Turning old, scattered drilling records into accessible information
that could generate billions of dollars for Oklahoma's economy is one
goal of an online energy library currently being assembled.
If a person is thinking about drilling an oil well, it's wise to know
if anyone has drilled in the area before and what they encountered
underground.
Unfortunately, that can be difficult in Oklahoma, where the oil
industry lacks an accessible, complete and centrally located source of
well and production data.
Energy Libraries Online aims to cure that.
"We think this is real important to the state," said Tim Brown,
executive director of the nonprofit corporation.
The organization is in the process of creating an online, digital
library containing more than 100 years' worth of Oklahoma oil and
natural gas well logs and production records.
The result should be worth billions of dollars to Oklahoma oilmen,
said Dan Boyd, a petroleum geologist with the Oklahoma Geological Survey.
"Originally, it is estimated there were more than 84 billion barrels
of oil in the ground in Oklahoma," Boyd said. "About 14.8 billion
barrels have been produced so far."
Based on current production decline rates, Boyd estimates another 1.2
billion barrels will be produced by the year 2050. That would leave 81
percent of the original estimate still in the ground.
Much of that oil isn't easily extracted and will never be recovered,
Boyd said.
However, a review of old drilling records reveals a lot of missed
opportunities, he said.
There were oil formations that weren't exploited as oilmen drilled
through them to reach deeper, more lucrative formations, Brown said.
"Sometimes they completed the deeper formations and never came back,"
he said.
Boyd said there are other wells that produced some oil, but could
produce a lot more "through waterfloods, modified waterfloods,
dewatering, new wells or recompletions."
The volume of oil still in the ground is so large that even if the new
online digital library only helps recover an additional 1 or 2
percent, "you're talking about a huge amount of oil and money," Boyd
said.
One percent of 68 billion barrels is 680 million barrels. At $60 a
barrel, that much oil would be worth $40.8 billion.
The state collects 7 percent of the value of oil produced through
gross production taxes, so it also has a lot at stake, Boyd said.
Project will take hefty funding
Brown acknowledges that creating a comprehensive database won't be
easy. More than 500,000 oil wells have been drilled in Oklahoma over
the past century. Consequently, there are more than 5 million drilling
logs, completion and production records that need to be scanned and
electronically organized, he said.
Initially, Energy Libraries Online will concentrate on gathering data
from the most comprehensive sources of data, which include the
Oklahoma Geological Survey in Norman, the Oklahoma Well Log Library in
Tulsa and the Oklahoma City Geological Society, Brown said.
A number of private individuals have donated collections, he said.
Brown said he believes with adequate funding, his organization can
substantially complete the project in 2 years at a cost of about $5
million. So far, the group has raised about $750,000 and plans to go
online around June 1 with about 200,000 records. More than 110
companies and individuals have contributed money so far and several
have said they will increase donations once they see early results, he
said.
What it costs
Initially, Energy Libraries Online is planning to charge members
$1,200 a year for access to the data, and nonmembers will be charged
$1,500 a year.