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1995 National Oil and Gas Assessment 1/4-Mile Cells within the Northern Alaska Province

Metadata also available as - [Outline] - [Parseable text] - [DIF]

Frequently-anticipated questions:

What does this data set describe?

Title:
1995 National Oil and Gas Assessment 1/4-Mile Cells within the Northern Alaska Province
Abstract:
Cell maps for each oil and gas play were created by the USGS as a method for illustrating the degree of exploration, type of production, and distribution of production in a play or province. Each cell represents a quarter-mile square of the land surface, and the cells are coded to represent whether the wells included within the cell are predominantly oil-producing, gas-producing, both oil and gas-producing, or dry. The well information was initially retrieved from the Petroleum Information (PI) Well History Control System (WHCS), which is a proprietary, commercial database containing information for most oil and gas wells in the U.S. Cells were developed as a graphic solution to overcome the problem of displaying proprietary WHCS data. No proprietary data are displayed or included in the cell maps. The data from WHCS were current as of December 1990 when the cell maps were created in 1994.
Supplemental_Information:
Oil and gas plays within province 1 (Northern Alaska) are listed here by play number, type, and name: 
Number Type           Name
  101  conventional   Topset
  102  conventional   Turbidite
  103  conventional   Barrow Arch Beaufortian
  104  conventional   Barrow Arch Ellesmerian
  105  conventional   Ellesmerian-Beaufortian Clastics
  106  conventional   Lisburne
  107  conventional   Lisburne Unconformity
  108  conventional   Endicott
  109  conventional   Fold Belt
  110  conventional   Western Thrust Belt
  111  conventional   Eastern Thrust Belt
  1. How should this data set be cited?

    United States Geological Survey (USGS), 1996, 1995 National Oil and Gas Assessment 1/4-Mile Cells within the Northern Alaska Province: U.S. Geological Survey Digital Data Series DDS-30, USGS Central Energy Team, Denver, Colorado.

    Online Links:

  2. What geographic area does the data set cover?

    West_Bounding_Coordinate: -166.9817089
    East_Bounding_Coordinate: -140.987511
    North_Bounding_Coordinate: 71.43928599
    South_Bounding_Coordinate: 67.24464285

  3. What does it look like?

  4. Does the data set describe conditions during a particular time period?

    Calendar_Date: 01-Dec-1990
    Currentness_Reference: 19901201

  5. What is the general form of this data set?

    Geospatial_Data_Presentation_Form: vector digital data

  6. How does the data set represent geographic features?

    1. How are geographic features stored in the data set?

      This is a Vector data set. It contains the following vector data types (SDTS terminology):

      • Entity point
      • Point

    2. What coordinate system is used to represent geographic features?

      Horizontal positions are specified in geographic coordinates, that is, latitude and longitude. Latitude and longitude values are specified in Decimal degrees.

      The horizontal datum used is North American Datum of 1983.
      The ellipsoid used is Geodetic Reference System 80.
      The semi-major axis of the ellipsoid used is 6378137.00.
      The flattening of the ellipsoid used is 1/298.257222.

  7. How does the data set describe geographic features?

    pr"playnum"cg.pat or pr"playnum"cg.dbf
    Point Attribute Table. For each play, "playnum" is replaced with the actual play number in either a file, pr"playnum"cg.pat, or a table, pr"playnum"cg.dbf. (Source: U.S. Geological Survey)

    REG_NUM
    Region Number (Source: U.S. Geological Survey Energy Resource Regions)

    ValueDefinition
    1Alaska

    REG_NAME
    Region Name (Source: U.S. Geological Survey Energy Resource Regions)

    ValueDefinition
    Alaska 

    PROV_NUM
    Province Number (Source: U.S. Geological Survey Energy Resource Provinces)

    ValueDefinition
    1Northern Alaska

    PROV_NAME
    Province Name (Source: U.S. Geological Survey Energy Resource Provinces)

    ValueDefinition
    Northern Alaska 

    PLAY_NUM
    Play Number (Source: U.S. Geological Survey Energy Resource Plays)

    ValueDefinition
    101Topset
    102Turbidite
    103Barrow Arch Beaufortian
    104Barrow Arch Ellesmerian
    105Ellesmerian-Beaufortian Clastics
    106Lisburne
    107Lisburne Unconformity
    108Endicott
    109Fold Belt
    110Western Thrust Belt
    111Eastern Thrust Belt

    PLAY_NAME
    Play Name (Source: U.S. Geological Survey Energy Resource Plays)

    ValueDefinition
    Topset 
    Turbidite 
    Barrow Arch Beaufortian 
    Barrow Arch Ellesmerian 
    Ellesmerian-Beaufortian Clastics 
    Lisburne 
    Lisburne Unconformity 
    Endicott 
    Fold Belt 
    Western Thrust Belt 
    Eastern Thrust Belt 

    SYMB
    Production Status (Source: U.S. Geological Survey)

    ValueDefinition
    1Cell contains at least one productive oil well, but no productive gas wells (green).
    2Cell contains at least one productive gas well, but no productive oil wells (red).
    3Cell contains at least one productive oil well and at least one productive gas well or one well producing both oil and gas (purple).
    4Cell contains no producing wells (charcoal).

Who produced the data set?

  1. Who are the originators of the data set? (may include formal authors, digital compilers, and editors)

  2. Who also contributed to the data set?

    R. F. Mast, D. H. Root, (ed.)

  3. To whom should users address questions about the data?

    Christopher J. Schenk
    USGS
    Geologist
    U.S. Geological Survey MS939, Box25046
    Denver, Colorado 80225
    USA

    (303) 236-5796 (voice)
    schenk@usgs.gov

Why was the data set created?

