Abstract: USGS-AAPG Digitized Oil and Gas Field Map of North America--Status Report

William W. Mallory

The USGS-AAPG digitized oil and gas field map of North America is an ongoing cooperative project closely associated with the U.S. Geological Survey's Petroleum Data System, a computerized oil and gas pool data bank. The objectives of the project are multiple. The nominal product is an oil and gas field map of North America to be published by the survey at a scale of 1:5,000,000.

The unique aspect of this project is that field images are digitized and filed with the Petroleum Data System, thus allowing field images to be retrieved in any projection at any scale on a TV screen or in hard copy using any of the pool parameters in the system. This capability allows a wide variety of visual exhibits. For example, fields can be displayed by age of producing formation, by discovery method, by size groups, or by type of trap. The images so retrieved then can be overlaid upon any useful type of base map. Thus, all the fields which produce from Lower Cretaceous rocks of Colorado could be superposed on a map showing the lithofacies and thickness of these strata.

Nearly all the manuscript state maps are complete. Editing, drafting, and digitization are under way. The oil and gas field map of Michigan has been completed and the computer capabilities of this example are on display at the U.S. Geological Survey exhibit at this meeting.

The rapidity with which oil and gas information may be retrieved and the versatility of selection and combination of data will provide a new tool for domestic oil and gas explorationists.

AAPG Search and Discovery Article #90972©1976 AAPG-SEPM Annual Convention and Exhibition, New Orleans, LA