DPA Executive Summary

The Northern Mid-continent has large oil and gas resources in numerous reservoirs. A higher percentage of original oil in place may be produced if sufficient information about the reservoirs is made available to operators. A consortium of state geological surveys, academic institutions, and independent petroleum producers and consultants is creating a prototype Petroleum Atlas to meet this information need. The atlas is unique in that it will provide to the U.S. Department of Energy and independent operators digital and hard copy information, digital data bases, new cutting-edge scientific studies of typical fields in major petroleum plays of the region, updated information into the TORIS data base, and purposeful technology transfer. The atlas will also evaluate and provide to the U.S. DOE and independent operators the technologies best suited for additional petroleum recovery from northern mid-continent petroleum plays.

Primary products of the Year 1 prototype atlas are on-line accessible digital data bases covering two selected petroleum plays in Kansas. Regional data bases will be supplemented with geological field studies of selected fields in each play. Digital imagery, digital mapping, relational data queries, and geographical information systems will be integral to the field studies and regional data sets. Data sets will have relational links to provide opportunity for history matching, feasibility, and risk-analysis tests on contemplated exploration and development projects. The flexible "web-like" design of the atlas permits the operator to access comprehensive reservoir data and customize the interpretive products (e.g. maps and cross sections) to their needs. The Kansas Digital Petroleum Atlas will be accessible in digital form on-line and through CD-ROM using a World-Wide-Web browser as the graphical user interface.

Regional data sets and field studies will be free-standing entities that will be made available on-line through the Internet to users as they are completed. Technology transfer activities will commence in the early part of this project, providing data information sets to operators prior to the full digital atlas compilation

The atlas will provide a basis for future development of engineering simulations of typical fields within plays and of artificial intelligence software to screen technologies for additional petroleum recovery against reservoir parameters submitted by operators. A three-year program is proposed to accomplish the development and publication of the Northern Mid-continent Petroleum Atlas.

Kansas Geological Survey, Digital Petroleum Atlas
Updated July 1, 1996
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