Is there an oil well on this Kansas land — and who answers for it?

Type the API number, the KGS well id, the county or the operator. 518,949 wells, and the answer starts with the part that decides who pays.

Screening a list of parcels or a lease block? Pro access resolves them in bulk, and the datasets are published with their prices — from USD 300 a month for the stream of changes.

12,297 wells were plugged at the State’s expense

That is the number worth knowing. When the Kansas Corporation Commission cannot find a responsible party, it plugs the well itself through the Abandoned Well Plugging and Site Remediation Fund, created in 1996. 12,297 wells on this register carry that class — the clearest sign in the file that an operator walked away.

And 14,915 more sit as inactive: on the register, not producing, not plugged. What that means for the land, and who is liable.

⚠️ The liability rule runs against intuition

Under K.S.A. 55-179 a landowner is responsible for plugging a well only if they tampered with it or took the duty on in writing — otherwise it is the operator’s. But knocking over casing, cutting it off or burying a well can make you the responsible party. If you find an abandoned well, report it; do not tidy it up.

⚠️ Two status fields in this register disagree

We show both rather than pick one. 247,875 wells are classed as plugged and abandoned, but 92,867 of those carry no plugging date; and 26,002 wells carry a date under a different class. The class is what the register asserts; the date is added where it exists.

Where the State had to step in

The counties where the fund has plugged the most wells. It is not a ranking of anything anyone did wrong — it follows where the old fields are.

When they were drilled

This is an old register. The 1980s are the biggest decade on it, and the 1950s come second — which is exactly why so many of these wells have outlived the companies that drilled them.

⚠️ The API number is not the key

It is what the industry types, and it is on 92.1% of wells — but 576 of them share a number with another well. The Survey says plainly that it does not use the API as a unique id; the KGS well id is the key. This site indexes both, so either finds a well, and the record says which is which.

Who operates them

65,728 companies appear as operator of record across 8,550 named oil fields. The operator of record is the one the register carries — not necessarily the one there today, and never a judgement on anyone.

All 82 counties · Orphaned wells · Operators · Oil fields · Formations · How this site is built