KGS Home > Kentucky Oil and Gas Well Location Shapefile
Contact: Carrie Pulliam
Some links in this document require an active connection to the Web. This version of the documentation has been prepared for distribution with the oil and gas maps of Kentucky on CD-ROM; all references to "kyog_*" apply to the ogwells shapefile.
Data and images in this distribution are copyrighted (2005, 2006, 2007, 2008) by the Kentucky Geological Survey, University of Kentucky. The user is granted the right to use these data to produce maps, charts, and reports. The user of these data is further granted the right to provide copies of the oil and gas well-data shapefiles included as described in this document provided:
If you have acquired these data from a third party, the Kentucky Geological Survey invites you to visit our Web site.
Data in this file are presented as is with no warranty either expressed or implied as to the completeness or accuracy of any location or well status. Data on file at the Kentucky Geological Survey are submitted by well operators under requirements established by Kentucky Revised Statute 353. The producing or abandoned status of any well is dependent on the completion type reported by the operator on the well log and completion report, on the availability of a plugging affidavit, and on other information or maps on file in the Public Information Center of the Kentucky Geological Survey.
Some wells in the database have duplicate locations (sometimes more than one well at a given location). As in the case of workovers and deepenings of existing wells, this is intended. However, in the recent conversion of our database to new software on a new server, some valid locations were inadvertently duplicated to wells that have no location. These wells are being identified and corrected. Suspect invalid duplication if there are significantly more than four or five entries at a given location and the location is in the middle of a 1-minute or 5-minute Carter coordinate section or the middle of a 7.5-minute quadrangle. Your assistance in this matter is requested and appreciated.
The oil and gas well data included in this distribution are typically updated on a monthly basis. To determine when the oil and gas well data were last updated, check the extract date in the file kyog_info.txt included with each data distribution. Users are invited to go to Kentucky Oil and Gas Well Location Shape Files and subscribe to the RSS feed to be notified when updates are uploaded.
The wells in this distribution include only those wells for which a complete Carter coordinate location is available; that is, only wells for which latitude and longitude can be calculated. For most areas in Kentucky there are wells for which we have insufficient location data to determine latitude and longitude. To obtain data for wells for which only the county, 7.5-minute quadrangle, or partial Carter coordinate are known, copies of the electronic data must be obtained.
Limited production data by well are available at the Kentucky Division of Oil and Gas Web site. Oil and gas production data by county are available in the Division's Technical Information Library.
Both shape files are projected using the North American Datum of 1983. Location data in the attributes supplied in both shapefiles include latitude and longitude in both North American datums of 1927 and 1983 (NAD27 and NAD83). The shapefile kyog_dd.shp was created using location values from the two fields: Rec_Lat83 and Rec_Lng83. The attribute files (*.dbf) of either shapefile can be loaded into ArcView as a table, and the fields "Rec_Lat27" and "Rec_Lng27" can be used to create a shapefile projected to the NAD27 datum. Latitude and longitude are expressed as decimal degrees for both datums. By convention, west longitude is expressed as a negative number.
The Kentucky Geological Survey maintains a collection of oil and gas well samples at the KGS Earth Analysis Research Library where samples acquired during drilling or augering are catalogued and stored. These samples are available for inspection and limited analysis. For information, contact staff at the EARL (859-389-8810)
Except for their projections, the kyog_dd and kyog_1z shape files have the same components as distributed. For simplicity, the documentation will refer to the appropriate shape files as KYOG_* where the asterisk refers to the suffix specifying the projection.
KYOG_* is a zipped archive file containing an ArcView shapefile that provides an introduction and overview of the oil and gas well data available in Kentucky. This shapefile was created using services available through ActiveX, SQL, and ArcGIS 9.1. These data may be viewed with ArcView, ArcExplorer, or any software that supports shapefiles. ArcExplorer is a free viewer available for downloading at the site (visited 10-May-2005).
