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New Mexico

Oil and gas well records

Agency New Mexico Energy, Minerals and Natural Resources Department, Oil Conservation Division

The Oil Conservation Division (OCD) of the New Mexico Energy, Minerals and Natural Resources Department (EMNRD) regulates oil and gas activity in New Mexico. OCD says it gathers well production data, permits new wells, enforces its own rules and the state's oil and gas laws, sees to it that abandoned wells are plugged properly, and makes sure the land is restored responsibly. Its document site, OCD Imaging, holds well files.

In a Phase I ESA

ASTM E1527-21 does not name well records among its standard record sources. The general reading of a well at or near a property is on Oil or gas well on or near the subject property. On a New Mexico property with oil and gas history, OCD's well file is where to learn what was drilled, who operated it, and how it was plugged.

  • Millions of documents are online. OCD says OCD Imaging is where to browse, view and download over 4 million documents, among them well files, well logs, administrative and environmental orders, and hearing orders and case files.
  • Bring the legal description. OCD says administrative orders and environmental permit images can now be searched by unit, section, township and range, though it has not attached a location to every order. Its imaging page says the searches involve well locations given by unit letter, section, township and range, and links an explanation of how those locations are defined, which this handbook did not open. Have the property's section, township and range on hand.
  • Well forms. OCD's forms page lists these forms for a well: Form C-101, the application for permit to drill, re-enter, deepen, plugback or add a zone; Form C-102, the well location and acreage dedication plat; Form C-105, the well completion or recompletion report; and Form C-103, sundry notices and reports on a well. The forms page names the plugging report filed electronically C-103Q, and OCD's Operator Guidance page links a form it labels C-103P SR of Plug & Abandon; for a plugged well, ask OCD for its plugging report.
  • Pits and releases have forms of their own. The same page lists Form C-144, the permit or closure plan application for a pit, below-grade tank or proposed alternative method, and Form C-141, Release Notification and Corrective Action, both filed electronically through OCD Permitting. Under releases and remediation, OCD's operator guidance page links a notice on Forms C-141-N and C-141-L dated May 27, 2026, and guidance on the digital C-141 and incident statuses dated December 1, 2023; this handbook did not open them. The handbook's Spills and unauthorized discharges page covers the New Mexico Environment Department's spill records, not OCD's.
  • Inactive wells are tracked. OCD's statistics page names, among the searches in OCD Permitting, a well search by API number, an Inactive Well List, an Inactive Well Additional Financial Assurance Report, an Incident Search and a Spill Search, and it lists a report of plugged and abandoned wells by type by year. The page read does not say what each one holds.

Where to look a site up

  • OCD's home page links Access OCD well data.
  • The OCD Imaging page opens the document site, OCD Imaging. The OCD Data page links OCD's public data server, a description of the data sets available for download, and a data dictionary.
  • The division's menu links an OCD Geospatial Hub, which this handbook did not open.
  • OCD's Contact Us page gives (505) 629-6116 for phone contact, offices in Santa Fe, Albuquerque, Artesia, Aztec and Hobbs, and after-hours lines of (505) 320-0243 for the north and (505) 670-8745 for the south. Its Environmental Group is at OCD.Enviro@emnrd.nm.gov and its Engineering Group at OCD.Engineer@emnrd.nm.gov. OCD says its Santa Fe office is open from 8:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m., Monday through Friday.

Getting the file

OCD's Inspection of Public Records Act (IPRA) page says that from July 1, 2026, records are requested through EMNRD's GovQA request portal, which it links, and that no fee is charged for records provided electronically through the portal. A separate portal takes questions and comments. The OCD pages read give no response time. Since OCD says documents on OCD Imaging can be viewed and downloaded, check there before making a request.

Sources

New Mexico Energy, Minerals and Natural Resources Department, Oil Conservation Division pages, read October 17, 2026:

Maintained by Barrow. General reference only, not legal or professional advice. Barrow is not affiliated with any government agency, and neither Barrow nor the information as presented here is endorsed by any state or government agency. See how Barrow drafts the report