To operate a well in Texas, a company must be registered with the Railroad Commission as an organization and keep that registration current. The registration is Form P-5, the Organization Report, and the number the RRC assigns is the operator number. It is the key that links permits, production, injection permits, and wellbore records to a company.
The operator number
Operator numbers are six digits, for example 217012 for Diamondback E&P LLC. They are assigned once and do not change when a company changes its name, so a well permitted under "XYZ Energy LLC" in 2012 and operated under "XYZ Resources Inc." today will show the same number with two different names in the historical record.
The reverse also happens. A company that reorganizes, acquires another operator, or sets up separate entities for different plays will hold several operator numbers at once. There is no official roll-up. Petrora shows each number as its own operator and does not merge them, because the choice of what counts as one company depends on what you are asking.
What the P-5 contains
The P-5 is filed annually and includes:
- Organization name and mailing addresses, including district addresses.
- Officers, partners, or agents.
- Activity codes: oil operator, gas operator, pipeline, gas processing, and so on.
- The organization's P-5 status and the date of the last filing.
- Financial assurance information, which the public file summarizes as a status rather than amounts.
The P-5 status matters. An organization whose P-5 has lapsed cannot legally operate wells, and its wells are candidates for the state's orphan well program. On an operator page, the status code and last filing date come straight from the P-5 file.
Permit operator versus operator of record
The operator who filed the drilling permit is not always the operator today. Wells are sold, and the RRC records the transfer on the wellbore schedule rather than on the old permit. Three sources name an operator for a given well:
- The drilling permit, which names who filed it, possibly years ago.
- The wellbore file (EWA), which names the current operator on the RRC's schedule. See the EWA wellbore file.
- Production reports, which name who reported each month's volumes on the lease.
Petrora's operator of record is the wellbore file's operator when the well has an entry there, and the most recent permit's operator otherwise. When the two disagree, the well page says so. The chain of custody on a well page lists every operator that reported production on the well's lease, in order, which is often the clearest picture of ownership history.
Where to look
- Operators ranks operators by permits in the last 90 days and lets you search by name.
- Each operator page shows the P-5 details, cumulative production from lease reports, and recent permits by county.