The kyog_* shapefile contains data for nearly 150,000 oil and gas well locations in Kentucky and consists of seven separate files:
With Microsoft Access 2013, Microsoft dropped support for dBase format files. The *.dbf component in the shape files that contain the oil and gas well attribte data can't be opened or imported directly into an Access database. To import the data to Access, first open the *.dbf file with Excel 2013 (check to make sure all records were retrieved). Save the Excel file (*.xlsx format). The Excel file may be opened or imported into Access.
| API | The API-style well identification number for the well. Assigning API numbers is part of an ongoing project to match data between the Kentucky Geological Survey and Division of Oil and Gas databases. As the project proceeds, more API numbers will become available. Due to the nature of the matching process, some API numbers might change as wells are matched and location problems resolved. |
| KGS_Recno | Unique serial identifier for each well in the KGS database |
| Ltr | 5-minute Carter coordinate section letter ("A" to "Z" and "AA" to "GG") |
| Num | 5-minute Carter coordinate section number (0 to 92) |
| Sec | 1-minute Carter coordinate section in which the well is located (1 to 25) |
| FNS | Measurement in feet from the north or south bounding line of the 1-minute Carter coordinate section in which the well is located. |
| NS | Designation of the reference bounding line, either north (="N") or south (="S"), of the 1-minute Carter coordinate section in which the well is located. |
| FEW | Measurement in feet from the east or west bounding line of the 1-minute Carter coordinate section in which the well is located. |
| EW | Designation of the reference bounding line, either east (="E") or west (="W"), of the 1-minute Carter coordinate section in which the well is located. |
| Surf_Elev | Ground-level elevation of the well in feet above sea level. |
| USGS_Quad | Name of the 7.5-minute, 1:24,000-scale quadrangle on which the well is located |
| County | County in which the well is located |
| Org_Farm | Original farm or lease name (usually mineral owner in the case of severed minerals) under which the well was drilled. This name matches the drilling records on file at the Kentucky Geological Survey and may not match the current farm name as recorded for legal purposes in the Division of Oil and Gas database. |
| Org_Oper | Well operator of record when the well was originally drilled. This name matches the drilling records on file at the Kentucky Geological Survey. This name may not match the current operator as recorded for legal purposes in the Division of Oil and Gas database as wells are transfered to new operators. |
| Org_WellNo | Well number assigned by the original operator. This number matches the drilling records on file at the Kentucky Geological Survey. This number may change as wells are transferred to new operators. |
| TD | Total depth of the well in feet |
| Tdfm | Name of the formation penetrated at the total depth of the well. Formation codes are derived from the American Association of Petroleum Geologists stratigraphic code. |
| Org_WClass | Original API well classification. DEV: Development well DPT: Deeper pool test DPTD: Deeper pool test resulting in development of existing producing formation EXT: Extension (outpost) well MSC: Miscellaneous well NFW: New field wildcat NPW: New pool wildcat SPT: Shallower pool test SRV: Service well, EPA Class II injection STR: Stratigraphic test with records released to the public UNC: Unclassified WSW: Water supply well (note, should be SRV with an Org_Result of WS) |
| Org_Result | An indication of the manner in which the well was originally completed. AB: Well known to be abandoned but with no plugging information on file AI: Air injection CBM: Coalbed methane gas producer COI: Carbon dioxide injection CP: Cathodic protection D&A: Dry & abandoned DG: Domestic gas ERI: Enhanced recovery injection (Class II) FF: Fire flood GAS: Gas producer GI: Gas injection GS: Gas storage IA: Improperly abandoned LOC: Location (new permit issued or insufficient data) N2I: Nitrogen injection O&G: Combined oil & gas producer OB: Observation OIL: Oil producer SI: Steam injection SRI: Secondary recovery injection (Class II) SWD: Salt water disposal TA: Temporarily abandoned TAI: Thermal & air injection TP: Termination pending TRI: Tertiary recovery injection (Class II) TRM: Terminated (permit expired or cancelled) UN: Unknown (as classified by KY DOGC) WD: Water disposal WI: Water injection WS: Water supply WW: Water well |
| IOF_IP | Initial open flow (IOF) for gas wells or initial potential (IP) for oil wells. These data are reported for the deepest or only producing interval (pay). Wells with commingled production may not have IOF or IP in this database. BOPD: barrels of oil per day BOPH: barrels of oil per hour DISP: the deepest pay reported is a disposal zone INJECT: the deepest pay reported is an injection zone MCFGPD: thousand cubic feet of natural gas per day MMCF: million cubic feet of natural gas per day SUPPLY: the deepest pay reported is a water-supply zone |
| DeepestPay | Name of the deepest or only producing formation. Formation codes are derived from the American Association of Petroleum Geologists stratigraphic code. |
