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gold_wells
The master well register: one row per well, from the moment a drilling permit is approved through plugging. Carries identity, operators (current owner, as-reported, and the original driller), surface and bottom-hole location, key lifecycle dates (permit, spud, completion, first production, plugged), wellbore geometry (trajectory, depths, lateral length), formation, and status. Many attributes carry a paired _source column telling you where the value came from (reported by the source, measured from a directional survey, or derived). Regional columns add each jurisdiction's own subdivisions (county, district, municipal district, ...).
Access tier: portal
Portal. These rows are well-level or producing-unit-level data, or our modelled output at cohort or grid grain. They open with a Portal, Pro or Enterprise plan. The website shows aggregates built from them, never the rows.
Primary key: well_id
Region codes: ab, ak, al, ar, argentina, bc, brazil, ca, co, colombia, ecuador, gom, guyana, ks, la, mb, mexico, mi, ms, mt, nd, nm, oh, ok, pa, pacific, sk, tx, ut, wv, wy
Columns
| Column | Type | Nullable | Description |
|---|---|---|---|
well_id |
string | no | Globally unique well identifier (opaque string), this table's primary key, and the join key every other well-grain table points at. Stable across time; never parse substrings out of it. |
national_well_id |
string | yes | The well identifier issued by the jurisdiction, in its native format (US API number, Canadian UWI, and each country's equivalent). well_id is our stable global key; this is the number you would use at the source. For Canadian wells with several completion events, this is the UWI of the well's latest event. |
register_source |
string | yes | How this well came to be in the register: current = the regulator's maintained well register lists it and we update it as the regulator does; legacy = a register or extract the publisher no longer maintains, so this record will not change; filing = a regulator filing (an approved, unexpired drilling permit) names the well and no register record exists yet; evidence = the regulator, or a regulator-mandated disclosure registry such as FracFocus, publishes facts about the well (production, completions, fracs, surveys) but no register record, so we carry a minimal header built from those facts. Populated once a region's register has been confirmed under this contract; empty until then.
Values: current · legacy · filing · evidence. |
country |
string | no | Country code (ISO 3166-1 alpha-2, upper-case, e.g. US, CA). |
state_province |
string | no | Full name of the state or province the well sits in (e.g. 'Texas', 'Alberta'). |
state_province_code |
string | no | Jurisdiction code within the country (e.g. TX, AB); paired with country it forms a globally unique jurisdiction key. |
well_name |
string | yes | Well name as designated by the operator, including the well number where the source provides it. |
operator |
string | yes | The company operating this well today, as a canonical company name: mergers and acquisitions are applied as of today, so an acquired company's wells read the acquirer (XTO under ExxonMobil, Anadarko under Occidental). Sourced from the most recent operator on file (latest production report, else latest completion or permit), with ownership changes taking effect at deal closing, not announcement. Where this differs from reported_operator, our ownership graph is ahead of the source's operator-of-record. |
operator_id |
string | yes | Stable company identifier for operator: the owner as of today. Join key to the organizations register (gold_organizations). NULL when the operator name cannot be resolved to a registered organization. Differs from reported_operator_id exactly where we corrected the source's stale record. For roll-ups by public company, group by this id and join gold_organizations for the ticker. |
operator_source |
string | no | How the current operator was determined, or why none is shown: production = the regulator's own operator-of-record for this well's production, brought to today through recorded acquisitions; well_record = the operator named on the well's regulatory record (where the name matches a company in our register, the company link is set; otherwise the name is shown as reported, without a link); well_record_succession = the record's operator followed through a recorded acquisition or merger to its current owner: the name shown can therefore differ from the name on the record; curated = the source publishes no operator, so the operator shown comes from our maintained mapping of the source's contracts and areas to companies; attribution_stale = the well last had a named operator so long before its latest reported activity that the source itself no longer supports that attribution: rather than show a likely-outdated company, none is shown; unresolved = a source names an operator for this well but we could not identify the company, so none is shown; unreported = no source names a real operator for this well. Always populated.
