Missouri
Oil and Gas Permits
The Missouri Department of Natural Resources says its Missouri Geological Survey is responsible in part for activities associated with the exploration, production and underground storage of oil and gas in the state. That work includes reviewing, approving and keeping applications to drill production wells and injection wells for oil and gas; the department names the injection wells as enhanced oil recovery, disposal and hydrocarbon storage wells. The department says the State Oil and Gas Council adopts the rules under Chapter 259 of the Revised Statutes, and that its Geological Survey Program assists the council.
In a Phase I ESA
ASTM E1527-21 does not name oil and gas well records among its standard record sources. Where a property lies in an area that was drilled, they help show whether a well was permitted, completed or plugged on it or nearby. Three Missouri details matter here.
- A well's status varies. On its permits page, read October 16, 2026, the department says it has records for approximately 10,400 wells. The statuses it names include active, under construction, inactive, pending, shut in, plugged, water well conversion, orphaned and abandoned. Read the status before treating a listed well as plugged.
- The council's charge reaches waste and groundwater. The department says the council works to see that wastes from oil and gas wells are managed properly and to protect aquifers that drilling may affect, and that it sets standards for drilling and operating wells, for storing hydrocarbons underground and for production.
- The logs reach back decades. The department's GeoSTRAT page says the map's Stratigraphic and Geophysical Logs database holds about 4,100 logs with downhole information on Missouri oil and gas wells. Most came from oil and gas boreholes, but boreholes drilled for other purposes are included, and the oldest information dates to 1939. The page calls the logs a complete history of the underground rock and well data the Missouri Geological Survey has collected and archived.
Oil and gas forms
The department's oil and gas forms include an application for a permit to drill or modify a well (MO 780-0211), a well completion or recompletion report and well log (MO 780-0215), a notice of intention to plug (MO 780-0214), a well plugging report (MO 780-0217), a monthly well status, production and disposal report (MO 780-0219), an annual well inventory report (MO 780-0213) and an application to convert an oil or gas well to a water well (MO 780-0218). For injection, the forms include an application for a permit to inject (MO 780-0212), an annual injection well monitoring report (MO 780-0208) and a mechanical integrity test report (MO 780-2635). The forms also include a well bond and a financial assurance certification. When a well is on or next to the property, ask for its completion and plugging reports.
Where to look a site up
- The department's Oil and Gas Permits page links an Oil and Gas Wells List, Aug. 30, 2024, a file this handbook has not opened. The Oil and Gas Resources page links a list of the same name and date.
- The department's GeoSTRAT page opens the interactive map, which the permits page says locates permitted wells along with stratigraphic and geophysical logs. The GeoSTRAT page says to choose "Well Logs" from the list of layers and zoom in, or to search for an address.
- Injection wells for enhanced oil recovery, disposal and hydrocarbon storage are on the Underground Injection Control Wells page.
- The Geological Survey Program, the contact the oil and gas pages give, is at 573-368-2100 and geology@dnr.mo.gov.
Getting the file
The pages read do not give a records route specific to oil and gas wells. The department's general route is the Sunshine Law request.
Sources
Missouri Department of Natural Resources pages, read October 16, 2026, no modified date shown: