How does a mineral owner know how deep a well on their property actually is? I know you can check paperwork, but does the state have a way to establish the true depth of a well or does it trust the oil company? If an oil company permits a well to, say, 16000 feet, how does the mineral owner know for sure that the well goes to 16000 and doesn’t stop at, say, 11000 feet? The point for the oil company would be to hold depths below the actual well after a lease on those depths would otherwise expire.
Usually, the actual survey of a well is posted (at least in OK) on the state website, so you have the final path of the well. The completion reports of a well should be posted in every state which will have the final measured depth of the well. The actual vertical depth of the well will be less but should also be on the completion report.
You need to be careful about the wording in the lease on the depth clause. Some clauses from the operator may have the word “penetrated” and 100 feet below the base… What you really want is the word “producing”. Sometimes, the operator may drill a vertical pilot hole what is much deeper than the planned horizontal well. They may pull up and then kick off at the shallower zone to actually produce. If you have “penetrated”, then the whole depth is held plus the 100 feet from the base or whatever they say in the wording. That could hold hundreds if not thousands of feet of extra depth held. If you have the word “producing”, then they can only hold 100 feet past the base of the producing zone or whatever their wording is. Speaking as a geologist, not an attorney.
Thank you so much for the explanation. I had no idea that oil companies could pull that trick. In our case, our lease uses “producing” so we are probably OK. But I’m still unclear about how one actually knows the final path and depth of a well. Do we rely on the oil company’s word? Or does the state have some way to check that is independent of the oil company’s info?
Pretty much the oil company’s word. They run a survey down the well bore. Pretty accurate.
1 Like
If you are talking about horizontal wells, here’s the link to RRC’s directional survey site. Plug in the API number of the well and you should be able to pull up a certified survey of the completed well bore.
Thank you, Dusty. That info was just what I needed. It enabled me to track down the appropriate Texas administrative code, which told me that state-approved survey companies are generally required do the surveys. Checking various wells on the link you provided confirmed this. So it seems there is some outside confirmation about the direction and inclination of a well.