Values: production · curated · well_record · well_record_succession · attribution_stale · unresolved · unreported. |
operator_registration_id |
string | yes | The regulator-issued ID of the operator of record on the well record (TX P-5 number, ND operator number, AB AER licensee number, Brazil ANP CNPJ, and each region's equivalent): the raw regulator id, with no merger succession applied. May lag operator after an asset transfer, because the well record updates on the regulator's own schedule. Where the regulator issues licence IDs but never prints them on well records (currently Kansas), it is our match of the operator name to the state's licensee register, derived by us rather than filed. Opaque string; look it up in gold_organization_registrations together with the well's region. NULL otherwise. |
reported_operator |
string | yes | The operator as the source records it today, normalized to a canonical display name but with NO merger succession applied: the faithful regulatory record. Equals operator except where our ownership graph corrected a stale operator-of-record at the source. NULL only where the source operator name is NULL. |
reported_operator_id |
string | yes | Stable company identifier for reported_operator: the organization the source's name maps to, with no merger succession applied. Because it does not move when a company is later acquired, this is the stable id for joins and history. A company that renamed itself keeps one identifier: a rename is not a succession, so the as-filed name may differ from the identifier's current name. NULL when the raw name is not yet mapped to a registered organization. operator_id differing from reported_operator_id means we corrected the source's stale record. |
reported_operator_entity |
string | yes | The raw operator name exactly as the source records it today (e.g. "JALAPENO CORPORATION", "Solis Partners, L.L.C."): the audit-trail string before any normalization. NULL where the source gives no operator name, and where it names no real company: regulator placeholder strings ("historic owner", "not assigned") are treated as no operator rather than published as one. |
reported_operator_registration_id |
string | yes | The regulator-issued operator ID for the well's reported operator, with no merger succession: currently identical to operator_registration_id (both carry the register-anchored value: source-printed where the regulator prints one, matched by name to the licensee register where it never does, currently Kansas). Carried so the reported_* column family reads the same across the well, production, and permit tables. NULL otherwise. |
original_operator |
string | yes | The well's originating operator: the company that drilled and completed it, a historical fact with no merger succession applied. Distinct from reported_operator (the operator on the source's record today) and operator (the current owner after M&A). A best estimate from the earliest available signal: the regulator's own original-operator record, the earliest permit, the first entry in the regulator's change-of-operator register, or the first month of production; original_operator_source says which one determined it for this well. Currently carried as the raw source name, without normalization. |
original_operator_id |
string | yes | Stable company identifier for the originating operator (the driller), with no merger succession applied. Because a driller's id never moves when its parent is later acquired, this is the churn-free key for grouping wells by who drilled them. Where no distinct driller record exists yet, it equals reported_operator_id; the two diverge as driller-specific sources land region by region. NULL when the name cannot be resolved to a registered organization or original_operator is NULL. Distinct from operator_id (current owner) and reported_operator_id (the source's record today). |
original_operator_entity |
string | yes | The raw originating-operator name before any normalization: the audit-trail string for the driller. Currently equal to original_operator; where a region gains a driller-specific source, this keeps the driller's raw name while reported_operator_entity keeps the current source name. NULL exactly when original_operator is NULL. |
original_operator_registration_id |
string | yes | The regulator-issued registration id of the ORIGINAL (driller) operator: the driller's register lookup key, the counterpart of operator_registration_id (current owner) and reported_operator_registration_id (source-of-record today). Sourced from the same row that supplied the driller name (a permit's operator number, or the register interval that named the operator of record), so it is present only where a region re-sources the driller AND an id can be anchored to that same record: printed on it, or, where the regulator never prints licence IDs (currently Kansas), matched by name to the state's licensee register. Where the well has no distinct driller it falls back to operator_registration_id, the same company's id, except where the operator name itself comes from our own curated mapping rather than a source-printed name; there no source registration id is inherited. Honest-NULL otherwise: never the current operator's id on a well whose driller was somebody else. It exists so a future company-record correction can re-resolve the driller by direct register lookup rather than by re-deriving it from source filings. |
original_operator_source |
string | yes | Which source determined original_operator on this well, from highest to lowest confidence: drilling = the regulator's own original-operator record; permit = the operator on the earliest permit (the closest driller proxy where no native record exists); transfer_register = the earliest operator of record in the regulator's change-of-operator (or licensee transfer) register: the company holding the well before its first recorded transfer. Treat it as a bound rather than a measurement: it is the earliest operator the register knows, and how close that is to the driller depends on when the register itself begins, so a well drilled long before the register was digitized may sit several unrecorded transfers away. first_production = the operator in the well's earliest production month; existing = a value carried over from before this sourcing existed: in some regions effectively the driller, in others the current operator of record, so treat it as lower confidence. For analysis that needs verified drillers, filter to drilling, permit, transfer_register, or first_production. NULL exactly when original_operator is NULL.
Values: drilling · permit · transfer_register · first_production · existing. |
latitude |
float64 | yes | Surface hole location latitude (WGS84 decimal degrees). Completions and other well-grain tables don't carry coordinates: join them to this table via well_id. Bottom-hole coordinates sit on this same row (bhl_latitude / bhl_longitude). |
longitude |
float64 | yes | Surface hole location longitude (WGS84 decimal degrees). |
coordinate_source |
string | yes | Where the surface coordinates (latitude/longitude) came from: gis = an agency GIS point layer (most accurate); dls_centroid = a Canadian legal-subdivision cell centroid, an estimate, not a surveyed point; plss_centroid = the US equivalent, a PLSS-section centroid estimate validated into the well's county, with co-located wells spread apart so they don't stack (a section is 1 square mile, so accuracy is roughly plus or minus 0.5 mile); the section's centre is taken from the surveyed section boundary where we hold it, otherwise from other wells we hold in that section. NULL where coordinate provenance is not tracked for that region, or the well has no surface coordinates; always set together with latitude.
