West Virginia’s Department of Environmental Protection, through its Office of Oil and Gas, requires every operator in the state to file annual production data on Form WR-39. If you are pumping legacy conventional wells in Wetzel, Marshall, or Ritchie counties, or running newer Marcellus or Utica unconventional wells in the north and southwest, WR-39 is part of the annual cycle.

Form WR-39 is West Virginia’s Operator’s Annual Production Report. It covers the full calendar year of production, reported per well, and it is used by the DEP to track activity, calculate severance tax contributions, and confirm well status. The filing goes through the state’s online system (OGWIS: Oil and Gas Well Information System) or, in some cases, via uploaded spreadsheet templates.

The annual cycle sounds easier than a monthly filing, but annual reporting has its own trap: if the data isn’t kept current through the year, reconstructing 12 months of production at deadline time is brutal.

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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:

  1. Daily pumper gauges on every tank battery, logged consistently through the year.
  2. Run tickets per pull, tied to well API numbers.
  3. Gas meter reads at each producing well or allocation point.
  4. Waste hauler tickets: produced water, brine, and any other waste leaving the lease.
  5. Shut-in and plugged-well tracking: a well that plugged in June still shows six months of production plus a plugging event.
  6. 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.

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.”

Annual reporting rewards operators who keep their data current through the year.

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.

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.

About the author: Greg Archbald is the founder of GreaseBook. He built the product from inside the oil patch and has spent 15+ years on the operator side of oil and gas technology.

WR-39 is a paper form in a digital world. Make the data behind it digital anyway.

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 →
**P.S.** WR-39 is forgiving compared to Texas and Oklahoma, but WVDEP still audits against it. The bigger issue for most West Virginia operators is that WR-39 is rarely their only filing. A tool that covers all of your jurisdictions is worth more than a WR-39-only fix.