Guides

Plain-English answers to the questions behind WellCensus's data, each sourced to the agency records and linked to the pages that answer them.

• How to find oil and gas wells on or near your propertyHow to check for oil or gas wells on or near your land using state regulator maps and the WellCensus map, and what to do about an unrecorded well.
• What is an orphaned well, and how is it different from an abandoned or plugged well?What makes an oil or gas well orphaned rather than abandoned, idle or plugged, how federal law and the states define it, and who pays to plug it.
• How to read and look up an API well numberWhat each digit of an API well number means (state, county, well, wellbore), why some are 10 digits and others 14, and how to look a well up by its number.