Values: gis · dls_centroid · plss_centroid. |
bhl_latitude |
float64 | yes | Bottom-hole location latitude (WGS84), best-determined: resolved from the well's available bottom-hole sources in a fixed precedence, best first. NULL where no source reports one, or where the reported point lies implausibly far from the surface location, or is only a restatement of it; see bhl_source for the ranking and which source won. |
bhl_longitude |
float64 | yes | Bottom-hole location longitude (WGS84), best-determined. Resolved with bhl_latitude: the pair always comes from the same record; see bhl_source for which source won. |
bhl_source |
string | yes | Where bhl_latitude/bhl_longitude came from, in precedence order (best first): survey = an as-drilled directional-survey toe (most accurate); reported = a post-drill operator-reported bottom hole (completion filings and similar); footage_call = computed by us from the filing's own bottom-hole footage call (the stated distances from the section lines), anchored on the well's surface location or, where the filing's two footage calls name different sections, on a corner derived from the surveyed boundary of the section named in the bottom-hole call: an estimate, typically within a few hundred feet of a surveyed toe and occasionally thousands, less precise than a surveyed toe; plat = a coordinate we extracted from a filed well plat (a digitized drawing point, scale-limited); survey_planned = a survey toe from a pre-drill plan or a survey not yet confirmed as-drilled (approximate; gold_directional_surveys.is_proposed carries each survey's plan-vs-as-drilled classification); permit = the permit's proposed target; gis = the agency's published GIS bottom hole (a digitization of the permitted target where one was filed), used only where no other source supplies one. A post-drill reported location outranks a pre-drill planned survey. NULL when both bottom-hole coordinates are NULL.
Values: survey · reported · footage_call · plat · survey_planned · permit · gis. |
kop_latitude |
float64 | yes | Kickoff-point latitude (WGS84), best-determined: the point where the wellbore departs vertical and begins its build toward the lateral, resolved from the well's available kickoff-point sources in a fixed precedence, best first. NULL where no source reports one; see kop_source for the ranking and which source won. |
kop_longitude |
float64 | yes | Kickoff-point longitude (WGS84), best-determined. Resolved with kop_latitude: the pair always comes from the same record; see kop_source for which source won. |
kop_source |
string | yes | Where kop_latitude/kop_longitude came from, in precedence order (best first): survey = derived from an as-drilled directional survey (most accurate); reported = a stated kickoff point in a post-drill filing (New Mexico's C-102 take-point form and similar); footage_call = computed by us from the filing's own stated distances from the section lines, anchored on the well's surface location; plat = a coordinate we extracted from a filed well plat (a digitized drawing point, scale-limited); survey_planned = from a pre-drill plan or a survey not yet confirmed as-drilled; permit = the permit's proposed point; gis = an agency-published GIS layer. NULL when both kickoff-point coordinates are NULL.
Values: survey · reported · footage_call · plat · survey_planned · permit · gis. |
landing_latitude |
float64 | yes | Landing-point latitude (WGS84), best-determined: where the wellbore levels off and the lateral begins (the heel); for take-point sources this is the first take point of the completed interval. Resolved from the well's available landing-point sources in a fixed precedence, best first. NULL where no source reports one; see landing_source for the ranking and which source won. |
landing_longitude |
float64 | yes | Landing-point longitude (WGS84), best-determined. Resolved with landing_latitude: the pair always comes from the same record; see landing_source for which source won. |
landing_source |
string | yes | Where landing_latitude/landing_longitude came from, in precedence order (best first): survey = derived from an as-drilled directional survey (most accurate); reported = a stated landing or first-take point in a post-drill filing (New Mexico's C-102 take-point form and similar); footage_call = computed by us from the filing's own stated distances from the section lines, anchored on the well's surface location; plat = a coordinate we extracted from a filed well plat (a digitized drawing point, scale-limited); survey_planned = from a pre-drill plan or a survey not yet confirmed as-drilled; permit = the permit's proposed point; gis = an agency-published GIS layer. NULL when both landing-point coordinates are NULL.
Values: survey · reported · footage_call · plat · survey_planned · permit · gis. |
basin |
string | yes | Geologic province the well sits in: a sedimentary basin for roughly 90% of wells, a structural province such as a platform, arch, or uplift for the rest; never a play name. Assigned from AAPG/GHGRP polygons in the US, CER in Canada, and regulator-reported values elsewhere. Published names are our canonical vocabulary: usually the assigning source's own province name, sometimes a documented spelling correction or a commercial merge of adjacent provinces (North Central Texas), and sometimes an established short form (WCSB). |
sub_basin |
string | yes | Structural sub-unit of the basin, populated only where a real named sub-unit exists (Midland Basin, Delaware Basin, Eastern Overthrust Area), never a play name. NULL otherwise. |
field |
string | yes | Field or pool designation as assigned by the source's regulator, in the source's own naming. Where the regulator publishes none, a region may carry a documented, per-well-validated assignment derived from the source's own vocabulary. |
permit_filed_date |
date | yes | Filing date of the well's drilling-permit application. Can postdate permit_approved_date. |
permit_approved_date |
date | yes | Date of the well's earliest drilling-permit approval: the point at which a well enters this register. |
spud_date |
date | yes | Date drilling began. |
completion_date |
date | yes | Date the well was completed per the regulatory filing (e.g. Texas W-2/G-1). The initial completion only: later recompletions live in gold_well_completions. |
first_production_date |
date | yes | First day of the first calendar month with hydrocarbon production (oil or gas above zero). Derived from production data, or, where the regulator itself publishes the well's first-production date and it predates our production history, from that reported date; always month precision (the 1st of the month). For wells present at the start of a region's series, this is the series' first month rather than a verified start for the well; see first_production_is_censored. |
first_production_day |
date | yes | Estimated actual first day of production, at day precision: derived from the first month's producing days (month end minus producing days, plus one), or taken from the regulator's own reported first-production date where its day precision passed validation and no derived value exists. NULL when it cannot be determined. For wells present at the start of a region's series, this is the series' first month rather than a verified start for the well; see first_production_is_censored. |
first_production_is_censored |
boolean | yes | True where first_production_date marks the start of our source's production history for the region rather than a verified start for this well. |
plugged_date |
date | yes | Date the well was plugged. Reflects current state: set when the well is plugged, cleared back to NULL if the well is reopened. |
trajectory |
string | yes | Wellbore trajectory: horizontal, vertical, or directional. Survey-first: where the well's directional surveys give a confident verdict, that overrides the agency-reported well type; otherwise the agency value is used. See trajectory_source for which source won. NULL where not available.
