Click to view poster in PDF format.

^PSImplementation of GIS Technology from the Rocky Mountain Oilfield Testing Center (RMOTC), Casper, Wyoming*

Brian J. Black¹, Jeanette W. Buelt¹, and Tom Anderson¹

Search and Discovery Article #40309 (2008)

Posted November 13, 3008

*Adapted from poster presentation at AAPG Annual Convention, San Antonio, Texas, April 20-23, 2008

¹Navarro Research and Engineering, Rocky Mountain Oilfield Testing Center, Casper, WY. ([email protected])

Abstract

The Rocky Mountain Oilfield Testing Center (RMOTC) operates the Teapot Dome Oilfield near Casper, Wyoming, also known as Naval Petroleum Reserve No. 3. During the past three years, RMOTC has been gathering and consolidating over 80 years of oilfield data and entering that information into a modern geo-computing environment and relational database. A major part of this process includes implementation of a true Geographic Information System (GIS), specifically ArcGIS. Over the past 2 ½ years, RMOTC has upgraded its GIS capabilities to display facilities, pipelines, well locations, roads, utility lines, remote sensing data, and other features in real-world spatial coordinates. This is a significant upgrade compared to past practices of using drafting software with stand-alone coordinate systems, not spatially referenced, for creating maps of the field and facilities. The GIS has allowed RMOTC personnel to display and integrate a large variety of spatial data in ways that were previously not possible. RMOTC uses ArcGIS to store and display information used in a variety of oilfield applications such as creating basemaps of field infrastructure and facilities, displaying well production data, incorporating geological and geophysical interpretation, pipeline leak assessment and flow assurance, environmental monitoring, tracking oilfield operations, etc. The data and maps generated by ArcGIS have been greatly appreciated by RMOTC scientists and engineers as well as RMOTC project partners. Implementation of the GIS has helped RMOTC become the premier oilfield testing and demonstration center in the United States.

Selected Figures

	Location map of RMOTC in Natrona County, Wyoming. Field office is in Teapot Dome Oilfield on the Naval Petroleum Reserve No.. 3 (NPR-3).
	Map displaying production bubbles of cumulative oil produced from the 2nd Wall Creek Member of the Cretaceous Frontier Formation.
	NPR-3 geologic map.
	NPR-3 Tensleep time structure, showing top of Tensleep A Sand. Green bubbles show cumulative production from the Tensleep Formation.
	Three-dimensional view of Teapot Dome Oilfield, showing the structure of two oil-producing units and the deviated wellbore paths from holes drilled on the 45-21 surface pad.