Gov. Jerry Brown last year directed state oil and gas regulators to research the oil and gas potential of his family's Northern California ranch, the Associated Press has learned through records it obtained through state open-records law.

Jerry Brown

Brown had regulators research, map, and report back on any mining and oil-drilling potential and history on private land near the town of Williams that has been in the Brown family for more than a century. The workers produced a 51-page historical report and geological assessment, plus a personalized satellite-imaged geological oil and gas-drilling map, says the Associated Press.

The governor was told that prospects were "very low" for commercial drilling or mining.

California's Division of Oil, Gas and Geothermal Resources said the work was a legal and proper use of public resources — "no more than the general public would get," according to the AP. "But oil industry experts said they could not recall a similar example of anyone getting that kind of state work done for private property."