Values: horizontal · vertical · directional. |
trajectory_source |
string | yes | Which source determined trajectory on this well: survey = derived from an as-drilled directional survey (authoritative: overrides the agency field); survey_planned = derived from a planned or proposed survey only, where no as-drilled lateral was filed (lower confidence); reported = the operator- or agency-reported well type (well header, completion record, or permit: the default); permit = the permit application's planned orientation, where that application is the only orientation record we hold - usually a well not yet drilled, sometimes a drilled well with no as-drilled report (regions still carrying permit-planned values under reported re-tag them as they rebuild); inferred = derived from an indirect signal such as a workover flag, a production flag, or a well-name/code convention (lowest confidence). NULL exactly when trajectory is NULL.
Values: survey · survey_planned · reported · permit · inferred. |
primary_product |
string | yes | Whether the well is primarily an oil or a gas well. Production-first: determined from the well's first-year production gas-oil ratio wherever it has production (at or below 6 MCF per BBL reads oil; Texas uses 15): ground truth that wins over any classification. For wells without production: the regulator's own classification where it has proven reliable; in regions reported at producing-unit grain, the unit's gas-oil ratio; otherwise our calibrated estimate from the well's location, depth, era and neighbouring wells (the product of the play it was drilled in), made only where it clears the region's measured agreement bar against the regulator's own classification. See primary_product_source for which. NULL where no signal clears the bar, and for service wells (injection, disposal, storage, observation, service, stratigraphic test, see well_purpose) with no product evidence of their own: a service well never receives an estimated product, but one with its own production history or regulator product classification, typically a well converted after producing, keeps it.
Values: oil · gas. |
primary_product_source |
string | yes | Which signal determined primary_product on this well, from highest to lowest confidence: production_gor = the first-year production gas-oil ratio (ground truth: wins for every well with production); agency_lease_type = the regulator's oil-lease vs gas-well lease classification; agency_well_type = a regulator well-type, well-class or reservoir-fluid classification mapped to oil or gas; agency_permit = oil or gas from the permit record; unit_production_gor = the gas-oil ratio of the producing unit the well belongs to, in regions reported at unit grain rather than per well; inferred = our calibrated estimate from location, depth, era and neighbouring wells, made only where it clears the region's measured accuracy bar (published on the methodology page). Agency and inferred values appear only where production could not decide. NULL exactly when primary_product is NULL.
Values: production_gor · agency_lease_type · agency_well_type · agency_permit · unit_production_gor · inferred. |
well_purpose |
string | yes | The well's function: producer, injector, disposal, observation, storage, service, stratigraphic_test, or other. Same values as gold_well_permits. NULL = the source is silent on purpose; other = the source states a purpose outside this list.
Values: producer · injector · disposal · observation · storage · service · stratigraphic_test · other. |
is_dry_hole |
boolean | yes | True where the regulator recorded the well as a dry hole: drilled and found no producible hydrocarbons. False where the regulator's well record says otherwise; NULL where the source publishes no dry-hole outcome for the well. A dry hole's well record states no operating purpose, so its well_purpose is NULL except where a region's permit register supplies the permitted class; its primary_product, if present, is the play's product marked inferred. |
well_status |
string | yes | The well's lifecycle status: permitted, cancelled (the permit expired or was withdrawn before drilling; no well was drilled under it), drilling, duc (drilled, uncompleted), completed, producing, shut_in, plugged, or abandoned. Not a pass-through of the agency's status field: resolved by precedence across two signal families, our own lifecycle facts (production activity, plugging records, key dates) and the agency-reported status. See well_status_source for which signal won. NULL where no signal of any kind resolves.
Values: permitted · cancelled · drilling · duc · completed · producing · shut_in · plugged · abandoned. |
well_status_source |
string | yes | Which signal determined well_status: production (production activity), plugged_record (a plugging record), agency_reported (the agency's reported status), completion_date, spud_date, or permit_date (the corresponding lifecycle date). NULL where status provenance is not yet tracked for that region, or where well_status itself is NULL.
