Oklahoma oil and gas spills and incidents

Spills from oil and gas exploration and production in Oklahoma are reported to the Oklahoma Corporation Commission, through its district offices and field inspectors. Each reported spill is given an incident number. A district office may transfer a case that needs prolonged assessment or remediation to the Commission's Pollution Abatement Department.

In a Phase I ESA

ASTM E1527-21 does not name this record among its standard sources. On a property with oil and gas history it is the record of what was spilled and how the case ended. The Commission says spills most commonly involve crude oil, condensate, salt water and drilling mud.

The details below come from the Commission's guidance for operators, published in its Oil and Gas FAQ. The guidance was published by the U.S. Department of Energy in cooperation with the Commission in October 2002.

• Small spills to land need not be reported. A spill to land must be reported if it amounts to ten or more barrels of any substance used or produced in petroleum exploration or production. A spill of any quantity that comes in contact with water must be reported. The guidance says any spill, even one too small to report, must be cleaned up. So the absence of an incident does not show the absence of a spill.
• Each report has a follow-up. A verbal report is due to the district office or field inspector within 24 hours of discovery. Within ten working days a follow-up report is due to the district office. Operators must keep records of a reported spill for at least three years.
• Closure has stated conditions. The guidance says the district office will likely close an incident when all fluids were recovered promptly or the spill was contained in a lined diked area, no soil shows significant hydrocarbon stain or odor after cleanup, no impact to surface water or groundwater is likely, and the surface is revegetated or otherwise restored.
• Old impacts get an incident number too. Impacts that are not from a recent spill are treated as a historically impacted site. Where soils are impacted by petroleum hydrocarbons or brine, the site should be reported to the district office, which assigns an incident number. Complex or extensive impacts, or actual or possible impacts to surface water or groundwater, go to the Pollution Abatement Department.

The reporting rule is Oklahoma Administrative Code 165:10-7-5.

Where to look a site up

• The Commission's Database Search and Imaged Documents page links its Oil and Gas Incident App, which it says searches for incidents in an area.
• The Pollution Abatement Department is at 405-521-2331.

Getting the file

The Commission takes records requests through the form on its Open Records Requests page, and says most requests are answered within 24 hours.

Sources

Oklahoma Corporation Commission pages, read October 1, 2026:

• Oil and Gas FAQ, last modified July 22, 2026.
• Pollution Abatement Department, last modified January 30, 2024.
• Spills Pollution Response and Pollution Prevention, last modified May 25, 2023.
• Database Search and Imaged Documents, last modified August 19, 2026.
• Open Records Requests, last modified July 8, 2026.