Has anyone ever explored for oil and gas in my area? What is the possibility of future production here?

Drilled wells and seismic lines are evidence for exploration. The potential for future production is dependent on technical evaluation and the price of petroleum.

The best way to determine whether there has been any exploration in your area is to determine whether any wells have been drilled. A number of organizations have maps showing the locations of all the oil and gas wells in Oklahoma; they are described in Sources of Oklahoma Oil and Gas Data and in question 1. In some cases, seismic exploration may have been done in an area but was not followed up with a well. Numerous private brokers of seismic data have maps showing where seismic lines have been run. The seismic data are extremely expensive, but maps of the lines are not. However, no broker knows the locations of all the seismic lines, and those run for major oil and gas companies are proprietary and neither the data nor the locations of the lines are available.

Only trained geologists and/or geophysicists can determine the potential for future production. After examining enormous amounts of data, they may recommend drilling a well to test the area. Whether the well can produce oil or gas in economic quantities depends on a number of factors, not the least of which is the market price of oil or gas. Wells with lower production rates become prospective if the price of oil and gas is high