The purpose of the cell map is to display the exploration maturity, type of production, and distribution of production in quarter-mile cells in each of the oil and gas plays and each of the provinces defined for the 1995 U.S. National Oil and Gas Assessment.

How was the data set created?

  1. From what previous works were the data drawn?

    USGS DDS-30, Release 2 (source 1 of 4)
    U.S. Geological Survey, Gautier, D.L.(ed.), Dolton, G.L.(ed.), Takahashi, K.I.(ed.), and Varnes, K.L.(ed.), 1996, 1995 National Assessment of United States Oil and Gas Resources--Results, Methodology, and Supporting Data: U.S. Geological Survey Digital Data Series DDS-30.

    Type_of_Source_Media: CD-ROM
    Source_Contribution: U.S. National Oil and Gas Assessment

    USGS DDS-35 (source 2 of 4)
    U.S. Geological Survey, Beeman, W.R. (compiler), Obuch, R.C. (compiler), and Brewton, J.D. (compiler), 1996, Digital Map Data, Text, and Graphical Images in Support of the 1995 National Assessment of United States Oil and Gas Resources: U.S. Geological Survey Digital Data Series DDS-35.

    Type_of_Source_Media: CD-ROM
    Source_Contribution:
    digital map data in support of the 1995 U.S. National Oil and Gas Assessment

    USGS DDS-36 (source 3 of 4)
    U.S. Geological Survey, Charpentier, R.R. (compiler), Klett, T.R. (compiler), Obuch, R.C. (compiler), and Brewton, J.D. (compiler), 1996, Tabular Data, Text, and Graphical Images in Support of the 1995 National Assessment of United States Oil and Gas Resources: U.S. Geological Survey Digital Data Series DDS-36.

    Type_of_Source_Media: CD-ROM
    Source_Contribution:
    digital tabular data in support of the 1995 U.S. National Oil and Gas Assessment

    WHCS (source 4 of 4)
    Corporation, Petroleum Information , 19901201, Well History Control System: Petroleum Information Corporation, Houston, Texas.

    Type_of_Source_Media: Digital
    Source_Contribution: Lat./Long. Points, Final Well Class

  2. How were the data generated, processed, and modified?

    Date: Unknown (process 1 of 1)
    Oil and gas well data for each province in the U.S. was run through a FORTRAN program written by D.H. Root (ret.) and R.F. Mast (ret.). This program converted the WHCS data into latitude-longitude points that represent the center-points of quarter-mile cells. The cells were then assigned an attribute based on the type of production of the wells located within the cell. The latitude-longitude center points in the .cls files from the NOGA 95 Spatial Data Disk (DDS 35) were reformatted into Arc/Info Generate format (ASCII) files. They were then imported into ArcInfo coverages using the GENERATE command. Region/province/play numbers and names were appended to the file using lookup information acquired from tables on the NOGA 95 Tabular Information Disk (DDS36). Finally, production status from the original .cls file were joined to the coverages.

    Data sources used in this process:

    • USGS DDS-30, Release 2
    • USGS DDS-35
    • USGS DDS-36

  3. What similar or related data should the user be aware of?

How reliable are the data; what problems remain in the data set?

  1. How well have the observations been checked?

    A sampling of cell locations and cell attributes were visually compared to a hard-copy plot of wells to identify errors.

  2. How accurate are the geographic locations?

    A visual comparison was made using a sampling of cell locations and cell attributes with well locations and attributes. In particular, the values of latitude and longitude for the wells in WHCS were assumed to be accurate.

  3. How accurate are the heights or depths?

  4. Where are the gaps in the data? What is missing?

    The cells were defined using the well data in the PI WHCS database. The WHCS database contains over two million wells for the U.S., which, although not a complete tabulation of all U.S. wells, is the most complete well database available for the United States.

  5. How consistent are the relationships among the observations, including topology?

    The accuracy of the cells, as created by the FORTRAN program of D.H. Root and R.F. Mast, depends wholly upon the accuracy of the oil and gas well information in the version of the PI WHCS database. For the national scale of the 1995 Oil and Gas Assessment, the assumption was made that the data in WHCS were of sufficient accuracy for such a national-scale analysis.

How can someone get a copy of the data set?

Are there legal restrictions on access or use of the data?

Access_Constraints: none
Use_Constraints: none

  1. Who distributes the data set? (Distributor 1 of 1)

    U.S. Geological Survey, Central Energy Team
    GIS Coordinator
    U.S. Geological Survey MS939, Box 25046
    Denver, Colorado 80225
    USA

    (303) 236-7773 (voice)
    lbiewick@usgs.gov

  2. What's the catalog number I need to order this data set?

  3. What legal disclaimers am I supposed to read?

    Although the data has been processed on the computer system at the U.S. Geological Survey, U.S. Department of the Interior, no warranty, expressed or implied, is made by the Geological Survey regarding the utility of the data on any other system, nor shall the act of distribution constitute any such warranty.

  4. How can I download or order the data?

Who wrote the metadata?

Dates:
Last modified: 05-Jun-2001
Metadata author:
U.S. Geological Survey, Central Energy Team
GIS Coordinator
U.S. Geological Survey MS939, Box 25046
Denver, Colorado 80225
USA

(303) 236-7773 (voice)
lbiewick@usgs.gov

Metadata standard:
FGDC Content Standards for Digital Geospatial Metadata (FGDC-STD-001-1998)

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