• 1942:  The Kentucky General Assembly ratified the Interstate Oil Compact.
• 1948: The permitting of oil and gas wells began, but only those wells drilled in coal producing areas.
• 1960:  The Division of Oil and Gas (DOG) was created by the General Assembly and charged with the duties of fostering conservation of all mineral resources, encouraging exploration of such resources, protecting the correlative rights of land and mineral owners, prohibiting waste and unnecessary surface loss and damage, and encouraging the maximum recovery of oil and gas from all deposits. DOG began permitting all oil- and gas-related wells at that time.
• 1961:  Regulation of plugging and abandonment procedures began, including regulations for wells drilled through both non-coal-bearing strata and coal-bearing strata.
• 1966:  Bonding requirements and penalty provisions were established. 
• 1978:  Groundwater protection regulations began through an administrative regulation for protection of freshwater zones.
• 1990:  Bonding requirements and penalty provisions were increased.
• 2004:  Regulation of gathering lines became effective, requiring well operators to permit gas gathering lines and oil production flowlines, along with the filing of annual gathering line licenses.
• 2004:  DOG became the Division of Oil and Gas Conservation (DOGC)

Oil and gas are produced from more than 1,500 pools in Kentucky from rocks of Cambrian to Pennsylvanian age. Most oil is produced from Mississippian limestone and sandstone in eastern and western Kentucky or from Ordovician limestone and dolomites in southern Kentucky. Most natural gas is produced from the Devonian black shale in eastern Kentucky.