Areas of Historical Oil and Gas Exploration and Production in the United States

Laura R. Biewick
Energy Resources Program, U.S. Geological Survey, Denver, CO

The U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) is publishing a map compilation of historical oil and gas exploration and production in the United States. This digital map product is an updated version of a similar USGS map that was published in 1998. In addition to a hardcopy map product, the data were refined and made more accessible using GIS tools. For this map compilation:
1. Oil and gas data are from several databases. Digital data were used from the more than 3 million wells in IHS Energy, Inc.'s PI/Dwights PLUS Well Data on CD-ROM (current to September, 2005). In certain areas, the PI/Dwights data tend not to be complete, particularly for pre-1920 production. For Indiana, Pennsylvania, Kentucky, Illinois, and Ohio, databases for all wells in each of those states were also used (current as of 2004 to 2006).
2. Base cartographic reference data are included, using the USGS National Map and a World Shaded Relief map service from the geography network.
3. An internet map service is available online.
4. Alaska oil and gas data are included.
5. Software packages used to create this digital map include: Environmental Systems Research Institute, Inc. ArcGIS 9x, Python, Adobe Photoshop CS, Illustrator CS, and Acrobat 7.0.

Because of the proprietary nature of many of the databases, the United States was divided into cells one-quarter mile square and the production information of all wells in a given cell was aggregated. The cells were then coded to indicate whether the wells included within the cell are predominantly oil-producing, gas-producing, are both oil- and gas-producing, or are dry or the type of production is unknown. No proprietary data are included in the cell maps.

AAPG Search and Discovery Article #90078©2008 AAPG Annual Convention, San Antonio, Texas