No. 9 of ten · API state code 34
Ohio: the DOGRM.
Division of Oil and Gas Resources Management — the agency that decides where wells go in Ohio. Here is what it holds, what it doesn't, and the one document worth your afternoon.
The agency
Where it came from
Ohio's division sits inside the Department of Natural Resources and holds sole and exclusive authority over the permitting, location and spacing of oil and gas wells in the state, under Chapter 1509 of the Revised Code.
- Agency
- Division of Oil and Gas Resources Management
- Sits within
- Ohio Department of Natural Resources
- Also worth knowing
- Created in 2011 out of the Division of Mineral Resources Management
- Website
- oilandgas.ohiodnr.gov
- Main plays
- Utica · Point Pleasant
- API state code
- 34 — every well number in the state starts with it
- Pooling / unitization
- Unitization at 65%
- Ad valorem on minerals
- Ad valorem: yes — confirm the current treatment locally
- Records access
- Free
- Deeds & leases at
- County Recorder
- Production rank
- No. 9 of the ten, at roughly 400 MMBOE a year (EIA, 2023, 6:1)
Agency names, form numbers, websites and fees change. Confirm anything you intend to rely on against the agency's own site.
If you only do one thing
The document to pull
Ohio · start here
The final plat / horizontal drilling unit boundary — and the unitization order if there is one
Ohio publishes horizontal drilling unit boundaries as a map layer, built from the final survey plats operators file after the wellbores are perforated. It is the fastest way to see whether your parcel is inside a producing unit — and the Division is refreshingly honest that the boundaries are approximate and the filed plat is the accurate document.
- Open the Well Locator and turn on the horizontal drilling units layer.
- Find your parcel and see whether it falls inside a unit boundary. Remember these are approximate — treat them as a pointer, not proof.
- Open the well record for the API number and permit number, then pull the final plat filed after perforation, which is the accurate unit outline.
- If the unit was created by order rather than by lease, pull the unitization order under Revised Code 1509.28.
- Use the well database reports for production history.
If you receive a unitization notice in Ohio, it is because the applicant identified you as having a mineral interest — or a potential one — inside the proposed unit. It is not junk mail.
Worth knowing
What else this agency publishes
Named here rather than linked directly, because deep links into state records systems break more often than the systems do. Search the name from oilandgas.ohiodnr.gov.
Where it differs from Texas
Not the same as the RRC
Ohio requires a supermajority before a unit can be forced: an application succeeds only where the applicant has already acquired more than 65% of the mineral rights in the proposed unit, the unit is reasonably necessary to substantially increase recovery, and the value justifies the cost.
Before you start
Two things to have in hand
Your legal description
Every search on Ohio's system wants to know where, and none of them accept a street address as the real answer. Get the section, township and range — or the survey and abstract — off your deed or an old check stub before you open the website. Without it you are guessing.
The API number, once you find it
Every Ohio well number begins 34. Once you have a well's full API number, write it down: it is the key that works in the state system, in FracFocus, and in every commercial database — and it never changes. Take one apart if you have not seen the structure before.
The thing to remember
The DOGRM holds the well and the unit. It does not hold your ownership. Deeds, leases, probates and the chain of title live with the county recorder in the county where the minerals are — and no state oil and gas agency in the country can tell you what you own.