast acreage in which Empire operates.

Direct peers

• Granite Ridge Resources: Small-cap public upstream focused on non-operated working interests in mature US basins with a PDP bias, recently IPO'd from EnCap portfolio with a multi-basin conventional asset base closely resembling Empire's strategy.
• W&T Offshore: Small-cap public upstream with Gulf of Mexico and Gulf Coast conventional operations, comparable in scale to Empire and overlapping its Louisiana operational footprint and conventional production focus.
• Ring Energy: Small-cap public Permian-focused upstream operator pursuing workover-driven production optimization on legacy conventional assets, overlapping directly with Empire's New Mexico Permian operating footprint and reactivation approach.
• Vital Energy: Small/mid-cap Permian-focused upstream operator pursuing conventional development with workover and infill activities, comparable multi-basin conventional operations and similar sensitivity to oil prices.
• Black Stone Minerals: Public mineral and royalty interests company with large US onshore acreage footprint similar in scale to Empire, providing overlap through ownership of conventional oil and gas mineral rights in the Permian and East Texas basins.
• Crescent Energy: Publicly traded PDP-focused upstream operator that emerged from the Contango/Independence merger, applying workover/recompletion techniques to mature conventional wells across multiple US basins with very similar scale and strategy.
• Mach Natural Resources: Recently IPO'd small-cap conventional upstream operator in the Anadarko Basin pursuing a low-decline, multi-well development program targeting similar long-life mature asset characteristics as Empire's PDP portfolio.
• Battalion Oil: Small-cap public upstream focused on reactivation and optimization of mature conventional wells in the Permian region, comparable operating model of bringing inactive wells back online at low cost.
• Mexco Energy: Long-standing small-cap public upstream with Permian Basin conventional assets pursuing low-risk production from mature fields, sized similarly to Empire and operating with a comparable PDP-oriented strategy.

Market position

Strengths5 records

Weaknesses5 records

Competitive moat3 records

Key risks7 records

Key highlights7 records

Customer concentration

• Xtwitter.com/empirepetrocorp
• Facebookfacebook.com/EmpirePetroleumCorp
• LinkedInlinkedin.com/company/empire-petroleum-corporation
• Instagraminstagram.com/empirepetroleumcorp

Revenue estimate

Valuation estimate

Number of profiles

Profiles7 records

Subsidiaries1 record

Funding overview

Funding rounds5 records

Investors2 records

Funding detail is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →

M&A

Investments

M&A and investment is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →

Frequently asked questions about Empire Petroleum