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North Dakota

Oil and gas well records

Agency North Dakota Department of Mineral Resources

The Oil and Gas Division of the North Dakota Department of Mineral Resources oversees oil and gas drilling and production in North Dakota. It says it alone issues oil and gas drilling permits in the state, though a well drilled through federal minerals, or from a surface the federal government controls, also needs a federal permit. Its pages also refer to the North Dakota Industrial Commission (NDIC), which, the Well Permitting page says, sets spacing units by order after notice and hearing. The Division issued 1,996 oil and gas permits in the 2023 to 2025 biennium, from July 1, 2023 through June 30, 2025.

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.

  • A permit has a kind and a life. The Division's permit categories are wildcat (WC), extension (EXT), development (DEV), underground injection control (UIC) and stratigraphic test (ST); it issues UIC permits for enhanced oil recovery and saltwater disposal wells. A permit is good for one year from issue and then expires on its own; the Division says it may be renewed on a Form 4 (Sundry Notice) with a $100 fee. The Division's count of reclaimed sites takes in sites that were built but never drilled. So check a well's status and spud date, not only its permit.
  • A new well can be confidential for a time. When an operator asks in writing and is granted confidential, or tight hole, status, the Division may release for up to six months only the operator name, well name, location, permit date, confidentiality period, spacing or drilling unit description, spud date, rig contractor, central tank battery number, production runs and volumes injected (North Dakota Administrative Code 43-02-03-31). Once a well is spudded, the confidential well list shows the date its information can be released. The Division also says a permit application that has not yet been approved cannot be seen.
  • The well file holds the spill reports. The Division's spills page says basic spill information for a well is on its Scout Ticket page, and that spill reports are kept in the well file. See Oil and gas spills and incidents.
  • A well's end is plugging and reclamation. The Division says a well that has reached its economic limit and serves no further purpose must be plugged and its surface reclaimed, and that reclamation is not finished until the state has released the company's bond on the site. See Orphaned wells and reclamation.

Where to look a site up

  • The Division's Well Search searches by operator name, field name, and township and range, the Well Permitting page says; its surface owner page adds section, township and range, among other identifiers, to find wells whose surface location matches.
  • The GIS Map Server, which the surface owner page calls the best way to see activity around a piece of land, has a Find Section tab that takes a legal description. The Well Permitting page says its Download Shape Files button offers a Wells.zip file whose .dbf table lists all the wells.
  • The Confidential Well List, and the Daily Activity Report for the permits issued each day.
  • The Well Index, a spreadsheet of every well in the state, is in Basic Services, one of the Division's two subscription services with Premium Services. The Oil and Gas Division page gives the rates from January 1, 2026 as $100 a year for Basic and $500 a year for Premium. This handbook opened neither.
  • The Division is at (701) 328-8020 and oilandgasinfo@nd.gov. Its Contact page gives its hours as 8 am to 5 pm, Monday through Friday, closed from noon to 1 pm and on state holidays.

Getting the file

The Division's spills page says spill reports are in the well file and can be seen free of charge in Bismarck or through the website's subscription services. The pages read say no more about seeing the rest of a well file. The Division's street address is 1016 East Calgary Avenue in Bismarck, and its mail goes to Department of Mineral Resources, Oil and Gas Division, 600 East Boulevard Ave Dept 474, Bismarck, ND 58505-0614. The Division's pages read give no open records form or request route of its own, so call or email before a visit. North Dakota's open records law, as the Attorney General's page gives it, is summed up on the Open Records Requests page.

Sources

North Dakota Department of Mineral Resources pages, read October 17, 2026, no modified date shown:

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