Utah Oil & Gas Home

Welcome...

The state of Utah is ranked 11th in the country in crude oil production and 9th in natural gas gross production (Energy Information Administration; rankings based on 2010 oil production and 2009 natural gas production, not including Federal Offshore production areas). There are approximately 9,700 wells currently in production within the state.

The Oil and Gas Program of the Utah Division of Oil, Gas and Mining (part of the Department of Natural Resources) was established in 1955 to prevent the waste of oil and natural gas, encourage conservation and protect correlative rights of oil and natural gas owners.

Our Mission today is to promote the exploration, development and conservation of oil and natural gas resources in Utah, to foster a fair economic return to the general public for such resources, and to maintain sound regulatory practices to ensure environmentally acceptable activities.

News and Announcements...

    NOTICE TO ALL USERS - WEBSITE PROBLEMS (5/14/2012) - 
    The Utah Department of Technology Services (DTS) shut down our website on Friday, May 4, due to security concerns. Our programmers have been working long hours to try and fix the perceived problems. Our first priority was to get our ePermit program back up and running so oil and gas operators could file their reports. That was accomplished on Thursday, May 10. Unfortunately, all functions of the website under the "Data Center" directory (i.e., LiveData Search, Well Files search, Well Logs search, and Data Research Center) are still off-line. These functions may be down for another couple of days. All of this is a side-effect of the massive security breach encountered by the Utah Department of Health in March. DTS is being extremely cautious in its review of all state servers and shutting down everything that doesn't meet their new standards. If you would like to contact our Public Information Center (801-538-5279 or vickydyson@utah.gov), they may be able to assist you with some of your data needs. We apologize for this inconvenience.

    U.S. Interior Secretary Ken Salazar Approves 3,675 New Gas Wells in Utah
    (Deseret News; 5/8/2012)     
    An announcement was made that Anadarko will be allowed to develop 3,675 new natural gas wells over the next decade in Uintah County. The project will support more than 4,000 jobs while safeguarding critical wildlife habitat and air quality. Click here to read more.

    New Anadarko Natural Gas Project Praised by Southern Utah Wilderness Alliance
    (Deseret News; 4/6/2012)     
    Environmentalists are lauding a natural gas drilling project proposed for Uintah County as the way to do business. Click here to read more.

    NOTICE TO OPERATORS (2/28/2012) - 
    Operators Encouraged to Report on Hydraulic Fracturing Activities     
    Hydraulic fracturing has been a commonly used method for stimulating production from oil and gas wells for many years. The process, however, has become an increasingly controversial topic. As a way to address some of the public's concerns, all Utah well operators are hereby encouraged to voluntarily report the chemical content of their hydraulic fracturing fluids to the website FracFocus, located at http://fracfocus.org. To read Director John Baza's Notice to Operators, click here.

    Hydraulic Fracturing - What Is It? (2/8/2012) 
    There are a lot of stories in the media these days about hydraulic fracturing - a method used for nearly 65 years to increase production in oil and natural gas wells. Here are a few websites that will help you learn more about this process:
    - FracFocus (Ground Water Protection Council and the Interstate Oil and Gas Compact Commission)
    - Energy in Depth (Independent Petroleum Association of America)
    - Hydraulic Fracturing (American Petroleum Institute)

    Office Hours
    State offices have returned to a five-day work week. The Division of Oil, Gas and Mining is open Monday thru Friday, 8:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. Contact us if you have questions.