Values: production · plugged_record · agency_reported · completion_date · spud_date · permit_date. |
is_offshore |
boolean | yes | Whether the well is offshore, as the source classifies it: stored as reported, not derived from coordinates. |
formation |
string | yes | Best-available name of the geologic unit the well is completed in or targets: for producers the producing formation; for injection, disposal, storage, and service wells the completed or permitted reservoir, normalized to a canonical play-level vocabulary. May come from operator reporting, from survey-based determination against formation-top evidence (the well's own confirmed tops or our formation surfaces), or from the surface model alone; see formation_method for which. Pragmatic naming: a value may be a geological group, a formation, or an age. |
zone |
string | yes | Best-available landing zone within the formation, a generic term covering benches, members, sands, and intervals. May come from the source's own reporting or from survey-based determination against the well's confirmed formation tops; see zone_method for which, and zone_reported for what was reported before any determination of ours. Sub-zone detail is carried in the value itself (e.g. "a_upper"). |
zone_reported |
string | yes | The zone attributable to the source: what the operator or a regulatory filing gave, normalized to our vocabulary, captured before any determination of ours could refine or replace it, so you can always tell our contribution from theirs. Unlike formation_reported, this is the normalized value, not the raw filing text. Populated exactly where zone_method is 'reported', and NULL everywhere else, so zone_method tells you, per well, whether the zone we publish came from the source at all. |
zone_method |
string | yes | How zone was determined: reported = the source reported it (including a zone read from a regulatory well-file document); survey = determined from the well's directional survey read against its own confirmed formation tops; well_name = parsed from a zone code in the well name. NULL wherever zone is NULL.
Values: reported · survey · well_name. |
formation_reported |
string | yes | The raw reported formation (uppercased, trimmed): the original filing text before normalization, always preserved so you can verify our normalization and flag issues. Where the well filed a formation or pool code rather than a name, this is the source's own register label for that code, verbatim: the label behind the formation we publish, which for a well with several completion events is the event that supplied it and need not be the event whose pool code the well's other columns carry. Populated even when formation is NULL (unmatched or junk values). NULL where no source string exists behind the value: a value we computed ourselves (a parse or extraction of a source string) or a third-party geological-survey pick (see formation_method = stratigraphic_pick), never appears here. |
formation_method |
string | yes | How formation was determined: reported = derived from source-reported formation or pool information (normalization, decoding, or selection between reported values may apply); survey = determined or verified from the well's directional survey read against formation-top evidence (the well's own confirmed formation tops, or our formation surface model); modeled = filled from the surface model alone, without a survey; stratigraphic_pick = assigned from the deepest published stratigraphic pick on this wellbore: a third-party geological-survey pick rather than an operator declaration, and an estimate of the deepest formation penetrated rather than a declared target or producing formation. The zone column carries its own provenance: see zone_method.
Values: reported · survey · modeled · stratigraphic_pick. |
formation_id |
string | yes | Canonical stratigraphic-unit identifier: the join key to the formations register (gold_formations), which adds the geological backbone (hierarchy, stratigraphic order, external references) beneath the pragmatic formation/zone strings. Resolved from the well's formation and basin. NULL for formation names not yet mapped to the registry. Opaque string. Never parse it. |
elevation_kb |
int32 | yes | Best determination of surface elevation in feet, nominally kelly bushing (KB) datum, used for subsea depth (TVDSS = elevation_kb - TVD). Validated against terrain-model ground elevation: the operator value is kept when the two agree, and replaced or filled from the terrain model when wrong or missing: see elevation_kb_source for which won. Note: most sources report ground-based elevations, so values are effectively ground + ~11 ft; true rig-floor KB from directional surveys (~+40 ft) is preferred where available. The ~30 ft systematic offset is small relative to formation thickness but matters for bench-level work. For bare-earth ground elevation see elevation_gl. |
elevation_kb_reported |
int32 | yes | The raw operator-reported elevation (feet), converted to the KB datum where the source reports ground level (+12 ft) or derrick floor (+1 ft). Always preserved for transparency. NULL when the source has no elevation. May differ from elevation_kb where terrain-model validation corrected or filled the value. |
elevation_kb_source |
string | yes | Which tier determined elevation_kb on this well, from highest to lowest confidence: survey = true rig-floor KB from a directional survey (~40 ft above ground, most accurate); reported = the operator/agency value, kept after agreeing with the terrain model or where no terrain data covers the well (effectively ground + ~11 ft for most sources); dem_estimated = no usable source value, estimated as terrain-model ground + 11 ft: the +11 ft is a fleet-wide median, not a per-well measurement, so treat these as low confidence. NULL exactly when elevation_kb is NULL.
Values: survey · reported · dem_estimated. |
elevation_gl |
int32 | yes | Ground-level (bare-earth) elevation in feet: the true natural surface, distinct from elevation_kb (the rig-referenced drilling datum). Operator-reported native ground elevation where the source supplies it (e.g. New Mexico, Colorado); elsewhere sampled per well from terrain models (USGS 3DEP in the US, Copernicus GLO-30 internationally). NULL only where the well has no coordinates, no covering terrain tile, and no operator ground value (e.g. offshore). |
tvd |
int32 | yes | True vertical depth to the producing zone, in feet: the deepest true vertical depth reached by any of the well's bores. Best-determined: a validated reported TVD, else the directional-survey depth, else, for a vertical well, the well's total depth (TVD equals TD exactly for verticals). Every candidate is validated (TVD at or below MD, plausible bounds) before it lands. See tvd_source for which source won. |
tvd_source |
string | yes | Which source determined tvd on this well: reported = an operator- or agency-reported TVD (the most common); survey = rolled up from the well's as-drilled directional survey (deepest station); survey_planned = rolled up from a planned or proposed survey (lower confidence); td_vertical = the well's total depth used as TVD for a vertical well (exact for verticals; where only a planned permit depth exists, the value is a pre-drill estimate); bhl_geometric = computed geometrically from measured depth and the surface-to-bottom-hole displacement for a barely-deviated well; permit = the permit's proposed vertical depth, the lowest-confidence tier, used only where nothing else exists. NULL exactly when tvd is NULL.
