DPA Help This page presents a list of Frequently Asked Questions about the Digital Petroleum Atlas. Please send us email (webadmin@kgs.ku.edu) if you have any questions about the DPA.

Questions...
What is the DPA?
What is the purpose of the DPA?
What data is available?
How are the fields chosen for the DPA?
I'm lost!
What is a ZIP file?

What is the DPA?

The Digital Petroleum Atlas is a set of World Wide Web Pages that present geological field studies, reservoir characteristics, and well information for selected oil and gas fields in Kansas. Created by the Kansas Geological Survey, the DPA has been supported with funding from the U.S. Department of Energy, National Petroleum Technology Office under agreement DE-FG22-95BC14817.

What is the purpose of the DPA?

The DPA describes in detail oil and gas fields in Kansas as analogies to the important oil and gas plays in Kansas. By understanding the Arroyo Field, for example, the user can begin to understand all Morrow plays in Kansas. Additional information on goals of the DPA can be found in the Executive Summary and Introduction, Purpose, Scope reports.

Large remaining of oil and gas resources are available in numerous reservoirs. By collecting and organizing all the data available, the Kansas Geological Survey wants to provide easy access to all available data to help reduce industry research and technology development. By using the World Wide Web, the data is available when and where operators need it--on individual desktops.

What data is available?

The DPA tries to present data at all scales available.

Geologic maps are presented at the basin, county, and field level. Descriptive information is available for Plays, Basins, and Fields. Digital well logs, core photos, core descriptions, scanned completion forms, and other information are available for individual wells. Not all data is available for all areas.

How are the fields chosen for the DPA?

Representative fields for each play are identified. From that list of fields, a field is chosen for detailed study based on

• Single reservoir
• Operator cooperation
• Field size
• Discovery date after 1970
• Reserves (greater than 5,000,000 bbls estimated ultimate recovery)

For the first fields analyzed, a single reservoir and small-medium field sizes were used to limit the amount of work needed to complete the study. Those rules are less-stringently followed now. Operator cooperation is needed to acquire digital well logs and other information. More modern fields are preferred because of the availability of digital logs.

I'm lost!

The DPA is not a linear report. Information on several topics is available for several fields, and there is no "preferred" path through the DPA. In addition, the DPA focusses on data presentation and not interpretation.

One page to visit for orientation is the DPA Site Map. A red button leading to the site map is at the top of each DPA page. The Site Map shows all the different areas of the DPA. The Navigation Help page can also be useful in learning how to move from one page to another.

If you wish to move from one county to another, you can use the Kansas DPA Home Page A red button leading to that page is at the top of each DPA page. The Kansas page has a map displaying all the counties in Kansas. The counties analyzed in the DPA are colored in solid orange. The other counties have not been fully analyzed, and data is limited to production info.

If you are interested in a specific well, use the DPA Search Page. That page has searches for wells based on API or Township-Range-Section.

What is a ZIP file?

ZIP files are compress, archived files created to a PK-ZIP format. ZIP files allow us to save several separate files in one "package" to aid in downloading (for example, a set of scanned intent to drill forms). Also, ZIP files are used to reduce the size of a file (for example, a LAS digital log).

You must use a program to "un-zip" these files. Sometimes your web browser will take care of this for you. Commercial software to perform this is available from PKWARE, Inc., the company that invented the format. A web page from a group of people creating shareware or public domain software is available at Info-ZIP.