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The AAPG/Datapages Combined Publications Database

Abilene Geological Society

Abstract


AAPG Southwest Section Meeting, Transactions and Abstracts., 1999
Pages 81-81

Internet Helps Maximize Railroad Commission's Information Assets

David E. Schieck

Abstract

One of the Railroad Commission's (RRC) goals for information management is for oil and gas operators to be able to remotely access regulatory and technical information for maintaining compliance and for finding and producing additional oil and gas. How RRC information is received and provided for reuse can have a profound impact on the total value of the information assets for all stakeholders involved. One strategy to satisfy the goal is to utilize information technology to increase both the amount of information available for public use and the methods by which it can be accessed. The Internet is a significant technology tool for enabling the strategy.

The RRC initiated a web site in November 1996. Usage is now over 300,000 hits per month and growing. The Commission provides three main categories of service on its web site: (1) Information for compliance. Providing information on how to comply is a basic customer service for a regulatory agency. Letting people know what is expected is just good business; (2) Information from RRC databases. There is a long and growing list of data being provided from RRC regulatory databases. Currently, ACTI is the most significant data resource on the site. Production data for 1993 through current production month are available. A Shackelford County example demonstrates ACTI's capabilities; and (3) Access to other RRC information resources. Map product information is an illustration of another information type found on the RRC web site.

The Internet can be much more than just a means of providing information to and communicating with RRC's stakeholders. Electronic commerce is quickly being established as a viable Internet function. Part of the Commission's strategic vision for information management is to develop capabilities for operators to use the Internet for compliance permitting and performance reporting. A recently formed industry/RRC task force proposed a solution called Electronic Compliance and Approval Process (ECAP). The ECAP project's objective is to create an electronic format for the full regulatory and compliance life cycle of wells, leases, and fields. The pilot step is to convert the well permitting process from paper to electronic format -- from filing, to processing, to approval and issuing of the permit. There are about 15,000 permits to drill, recomplete, or reenter processed each year by numerous operators.


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