The Texas Railroad Commission publishes oil and gas production data for every well in the state every month. This data is free and public. It tells you exactly how much oil each well produced, who operates it, and where it is located. But the records can be confusing if you haven't worked with them before. This guide explains how to read them.
What Is a Lease Record?
In Texas, production is reported by lease, not by individual well. A lease is a contract between a landowner (or mineral rights owner) and an oil company that gives the company the right to drill on that land. One lease can cover many wells. When the Railroad Commission publishes production data, it usually groups all the wells on a lease together under one record.
Each lease has a unique ID number assigned by the Railroad Commission. That number stays with the lease permanently. It lets you track the history of a specific piece of land over many years and operators.
What Information Is in a Monthly Production Report?
A typical RRC monthly production report shows:
- Lease name and number. The name given by the operator and the official RRC lease ID.
- Operator name. The company currently producing from the lease.
- County. Which Texas county the lease is in.
- District number. Texas is divided into RRC districts. There are 12 districts. Each district covers a group of counties. Knowing the district helps narrow searches.
- Casinghead gas. Natural gas produced from the oil zone alongside crude oil. It is measured in thousands of cubic feet (MCF).
- Oil production. How many barrels of crude oil the lease produced that month.
- Gas well gas. Natural gas from dedicated gas wells on the same lease.
- Condensate. Light liquid hydrocarbons separated from natural gas at the surface.
- Water. Produced water is reported separately. High water production can signal a well nearing the end of its economic life.
What Is a Disposition Code?
Production reports also include disposition codes. These codes tell you what happened to the oil or gas produced. Common codes include: sold (the oil went to market), used on lease (the operator used some fuel on-site), and flared (gas was burned off). Disposition codes help you understand whether production is generating revenue or being consumed internally.
How Do You Find RRC Production Data?
The RRC publishes monthly production data on its website. The main access points are:
- RRC Online Research Queries — Search by operator, county, lease name, or lease number. Go to rrc.texas.gov and look for the "Oil and Gas Production" section.
- Annual Production Reports — Summarized production by county and formation, published each year.
- TRRC Oil and Gas Production Query — An interactive tool where you can build custom queries by operator, lease, district, or date range.
What Should You Look For?
When evaluating a prospect, look at neighboring leases and wells in the same area. Key things to check:
- Is production increasing, flat, or declining over the past 12 months?
- What is the oil-to-water ratio? High water production early in a well's life can be normal, but rising water with falling oil signals a well in decline.
- What formation is producing? Cross-reference with the permit and completion report to know whether the Wolfcamp, Eagle Ford, or another formation is the source.
ScoutTickets.io pulls all of this RRC data and presents it in a clean, searchable format. Instead of manually downloading files and cross-referencing tables, you can see production trends and well comparisons side by side in a few clicks.