Well identification and environmental management

Shell Exploration & Production

Well Identification and Environmental Management

A lesson in Standards and Data Management

PUG Conference 2008

February 25 Houston, TX

Keith Fraley

Shell Exploration and Production


Presentation Overview:

The Problem:

Migrating Critical Data from a Pilot Phase to Production Grade

The Solution:

Leverage Technology, Standards and Interoperability

What To Take away:

Think Big, even when starting small, but, at all costs, remain agile


Geographic and Resource Overview:

Piceance Basin Oil Shale

Enormous Resource Potential

Northwest Area of Colorado

Complex Subsurface Hydrological Model

Hydrological Characterization Needed to Formulate Risk Assessment

Hydrological Drilling and Sampling Program Evolves


Geographic and Resource Overview:

Why is Hydrology Important?

Extremely complex and integrated Aquifer systems

Series of Aquifers are intertwined with Oil Shale Resource

Key to the Financial Risk Assessment of the Project

Key to the Environmental Risk Assessment of the Project


Geographic Overview


The Problem (Overview):

No mandated standard for storing hydrology Well header information

No clear method for marking hydrology wells in the field

No established approach for collection and storage of hydrology sampling event results

No Field based GIS tools


The Problem (In depth):

No mandated standard for storing hydrology well header information

Hydrology program began as a small R&D effort 20 years ago

Well data was kept in Excel spreadsheets or in peoples heads

No complete record of drilling results

Planned vs Actual drilled

Recompletion info convoluted

Naming conventions non standardized

Survey information not comprehensive

What, where?



No clear method for marking wells in the field

Wells were identified in field in different ways, many not identified at all

Evolved into a large number of wells (500-600)

Names changed

Initial attempts to mark wells left much to be desired

Location and Survey info was confusing, not complete



No established approach for collection and storage of hydrology sampling event results

Field Data was logged in a Note Book, no digital entry mechanism

Transcription errors occurred

400,000 analytical results housed in disparate locations

Life cycle for data to end consumers was long and siloed

Critical data was housed with consultants

No common platform for storage and dissemination of hydrology data



No Field based GIS tools

Hard copy maps were ineffective do to dynamic data environment and amount of data

Needed a digital solution in the field to leverage in house GISdatasets

Wells, Aerials, Lease and Property Boundaries, Federal Land, Resource Info

Aerial, Elevation and Topo data critical

GPS Navigation was a value add


These Problems resulted in:

Confusion on validity of data

Data Analysis Latency

Over dependency on consultants

Disconnect between back office and field crews

Distrust of data by our end consumers



The Solution (Overview):

Well Identification Program (WIP) and Environmental Management Implementation

QA / QC all existing wells

Migrate well header info into OpenWorks

Migrate Environmental Sampling Data into EQuIS

Tag wells in the field with standardized methodology

Develop a field GIS platform to disseminate geographic data


The Solution In Depth:

Exhaustive QA / QC process both from office and field

Migrate well header data out of Excel and into corporate projectwell repository (OpenWorks)

Assign internal API numbers for hydrology wells

Spatialize OpenWorks wells for verification against high resolution aerial photos in ArcGIS

Mandate a standard datum and projection for new wells

Integrate into Petrel via OpenSpirit for use in modeling




The Solution In Depth Cont…:

Field verification of every single well

Equip field crews with GIS software / data and corresponding hard copy maps

Goal: To physically “touch” and verify every Shell well in basin

Catalog every well with photo, and video of each Pad

Result: Invaluable process that revealed numerous data errors even after initial QA Step

Residual effect: Creation of road and trail GIS layer via GPS logging

End Result: Certainty in the data that users were looking for in order to “trust” the data we provided



Migrate all Environmental Data to EQuIS:

What?

Environmental Quality Information System (EQuIS)

EarthSoft Corp (http://www.earthsoft.com)

Why?

Highly Refined Data Model

Front End Clients for Data Analysis

Field Data Collection Tools

Scope

Migrated 400,000 analytical results

Train Lab and field crews



2D barcode ‘stickers’ for all Hydrology Wells

2D Barcode encoded with relevant well header info (Lat, Lon, API, Well Name, Permit Name, Sec Town Range, Drill Date, Elevation, Well Purpose…)

Well headed info encoded as an XML Stream

Barcode based on published DataMatrix standard

Provided a platform for existing and future field based applications

Well headed info pulled directly out of OpenWorks and encoded into Barcode Tiff Image

