Kansas Geological Survey, Open-file Report 2001-14
2000 Digital Petroleum Atlas Annual Report

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Improved Database Management

At the present time, the Digital Petroleum Atlas currently contains over 3,000 static web pages covering 11 counties, 10 fields and two regions of Kansas. While during the last year, the DPA coverage has increased with the addition of 3 counties and 3 fields, and the detail has increased to include completion reports and drill stem tests, the number of static web pages has decreased by almost 50 percent from 6000 pages (Carr and others, 1999). Dynamic pages that are constructed on demand have replaced static web pages.

"Static" pages are actual HTML text files on the DPA web server showing information to visitors. Most of DPA pages are very similar--that is, a template can be made and multiple pages extracted from that template. For example, for a set of county geology pages (Figure 2), the only differences are the names of the files, the window titles, and the two figures (i.e., map and stratigraphic chart). The navigation is adjusted for each page (assigning a "Previous" page and assigning a "Next" page).

However, the method of creating static web pages has two problems. The first problem is maintenance of pages containing variable data. Data such as oil and gas production changes monthly, and the pages must be updated periodically. With more and more fields added, the work of creating all the new pages and updating all the previously created pages can take up all available time. The second problem is one of scale. For any small field (25-100 wells), it is easy to create pages for each well and attach scanned well completion forms, digital well logs, and other information. But with larger fields, such as the Chase-Silica field with 10,378 wells, assembling the data is in itself a major task and pages cannot be created by hand. By creating dynamic pages that access a relational data base management system (e.g., Oracle), whatever data is available can be displayed to the visitor. New production data is available immediately. Plus, the database can create lists of wells for the user based on location information, and pages for the wells are created only if the user wants to see detailed information.

The first field added to the DPA was Arroyo, a field with 36 wells needing web pages. These pages were created by hand and links were made from the field map and the web pages. After the well pages were created, pages for completion forms, production, petrophysical analysis, etc. were created as needed and attached by hand to the well pages. Updating the production pages would take only a few hours of student time. Big Bow Field was handled the same way, but Gentzler and Schaben fields added a new challenge. While the number of wells in Gentzler and Schaben fields was reasonable, the geographic scale of these new fields meant that the visitor could not select an individual well of interest because the well spots were too small to resolve on the user's screen. For fields with a larger geographic area, clicking on the main map brings up a map with more detail on the particular quarter of interest.

For Chase-Silica Field (Rice County), simple zooming does not allow a clear picture of all wells without creating several levels of zoom. The Chase-Silica Field covers eight townships (288 square miles). At this scale it is impossible to resolve and select all wells, and only currently producing wells were shown. In addition, the resulting maps and individual well pages required the creation and maintenance of 10,378 additional web pages. With the addition of Chase-Silica Field, the total amount of data to maintain and update was becoming a significant drain on resources. Each month, new production data and well information has to be added for all the fields in the DPA. A new approach was required to automate the maintenance and enhancement of the DPA.