Abstract

The internet has become a common and popular means of making public domain technical information available free to anyone with access to a computer. The New Mexico Bureau of Mines and Mineral Resources has adopted “world wide web” publishing as a preferred optional method of making available certain types of publications. One advantage is that data can be published immediately without the time lag of printing and advertising. Another advantage is that budgets can be better employed conducting scientific investigations rather than being tied up in a paper inventory. Examples from the New Mexico Bureau of Mines and Mineral Resources web pages are:

• STATEMAP Program geologic maps: http://geoinfo.nmt.edu/maps/home.html

• Oil and gas maps: http://geoinfo.nmt.edu/resources/petroleum/poolmaps.html

• New Mexico subsurface database: http://geoinfo.nmt.edu/data/ims/nm-ims.html

The Morrow Internet Project is a cooperative effort between the New Mexico Bureau of Mines and Mineral Resources, New Mexico Tech Department of Computer Science, and the Southwest Regional Lead Organization of the Petroleum Technology Transfer Council. The project was conceived as a test of making play-based, public domain information available to the oil and gas industry via the internet. Continued natural gas industry interest in the Delaware Basin Morrow Formation, and feedback from petroleum explorationists, suggested the desirability of creating an internet research pool for public-domain information about the play. Recent industry employment trends have displaced or reassigned experienced Morrow scientists. Often, Morrow-inexperienced workers find themselves in the position of having to quickly size-up a play that is geologically complex and economically sensitive. The concept of the Morrow Internet Project is to provide a “single quick-look” information source for basic pool and well data that is typically inconvenient and time-consuming to look up, but necessary for basic geologic and engineering-based property evaluation.

Four components were integrated into the initial effort:

• An interactive GIS map of the play area containing numerous layers that are user-selectable, including links to other databases.

• Morrow well production history linked to well spots on the GIS map. Users click on a well and data can be viewed or downloaded as an MS Excel file. A free downloadable plug-in allows decline curves to be plotted.

• Gas pool (field) reservoir information linked to pool outlines on the GIS map. Users click on a pool boundary and basic regulatory and reservoir information can be viewed.

• Bibliography of published geologic and engineering literature references pertaining to the Morrow Formation.

No special software is required to access the databases because the software resides on the web server.

In addition to the internet accessible resources, a version of the dataset has been adapted for delivery on a low-cost recordable CD-ROM. This method of delivery lacks the advantages of monthly updates, but it includes versions of the databases in MS Access, MS Excel, or MS Word formats. The CD-ROM is an alternative source of the data for those companies with slow modems and phone lines. University web servers fill up fast and addresses tend to change. The best way to find the most recently updated data for the Morrow web site is to visit the address: http://geoinfo.nmt.edu/staff/brister/morrow.html