Cell maps for each oil and gas play were created by the USGS as a method for illustrating the degree of exploration, type of production, and distribution of production in a play or province. Each cell represents a quarter-mile square of the land surface, and the cells are coded to represent whether the wells included within the cell are predominantly oil-producing, gas-producing, both oil and gas-producing, or dry. The well information was initially retrieved from the Petroleum Information (PI) Well History Control System (WHCS), which is a proprietary, commercial database containing information for most oil and gas wells in the U.S. Cells were developed as a graphic solution to overcome the problem of displaying proprietary WHCS data. No proprietary data are displayed or included in the cell maps. The data from WHCS were current as of December 1990 when the cell maps were created in 1994.