Values: reported · survey · survey_planned · td_vertical · bhl_geometric · permit. |
md |
int32 | yes | Total measured depth along the wellbore, surface to total depth, in feet. For a well with several bores, the deepest hole drilled. |
md_source |
string | yes | Which source determined md on this well: reported = a regulator well-header or completion total depth; survey = the as-drilled directional survey's deepest measured depth; survey_planned = a planned survey's depth; permit = the permit's proposed depth. NULL exactly when md is NULL.
Values: reported · survey · survey_planned · permit. |
lateral_length |
int32 | yes | Lateral length in feet. Four different quantities share this column, and lateral_length_source says which one a row carries. Where a completed-length source exists (perforated interval, treated interval, or operator-reported) it wins and the value is the completed lateral; otherwise the drilled lateral measured along a quality-checked directional survey; otherwise, where only a planned trajectory is on file, its length, which the well may not have been drilled to; otherwise a geometric estimate of the drilled lateral (mapped wellbore path, perforation take-points, heel-to-toe or surface-to-bottom-hole distance calibrated against the region's own reported and surveyed laterals, or measured depth minus vertical depth). A completed length is never overridden by a geometric one, because it is legitimately shorter than the drilled lateral; a quality-checked survey overrides a geometric value that is clearly degenerate, or fills a missing one. A geometric estimate stands where no survey we can use is on file, or where the survey we hold is so much shorter than the estimate that we read it as missing its toe. Group or filter on lateral_length_source before comparing lengths across wells. NULL for vertical wells. |
lateral_length_source |
string | yes | Which source determined lateral_length on this well. Completed length, meaning what was perforated or stimulated, legitimately shorter than the drilled lateral and never overridden by a survey: perf_interval = the perforated or completed interval (preferred); treatment = the stimulated interval; operator_reported = a single reported length. Measured drilled path: survey = the directional survey's along-hole length from heel to toe. Planned rather than as-drilled: survey_planned = the same from a planned survey, for a well that may not have been drilled to it (lower confidence). Geometric estimates of the drilled lateral, which stand where no survey we can use is on file, ranked by accuracy from wellpath_polyline, then take_point and heel_toe_geodesic together, then surface_bhl_geodesic, then md_minus_tvd: wellpath_polyline = the arc length of the mapped wellbore path; take_point = the straight-line distance between the first and last perforation take-points, which excludes the build section; heel_toe_geodesic = the straight line between the lateral's heel and toe; surface_bhl_geodesic = the straight-line surface-to-bottom-hole distance, using the bottom hole bhl_source records for the well (for some wells a proposed rather than drilled location), calibrated against the region's own reported and surveyed laterals (uncalibrated it includes the build-section step-out); md_minus_tvd = measured depth minus vertical depth, which overstates the lateral because the build section counts as lateral. A build-section correction is subtracted from md_minus_tvd: fitted on the region's own surveys where it holds enough of them, otherwise the typical value measured across the regions that do. May differ from the latest completion's lateral_length_source where the survey overrode a degenerate geometric value. NULL exactly when lateral_length is NULL.
Values: perf_interval · treatment · survey · survey_planned · wellpath_polyline · take_point · heel_toe_geodesic · surface_bhl_geodesic · operator_reported · md_minus_tvd. |
Regional columns
Columns carried only where a region's source publishes them.
