Online Mapping Services Help

Welcome to the New Mexico State Land Office Map Service. We are proud to make available to you our state trust lands ownership and lease data in the Land Status Map Service and oil and gas well locations, identification, some useful additional geologic and topographic information in the Oil and Gas, Minerals Map Service.

This is a quick reference guide to get you started. Please note that this map service works best in Internet Explorer 6.0 and above. Remember also that if you need help with navigation at any point in this part of our website, click on the "help" question mark shortcut to our help menu, found in the upper right corner of our window, and you will get this tutorial back up in a separate window.

If you need further assistance with this map service, please email: logic@slo.state.nm.us. We will respond as soon as possible to any questions, requests, or suggestions.

How to Use This Tutorial and Help File

This brief tutorial has been prepared with the intent of providing quick but complete instruction in using our map services. Scroll down to see a layout similar to what you see when you open one of our map services.

• Click within any of the rounded rectangles to get further explanation of that portion of the service.

• There is a special section linked to more detailed description of the Oil, Gas, and Minerals map service.

• There are some simple Operational notes and Additional reference at the bottom of this page which may be useful to you.

Search Options Help

You can search for a specific lease; your search results will show up in a separate mini-window that can be toggled on and off, until you clear those results. You can zoom directly into a township-range area, or zoom in to lease. Additionally, you have the ability to "flag" any or all of particular leases you've searched, if you are so inclined. Your flags will stay in place until you either close the map service, or click the "clear all results" button. When you flag a lease, the lease number will also show up on the map, near the flag. Searches for townships/ranges can also be performed, but they are not retained in a table, nor can they be flagged.

Contents and Legend

Map Content tab: This part of the page shows the layers of data available, and allows each layer to be turned on or off.

Legend tab: explains the symbolism used in the map.

Layers Help

These are the layers of data available for viewing; they can be turned on or off by checking the boxes next to their names.

There are some layers of data which are too detailed to view at the map's full extent; they will be visible only within a set scale range, or scale dependent.

These layers are indicated by being readable but grayed out in the Map Content list. These boxes and their layers will become active when the map is at a scale within their designated scale range.

This section defines the symbolism used in the map, from county lines to roads, from state land ownership to various lease types.

There are numerous symbols in the map; use the scroll bar to the right of this box to scroll and view the different symbols. If you wish to only see the symbolism of certain layers, click on the box with the minus sign next to the layers you wish to hide.

This will collapse the symbols on the layers you choose to hide, allowing your preferred layers to show their symbology.

Panning/Moving

Move the map to the North, South, East or West by increments, no matter what scale, by clicking on the direction names.

Panning can be also done by using the pan/move "hand" tool in the tool bar.

Map Body

This is the heart of the page, where you will see your data displayed visually, at whatever scale you choose. The bar with the dark blue marks and the compass arrow in the middle provides a method of changing scale in steps, at set scales. The compass arrow is also useful; you can pan, or move, your map left, right, up or down, depending on where on this arrow you click.

OverView Map

When using the little overview map, you can change your main map's orientation by clicking on and dragging the red outline box. That red outline box is linked to the position your map shows in its window.

OPERATIONAL NOTES:

There is a ten minute time limit on leaving this map window open but inactive; after that time has passed, the application will either need to be refreshed with your browser refresh button (the map comes back to the same extent), or be closed and opened back up (full extent) to access it.

If you intend to use the PDF function to save or print your map, you will need to either "temporarily allow pop-ups", which will allow pop-ups only for the internet session you have currently open, or go into your pop-up blocker and set it to permanently allow pop-ups from our website.

Oil,Gas and Minerals Map Service: This map service is more oriented towards the oil and gas, and minerals and related industries. In addition to the state lands ownership and lease boundaries, this service shows if a state land parcel is restricted in leasing for oil and gas, as well as oil and gas well locations and identification, and some useful additional geologic and topographic information.

On Oil and Gas Leases:There are restrictions which exist, which may block what appears to be open acreage from being available for leasing. Click Here to See additional information on the Lease Restrictions or Contact the Oil, Gas, and Minerals Division to verify leasibility.

Lease Restrictions

Lease Restrictions Some state lands have restrictions which can either influence oil and gas operations on them, or restrict them from leasing for oil and gas altogether.

This is the listing of restrictions currently shown in this map service, and is also available inside the service by expanding the legend for Oil and Gas Leasing Restrictions on the left side of the map.

Those restrictions which can influence operations show a red hatching across them; they do not necessarily eliminate a parcel from availability to lease, but may require specific actions to be taken before either leasing or drilling can be approved. These actions include following either State Land Office guidelines for lease requirements, or New Mexico Oil Conservation Division rules for drilling. Examples of the State Land Office requirements include "Must join (either) communitization (or) unit agreement", which indicates the tract of interest falls within boundaries of an existing agreement and, if leased, the new lessee must agree to join in that agreement before the lease is approved. Examples of Oil Conservation Division rules include "Drilling restricted due to potash", or Gas storage unit present". These require special precautions to be in place before drilling is approved by OCD.

Those restrictions which are solid red eliminate a tract from availability to lease. Under most circumstances, the tracts with these restrictions placed upon them are not currently leasable.

Click Here to See additional information on some of the Layers in the Oil, Gas and Minerals Map Service

Additional Layers Information in Oil, Gas and Minerals Map Service

Unit Boundaries In New Mexico, there are often oil and/or natural gas unit agreements established which influence production. We've provided the boundaries for existing units which include state lands for your use in this map service.

Geologic Regions These are generalized outlines of the subsurface geologic regions which make up New Mexico; they include the major oil- and gas-productive and potentially productive geologic basins and platforms of the state.

Geologic Map of New Mexico This is from information published by the New Mexico Bureau of Geology and Mineral Resources, New Mexico Institute of Mining and Technology, Socorro, New Mexico (http://geoinfo.nmt.edu), and available as a free GIS download from New Mexico Resource Geographic Information System Program (http://rgis.unm.edu), a cooperative program between the University of New Mexico and the New Mexico Information Technology Commission, with Earth Data Analysis Center (http://edac.unm.edu).

Volcanic Vents This coverage comes from New Mexico Bureau of Geology and Mineral Resources; it is intended to give a quick sense of where vulcanism was most prevalent in New Mexico.

Continental Divide This is a simple delineation of the Continental Divide, for orientation purposes.

Additional reference information:

Preferred Browser: A reminder… this mapping service works best with Internet Explorer 6.0 or newer.

Scale dependent: the ability to see these layers depends on what scale your map is. If you are looking closer in, you'll be able to see more detail.

Thank you for your interest!

New Mexico State Land Commission

Online Mapping Services Help

OPERATIONAL NOTES:

Additional reference information: