Mission Statment
The Utah Oil and Gas Program within the Division of Oil, Gas, and Mining:
- Promotes the exploration, development, and conservation of oil and gas resources
- Fosters a fair economic return to the general public for those resources
- Maintains sound, regulatory oversight to ensure environmentally acceptable activities
Responsibilities
By legislative mandate, the Oil and Gas Program of the Utah Division of Oil, Gas, and Mining has oversight responsibility for the following:
- All operations for and related to the production of oil or natural gas including:
- drilling, testing, equipping, completing, operating, producing, and plugging of wells, and reclamation of sites
- The spacing and location of wells
- Operations to increase ultimate recovery, such as:
- cycling of natural gas
- the maintenance of pressure and introduction of natural gas, water, or other substances into a reservoir
- The disposal of salt water and oil-field wastes
- The underground and surface storage of oil, natural gas, or products
- The flaring of natural gas from an oil well
Oil & Gas Emergencies
During office hours, call 801-538-5296. After office hours, call Primary:801-386-3902 or Secondary:435-820-0862.
After calling, please submit a report within 5 days of the event using the Incident Report eForm. NOTE: Operators using the Incident Report eForm may now amend existing reports previously entered into the system. Original reports should be amended when corrections are needed, rather than creating new reports for the same event.
Definitions of Major Events:
- Unauthorized release of more than 25 barrels of oil, salt water, oil field chemicals, or oil field wastes.
- Unauthorized flaring, venting, or wasting of
- More than 500 Mcf of natural gas at any drilling or producing well site, or at any injection or disposal facility
- More than 1500 Mcf of natural gas at any transportation, gathering, or processing facility
- Any fire which consumes the volumes shown above
- Any spill, venting, or fire, regardless of the volume involved, which occurs in a sensitive area, e.g., parks, recreation sites, wildlife refuges, lakes, reservoirs, streams, urban or suburban areas
- Each accident which involves a fatal injury
- Each blowout; loss of control of a well
- Each release of natural gas containing 100 or more parts per million of hydrogen sulfide (H2S) that is not controlled
Rules
The division shall be notified of major or minor reportable events occurring at any oil or gas drilling, producing, transportation, gathering or processing facility, or at any injection or disposal facility.
Rule Reference: Rule R649-3-32 Incident Reporting (links to the Office of Administrative Rules website, you will need to search for the rule.)
Roles of the Division of Oil, Gas, and Mining
The division's Oil and Gas Program -- so far as possible -- will perform the following roles for the types of events described below:
- Be a central gathering point of information.
- Provide short-term guidance to operators and citizens
- Provide long-term oversight to assure that remediation of the incident is accomplished
The division does not provide emergency response for these types of incidents.
Email Us
Click here to email your comments/questions regarding oil, natural gas, or mining. We'll do our best to serve you!
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Oil and Gas Facts
Last updated: April 2015
- The world's top five crude oil-producing countries in 2013 were: (1st) Unites States, (2nd) Saudi Arabia, (3r4d) Russia, (4th) China, and (5th) Canada
- The world's top five crude oil consumers in 2013 were: (1st) United States, (2nd) China, (3rd) Japan, (4th) Russia, and (5th) India
- About 35 percent of the crude oil and petroleum products used in the United States during 2013 came from other countries
- The top U.S. crude oil supplier in 2013 was Canada (2,593,000 barrels/day). Saudi Arabia was second, followed by Venezuela, Russia, and then Mexico
- About 17% of the crude oil produced in the United States during 2013 was produced on Federal Offshore leases in the Gulf of Mexico
- The top crude oil-producing states in 2013 were: Texas, North Dakota, California, Alaska, and Oklahoma
- Utah ranked 11th in the United States in crude oil production and 10th in gross natural gas production (not including Federal Offshore areas) during 2013
- Utah ranked 9th in the United States in crude oil proved reserves and 11th in natural gas proved reserves (not including Federal Offshore areas) in 2013
- Oil drilling operations and wells are mostly concentrated in the Uinta Basin in northeastern Utah
- Utah contains 3 of the top 100 natural gas fields in the United States: Natural Buttes, Chapita Wells, and Red Wash fields
- Utah contains 3 of the top 100 oil fields in the United States: Monument Butte, Altamont-Bluebell, and Greater Aneth fields
- Oil production more than doubled in Utah from 2004 to 2013 and met nearly six-tenths of the state's demand in 2012
- Utah's 2014 oil production was the highest since 1985 and the 2nd highest in state history
- About one-fourth of Utah's total crude oil production in 2013 came from tribal lands
- The Uinta Basin of eastern Utah overlays part of the Green River oil shale, a kerogen-rich formation that, by some estimates, could be the world's largest oil resource. Pilot oil shale projects have been undertaken in the area, but current technology for removing oil from kerogen is costly and water-intensive. Extraction of oil from kerogen is not yet being pursued commercially
- Utah has approximately 5,100 producing oil wells and 7,200 producing natural gas wells
- Products which are made from or use derivatives of petroleum include:
Gasoline, diesel, jet fuel, propane, heating oil, asphalt, ink, crayons, bubble gum, dishwashing liquids, deodorant, eyeglasses, tires, ammonia, clothing, skis, roofing materials, denture adhesive, shampoo, life jackets, toilet seats, linoleum, hand lotion, toothbrushes, upholstery, water pipes, guitar strings, nylon rope, DVD's, nail polish, antiseptics, fertilizers, aspirin, sun glasses, insecticides, perfumes, soap, refrigerant, paint, hair coloring, lipstick, surf boards, tents, movie film, drinking cups, soft contact lenses, heart valves, and much more. Natural gas is an essential raw material for many products, such as: Paints, fertilizer, plastics, antifreeze, dyes, photographic film, medicines, and explosives