| Column | Type | Regions | Description |
|---|---|---|---|
abstract |
string | tx | Texas abstract number. |
block |
string | ecuador, gom, pacific, tx | Subdivision within larger area. TX: survey block. GOM: OCS lease block. Future offshore: concession block. |
county |
string | ak, al, ar, ca, co, ks, la, mi, ms, mt, nd, nm, oh, ok, pa, tx, ut, wv, wy | County name (parish in Louisiana). Oklahoma: Osage County's oil and gas are regulated by the BIA Osage Agency, not the OCC: those wells are included in the register; filter county = 'OSAGE' (county_fips 40113) to separate them from the OCC-regulated subset. |
county_fips |
string | ak, al, ar, ca, co, ks, la, mi, ms, mt, nd, nm, oh, ok, pa, tx, ut, wv, wy | 5-digit STATEFP+COUNTYFP (canonical FIPS GEOID). |
county_unique |
string | ak, al, ar, ca, co, ks, la, mi, ms, mt, nd, nm, oh, ok, pa, tx, ut, wv, wy | Disambiguated county for cross-state grouping. Pre-computed against the full US national county list (~3,100). Unique names stay clean (Reeves), ambiguous names get suffix (Washington (PA)). |
district |
string | ca, la, tx | Regulatory district. TX = RRC district (1-10, 7B, 7C, 8A, 9). NM = OCD district. |
lease_name |
string | ca, ks, nd, ok, pa, tx | Regulatory lease name. TX: RRC lease name. NM: OCD lease. ND: NDIC lease. OK: OCC lease. Also used to construct well_name. Not applicable in Canada (no lease concept) or GOM (OCS lease block in block column). |
legal_subdivision |
string | ab, bc, mb, sk | Dominion Land Survey legal subdivision. |
meridian |
string | ab, ak, bc, co, la, mb, ok, sk, ut | Principal or reference meridian of the survey grid, in the source's own designation: the fleet carries several forms because the surveys do. DLS (AB/SK/MB): a bare digit, the Nth meridian west of the Principal Meridian (AB 4/5/6; SK 1/2/3; MB 1); a location east of the Principal Meridian cannot be expressed in this convention and publishes no grid. US PLSS: the state's own designation, which may be an ordinal (CO `6` = the Sixth Principal Meridian), a code (OK `IM`/`CM`), a name (AK `Umiat`, `Seward`) or a bare letter (LA `W`/`E`, published verbatim; Louisiana publishes no decode for them). Because both systems use a bare digit, the same digit means different things in different regions, and a bare letter is the meridian designation, not the direction letter inside range: LA meridian `W` beside range `15W` are two different statements. The well's region tells you which form applies. |
municipal_district |
string | ab, sk | Census subdivision containing the well's surface location, as Statistics Canada names it: a municipality, or an area treated as a municipal equivalent. Mostly the rural unit: an Alberta municipal district, county, specialized municipality, improvement district or special area, or a Saskatchewan rural municipality. A well inside another unit, such as a city, town, village, First Nations reserve or unorganized territory, carries that unit instead. Two different units can share a name. |
municipality |
string | oh, pa | Named civil subdivision of the county in which the well is located: a township, borough, village or city, in the regulator's own naming. The level below county; not a survey grid cell (see township). |
nts_block |
string | bc | Block letter of the well's surface location within its NTS map area. |
nts_map_area |
string | bc | BCER NTS map sheet designation for the well's surface location (e.g. 094-A-15). |
nts_quarter_unit |
string | bc | Quarter-unit letter of the well's surface location in the National Topographic System grid (BC's survey system outside the Peace River DLS block). |
nts_unit |
string | bc | Unit number of the well's surface location within its NTS block. |
ocd_district |
string | nm | New Mexico Oil Conservation Division district number. |
oil_sands_area |
string | ab | Alberta Energy Regulator oil sands area the well is located in: Athabasca, Cold Lake, Peace River Area 1 or Peace River Area 2, as Petrinex reports it. Empty for wells outside a designated oil sands area. |
property_id |
string | nm | NM OCD property/case identifier. Groups wells on a regulatory property. |
protraction_area |
string | gom, pacific | OCS protraction area full name (e.g., Mississippi Canyon). |
quarter |
string | co, mi, mt, nd, nm, ok, ut, wy | The legal-subdivision (aliquot) chain within the section, finest-first, as single-space-separated tokens of variable depth: `NE SW` = the NE quarter OF the SW quarter; `N2 SE` = the north half of the SE quarter. Tokens: quarters `NE`/`NW`/`SE`/`SW` (each dividing its parent by 4), halves `N2`/`S2`/`E2`/`W2` (dividing by 2), and `C` = centre: alone, the centre of the section; heading a chain (`C SE SE`) or fused to a call (`CNE`, `CN2`), the centre of the subdivision it names; a centre call is a point, not an acreage. In a well-formed chain the first token is the finest call and the last the coarsest, and depth is the number of tokens (`NE` = 160 acres, `NE SW` = 40, `N2 SE` = 80). Government lot and tract calls are kept as the source states them, with any internal space closed up so the space stays the token separator (`LOT 5` becomes `LOT5`; `LOT4`, `LT15`), and are not aliquot subdivisions. Empty where the source stated no subdivision or an unreadable one, and where a chain's coarsest call is missing (a fine call alone would mislead); where only a finer call was unreadable, the coarser chain is published. Lettered tract systems (e.g. New Mexico unit letters A-P) are not aliquots and never appear here; a lettered tract is translated to its chain where the map is verified, with the raw letter kept as a region-specific column. |
range |
string | ab, al, ar, bc, ca, co, ks, la, mb, mi, ms, mt, nd, nm, ok, sk, ut, wy | Survey range of the well's surface location (PLSS and DLS). PLSS format: `<number><E|W>`, no space, no zero-pad, e.g. `13E`, `95W`; the direction is always present. PLSS half-ranges likewise: `13.5W`. DLS format (AB/SK/MB): bare unpadded integer. The direction is carried by the meridian, not the range. |
regional_district |
string | bc | BC regional district. |
section |
string | ab, al, ar, bc, ca, co, ks, la, mb, mi, ms, mt, nd, nm, ok, sk, tx, ut, wy | ~1 sq mile parcel of the well's surface location, in the survey system's own designation. Universal across survey systems. Usually a bare integer with no zero-pad and no decimal (`17`, not `17.00` or `017`) and normally 1..36, though irregular or special surveys can legitimately exceed 36. Some states publish a designation that is not a number at all: Texas publishes surveyed half-sections (`34 1/2`) and lot-block calls (`LB10`) where the original survey was not laid out in numbered sections. |
survey |
string | tx | Texas survey name (e.g., T&P RR CO). |
township |
string | ab, al, ar, bc, ca, co, ks, la, mb, mi, ms, mt, nd, nm, ok, sk, ut, wy | Survey township of the well's SURFACE location (PLSS and DLS), the same point latitude/longitude describe. PLSS format: `<number><N|S>`, no space, no zero-pad, e.g. `17N`, `152N`; the direction is always present (T9N and T9S are ~100 miles apart), so a bare PLSS number is left NULL. PLSS half-townships keep their fraction: `33.5N` is a real surveyed township, distinct from both `33N` and `34N`. DLS format (AB/SK/MB): bare unpadded integer, e.g. `16`. DLS townships number north from the 49th parallel and carry no direction. A region whose land is not laid out in a rectangular survey (PLSS or DLS) publishes no township: an original-survey township number that is only meaningful inside its own survey district is not a value this column can carry. |
water_depth_category |
string | gom, pacific | Shelf, Deepwater, Ultra-deep. |
well_pad |
string | pa | Well pad name or identifier. Groups co-located wells on a single surface pad. |
Region-specific columns
Extra columns a single region's source adds.
