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

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Executive Summary

The Digital Petroleum Atlas (DPA) Project is in the fourth 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 goal of the DPA is to provide real-time data access through the Internet, coupled with digital modeling to simulate and visualize petroleum systems. The DPA will enable an improved integrated systems approach to the petroleum exploration and development. The result: projects are far more interdisciplinary than in the past, and are conducted within an environment of rapidly increasing quantities of data, and varieties and modes of dissemination. Data accessibility requires operators to apply not only more data but also different types of data than before to develop, verify, and successfully apply models to exploration and development decisions.

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 provide a product with which the operator can interact in ways that are impossible in a 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 are available for mitigating the continued decline in domestic production.

Year 4 of the project concentrated on increased integration of relational databases that permit automatic updating of all DPA products (e.g., latest production and well data for field studies). Pages containing production data are generated through queries of the most currently available data. In this aspect the DPA is a constantly and automatically updated product that will remain current well beyond the duration of the project. Additional fields added to the DPA bring the total to 11 plays. New fields added to the DPA include: Box Ranch (Comanche County), Kismet (Seward and Meade counties) and Stewart Field (Finney County). Field studies generated in previous years of the project remain, and have been enhanced with updated data and additional maps. These fields include: Chase-Silica Field (Arbuckle) in Rice, Barton and Stanford counties; McKinney Field (Chester, Marmaton, and Morrow) in Meade County; Arroyo Field (Morrowan), Stanton County; Big Bow Field (St. Louis), Grant and Stanton counties; and Gentzler Field (Morrowan), Stevens County; Amazon Ditch and Terry fields (Lansing-Kansas City, Mississippian and Morrowan), Finney County; and Schaben Field (Mississippian), Ness County. Ten counties now contain detailed maps on multiple horizons. Regional maps at the statewide scale cover all the major oil and gas producing intervals. Methodologies developed in year four of the DPA Project provide improved access and increased breath to a continuously "published" product and ongoing technology transfer activity.

Usage statistics and unsolicited feedback show that oil and gas producers are using the DPA on a regular basis to develop prospects, evaluate properties and provide regional background to ongoing and potential projects. In addition, public sector agencies, such as the Kansas Corporation Commission, Kansas Department of Revenue and the US Department of Energy, Energy Information Agency use the data and results available in the Digital Petroleum Atlas.