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Find out what's under a California property.

Search any address against California's oil and gas well database. See every well of record nearby, how far off the record may be, and what it doesn't tell you.

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Before you search — what this data can and cannot tell you

This searches the State of California's own oil and gas well database. That record is the best public source available, and it is incomplete and imprecise. Specifically:

  • Recorded locations are often wrong. Most older wells were plotted from digitised maps rather than surveyed. A wellhead can sit hundreds of feet from where the state places it.
  • Two thirds of plugged wells have no drill date on record. Where the state cannot say when a well was drilled, it cannot tell you which era's plugging standards were applied.
  • Some wells appear in no record at all. California was drilled long before permitting existed. A result of zero is not evidence that no well exists.
  • "Plugged" is a filing, not an inspection. It means an abandonment was reported. It says nothing about the casing, the cement, or the condition of that well today.

We report what the state record says, and we flag where that record is uncertain. Nothing here is an engineering opinion or a determination that any well was properly abandoned.

Closing the gap

The free search reads the state file. The research package finds out what's actually there.

Everything above is a limitation of the government record, not of your property. Those limits are resolvable — but not from a database. It takes the original documents, historical imagery, and someone who knows how to read them.

Plugging detail from a California oil well abandonment report listing cement plugs from surface to 94 feet, 834 to 934 feet, 934 to 1611 feet and 1883 to 2783 feet, a welded abandonment plate on 10-3/4 inch casing, perforations at 2004 to 2784 feet, and junk in hole recorded as none
The plugging detail from a real well file

Four cement plugs at surface–94', 834'–934', 934'–1611' and 1883'–2783'. A welded plate on the casing. Perforations left in place. This is the level of detail that exists in the file and nowhere in the state's searchable database. Getting it takes knowing which wells to request, which records to ask for, and how to read what comes back.

What's included — and what each piece is worth
Complete CalGEM well file requestEvery document the state holds on each well near your address — drilling history, casing and cement records, and the abandonment report where one exists.
$650
Satellite & historical aerial photo pullFrames from the 1920s forward, lined up against your address. Derricks show up here that never made it into any state record.
$450
Historic map searchUSGS topographic quads, original survey plats, section maps and Sanborn fire insurance maps where they cover the property.
$375
Quarter-mile injection & disposal well recordsInjection wells move fluid underground under pressure. Their records are separate from production wells and are rarely checked.
$475
Directional bore reviewMore than 46,000 California wells were drilled at an angle. The surface marker is not where the well goes. We check which bores travel beneath you.
$300
Idle, orphan & operator status checkWhich nearby wells are idle rather than plugged, and whether the operator of record still exists. Where a company dissolved decades ago, there is nobody left to answer for its wells.
$250
Positional uncertainty analysisHow far each recorded wellhead may actually sit from where the state plotted it, mapped against your address.
$350
Protected groundwater zone determinationWhether nearby wells sit in a zone carrying stricter plugging expectations and closer regulatory attention.
$175
Written findings letter & annotated mapsWhat we found, what it means for this specific address, and what the record still cannot establish. Written to be handed to an agent, lender, buyer or attorney.
$400
Next-steps action planIf something is there, exactly what to do about it — and in what order.
$225
Organised digital archiveEvery document we pull, indexed and delivered in one place, yours to keep.
Included
Total value if bought separately
$3,650
Your price, everything included ONE FLAT FEE · PER ADDRESS · 100% MONEY BACK
$799

If nothing is there, you will know it. If something is, you will have the documents, the locations, and a clear set of next steps to protect yourself — before a buyer, a lender, or an inspector finds it first.

100%BACK
100% money-back guarantee

If you are not satisfied with the research we deliver, tell us and we refund the full amount. No forms, no arguing. We would rather lose the fee than have you feel you were sold something that did not help.

Start a research package — $799

A note on limits. To keep this free and stop automated scraping, we allow one property search per visitor per day. If you need to run more — agents, inspectors, builders and attorneys often do — just reach out and we'll clear your account for higher volume at no charge.

Search result

 

 
State record only. Distances are measured to the county address point, and recorded well positions carry significant error — often hundreds of feet for older wells. California has wells that appear in no state record at all, so a result of zero is not proof that no well exists. Confirming what is actually beneath a property takes historical imagery and the original well files — that is the $799 research package.
0within 100 ft
0within 500 ft
0within ¼ mile
Plugged Idle — not plugged Active Recorded positional error This address
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Want this report emailed? COMPLETELY FREE

The full report includes the map, every well within a half mile, and a plain-English guide to what the record does and doesn't establish. Yours to forward to an agent, a lender, or an attorney.

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232,539wells of record, every California county
146,302recorded as plugged and abandoned
66%have no drill date in the state file
17%located by survey rather than estimate
Why this matters

Every one of these wells is still down there.

Aerial view of the Salt Lake Oil Field crowded with oil derricks
Salt Lake Oil Field → Park La Brea, Los Angeles

The derricks came down. The wells did not. Across California, tens of thousands of wells were sealed and built over — under houses, driveways, schools and apartment towers — using whatever the standard happened to be at the time, and often with no record of when they were drilled at all.

Historical and present-day aerial imagery · Los Angeles, California

How it works

Three steps, about ten seconds

  1. Type the address

    Any address in California. We resolve it to a location, then search from there.

  2. We search the state well database

    Every well of record within a half mile, measured from the property, with cancelled permits removed so you don't get false alarms.

  3. Read the report

    On screen immediately. Email it to yourself if you want a copy to forward to an agent, a lender or an attorney.

Why trust this

We'll show our work

We show you how to do it yourself

The whole free process is written up step by step, with screenshots. If you have more time than money, use that instead and pay us nothing.

Stated sources and dates

Every report says which dataset it used and when it was downloaded. No mystery methodology.

Not a government service

We are independent and not affiliated with CalGEM or any agency. The underlying data is public and we tell you how to get it.

We tell you when we don't know

Where the record can't answer a question, the report says so plainly instead of guessing.