Railroad Commission of Texas said last week it now has 83.4 million oil and gas digital records that can be search and viewed online. That includes 15 million records digitized in the past year as part of the commission’s goal to increase transparency and make information held by the agency available to the public.
The oldest regulatory agency in Texas, the commission has oil and gas records dating to the 1930s on paper in district offices and on microfilm. Documents that have been digitized include oil and gas production records and well completion records with depths and producing fields of a well. They are used by researchers, royalty owners, energy companies and others.
Danny Sorrells, deputy executive director, said Oct. 29 the project “is a win-win for the public and the agency. Not only does it give the public easy access to historical information dating back almost 100 years, but our staff can now devote the time they would have spent tracking those records for the public for other tasks at the agency.”