University of Denver Digital Commons @ DU Geography and the Environment: Graduate Student Capstones Department of Geography and the Environment 5-22-2013 Spacing Units in the Greater Wattenberg Area Tera Dillon Follow this and additional works at: https://digitalcommons.du.edu/geog_ms_capstone Part of the Geographic Information Sciences Commons, and the Spatial Science Commons Recommended Citation Dillon, Tera, "Spacing Units in the Greater Wattenberg Area" (2013). Geography and the Environment: Graduate Student Capstones. 34. https://digitalcommons.du.edu/geog_ms_capstone/34 This Capstone is brought to you for free and open access by the Department of Geography and the Environment at Digital Commons @ DU. It has been accepted for inclusion in Geography and the Environment: Graduate Student Capstones by an authorized administrator of Digital Commons @ DU. For more information, please contact [email protected],[email protected]. Spacing Units in the Greater W attenberg Area T e ra D illo n University of Denver D epartm ent of Geography Capstone Project fo r M a ste r o f S c ie n c e in G e o g ra p h ic In fo rm a tio n S c ie n c e 22 M ay 2013 Spacing Units in the Greater W attenberg Area D illo n - ii A b stract Horizontal w ells are the m ost com m only drilled w ells in the W attenberg Field, located in W eld County, Colorado. Petroleum engineers have becom e interested in determining how m any horizontal w ells can econom ically be drilled per section in th is vertically, w e ll- developed field. U sing the Colorado O il and G as Conservation Com m ission’s spacing unit regulations as a guide, a G IS workflow was developed to create the deliverables required for further analysis. S pacing units w ere created by applying a buffer to horizontal w ell surveys, and using th is bu ffe r to se lect inte rse cting qu arte r- qu arter section s. The selected quarter- quarter sections w ere sim plified using the dissolve tool and then spatially joined to producing w ells. The resulting tabular data is exported, edited, and form atted for delivery to engineers for subsequent a n a ly s is . Spacing Units in the Greater W attenberg Area D illo n - iii T ab le of Contents A bstract..................................................................................................ii Tables and Figures .................................................................................iv List of A bbreviations ............................................................................... v In trodu ction ........................................................................................... 6 Background ......................................................................................... 7 A P I N u m b e rs .................................................................................... 7 Drilling Te chniques ............................................................................ 9 Directional Surveys ........................................................................... 9 P ro je ct A rea ...................................................................................... 10 Intent ............................................................................................... 11 Literature Review ................................................................................. 13 Spacing U nits .................................................................................... 13 G IS in O il & G as Produ ction ................................................................ 14 G IS for D ata In te gration ..................................................................... 16 Design and Im plem entation................................................................... 17 Data and Sources .............................................................................. 17 Data Dictionary.................................................................................. 19 M ethodology ........................................................................................ 21 Data M anagem ent.............................................................................. 21 Building S pa c in g U n it s ........................................................................ 28 Tying Spacing U nits to Producing W ells ................................................ 37 Preparing the Table for delivery .......................................................... 38 R e s u lt s ................................................................................................ 40 D is c u s s io n ........................................................................................... 40 A reas for Further R esearch .................................................................... 41 Glossary of Term s ................................................................................ 43 W orks Cited ......................................................................................... 44 Spacing Units in the Greater W attenberg Area D illo n - iv Tables and Figures Figu re # 1 , W atte n be rg Location ............................................................. 11 Table #1, Layers & Sources................................................................... 18 T a b le #2, G W A Spacing Unit G eodatabase Details ................................... 20 Figure #2, Culture Feature Dataset ........................................................ 22 Figure #3, W ell Feature Dataset ............................................................ 28 Figure # 4, Spacing U nit O verlap ............................................................ 30 Figure # 5, Spacing U nit Creation G uides ................................................ 32 Figure # 6, W ells w ithout Directional Surveys .......................................... 33 Figure #7, Buffering and Quarter- Q uarter S election Errors ....................... 35 Figure # 8, Suspicious W ell Bores ........................................................... 36 Figure # 9, Sp acing Unit Feature Dataset ................................................ 37 Table #3, Layers & Sources................................................................... 39 Spacing Units in the Greater W attenberg Area D illo n - v L is t o f A b b r e v ia tio n s API- A m e ric a n P e tro le u m In s titu te BH- Bottom Hole COGCC- Colorado Oil and Gas Conservation Com m ission DJ- Denver- Julesburg G IS - Geographic Inform ation Sys te m GW A- Greater W attenberg Area Loc- Location S u rf- S u rfa c e TD- T o ta l D e p th Spacing Units in the Greater W attenberg Area D illo n - 6 In trod u ction Noble Energy, Incorporated (Noble) is a leading independent energy com pany engaged in worldwide oil and gas exploration and production. The Com pany has dom estic, on sh ore, core operations in the Denver- Julesburg (D J) basin , the Marcellus Shale, as well as in the deepwater G ulf of M exico areas in the United States (Noble Energy Inc. 2013 , 1 ). T h is p r o je ct focu ses on the G reater W atte n be rg A rea, a subset of the W atte n be rg F ield, in th e D J Basin, in Northern Colorado. The state of Colorado, like the U nited S tates of A m erica, has a rich history of o il and gas exploration and production. The state was hom e to the second d o m e s t ic d is c o v e r y o f o il in 1861 ( R a n d a ll 2 0 09, 1 ). The W a t t e n b e r g F ie ld is one of the largest fields in the United States and the m ost active drilling area in C olorado. It w a s discovered in 1970 (Sonnenberg 2006, 5 ), a n d currently h o ld s over t w e n ty thousand wells (C olorado P u b lic R a d io 2012). I n 2009, th e Energy Information Adm inistration ranked W atte n be rg as th e te n th large st gas, an d th e th irte e n th large st oil field in th e U n ited S tate s (2004, 1). Considering the technologic and regulatory advances in the last four years, th is statistic is su rely dated. Despite the stereotype, oil and gas developm ent is approached with anything but a “ w ild w e s t ” m e n t a lit y . In the industry’s infancy we lls w ere d r ille d haphazardly, nearly on top of each other, in an atte m pt to follow an Spacing Units in the Greater W attenberg Area D illo n - 7 underground “river of o il.” Fortu n ate ly, m odern sc ie n ce has brought new understanding to the industry, along with com prehensive rules and regulations . P rotecting preciou s, n on - renewable, petroleum resou rces, th e people who extract them , and the general public are now an essential part of the oil and gas industry and its regulatory counterparts. Spacing units are one of the sign ifican t r e g u la t io n s governing the drilling and production of oil and gas. They are defined by Schlum berger as an area allotted to a w ell by regulations, or field rules, issued by a governm ental authority having jurisdiction for the drilling and production of a w ell (2013). S pacing units are designed to prevent th e d r illin g o f u n n ecessary w ells, a v o id th e w aste o f h ydrocarbon resou rces, an d to prote ct th e in terests of all invested parties (Montana Code 2011). N e a r ly e very state w ith drilling activity has som e form of w ell spacing regulation. The st ate of Colorado is no exception. I n th e state th e re gu latory body w it h ju r is d ic t io n o v e r oil and gas w e lls is the Colorado O il and G as Conservation C o m m is s io n (COGCC). The com m ission ’s R ule 318A s p e lls out the spacing unit requirem ents for the G reater W attenberg Area (GW A) and will serve as a guide for this