Filed elevations that do not sit on the ground

36467 wells in the region carry a filed elevation and sit on the measured grid. The median well is -9.5 m off the ground; 7566 wells, 20.7% of them, are more than 100 m off, and 5595 of those are filed below the ground rather than above it. The commonest thing the numbers support: shared with at least three neighbours: systematic over the area (6984 wells).

Located wells in the region's fourteen counties with at least one formation top carrying a usable filed elevation, where the USGS grid has a value under the well.

beyond 100 m 7566 · quartiles m [-60.3, -9.5, 28.8]

• The filed elevation is the median of the elevations filed with the well's tops, after discarding values outside the bounds a Wyoming or Montana elevation can take.
• The ground is the USGS 3DEP elevation on the site's own grid, 800 m across, at the cell containing the filed surface location; the relief is the range across that cell and its eight neighbours.
• A well is mismatched when the filed elevation differs from that ground by more than 100 m, which is past what a kelly bushing can account for.
• Explanations are tried in order: feet where metres were meant, metres where feet were meant, the well's own tops disagreeing by more than 300 ft, a mismatch no larger than the relief around the cell, a mismatch shared within 50 m by at least three other mismatched wells within about two kilometres, else a slip of the well's own.

• An 800 m grid can differ from the true ground at a point by tens of metres in rough country. That is why the threshold is a hundred metres and not ten, and why the relief test comes before the others that could claim a well.
• A kelly bushing or rig floor sits a few metres above the ground; a filed elevation a few metres high is right, not wrong. Most mismatches here are low, not high.
• A pattern shared across a neighbourhood does not say which side is wrong. The grid over that area and the filings over that area are both candidates, and the one-metre elevation the scene already fetches can settle it well by well.
• Nothing here is corrected in the store or on the site. The scene hangs every well from its filed elevation where one exists.

This is reporting on public filings. It is not an appraisal, not a reserves estimate, and is not issued for third-party reliance.

Wyoming Oil and Gas Conservation Commission · Source: Wyoming Oil and Gas Conservation Commission public filings. Records are as filed by the operator. The Commission does not warrant their accuracy, and no endorsement or review by the Commission is implied.

Montana Board of Oil and Gas Conservation · Source: Montana Board of Oil and Gas Conservation. No warranty, expressed or implied, is made, and the Board assumes no legal liability or responsibility for the accuracy, completeness, or usefulness of the information contained herein. Data may not plot correctly when used with other PLSS datasets or map projections.

U.S. Geological Survey · USGS National Map 3D Elevation Program (3DEP). The service states its own currency: data available reflects all 3DEP DEM data published as of 24 August 2026. USGS makes no warranty as to the utility of the data for any particular purpose.