Spotlight: U.S. Energy Development Corporation and Its Permian Basin Drilling Funds
The Fort Worth firm operates the wells its partnerships own, and its K-1 page lists 44 of those partnerships across nine program families.
September 1, 2026
U.S. Energy Development Corporation is a privately held oil and gas exploration and production company in Fort Worth that develops projects for its own account and alongside outside capital raised through a long series of partnerships. The firm drills and operates rather than allocating to other operators, so a client participating in a U.S. Energy program is participating in projects the firm underwrites and runs itself. U.S. Energy reports investing in, operating, and/or drilling approximately 4,000 wells across 13 states and Canada, and deploying more than $4 billion on behalf of itself and its partners as of December 31, 2025.
Forty-four partnerships, nine program families
The sponsorship history is laid out on the firm’s K-1 status page, which lists 44 partnerships with 2025 Schedule K-1s. The families include Genesis Drilling Programs I through IX, Strategic Energy Income Funds I through V, annually dated USEDC drilling funds running from 2016 through 2025 — several vintages carrying A, B, or auxiliary sleeves alongside the main fund — Institutional Drilling Funds I and II, Institutional Energy Partners I through III plus a 2023 vintage, Private Capital Funds II and III, and Opportunity Zone I through III. U.S. Energy works with broker-dealers, registered representatives, RIAs, and family offices, and says its internal engineering and geology teams take part in due diligence events and industry programs.
How the programs pay and report
Distribution timing differs by structure, and the firm publishes the schedule rather than leaving it to the documents. For drilling and institutional funds, the first distribution typically comes six months after the fund closes, with quarterly payments after that, generally on the 25th day following quarter end. Mineral exchange funds make a first distribution one month after the initial investment date, prorated depending on entry, then pay monthly. Opportunity Zone Fund III and Private Capital Fund III pay quarterly on the 15th of the second month after quarter end — February 15, May 15, August 15, and November 15. Tax reporting arrives as a K-1 typically by the end of March or a 1099 by January 31, depending on the structure, and K-1 availability is posted program by program. The investor portal is run by U.S. Transfer Agency, a U.S. Energy affiliate.
Where the capital goes
The portfolio is concentrated in West Texas. The firm puts the Permian at 89.3% of total reserves across 917 wells, the Eagle Ford at 3.2%, and the Fort Worth Basin at 3.1%, with smaller positions in the Woodford-Anadarko, ARK-LA-TX, Appalachian, Williston, Powder River, and DJ basins. Operated activity currently sits in the Delaware Basin and the Eagle Ford. U.S. Energy takes both operated and non-operated positions, and describes the non-operated partnerships as a source of subsurface and operational data that feeds its own underwriting and development planning. Individual projects run from $5 million to $500 million or more.
From Appalachia to the Permian
Joe and Judy Jayson founded the company in 1980, building it out of J.M. Jayson & Co., a family real estate business, with early drilling and development across the Appalachian Basin in New York and Pennsylvania. U.S. Energy expanded into Texas, Louisiana, and Kansas in 1990, relocated its principal operations and leadership to Arlington, Texas in 2015, and opened a new corporate headquarters in the Fort Worth Stockyards in 2025. Jordan Jayson became CEO in 2014 in the firm’s second-generation leadership transition and serves as chairman and CEO. Matthew Iak, who joined in the mid-to-late 2000s and built the capital markets program, is president of capital markets.
In April 2025 the firm closed the largest acquisition in its history, roughly 20,000 net acres in the Permian in Reeves and Ward counties. U.S. Energy deployed more than $1 billion over the course of 2025, following nearly $800 million in 2024, and said in February 2026 that it planned to deploy up to $1 billion during 2026, with the bulk of that directed at expanding Permian inventory.
