--> ABSTRACT: From Twenty-Thousand Holes in the Ground to Microcomputer-Generated Well Location Maps: New York State's Evolving Computerized Oil and Gas Data Base, by Kathleen Fitzpatrick; #91041 (2010)

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From Twenty-Thousand Holes in the Ground to Microcomputer-Generated Well Location Maps: New York State's Evolving Computerized Oil and Gas Data Base

Kathleen Fitzpatrick

New York's first gas well was drilled in 1821, but comprehensive reporting regulations for oil and gas operations in the state did not exist until 1966. An effort to computerize the state's oil and gas records, using only microcomputers, was begun in 1983 by the Bureau of Oil and Gas Regulation in the New York Division of Mineral Resources. Since then, data have been collected on nearly 15,000 known plugged and unplugged oil, gas, storage, and solution mining wells. Location, drilling, and completion data are complete for all wells permitted since 1984. Filling in the gaps for known pre-1984 wells, and gathering and entering data for the thousands of wells drilled and abandoned prior to the reporting regulations, constitute a major long-term project for staff members.

The goal of the computerization effort is to have data for every well in New York in the computer. The Division plans to use its computer-mapping capabilities to generate well-location plots that will be overlain with USGS 7½° topographic quadrangle sheets. Computer-generated maps and reports are useful for field studies as well as for public information.

Limited production data and organizational information on well operators in New York have also been computerized. All nonconfidential public information stored in the Division's computer data base is available on printouts or floppy disks at a nominal charge.

AAPG Search and Discovery Article #91041©1987 AAPG Eastern Section Meeting, Columbus, Ohio, October 7-10, 1987.