2000 Digital Petroleum Atlas Annual Report

Project members and contributors to this report include: Dana Adkins-Heljeson, Saibal Bhattacharya, Tim Carr, Lee C Gerhard, Paul Gerlach, Willard Guy, Robert O'Dell, Ken Stalder and W. Lynn Watney. A digital copy of the report is available through the Digital Petroleum Atlas Homepage (http://www.kgs.ku.edu/DPA/dpaHome.html).

Report covers the fourth year of the Digital Petroleum Atlas (DPA) Project. The DPA is a long-term effort to develop a new methodology for efficient and timely access to the latest petroleum data and technology for the domestic oil and gas industry, research organizations and local governmental units. The DPA is a new and evolving approach to generating and publishing petroleum reservoir, field, play and basin studies. Atlas products are available anywhere in the world using a standard point-and-click world-wide-web interface (http://www.kgs.ku.edu/DPA/dpaHome.html). In order to provide efficient transfer of the technology for client-defined solutions, all information and technology in the DPA can be accessed, manipulated and downloaded.

The DPA increases and improves online access from data through to "final publication. " Until recently petroleum atlases circulated like all scholarly information, through personal exchanges, subscriptions, and libraries. Today, digital scientific information is becoming the norm. The result - a dramatic increase in the international and disciplinary scope of information exchange in the petroleum industry. Digital communication has made traditional collaborative activity more informal, intimate, instantaneous, and continuous. At the present the DPA provides worldwide access to limited but constantly increasing data and interpreted information. For example, data from each of over 300,000 oil and gas wells in Kansas are being accessed online for projects in locations from Chanute, Kansas, to Houston, Texas, to Berlin, Germany. Programs developed through the DPA provide oil and gas operators and the public tools to make exploration and development decisions using seismic data, interpreted well logs, and mapped petroleum information. The DPA provides online access to digital versions of researchers’ published bulletins, maps, and reports. Through the DPA, we are working to provide online tools that will permit our colleagues and customers to better query, interpret, map, and display the latest information and research results in earth science databases that could be scattered anywhere in the world. These "published" products are living, created on demand, customized to best address a specific earth science question, and access data that is continuously updated and improved. The DPA has significantly altered the relationship between research results, data access, the transfer of technology, and our relationship with our clients.

The fourth year of the project moved forward to expand the development and integration of relational databases into the DPA. The result is that while the coverage and the detail have increased the number of static pages in the DPA has decreased significantly. The use of relational databases means that previously completed products, such as field and basin studies, are automatically updated with the latest production and well data. In addition raster images such has completion reports are scanned and uploaded into relational databases and can be used for efficient construction of larger scale studies. Over the last year content of the DPA has increased with three additional field studies (Box Ranch, Kismet and Stewart fields), comprehensive regional maps on all major oil and gas producing horizons and several new county scale maps. The DPA Project continues to provide improved access to a "published" product and ongoing technology transfer activity. The DPA remains widely used by oil and gas producers and other groups interested in natural resources.

This report was prepared as an account of work sponsored by an agency of the United States Government. Neither the United States Government nor any agency thereof, nor any of their employees, makes any warranty, express or implied, or assumes any legal liability or responsibility for the accuracy, completeness, or usefulness of any information, apparatus, product, or process disclosed, or represents that its use would not infringe privately owned rights. Reference herein to any specific commercial product, process, or service by trade name, trademark, manufacturer, or otherwise does not necessarily constitute or imply its endorsement, recommendation, or favoring by the United States Government or any agency thereof. The views and opinions of authors expressed herein do not necessarily state or reflect those of the United States Government or any agency thereof.