Texas
Oil and Gas Well Records
Agency Railroad Commission of Texas
The Railroad Commission of Texas keeps the records of the state's oil and gas wells. By the Commission's estimate, its Central Records and Imaging units hold some 132 million analog and digital pages that trace each Texas oil and gas well from its drilling permit through its plugging.
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 Texas property with oilfield history, the Commission's well file is where to learn what was drilled, when, and how it was closed.
- Give a well's numbers. The Commission's Public Information Act procedures say a request about a lease or well must give its lease number, its API number, or the lease's exact name with the well's location, and that a property description or address will not serve. Central Records asks for as much as you have of the county, drilling date, lease or well name and number, operator, field, Commission numbers and survey location. First find the well on the Public GIS Viewer, linked below.
- The forms tell the story. The Commission's well records FAQ lists what a well file can hold: the drilling application (Form W-1), the completion report (Form W-2 or Form G-1), the plugging report (Form W-3), the producer's transportation authority (Form P-4), and other papers such as directional surveys and letters. For a plugged well, ask for the Form W-3.
- The online years have limits. The Commission says well records for every district from 1964 to the present can be searched online. Older papers, from roughly 1920 into the mid 1960s, are on microfilm, filed by operator and lease, so for an older well, ask Central Records.
- Dry holes are filed apart. The drilling application and plugging report of a dry hole stay in what the Commission calls its suspense files, ordered by API number. Those from 2000 on are imaged, though the Commission says not every dry hole file can be viewed online yet; those from 1966 to 1999 are on microfilm.
- The map is not a survey. The Commission warns that its map data are a public service, may be unfit for legal, engineering or survey work, and in general were not surveyed in the field. Check a well's position against the location plat filed with its drilling application, and on the site visit.
Where to look a site up
- The Public GIS Viewer maps oil, gas and pipeline data, which the Commission says is updated nightly. Its page links training videos on searching by API number or address and by survey. Questions about well information go to rrc.mapping@rrc.texas.gov.
- The Imaged Records page opens the well records search, which works on key fields or on the full text, and the searches of dry hole files and well logs. Questions about the search go to records@rrc.texas.gov. The FAQ says to enter an API number as eight digits with no punctuation: the three-digit county code, then the five-digit number of the wellbore, without the state code 42.
- The RRC Online Research Queries page lists the Drilling Permit (W-1) Query, the Completions Query and the Wellbore Query, among others. The Commission warns that the query data are for information only and carry no legal force as an official record.
Getting the file
- Central Records. The Oil and Gas Well Records page takes requests for copies by phone, email, fax, mail or a visit: its request form goes to ims@rrc.texas.gov, by fax to 512-463-7200, or by mail to P. O. Box 12967, Austin, Texas 78711. The pages give three numbers for Central Records: 512-463-6880 on that page, 512-463-6882 on the well records FAQ, and 512-463-6800 on the Public GIS Viewer page.
- Fees. The Commission's price list, marked Rev. 01-01-05, charges $0.10 a page for letter and legal size copies. It says Texas Natural Resources Code section 81.01009 requires the Commission to charge $5.00 for each half hour, or part of one, that staff spend searching its records, and asks that no payment be sent until staff give the cost.
- Other records. A written request under the Public Information Act goes to open.records@rrc.texas.gov, by fax to 512-463-6684, by mail to PO Box 12967, Austin, Texas 78711-2967, or in person, as the Commission's Procedures for Requesting Information page sets out. It says its records team aims to answer every request within 10 business days.
Sources
Railroad Commission of Texas pages, read October 15, 2026, no modified date shown except where one is given: