Abstract: Western Canadian Oil and Gas Data Base as Working Model for More Effective North American Resource Management

J. R. Century

Since the discovery of oil in Upper Devonian reefs at Leduc, Alberta, in 1947, vast amounts of data have been accumulated in provincial and commercial repositories. Regulations developed jointly by industry and provincial government agencies concerning the collection and disclosure of significant geologic and drilling information, well-production records, reserve and reservoir data have been in effect for more than 30 years. About 12 years ago data became available in machine retrievable form after an initial hard copy period. The result has been the development of the most complete and functional oil and gas data base of any petroleum region in the world.

Availability of this computerized data has helped in exploration and development of new reserves of the Western Canada sedimentary basin. However, the potential benefits of these systems are far from being reached.

Some of the data files that are operational in computerized media as hard-copy printed output, map and graphic display, and on CRT or other conversational remote-terminal devices are: (1) general and detailed data on wells including geologic and stratigraphic information, (2) digital lithology of all significant wells including facies map programs, (3) porosity and permeability of all core analysis, (4) formation pressures and recoveries from all drill-stem and production tests, (5) historic monthly production records on all producing wells, (6) reservoir and reserve data of all fields and pools including enhanced recovery. In addition, all cores and drill cuttings, all well logs in hard copy, microfilm, or fiche format, all drill-stem data including test charts are conveniently avail ble through provincial government and commercial sources on all 90,000 wells drilled in Western Canada.

AAPG Search and Discovery Article #90968©1977 AAPG-SEPM Annual Convention and Exhibition, Washington, DC