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Executive Summary
The Digital Petroleum Atlas (DPA) Project is in the second
year of a long-term effort to develop a new methodology to provide
efficient and timely access to the latest petroleum data and
technology for the domestic oil and gas industry, public sector
research organizations and local governmental units. The DPA
provides real-time access through the Internet using widely available
tools such as World-Wide-Web browsers. The latest technologies
and information are "published" electronically when
individual project components are completed removing the lag
and expense of transferring technology using traditional paper
publication. Active links, graphical user interfaces and database
search mechanisms of the DPA provide a product with which the
operator can interact in ways that are impossible in the paper
publication. Contained in the DPA are forms of publication that
can only be displayed in an electronic environment (for example,
relational searches based on geologic and engineering criteria).
Improvement in data and technology access for the domestic petroleum
industry represents one of the best and cost-effective options
that is available for mitigating the continued decline in domestic
production.
Year 2 of the DPA project concentrated on improving the structure,
methodologies and computerized procedures to generate and to
"publish" an expanded set of field and play studies
concentrated in Kansas. The previous fields generated in year
1 of the project remain and have been enhanced. These fields
include Arroyo Field (Morrowan), Stanton County; Big Bow Field
(St. Louis), Grant and Stanton counties; and Gentzler Field (Morrowan),
Stevens County. Kansas fields added to the DPA in year two include
Amazon Ditch and Terry fields (Lansing-Kansas City, Mississippian
and Morrowan), Finney County; Schaben Field (Mississippian) Ness
County; and an area of small Lansing-Kansas City fields in Lane
County. Access is provided through the DPA to oil and gas information
covering all the fields and counties in Kansas. Methodologies
developed in year two of the DPA Project provide improved access
to a "published" product and ongoing technology transfer
activity that is continuously updated with the latest information
and technology.
Through complete and flexible user access to technology, interpretative
products and the underlying geologic and petroleum data, the
DPA alters the relationship between interpretative result and
data, between technology generation and application.
Introduction
The United States obtained 85 percent of its energy from fossil
fuels in 1995, nearly 40 percent from oil alone (of which half
was imported), and 24 percent from natural gas (Presidents
Committee of Advisors on Science and Technology, 1997). U.S.
fossil fuel dependence, like that of the rest of the world, will
decline only slowly in the future. It has been estimated that
fossil fuels will provide two-thirds of all world energy needs
in 2030 and half or more in 2100 (EIA, 1997). U.S. oil imports,
according to the "reference" forecast of the Department
of Energy, would grow from 9 million barrels per day in 1995
to 14 million barrels per day in 2015 and continue to increase
for some time thereafter. The Digital Petroleum Atlas program
addresses many of the issues of insuring a secure U.S. oil and
gas supply as outlined by the report of the Presidents
Committee of Advisors on Science and Technology (Presidents
Committee of Advisors on Science and Technology, 1997).
The US and the Northern Mid-continent have large remaining
oil and particularly gas resources in numerous reservoirs. A
higher percentage of original oil and gas in place can be produced
if old and new data and knowledge are made available to operators.
Basic data and innovative developments in technology need to
be directly accessible to assist operators in day-to-day decisions.
The Kansas Geological Survey is working with the U. S. Department
of Energy to create a Digital Petroleum Atlas to meet these information
needs. The atlas proposed is unique in that it provides to independent
operators on-line digital and hard copy information, digital
data bases, new cutting-edge scientific study of typical fields
of the region and purposeful technology transfer. The atlas also
provides to independent operators an evaluation of the technologies
that is best suited for additional oil and gas recovery. Information
is available when and where operators need it (literally on the
operator's desk).
During the past few years, the United States economy has performed
beyond most expectations. A shrinking budget deficit, low interest
rates, a stable macroeconomic environment, expanding international
trade with fewer barriers, and effective private sector management
are all credited with playing a role in this healthy economic
performance. Many observers believe advances in information technology
(IT), driven by the growth of the Internet, have also contributed
to creating this healthier-than-expected economy. In recent testimony
to Congress, Federal Reserve Board Chairman Alan Greenspan noted,
"...our nation has been experiencing a higher growth rate
of productivityoutput per hourworked in recent years.
The dramatic improvements in computing power and communication
and information technology appear to have been a major force
behind this beneficial trend." The Digital Petroleum Atlas
is one attempt to bring these advances in information technology
to the independent oil and gas operator.
Completion of the project for Kansas will provide a tool to
enhance Kansas oil and gas production. The demonstration of the
digital petroleum atlas will also enable similar projects to
be instituted in other petroleum producing areas, so that a geographically
broad on-line digital database will be available to domestic
operators. The ultimate goal is a national digital petroleum
atlas.
Short of conducting a full-scale reservoir analysis of each
producing field, an efficient and effective method of communicating
key information to operators is by example. For each reservoir
type in a producing region, a thoroughly studied and documented
analog can illustrate geologic and engineering procedures that
are likely to be most successful in increasing ultimate recovery.
An analog example provides operators with sufficient information
and procedures to study producing fields, and increase production
and ultimate recovery by modifying and applying proven methods.
One way to accomplish the goal of disseminating information by
analog is to provide a digital on-line geological and engineering
based, state-of-the-art, petroleum atlas that contains not only
historical data and descriptions, but technologically advanced
syntheses and analyses of "why reservoirs produce"
and "how ultimate production may be increased." This
is a national need. A digital petroleum atlas is an efficient
and effective vehicle to provide access to legacy databases and
innovative knowledge that can be used by the operator.
The traditional role of technical publication is to formalize
and record scientific and technical results in time, and to transfer
technology to potential users (9). The published petroleum atlas
is a time honored approach to illustrating by analog the latest
petroleum exploration and development knowledge and application.
References 1 through # are notable compilations of reservoir,
field and play studies. Similar proprietary compilations are
common at major petroleum companies. The underlying goals of
these petroleum atlases have been to:
- Synthesize information on major reservoirs, fields, plays
and basins;
- Assist in efficient exploration and development by increasing
technical knowledge of trapping, discovery and production of
oil and gas;
- Serve as analogs for reservoirs, fields and plays similar
to those described; and
- Provide an overview and introduction to the various petroleum
basins described.
The traditional published atlas is a time consuming and expensive
process that results in static paper product. Typically, products
and data are limited by space and cost considerations to summary
information at the field or reservoir level. For each play, field
or reservoir only a relatively small number of author-selected
maps, cross-sections, charts and other summary data are included.
Typically, the paper atlas does not provide access to well and
lease data or to intermediate research products (such as digital
geographic and geologic components of maps, interpreted and uninterpreted
subsurface data, well test analyses, thin section images, and
other traditionally unpublished material). Without access to
the data and intermediate products, modifying and updating a
published field study to fit a user-defined application or new
scientific idea is a difficult and time consuming process.
Today, traditional channels of scientific and technical communication
represented by the petroleum atlas are being challenged by the
shear volume of publication, the increased unit costs, the relatively
decreased resources of academic and industrial library systems,
and the rapidity of technical change (10). In addition, the growth
of networks, storage servers, printers, and software that make
up the Internet are rapidly changing the world from one in which
research organizations, publishers and libraries control the
printing, distribution, and archiving to a world in which individuals
can rapidly and cheaply "publish", provide access and
modify scientific results on-line. These changes offer significant
challenges and opportunities both to public and private sector
participants and to the traditions of technical publication (11).
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