Software Development Kit from Lead Technologies


2D barcode ‘stickers’ cont…

Vinyl ‘Sticker’ from DuraLabel placed on well

Low cost, easy to implement and replace

Field tested for 1 year prior to implementation

3.0 mil vinyl material

Weather and sun resistant

Used on military equipment and drillings rigs the world over





Field Crew Equipped Hardware

Panasonic Toughbook 30

MIL-STD-810F Tested

Intrinsically safe device (for use in explosion-prone areas)

GPS

Bluetooth

Wide Area Wireless Enabled

Rugged Bluetooth Barcode Readers

2D Datamatrix compatible



Software Field Crews (Approach):

Geographic Based

Aerial Imagery Foundation

GPS Integration Capable

In Line with Shell Global GIS Initiatives

3D Capable

Open

Cost Effective

Lean and Mean



Software (Choice):

ArcGIS Explorer (AGX) for field GIS Platform

Data Delived as a cached bundle, leveraging both ESRI ArcGIS Online Services and internal Shell ArcGIS Services

Easy to use, and straight forward for our Field Crews

GPS Navigation

NEMA feeds from Toughbook Integrated GPS Chip

EarthBridge integrated into AGX as Custom Task

EarthBridge ports NEMA feeds into KML (originally designed for Google Earth)

Enables field crews to see their location real-time in AGX

EQuIS IDEF (Intelligent Data Entry Form)

IDEF Integration into AGX as Custom Task

Stream Lined Data Collection

Custom Shell Barcode integration

Eliminate Date Entry errors



Additional Factors for Choosing AGX

Lean yet powerful SDK and OpenGL Support

Platform for Subsurface Data Integration

HTML Capable “Notes” Easily Integrate Well Photo and Video Logs

Existing Powerful Tools “Go to location” “Import File” “Measure” “Identify”

ESRI Data Support File Geodatabases Shapefiles

Rasters


AGX: Offline Delivery

Cached AGS Service Bundles ESRI ArcGIS Online

1 meter Aerial PhotosUSGS Topo 1:24kUS Street Map3d Elevation Model

Shell AGS Services1 foot Aerial PhotosProperty BoundariesLease LocationHydrology PadsResource

File Geodatabase “Vector Data”

Wells Deviation Surveys

KMLReal-time GPS


Well Identification ProgramObjective: To have a system that will help with well and subsequent data identification, and reduce in over-all project costs.

Current Well ID Program: Not clearly defined and confusing; not cost effective.

Proposed Well ID Program: Physical tagging of wells with a 2D Bar Code with relevant information.

Benefits of 2D Bar Code System: Reduction in human effort, and data recording duplication Elimination of well ID confusion Aid in data QC and input of data into main databases Well ID, location, and sample ID errors eliminated In-field managers can track progress on each well Allow independent field personnel to track latest information at the well site History is available at each well for all borehole life-cycle

activities Minimizes chance of old data being used Data latency is significantly reduced Errors can be quickly corrected New information can be quickly reported in a hard-copy

computer readable format Barcodes can be quickly replaced if damaged Bar codes are secure and keep data classified, and are easily combined with encryption and limited user operation procedures.

Ruggedized Field Laptop

• GPS / GIS Integration• Field Interface for

• EQuIS Sampling• GIS / GPS Navigation• OpenWorks Well DB

Wireless Bar Code Reader

• Reads Data from well bar code and reports to field Laptop

• Well Name• API, UWI• Total Depth• Drill Date• Comp Date• LL• Contact• Use/Program• etc

The data capacity of a 2-D bar code is up to 3 K Bytes of data. This should besufficient for the most of the informationrequired including the elevation, coordinates, well construction information including location of the screen and pump, and any other information associated with the well.

Integrated wireless GPS

EQuISSamplingForm


Screen Shots:

Evolution not Revolution.


Screen Shots:

Evolution not Revolution.


“A Lesson in Standards and Data Management”

Leveraged Standards XML

BarcodesWebservices

DataMatrixBarcode Encoding

NEMAGPS Integration

KMLReal-time GPS Display

MIL-STD-810FIntrinsically Safe Devices

Leveraged RDMSOpenWorks


In Summary, lessons learned…

Testament to Standards

The wonderful thing about Tiggers, is Tiggers is a wonderful thing…

Think big, even when starting small

Starting with a scalable vision is imperative for even the smallest projects

Remain Agile (http://www.agilealliance.org/)

Geography matters

Providing easy to use geographic tools in the field is critical

Leverage, leverage, leverage

Leveraging standards and common, open APIs can provide robust solutions in a timely manner


Thank you…

Questions?

Well identification and environmental management

Documents

environmental data

header data

geographic data

field wells

environmental sampling

field crews distrust

gis software data

hydrology wells