It is March 18th. A WVDEP Office of Oil and Gas analyst leaves a voicemail about your WR-39 submission for last calendar year: three Ritchie County wells that produced through September are missing from the filing, and the plugging report for a fourth never arrived. You have 13 days before March 31 to reconcile a year of field books and prove the wells did what you said they did.
Form WR-39 is West Virginia’s Operator’s Annual Production Report, filed once a year with the WVDEP Office of Oil and Gas (typically due March 31 of the year after production). It reports per-well oil, gas, produced water and brine, waste disposition, and well status for the full calendar year. GreaseBook captures the daily data so the annual rollup is a review, not a reconstruction. The operator still files through OGWIS or an accepted spreadsheet template. WR-39 is the West Virginia entry in the broader oil and gas regulatory production reports framework that maps every state’s filing cadence to the same daily data chain.
Annual reporting sounds easier than monthly. The trap is the opposite: 12 months of missing data gets reconstructed in a week when nobody wrote it down in May.
What WR-39 Reports
WR-39 is filed annually, per well. For each well in West Virginia, the operator reports:
- Oil produced (barrels) for the year
- Gas produced (MCF) for the year
- Brine and produced water volumes
- Waste disposition (on-lease pits, trucked to commercial facility, injection)
- Well status: producing, shut-in, plugged, transferred
- API number for every well
West Virginia reports by calendar year rather than by production month. The reporting period is January 1 through December 31.
When WR-39 Is Due
The annual WR-39 is typically due by March 31 of the following year. Production from calendar year 2025 is due by March 31, 2026. Specific deadlines should be confirmed on the DEP Office of Oil and Gas website, as the state has adjusted filing dates in recent years.
Filings go through OGWIS or via submitted spreadsheets, depending on operator size and history with the agency.
The Data Chain for an Annual Report
Annual reporting means 12 months of well-by-well data has to be accurate at one submission. The data chain is the same as any other state:
- Daily pumper gauges on every tank battery, logged consistently through the year.
- Run tickets per pull, tied to well API numbers.
- Gas meter reads at each producing well or allocation point.
- Waste hauler tickets: produced water, brine, and any other waste leaving the lease.
- Shut-in and plugged-well tracking: a well that plugged in June still shows six months of production plus a plugging event.
- Purchaser statements: reconciled as they come, not in March.
Operators who reconstruct the year’s data at deadline time are the ones who end up with underreported volumes or missing wells. Keeping the data current through the year is what makes annual filing painless. Across the state-filing landscape, West Virginia’s annual cadence is what lulls operators into waiting; the operators who don’t wait are the ones who hand in a clean WR-39.
How GreaseBook Supports WR-39 Prep
GreaseBook captures the daily gauges, run tickets, meter reads, and waste hauler tickets in the field. On the operator side, the data rolls up by well through the year. When March rolls around, the 12-month history is built and reconciled rather than reconstructed.
GreaseBook does not file WR-39 through OGWIS. The submission stays with the operator or their West Virginia filer. What GreaseBook solves is the 12-month data discipline problem: the pumper notes from April 2025 that would otherwise be a memory when you are filing in March 2026.
A northern West Virginia operator with 40 legacy wells described the difference: “We used to spend February and March rebuilding last year from pumper notebooks. Now the data is built as the year goes, and March 31 is a review, not a rescue.”
GreaseBook captures well-by-well production as the year goes, so WR-39 prep is a review instead of a rebuild.
See how GreaseBook works →Common WR-39 Filing Mistakes
- Missing months reconstructed from memory. If nobody wrote down what the gauges read in May, estimating in March of the next year is how you end up with a number that doesn’t match the purchaser.
- Plugged wells left on the active list. A well plugged mid-year still reports what it produced before plugging, and then it comes off the active list. Getting the transition wrong flags the well in DEP’s records.
- Waste volumes estimated rather than tracked. Commercial facility tickets and hauler tickets are the record. Estimated waste volumes raise questions.
