Development of a geodatabase for retrieval of geochemical data from oil wells: A case study from the Gachsaran oilfield; SW Iran

Abstract

Managing geochemical data is crucial in the petroleum industry, as the exploration and development of oilfields typically require a large volume of data from geochemical analyses. Specifically, geochemical data relevant to oil wells, source rocks, and reservoir rocks are often related to location dimensions. Therefore, the geodatabase can be a powerful tool in collecting, storing, retrieving, processing, and analysis of these data. In this study, a novel geodatabase approach was utilized to store, display, and present geochemical data of petroleum samples from oil wells. The geodatabase scheme comprised two types of data layers: spatial data (e.g., oil well, oilfield boundary, formations including source rocks/reservoir rocks and sector) and non-spatial data (e.g., oil samples and geochemical information). The PostgreSQL/PostGIS object-relational database management system was used to design and implement the geodatabase, while QGIS was employed to connect to the database and visualize the geometrical data of the Gachsaran oilfield. The QGIS Data Plotly plugin was then used to interpret geochemical data. According to the findings of this study, the PostgreSQL/PostGIS open-source database is a suitable method for spatial data management of oil well geometrical data. In addition, the geochemical evaluation of possible source rocks and determination of geochemical characteristics of reservoir oil were analyzed using this geodatabase. Moreover, integrating oil geochemical data into a geodatabase prevents the scattering of geochemical data and facilitates data interpretation.