Well Data Files And The Computer Exploration Tools For The 70's

Abstract

The purpose of this paper is to illustrate how the computer can be used for processing well data files to provide information that is not only useful for exploration, but essential for economically efficient exploration where large amounts of data from previous drilling are available. The Industry has made a concerted effort to manage the large volumes of data required to obtain maximum efficiency in the exploration for petroleum and the production of known petroleum and the production of known reserves. With respect to computer handling of data, the past decade was devoted primarily to accumulating information primarily to accumulating information and building large files of well data and production data within the industry, and special geological or other technical data files within certain companies. The petroleum industry is the only segment of the mineral industry that has a comprehensive data base available in computer processable form. During the decade of the 70's we will see the benefits of these costly investments. Figure 1 shows the areas of well data file coverage within the United States. Boundaries of each of the nine systems conform generally to the major geological provinces. All producing areas in the provinces. All producing areas in the United States except California and Alaska are covered. Similar systems are operated by the provincial governments and a commercial organization in Western Canada. Approximately 2,200,000 wells have been drilled in the search for oil and gas within the United States and Canada, of these about 1,000,000 have records of sufficient quality to include in a computer-based data system. Petroleum Information currently has approximately 700,000 wells in computer processable data files. Data are obtained from a variety of sources: Directly from the well site, from state sources, and by field men or contact men who obtain data from the operators of the wells.