Kansas Geological Survey, Open File Report 97-14
Kansas Geological Survey, Open File Report 97-14
The prototype Digital Petroleum Atlas (DPA) Project is the first
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, animated exploration histories through
time). 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.
The prototype DPA concentrated on developing methodologies and
computerized procedures to generate and to "publish" a limited set of
field and play studies concentrated in Kansas and to a lesser extent
the Northern Mid-continent. Kansas fields studied include: Arroyo
Field (Morrowan), Stanton County; Big Bow Field (St. Louis), Grant
and Stanton counties; and Gentzler Field (Morrowan), Stevens County.
Access is provided through the DPA to previously existing and new
regional, play, field and individual well information. Methodologies,
developed in year one of the prototype DPA Project, provide 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.