Wellbore Form Dates — what it is, in short

What this is

Record type 03. The filing calendar of a wellbore: the W-2/G-1 completion date, the drilling completion date, the dates attached to each form key, the surface elevation and how it was determined, and the plug-back depths.

It is the closest thing the wellbore database has to a timeline.

How it is laid out

The Railroad Commission publishes this as Fixed-width ASCII. Columns are byte ranges with no separators, described only in a scanned record layout. We decode it into a table you can open anywhere. It has 24 columns and about 1.6M rows.

The columns you will most likely want:

api_county The three-digit county component of the API number. For offshore wells this is the nearest onshore county, not …
api_unique The five-digit well component of the API number. Unique only in combination with the county code.
file_key Key of the technical-data form set this row describes.
file_date Date the completion build was filed, CCYYMMDD.
except_rule_11 Y when an exception to Statewide Rule 11 was granted.
cement_affidavit Cement affidavit status: N, Y, B, A or R.

…and 18 more, all documented on the full page.

What we add

Reconstruct when a well was drilled, completed and re-worked, and pull the surface elevation needed to convert measured depths to subsea.

Decoded out of the Commission's original format into something Excel opens.
Filterable before you download, so you can take one county instead of the whole state.
The Commission's single-letter codes translated into words.

Worth knowing before you use it

The elevation code says how the elevation was measured — a GR (ground level) and a KB (kelly bushing) elevation differ by the height of the rig floor, so comparing them without checking the code is a mistake of tens of feet.

Sentinel dates are everywhere: 0000-00-00, 00000000 and 1900-01-01 all mean "not recorded". The …

The full page lists every trap in this dataset.

Get it

People who want this usually want

Full Wellbore Database (ASCII) Every well ever assigned an API number in Texas, with casing, tubing, perforations, formations, plugging and inactive-well tests.
Completion Information in Data Format Forms G-1 and W-2: the filings that turn a drilled hole into a producing well.
Completion Casing Records Casing strings as reported on the completion filing.
Completion Formation Records Formation tops as reported on the completion filing.
Completion Production Intervals The intervals a completion produces through, including open-hole sections.
Completion Stimulation Materials What was pumped into the well, over what interval, at completion.