ab (4 columns)
| Column | Type | Description |
|---|---|---|
licence_number |
string | |
field_code |
string | |
pool_code |
string | The source's pool code for the well's latest completion event, including administrative pseudo-pools such as commingled or temporary codes that name no single formation. |
drilling_completion_date |
date | Date the drilling operations to reach the well's total depth were completed: Petrinex's Finished Drill Date for the well, from the Alberta Well Infrastructure file. |
ak (3 columns)
| Column | Type | Description |
|---|---|---|
geo_area_code |
string | |
unit_code |
string | |
water_depth |
int32 |
ar (2 columns)
| Column | Type | Description |
|---|---|---|
ar_well_key |
string | |
ar_permit_no |
string |
argentina (4 columns)
| Column | Type | Description |
|---|---|---|
resource_type |
string | |
resource_subtype |
string | |
project |
string | |
concession |
string |
bc (3 columns)
| Column | Type | Description |
|---|---|---|
wa_number |
string | |
formation_code |
string | |
area_code |
string |
brazil (4 columns)
| Column | Type | Description |
|---|---|---|
installation |
string | |
well_category |
string | |
water_depth |
int32 | |
pre_salt |
boolean |
ca (1 column)
| Column | Type | Description |
|---|---|---|
area_name |
string |
co (2 columns)
| Column | Type | Description |
|---|---|---|
field_code |
string | |
facility_id |
string |
colombia (3 columns)
| Column | Type | Description |
|---|---|---|
contrato |
string | |
municipio |
string | |
lahee_class |
string |
ecuador (4 columns)
| Column | Type | Description |
|---|---|---|
rig |
string | |
well_classification |
string | |
td_date |
date | |
drilling_end_date |
date |
gom (3 columns)
| Column | Type | Description |
|---|---|---|
water_depth |
int32 | |
area_code |
string | |
total_depth_date |
date | Date this borehole reached total depth, as reported by BOEM |
guyana (4 columns)
| Column | Type | Description |
|---|---|---|
oil_block |
string | |
water_depth |
int32 | |
fluid_type |
string | |
well_slug |
string |
ks (2 columns)
| Column | Type | Description |
|---|---|---|
lease_kid |
string | |
n_workovers |
int32 |
la (1 column)
| Column | Type | Description |
|---|---|---|
la_well_serial |
string |
mb (4 columns)
| Column | Type | Description |
|---|---|---|
licence_number |
string | |
field_code |
string | |
pool_code |
string | |
mineral_rights |
string |
nd (1 column)
| Column | Type | Description |
|---|---|---|
file_no |
int64 |
nm (4 columns)
| Column | Type | Description |
|---|---|---|
lease_type |
string | |
footage_ns |
string | |
footage_ew |
string | |
ocd_unit_letter |
string | New Mexico's lettered unit/tract code for the well's location within its section (NMOCD 16-cell lettering, A-P), exactly as the source publishes it. Not a PLSS aliquot: see quarter. |
pa (1 column)
| Column | Type | Description |
|---|---|---|
unconventional |
boolean |
pacific (3 columns)
| Column | Type | Description |
|---|---|---|
water_depth |
int32 | |
area_code |
string | |
total_depth_date |
date | Date this borehole reached total depth, as reported by BOEM |
sk (4 columns)
| Column | Type | Description |
|---|---|---|
licence_number |
string | |
field_code |
string | |
pool_code |
string | |
drilling_completion_date |
date | Date the drilling operations to reach the well's total depth were completed: Petrinex's Finished Drill Date for the well, from the Saskatchewan Well Infrastructure file. |
tx (1 column)
| Column | Type | Description |
|---|---|---|
n_completions |
int32 | Number of completion events recorded for this well (its row count in gold_well_completions; 0 where none is on file) |
ut (4 columns)
| Column | Type | Description |
|---|---|---|
lease_type |
string | |
surface_owner |
string | |
footage_ns |
string | |
footage_ew |
string |
wv (2 columns)
| Column | Type | Description |
|---|---|---|
quad |
string | |
tax_district |
string |
How these numbers are built is on methodology; the machine twin of this page is data-dictionary.json.