ABSTRACT: Animated Geographic Information System of Petroleum Exploration through Time in the Denver Basin of Colorado, Nebraska, and Wyoming

Kenneth I. Takahashi, Debra K. Higley

Petroleum exploration through time in the Denver basin is animated and displayed on a Macintosh IIcx computer. Trends in basin exploration are shown with drill-hole data for 5-year increments from 1900 through 1984. These computer-generated maps are incorporated with maps showing political boundaries, structure contours, drill-hole density, and thermal maturity in the Denver basin.

Sources of data are vitrinite reflectance analyses and the Petroleum Information Corporation (PI) Well History Control System database. PI database drill-hold location, completion date, and production data were analyzed using a series of U.S. Geological Survey computer programs that divided the Denver basin into approximately ¼ mi² grid cells and calculated the type and highest level of petroleum production within each cell. Mapped data show the earliest time interval of exploration and the oil and gas, oil, gas, or nonproducing category of each grid cell. A grid cell with an oil and gas symbol, for example, might contain an oil and gas, a gas, and a nonproducing drill hole; whereas a dry-hole cell has only one or more nonproducing drill holes within it.

The exploration maps were generated with Macspin and Pixel Paint software on a Macintosh IIcx computer. U.S. political boundaries were created with Macintosh Mapmaker software. Hypercard and Supercard software is used to select and present basin, county, and field map images.

AAPG Search and Discovery Article #91002©1990 AAPG Rocky Mountain Section Meeting, Denver, Colorado, September 16-19, 1990