| cdate | Date well was completed, if known |
| plug_date | Date well was plugged and abandoned, if known |
| Plug_afdvt | Availability of documentation on the manner in which the well was plugged and abandoned. |
| core | Call number of core on file at KGS |
| cuttings | Call number of drill cuttings on file at KGS |
| Elog | Service abbreviation of geophysical log on file. Null value indicates no logs. Any other value indicates one or more logs are available. |
| Plotsymbol | General well result field for use in plotting the wells in a GIS. See table of values in this document. |
| Permit | Permit issued by the Kentucky Division of Oil and Gas. At this time, this is the KGS formatted version of the permit that eliminates dashes and right justifies the permit in a seven-character field. |
| images | The URL of the DjVu folder of images for the scanned records available for this well. |
| bore_type | A code indicating the geometry of the well bore. V: Conventional vertical well bore (not intentionally deviated) D: A deviated well bore (intentionally deviated, but does not reach horizontal) H: A horizontal well bore potentially including multiple laterals and pinnate deviations from those laterals |
| Rec_Lat27 | North latitude of well in decimal degrees (NAD27) |
| Rec_Lng27 | West longitude of well in decimal degrees (NAD27) |
| Rec_Lat83 | North latitude of well in decimal degrees (NAD83) |
| Rec_Lng83 | West longitude of well in decimal degrees (NAD83) |
| Note that the plot symbol codes supplied in this data set have been generalized from the results available in the main Oil and Gas Well Record Database. See the FAQ on result codes for more information | |
| D&A | Dry and abandoned wells (Abnd = -1 by default) |
| GAS | Wells completed as gas wells (including abandoned producers) |
| LOC | Newly permitted locations or historic wells for which completion data are not available in the KGS database |
| MSC | Miscellaneous well types, including cathodic protection, observation, water supply wells, and others |
| O&G | Wells completed as combined oil and gas producers (including abandoned producers) |
| OIL | Wells completed as oil (including abandoned producers) |
| SRV | Secondary recovery input, water injection, and other miscellaneous well types associated with secondary or enhanced oil recovery (EPA Class II wells) |
| STR | Stratigraphic tests released to the public (Abnd = -1 by default) |
| TRM | Locations for which a permit was issued but the permit was cancelled by the operator or allowed to expire. Wells with this designation are included to enable tracking the status of permits. |
By State law, data for wells permitted as stratigraphic tests are held permanently confidential, unless information is released by the operator directly to the Kentucky Geological Survey and designated by the operator to be publicly available. Those wells designated as "STR" in the data file have been publicly released. When electronic data are provided as lists or databases, these publicly released stratigraphic tests are designated "STRP." For a time, an operator was allowed to convert a well drilled as a stratigraphic test to another purpose. This practice led to producing wells for which no information was publicly available. To eliminate this, a policy was adopted that all wells permitted as stratigraphic tests must be plugged, and no conversions are allowed. Thus, there may be a few stratigraphic tests for which a producing interval is reported; these wells are assumed to be abandoned.
Additional details for each well are available in electronic form. Subsets of the data may be specified. Well data may be selected based on counties, Carter coordinates, quadrangle, latitude and longitude bounded areas, depth of penetration, available records, and other parameters. For example, a database of the wells in Leslie and Perry Counties that penetrate the Devonian shale or deeper zones and have lithodensity logs may be created. Data are distributed by electronic mail. For larger databases, the information can be written to CD-ROM or posted to an anonymous ftp site for downloading.
There is a charge for some digital well-record data requests that can't be readily accomplished through the Kentucky Geological Survey online oil and gas well services. For information and the cost of these services contact Carrie Pulliam or by phone to 859-323-0543. MasterCard and VISA are accepted.
The Kentucky Geological Survey has implemented an online oil and gas well-data search facility. Data may be accessed using a selection of predefined queries or through an interactive map service. Scanned images of oil and gas well records, electric and geophysical logs (images and LAS files), production data, and stratigraphic tops are available for viewing, printing, or downloading. More information on these services is available on the KGS Web site.
In addition to the interactive query and map server applications, the Kentucky Geological Survey has implemented the following services:
If you have any questions or problems, contact:
Carrie Pulliam
Kentucky Geological Survey
340 MMRB
University of Kentucky
Lexington, KY 40506-0107
Phone: 859-323-0543
Email: Carrie Pulliam