- API number mismatches. Legacy West Virginia wells sometimes have API numbers that got entered differently over the years. Reconcile before filing.
- Filing the wrong calendar year. WR-39 reports January through December. Operators occasionally file a fiscal-year-based rollup by mistake.
Phrases to Eliminate in WVDEP Correspondence
When the Office of Oil and Gas calls or emails about WR-39, the words in your reply shape what happens next. Measurement language closes findings. Estimates and blame language invite follow-up.
| Instead of… | Say… | Why |
|---|---|---|
| “We had to estimate May and June from memory” | “May and June volumes are reconstructed from the adjacent-month gauges and the purchaser run tickets on file for [lease]” | WVDEP accepts reconciled numbers. “Memory” is an audit trigger on an annual filing. |
| “The well was plugged sometime last summer” | “[Well API] was plugged [date]; production reported through that date, plugging documented with the WW-9 on file” | The plugging transition is the detail most often miscoded on WR-39. A cited date and document closes the record. |
| “We hauled brine but the tickets are around here somewhere” | “Brine hauled to [commercial facility] on [dates]; hauler tickets logged to well [API] and reconciled to the facility receipts” | WVDEP cross-references operator reports against hauler and facility reports. Missing tickets become missing volumes fast. |
| “We’ll amend next year” | “Amendment filed [date] through OGWIS; variance self-reported before the audit window closed” | WVDEP treats self-corrected errors very differently from errors it discovers. File the amendment as soon as you find the gap. |
Identity Framing: What the Best West Virginia Operators Do
The best West Virginia operators treat WR-39 as a 12-month discipline, not a 30-day rescue. They reconcile the purchaser statement the month it arrives, they log hauler tickets the week the water leaves the lease, and they tag the plugging event the day the WW-9 is filed. When March 31 arrives, WR-39 is a review, not a rebuild.
Wrong Fit for This Page
If you are EQT, Antero, Southwestern, or another Marcellus major with integrated production accounting that generates WR-39-ready output from your SCADA and accounting platforms, you don’t need help on the data side. This page is for the West Virginia conventional independent and the smaller unconventional operator: 5 to 100 wells, pumpers in the field, an annual deadline that arrives every year.
FAQ
Can GreaseBook generate a WR-39 I can mail in?
Not as a one-click print today, but it gives you the per-well production, well status, and disposition data WR-39 asks for in a clean monthly rollup. Transcribing from a clean GreaseBook report takes minutes: hunting through field books takes hours.
When is the West Virginia WR-39 due?
The annual WR-39 is typically due by March 31 of the year following production. Confirm the exact deadline on the DEP Office of Oil and Gas website for any given year.
Is WR-39 filed monthly or annually?
Annually. West Virginia’s WR-39 is a calendar-year rollup filed once per year, not a monthly production report.
Does WR-39 cover both conventional and unconventional wells?
Yes. All oil and gas operators in West Virginia file WR-39 for every well on their books, whether the well is a legacy conventional producer or a newer horizontal.
What system does West Virginia use for online filing?
West Virginia’s DEP Office of Oil and Gas uses OGWIS (Oil and Gas Well Information System) for online filings, with spreadsheet templates accepted in some cases.
Related Pages
GreaseBook automates state production reports for operators filing in Texas, Mississippi, Alabama, Wyoming, and Michigan. West Virginia WR-39 still files through OGWIS, but the underlying daily data chain is the part that makes annual reporting survivable.
- Oil and gas regulatory production reports: the pillar guide to state production filings.
- Pennsylvania DEP production reporting: Pennsylvania’s semiannual filing for operators active on both sides of the state line.
- Kansas OGOR: Kansas monthly reporting for multi-state independents.
GreaseBook gives West Virginia operators a per-well, per-month rollup that prints straight to WR-39's format, or exports clean to whatever filing system the WVDEP asks for next. Because reconstructing a year of production from a stack of field books is a bad hobby.
See how GreaseBook works for West Virginia operators →