Oil & Gas Glossary

A unit of energy equal to one barrel (42 US gallons) of crude oil. Used to compare and aggregate different hydrocarbon streams — oil, natural gas, and natural gas liquids — on a common energy basis. The standard conversion is 6 Mcf of natural gas = 1 BOE.

A method for forecasting future production from a well or field by fitting a mathematical model to historical production data. The most widely used approach is the Arps method, which describes three decline types: exponential, hyperbolic, and harmonic.

The total volume of hydrocarbons — oil, gas, or both — expected to be economically produced from a well or reservoir over its entire producing life, including past production and projected future production.

The production rate of a newly completed well, typically measured over the first 24 hours, 30 days, or 90 days of production. IP rate is a key indicator of well quality and is used to benchmark completions against type curves and offset wells.

Production reported at a lease or reporting-unit level rather than a single-well level.

A state-reported oil, gas, or water volume record tied to a well, lease, operator, county, or reporting period depending on the source.

A permit application for drilling a new well, used by many state and federal systems.

A regulatory record filed after well completion that can provide completion timing, formation, interval, treatment, and well status details depending on the state.

A regulatory authorization required before drilling a new oil or gas well. In federal and many state jurisdictions, the permit is called an Application for Permit to Drill (APD). Permit filings are a leading indicator of operator activity and are publicly available from state regulatory agencies.

Source labels that identify the field, reservoir, or target formation tied to a well, permit, or completion record.

A public hydraulic-fracturing chemical disclosure registry used as one source for completion-related context.

Permits that have been filed or approved but have not necessarily converted into reported spuds, completions, or production.

A source record indicating that drilling start was reported, usually after a permit was issued.

The date drilling begins on a well. Spud dates are usually reported after a rig has moved on location and started drilling, so they are a stronger activity signal than a permit alone.

The Texas drilling permit application record used to track proposed oil and gas well activity before a well is drilled.

A source description of well orientation or type, such as horizontal, vertical, directional, oil, gas, injection, or disposal.

The fraction of gross production revenue that a working interest owner is entitled to receive after all royalty burdens — including landowner royalties and overriding royalties — have been deducted.

A percentage ownership in an oil and gas lease that entitles the owner to a share of production revenues but also obligates them to pay a proportionate share of all drilling, completion, and operating costs.

Reserves from wells that are currently producing and expected to continue producing under existing operating conditions. PDP is the highest-confidence and most liquid reserve category, and forms the core of most producing property valuations.

The present value of estimated future net revenues from proved oil and gas reserves, discounted at an annual rate of 10%. PV10 is the industry standard metric for valuing producing oil and gas properties and is required to be disclosed in SEC filings by public E&P companies.

A unique 14-digit identifier assigned to every oil and gas well drilled in the United States by the American Petroleum Institute. The API number encodes the state, county, and unique well identifier, and serves as the universal primary key for linking well data across regulatory databases.

The 10-digit version of an API well number, commonly used for joining well records at the base-well level.

Federal oil and gas records from the Bureau of Land Management, including lease, APD, and federal land activity context.

A county-level concentration or movement pattern in permits, spuds, production, operators, infrastructure records, or project notices.

A public regulatory record tied to an oil and gas facility, emissions source, processing site, or infrastructure location depending on the regulator.

The source basis behind an infrastructure row, such as a facility permit, route-backed pipeline permit, construction notice, or surface-location lead.

A source-backed record or group of records that suggests a midstream project, permit, route, facility, or infrastructure follow-up deserves review.

The New Mexico regulator that publishes oil and gas permit, well, operator, and production-related records.

The North Dakota state agency whose public records support Bakken production, operator, well, and activity monitoring.

A structured interface for querying oil and gas records such as wells, permits, production, operators, and infrastructure data.

The Oklahoma regulator whose records support Oklahoma permit, spud, operator, and production-source workflows.

A data-first operator page or report that summarizes permits, spuds, production context, counties, source dates, and watch items.

A ranked list of operators worth follow-up based on source-record activity such as permits, spuds, completions, production, or infrastructure signals.

The operator name or identifier exactly as it appears in a source record.

A change in the operator label or responsible operator for a well, lease, permit, or facility record.

The time between a permit record and the first reported production record for a well or group of wells.

A physical or commercial connection point between pipeline systems, facilities, or gathering networks.

A repeatable process for turning public records into a table, map, export, alert, report, account list, or source-backed decision file.

A conversion path from a public sample or source review to the current EnergyNetWatch table, map, export, report, or API-ready dataset.

GIS, permit, map, or source context that supports the existence or location of a pipeline or infrastructure route.

The date or publication window that tells users how current a public record source is.

A dated review of a public source file, table, PDF, or dataset that records counts, source clock, caveats, and follow-up fields.

Public oil and gas records published by state regulators, including wells, permits, production, operators, completions, and infrastructure records.

A durable public page that tracks recurring state-level permit, operator, county, production-clock, and infrastructure signals.

A Texas pipeline construction notice record that can show project name, operator, counties, product, diameter, mileage, timing, and T-4 references where present.

The primary state agency that regulates the Texas oil and gas industry. Despite its name, the RRC has not regulated railroads since 2005. It issues drilling permits, oversees well operations, collects monthly production reports from all Texas operators, and maintains the public production database that is the largest single source of well-level production data in the United States.

A Texas Railroad Commission pipeline permit record used to identify pipeline operator, commodity, county, classification, and source context.

The federal statistical agency that publishes energy production, consumption, price, and infrastructure data.

A source label describing a well lifecycle state, such as permitted, drilling, completed, producing, shut-in, inactive, or plugged.

The Wyoming regulator whose APD, well, production, and activity records support Wyoming oil and gas workflows.