News about how the oil and gas industry is setting production records, how Texas’ statistics soar above the rest, and the promising potential shown in other areas is abundant these days. Now individuals can see exactly where these oil and gas wells are located across the US thanks to a new expanded energy mapping tool unveiled this week by the US Energy Information Administration (EIA). The new offering shows both offshore and onshore wells where crude oil and gas production is under way. “This includes areas like Pennsylvania, North Dakota, and Texas where crude oil and natural gas development in shale basins has increased significantly in recent years,” the EIA said in a news release unveiling the new mapping tool feature. “With the release of this tool, the public, policymakers, energy experts, and other stakeholders can easily track oil and natural gas field development over time.” The oil and gas wells feature allows users to zoom into a certain geographical area to inspect wells by neighborhood, state, county, and congressional district. With a few clicks, individuals can zoom into the Houston area, for example, and find that clusters of oil and gas wells are clearly visible. Gas, for example, is being produced in clusters along Interstate 10 between Katy and Brookshire. Farther west, another cluster is visible – gas wells in Waller County. North of Houston, east of Interstate 45 between Conroe and The Woodlands, there is a large cluster of predominately oil wells, although some gas wells are present. After clicking on an area, users can peruse through the wells in that location and gain information about the well type, country, state, and basin. In addition to the oil and gas wells location information, provided by Drillinginfo, a variety of other features and options are available through the energy mapping tool’s “layers/legend” menu, which can be customized. Users can pinpoint the locations of coal fields, shale basins, shale plays, tight gas basins, and tight gas plays. The map includes the location of pipelines, including those that carry crude oil, petroleum products, NGL, and natural gas; NGL and natural gas market hubs; LNG import and export terminals; storage facilities; oil and gas refineries and processing facilities; coal mines; and power plants. And the latter includes the gamut – coal, natural gas, petroleum, nuclear, biomass, geothermal, solar, wind, and wood among others. Individuals can even pinpoint areas with geothermal, photovoltaic solar, and wind potential. This new oil and gas feature is a welcome addition to the EIA website, and it will most likely get plenty of use as the energy revolution continues sweeping across the US. It could be of benefit to not only policymakers and the energy industry as a whole but also citizens who just want to know what is happening in their neighborhoods. Kudos should go to the EIA and Drillinginfo for teaming up to make this information available to the public. Check out the new mapping feature and its other offerings on the EIA’s State Energy Profile webpage at http://www.eia.gov/state/maps.cfm. Contact the author, Velda Addison, at vaddison@hartenergy.com.