Utah
Oil and gas well records
In Utah, oil and gas wells are permitted and inspected by the Division of Oil, Gas and Mining (DOGM), part of the state's Department of Natural Resources.
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 drilling proposal is reviewed first. An operator applies to DOGM for a permit to drill (APD) before drilling a well. DOGM's review takes in, among other things, geology, soils, protection of water, wildlife and habitat, nearby development and infrastructure, county and local ordinances, and well spacing, and its petroleum engineer checks how the well will be built. Before approval, DOGM staff and others with an interest may visit the proposed site to talk through risks to nearby water wells, surface water and drainages that could carry spilled fluid, and the land's condition before drilling is noted, which later helps with reclamation. Where the question is what a well pad replaced, ask for that pre-site record.
- Forms and electronic filings. DOGM's forms page lists a well completion or recompletion report and log (Form 8), sundry notices and reports on wells (Form 9) and a report of water encountered during drilling (Form 7). DOGM accepts well logs, completion reports, APDs and sundry notices, among other filings, through its electronic filing system, and DOGM says an operator who sends logs there as PDF images no longer has to send paper copies.
- The bond shows how far closure got. DOGM holds a bond from the operator to pay for plugging and reclamation if a well is abandoned, and says it releases the bond once plugging and reclamation are complete. Its inspectors make plugging inspections and final restoration and bond release inspections, among others. For a plugged well on or near the property, ask whether its bond has been released.
- Production goes back decades. DOGM's production search gives monthly oil and gas figures from 1984 on.
Where to look a site up
- DOGM's Data Explorer, linked from its Oil and Gas Royalties page, supports well searches by well name, operator, API number, township or range.
- DOGM's permitting page links a search for permits.
- The royalties page also links Well Production Information and a search of well disposition volumes, and the site of the Board of Oil, Gas and Mining, where it says spacing orders, permit searches and the Board's meetings can be found.
- DOGM's office is at 1594 West North Temple, Suite 1210, Salt Lake City, Utah 84116, with mail to P.O. Box 145801, Salt Lake City, Utah 84114-5801. Its main number is 801-538-5340, and its office hours are 8:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m., Monday through Friday. It also has offices in Price and Vernal.
Getting the file
The DOGM pages read give no records request route of their own. DOGM's privacy notice says that under Utah law some of what is filed with it counts as a public record, which it may have to release when someone asks for it under the Government Records Access and Management Act (GRAMA). The same notice says the site reaches an official files database through an embedded frame, which works only when the browser allows third-party cookies. Ask the main office how DOGM takes a GRAMA request. This handbook's GRAMA requests page covers the Department of Environmental Quality, not DOGM.
Sources
Utah Division of Oil, Gas and Mining pages, read October 17, 2026, no modified date shown: