Where Texas oil and gas goes
The Railroad Commission records not just how much a lease produced but where every barrel and every mcf went — into a pipeline, onto a truck, to a processing plant, or into the air. This is 2025, from 34 years of lease filings.
These are dispositions, not production. A disposition is a volume that left the lease by a recorded route, and the routes include gas burned as lease fuel, gas vented or flared, and oil lost after it was measured. The Commission tracks the two separately and they do not have to match: they are filed on different forms, and a volume can be produced in one month and disposed of in the next.
Crude oil
1.73bn bbl left Texas leases in 2025, by 10 recorded routes.
| Route | What the Commission means by it | bbl | Share |
|---|---|---|---|
| Pipeline | The direct removal of oil by an authorised pipeline gatherer. | 1.44bn | 83.2% |
| Truck | The direct removal of oil by an authorised truck gatherer. | 287M | 16.6% |
| Skim oil | Oil skimmed from a saltwater disposal or similar facility. | 2.13M | 0.1% |
| Other | A disposition the other codes do not name. | 193k | <0.1% |
| Circulating oil | Oil circulated back into the producing operation. | 110k | <0.1% |
| Lost | Oil lost after it was measured as production. | 71.3k | <0.1% |
| Tank car or barge | The direct removal of oil by an authorised tank car or barge gatherer. | 59.2k | <0.1% |
| Oil tank cleaning | An adjustment to, or lease use of, production already measured. | 39.5k | <0.1% |
| Tank cleaning, BS&W | Basic sediment and water removed in tank cleaning. | 18.5k | <0.1% |
| No code | An amount was reported without a disposition code. | 172 | <0.1% |
1 of the 11 routes the Commission defines for crude oil carried nothing in 2025. They are left out rather than shown as zero — the Commission holds no row for them, which is a different fact from a measured zero.
Gas well gas
8.33bn mcf left Texas leases in 2025, by 8 recorded routes.
| Route | What the Commission means by it | mcf | Share |
|---|---|---|---|
| Transmission line | Gas delivered to a transmission line, and gas used for industrial purposes, irrigation or refinery fuel. | 4.26bn | 51.1% |
| Processing plant | Gas delivered to a gas processing plant or facility, as reported on Form R-3. | 3.51bn | 42.1% |
| Separation extraction loss | The shrinkage in gas volume when condensate is extracted from gas well gas by lease separation. On a full well stream the gas equivalent of the condensate is reported here, so that it is charged against the gas allowable. | 394M | 4.7% |
| Lease and field fuel | Gas used, sold or given to others for field operations, lease drilling fuel or compressor fuel. | 149M | 1.8% |
| Vented or flared | Gas well gas vented or flared. | 16.73M | 0.2% |
| Gas lift | Gas used, given or sold for gas lift. It does not include gas delivered to pressure maintenance or processing. | 4.99M | 0.1% |
| Underground storage | Gas delivered to an underground storage reservoir. | 1.33M | <0.1% |
| Repressure and pressure maintenance | Gas delivered to a system that does not extract hydrocarbon liquids. A plant that recovers liquids reports as a processing plant on Form R-3. | 718k | <0.1% |
2 of the 10 routes the Commission defines for gas well gas carried nothing in 2025. They are left out rather than shown as zero — the Commission holds no row for them, which is a different fact from a measured zero.
Condensate
359M bbl left Texas leases in 2025, by 9 recorded routes.
| Route | What the Commission means by it | bbl | Share |
|---|---|---|---|
| Pipeline | The direct removal of condensate by an authorised pipeline gatherer. | 287M | 80.0% |
| Truck | The direct removal of condensate by an authorised truck gatherer. | 70.24M | 19.6% |
| Skim oil | Condensate skimmed from a disposal or similar facility. | 1.27M | 0.4% |
| Sedimentation | Sediment removed from measured condensate. | 96.7k | <0.1% |
| Other | A disposition the other codes do not name. | 72.4k | <0.1% |
| Tank car or barge | The direct removal of condensate by an authorised tank car or barge gatherer. | 16.7k | <0.1% |
| Lost | Condensate lost after it was measured as production. | 9.7k | <0.1% |
| Net condensate tank cleaning | An adjustment to, or lease use of, production already measured. | 9.1k | <0.1% |
| Circulating oil | Condensate circulated back into the producing operation. | 554 | <0.1% |
1 of the 10 routes the Commission defines for condensate carried nothing in 2025. They are left out rather than shown as zero — the Commission holds no row for them, which is a different fact from a measured zero.
Casinghead gas
5.64bn mcf left Texas leases in 2025, by 7 recorded routes.
| Route | What the Commission means by it | mcf | Share |
|---|---|---|---|
| Processing plant | Casinghead gas delivered to a gas processing plant or facility, as reported on Form R-3. | 3.40bn | 60.3% |
| Transmission line | Casinghead gas delivered to a transmission line, and gas used for industrial purposes, irrigation or refinery fuel. | 1.91bn | 33.9% |
| Lease and field fuel | Casinghead gas used, sold or given to others for field operations, lease drilling fuel or compressor fuel. | 180M | 3.2% |
| Vented or flared | The lease volume of casinghead gas vented or flared. | 94.88M | 1.7% |
| Repressure and pressure maintenance | Gas delivered to a system that does not extract hydrocarbon liquids. A plant that recovers liquids reports as a processing plant on Form R-3. | 32.46M | 0.6% |
| Gas lift | Casinghead gas used, given or sold for gas lift. | 15.77M | 0.3% |
| Underground storage | The volume of gas actually delivered into the storage reservoir. | 31.1k | <0.1% |
2 of the 9 routes the Commission defines for casinghead gas carried nothing in 2025. They are left out rather than shown as zero — the Commission holds no row for them, which is a different fact from a measured zero.
Vented and flared gas, year by year
Gas that was burned off or released rather than sold. Gas well gas and casinghead gas are kept apart, because they flare at completely different rates — casinghead gas is a by-product of an oil well, which may have no gas connection at all.
| Year | Gas well gas | Casinghead gas | Together | Share of gas disposed |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1993 | 3.72M | 8.39M | 12.10M | 0.2% |
| 1994 | 1.49M | 7.19M | 8.68M | 0.1% |
| 1995 | 5.92M | 5.05M | 10.97M | 0.2% |
| 1996 | 6.42M | 4.42M | 10.84M | 0.2% |
| 1997 | 1.59M | 4.08M | 5.67M | 0.1% |
| 1998 | 1.22M | 2.99M | 4.21M | 0.1% |
| 1999 | 1.12M | 13.55M | 14.68M | 0.2% |
| 2000 | 1.46M | 10.01M | 11.47M | 0.2% |
| 2001 | 3.01M | 5.37M | 8.38M | 0.1% |
| 2002 | 3.51M | 3.26M | 6.77M | 0.1% |
| 2003 | 3.58M | 2.19M | 5.77M | 0.1% |
| 2004 | 5.04M | 2.27M | 7.32M | 0.1% |
| 2005 | 4.98M | 2.76M | 7.74M | 0.1% |
| 2006 | 4.61M | 2.38M | 6.98M | 0.1% |
| 2007 | 3.91M | 2.43M | 6.34M | 0.1% |
| 2008 | 4.22M | 3.40M | 7.62M | 0.1% |
| 2009 | 3.43M | 3.39M | 6.83M | 0.1% |
| 2010 | 2.95M | 5.99M | 8.94M | 0.1% |
| 2011 | 6.92M | 20.75M | 27.67M | 0.4% |
| 2012 | 6.94M | 42.62M | 49.56M | 0.6% |
| 2013 | 11.94M | 63.32M | 75.26M | 0.9% |
| 2014 | 16.95M | 74.32M | 91.27M | 1.0% |
| 2015 | 30.96M | 74.00M | 105M | 1.2% |
| 2016 | 36.83M | 47.45M | 84.29M | 1.0% |
| 2017 | 32.82M | 57.84M | 90.66M | 1.1% |
| 2018 | 49.07M | 106M | 155M | 1.7% |
| 2019 | 57.52M | 148M | 206M | 1.9% |
| 2020 | 38.47M | 84.54M | 123M | 1.2% |
| 2021 | 19.11M | 64.92M | 84.02M | 0.8% |
| 2022 | 14.55M | 75.21M | 89.75M | 0.8% |
| 2023 | 16.09M | 108M | 124M | 1.0% |
| 2024 | 14.65M | 105M | 120M | 0.9% |
| 2025 | 16.73M | 94.88M | 112M | 0.8% |
| 20265 of 12 months | 9.95M | 40.38M | 50.33M | 0.9% |
From the Commission's lease cycle disposition table, covering 1993 to 2026. The route names and their definitions are the Commission's own, from the Oil and Gas Historical Ledger record layout manual LDA001; nothing on this page re-words a definition or groups two routes into one.